Our Story

It all started with Rocky Horror. Yes, all this may never have happened if it had not been for going out one night to see a cult movie. Sarah dressed as a complete hussy, and Toby dressed in drag. Out of character? You be the judge.

Things picked up over recruitment weekend. Sarah and Toby were both assigned to take recruits to the Baltimore Museum of Art. They ended up spending the afternoon together perusing the modern collection. Toby impressed Sarah with his usage of the word "yonic".

Toby plucked up the nerve and called Sarah up on March 11. He asked if she wanted to go out the next day, and she said yes. At the time she was afraid she had made a terrible mistake! But the next evening they went out, and she realized that she definitely had not. Toby and Sarah went to Thai Restaurant for dinner, then headed to Xando's for coffee. Toby made Sarah laugh. She told him that if he asked her out again, she'd probably say yes.

Toby and Sarah planned date #2. It was to be the classic dinner and a movie. Rendezvous time was tentatively set for 7:30. Sarah called Toby just after 7 to find out where she should meet him. He answered in clearly a bit of a panic. All she could really make out was "contaminated shoes".

In Toby's effort to get finished in time to meet Sarah, he'd sloshed a good bit of radioactive gel buffer onto the floor and himself. In other words, Sarah's date was, in fact, "hot". When she got up to the lab there was Toby, looking panicked in lab coat and sock feet, geiger counter in hand, trying to locate the counts apparently coming from the hem of his jeans.

Strangely, it was the sweetest thing Sarah had ever seen. From that point she was smitten.

This is how Sarah described it to her friends the next day:

I guess Toby has been making arrangements for a little while, but I was pretty oblivious until Sunday. As we left church I told Toby I'd probably start going to choir practice, which is Wednesday at 7:30. "When do you think you'll start going?" he asked. I told him probably this week. "*This* week?" he queried meaningfully. "Do we have something happening this week?" I asked. "*Do* we?" he replied. Then I remembered that Wednesday was our "monthaversary". He said he'd thought that this month he'd cook me dinner. It sounded good to me, but in the back of my head I was thinking, "hmm, peculiar". ;-)

So I thought something might be up. A few things early in the week also served to pique my suspicions. He spent TWO DAYS cleaning in preparation for the dinner. Besides that, he was just acting a little *funny*. By yesterday afternoon I was really thinking this just might be it. By pure luck I had a manicure on Tuesday and a haircut on Wednesday. I wore a cute skirt and sweater.

For dinner Toby made eggplant parmesean, minus the cheese for himself, of course. It was *excellent*. We had a really yummy bottle of wine and a little candlelight. After dinner he suggested I have a seat on the sofa, which I did.

I asked if he wanted to watch a little TV, and he said actually he had this video that he and a friend had been working on that he wanted to show me. At this point I was completely taken in. Toby's friend Chuck really does do amateur movies, and I knew they had been working on one, so I was not prepared for what followed.

The video was called "A Man Walks." It started with Toby walking around for a while. He then started talking about how much he loves me, and I began to realize "Oh my gosh this is it!"

The video was punctuated by several cues. The first was "Give gift 1", which was a collection of cds he knew I wanted. The second was "Give gift 2" which was a bunch of flowers. The third cue was, "If you turn to your right, I have a question to ask." This was, of course, the proposal. :-D (It was real life, not on the video!)