Twitterpated, Part 1

Love happens in the strangest places. I've never discounted finding it online, especially since I've met most of my closest friends that way. I just never expected to find it on Twitter.

Last spring, I was listening to my daily dose of a local sports talk radio program. The hosts were talking about favorite beers and they happened to mention one of the beers made by the brewery where I work. I tweeted my approval of their shout out to the radio show account. When I came out from having dinner with a friend, I noticed I had new follows on each of my Twitter accounts by the same person -- a guy associated with that sports talk radio program. Sean and I began exchanging tweets at increasing frequency over the next few weeks. One night, while I was out being busy, he sent me a link about the Adrian Beltre extension because he knew it would interest me. I thanked him and told him I owed him a beer for making sure I stayed informed on my favorite team. He took me up on the offer and came into the brewery where I work a few days later. We talked as much as I could while working and he found a new favorite local beer (or so he told me).

Fast forward a few more weeks. I checked in for "The Book of Mormon." His response: "So jealous." He then DMed me and talked about how much he wanted to see the show. And he started researching tickets. He decided he was going to go the following night. I told him I'd be glad to see it again if he wanted company. He did, so I did.  We bought our tickets separately, so I ended up sitting directly behind him for the show. We still had time to talk before and during the intermission, but I was glad he didn't want the evening to end when cast gave their last bows. He suggested we get a drink, so we went to a bar near his apartment and talked some more. Conversation flowed so easily, and we found out we had a ton in common ... but enough differences to keep it interesting.  I still wasn't sure if this was just friends hanging out or something more.  He cleared all of that up by the end of the evening. I'm keeping those details to myself. You don't need them anyway.

By the way,  we arranged our first date on the same day I wrote this post and subsequently had a long conversation with close friends about my dating hang-ups and failures. Crazy, huh? I had no idea how much my life would change about 36 hours after that post went live.

Our second date was a bit comical as well. We made plans to meet up and watch the White Sox and Rangers game (his team and my team --- good test right away, right?). As I was getting ready to go meet him, I was listening to the radio show he works on, and they started discussing our date. His co-workers were giving him advice, and one bit was, "Don't talk stats and prospects with her. No girl cares about those things." Sean's response, "You don't know this girl." Clearly, he already knew me well at that point.

So, we finally both get to the restaurant where we agreed to meet for the game. Only to realize the game is blacked out on television (stupid MLB territory rules!). But we didn't let that deter us. We ate, drank beer, and followed the game via MLB Gameday on my phone. It wasn't an ideal situation, but we made it work. (And it's a pretty fun story to tell now.)

That's sort of been the motto of our relationship -- "we'll make it work." When we started dating, we had five jobs between the two of us. Odd hours. And other responsibilities. But we wanted to see each other and continue to build our relationship. So we did. We made time for each other and our relationship. We made it work.

Stay tuned for part two.

P.S. If you're confused by the title of this blog post, please check out this clip from "Bambi."