Introductions

Hi there.

I wanted to write a little bit about us, told in third person. Not enough information that you can find where we live and stop by for dinner with our favorite bottle of wine, but enough that you can be in on the jokes. And maybe stop by for dinner with our favorite dessert.

Bill grew up in the suburbs of New Jersey and managed to avoid getting shot despite living less than half an hour from Newark. From these humble beginnings, he made his way to Ohio, and from there to Lancaster, Pennsylvania where he has finally found a safe place to share his true self with people like him -- people who have a genuine interest in ancient coins. With this support, he doesn't have to hide his love of coins for fear of being beat up and called a nerd. Here he can celebrate this love and catalog coins in peace all the day long. Bill once spent three weeks canoeing across Canada. He's recently taken up biking and seems to really enjoy it, although probably not enough to spend three weeks biking across Canada. What he wants more than anything is a garden to putter in. He also has a magnificent beard.

Carrie was a simple girl, small of stature and stout of heart, who spent her youth roaming the foothills  and beaches of Southern California. As a babe she was swaddled in a tortilla and rocked to sleep by the Tapatio man. She spent much of her childhood watching old musicals and The Lawrence Welk Show and briefly played the ukulele in an indie band. To her dismay, they were never featured on Lawrence Welk, as the show had been cancelled 26 years previously. Although shy at first, once you get to know her you'll find out she's still shy. She often wakes Bill up late at night to reassure her that her throat feels weird because of allergies, not because it's closing up. She loves cheese. So much. Seriously, maybe too much. Her greatest ambition is to write something so funny and moving that you laugh and cry at the same time, but without realizing it until your shirt is all wet and the lady across the aisle on the train tells her children to stop staring.

They met in college, a tiny liberal arts school in Ohio. He was a junior when she was a freshman, and she was auditioning for the college improv group. She made it in, luckily - otherwise this story might have a very different ending. However, they didn't start dating until after he graduated and was already living in Pennsylvania. After school, she moved back home to California and taught kindergarten for a year before realizing she doesn't like children that much. Fortunately, she does love the Amish (and Bill), so moving to Lancaster in 2012 was a great call.

They like laughing and eating, but not at the same time because that's how you get banned from Olive Garden. They like to play games, but not with each other for the sake of their relationship. Their main argument is about whether slant rhyme should count in a rhyming game. They've nearly come to blows on this matter several times. They're planning a shenanigan-filled wedding for the fall.

And in case you were wondering, Bill's favorite dessert is strawberry rhubarb pie. Carrie prefers lemon meringue, although she wouldn't say no to...pretty much anything else. Stop by for dinner sometime.

We'll save a plate for you.

Image by George Marks via NPR.