I figured that not everyone attending the wedding has heard our little story, so I thought it'd be nice to hear how we got mixed up in the first place.
Here's my version.
I stayed in Chicago for about a year after graduating from Northwestern University with a degree in journalism. I was flat broke, working a mall-job without any real career prospects, and very upset about it. Finally, I threw in the towel and made trip back to Colorado in August 2003 to move in with my parents.
About six months later, a friend of mine from high school, Alaina, tipped me off to a job opening at the Denver Post, where two of her sisters worked. I interviewed for the City Desk editorial assistant position soon after -- and was promptly rejected. ("You're overqualified," they said. "This job will bore you." No, answering phones at a plumbing company is boring. Folding T-shirts is boring.) After that, I interviewed for a job at Aspen Magazine, in Aspen, which I almost got. The Anna Wintour-like editor passed me over for someone who was already on staff (*forehead slap*).
Shortly after Aspen Mag rejected me, I got a phone call from the Post: The girl they'd hired for the EA job suddenly up and quit. Was I still available? YES. HECK YES.
On my tour through the newsroom on my first day I was introduced to everyone on the city, state and national desks, then marched over to the Business News department to meet their EA, whom I'd be working with frequently. My first thought upon meeting the Business EA was, "Wow. He's cute. Really cute." He appeared to be about my age, with short blond hair and hip glasses. He, however, did not seem terribly excited to see me, and our introduction was short. He went back to busily typing as soon as I walked away.
"What's with that Wenzel dude in Business?" I asked one of my co-workers a few days later. "He's so grumpy all the time."
"Oh, he's cool," said Andrea. "He's not really grumpy."
The first time we talked for real was a couple months later, at a party the Post threw after a major redesign of the entire paper. John and I talked over free drinks and excellent food at the Brown Palace. As we chatted, we discovered a mutual interest in music, including John's all-time favorite band, Guided by Voices. I'm sure we talked about other stuff, too, but all I really remember is thinking to myself, "Wow. I really like this guy." 2 minutes later: "I really, really like him. Wow." 5 minutes after that: "Oh man. I really like him."
And then, John looks at his watch and says: "Oh, man. I gotta go pretty soon. I'm meeting my girlfriend to go to a show tonight."
It hit me like a cinder block. Of course. Of course he had a girlfriend. Guys like this always have a girlfriend, and that girlfriend is never me. I wouldn't say I was heartbroken, because we barely knew each other at the time, but I was pretty seriously dejected. John left the party, and I proceeded to drink too much for the rest of the night.
Over the next months (this was summer of 2004), we became friends. We didn't really hang out outside of work or anything, but we'd take smoke breaks together sometimes and email each other funny links and such. In the meantime, I dated other people. But all the while, my secret crush grew.
Eventually, circumstances changed, stars aligned, the prophecies were made manifest, whatever you want to call it... And here we are.
VIDEO BONUS!: John demonstrating Daisy's very ferocious-sounding playtime growls.
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