The Beginning

Jay and I have been dating since early 2008, which we fondly refer to as our "New York Days." We met through our mutual friend Rob, who at the time was heading up my previous company's Chicago team while I was holding down the fort for the NY office. My friend Andrea and I met up with Rob and his posse at a bar in Soho and I was subsequently invited out to dinner with their group the next night at Picolo Angelo in the West village. The following week Jay asked Rob for my number, and Rob shot him down. Yada yada yada...Jay stalked me on Facebook.

After we got in touch (on Facebook, just want to make that clear), we went on a first date to see "21" at the Union Square theater, followed by a coffee in Greenwich Village (what afternoon doesn't involve massive amounts of caffeine when you're with Jay?), and Thai food at Spice. About four more dates later, Jay was hooked and decided to move in across the hall. OK fine, it was not quite that fast, but it felt that fast! Jay and his friend Phil had been looking for a two-bedroom apartment in the neighborhood (he had been living only a few blocks away when we met) and they stumbled across the perfect find in my cute little Cast Iron building. Despite all of their efforts to find an apartment that they liked better, they ended up moving in across the hall about 10 meters from my apartment in June. And a few days later my little sister Sonya moved in with me and Charly, my loyal dachshund.

The four of us had a fun summer! When I had to travel to LA on business in June, Jay took Sonya out with his friends and introduced her to some of the coolest bars and clubs in NY, even though she wasn't quite 21 yet. I brought Jay out to my friends' summer house in the Hamptons over July 4th weekend, where he got to spend some quality time with the Marinis Clan and get beat down in poker by Michelle, Kim, and myself. On Sonya's 21st birthday, our friends combined for a fun birthday fiesta at Tortilla Flats in the Meatpacking District - nothing says "welcome to adulthood" like shotgunning a PBR while wearing a beautiful party dress in a trendy NY restaurant. Then there was the weekend where Jay and I hibernated in his apartment while the two-day 24 hour Mad Men marathon was on. We ordered takeout for every meal and watched in silence, Jay obsessed with the concepts of working in the '60s and me obsessed with Betty Draper's wardrobe. And how could I forget to mention the "special bond" that was formed between Jay and Charly? They were each other's nemesis, yet neither could do anything to the other because they had me in common.

During all of this, Jay was asked to move to Hong Kong for work, and I had decided to move to Sydney, Australia. Neither of us wanted to tell the other of our upcoming changes, but I know we were both very relieved to discover the other was equally as adventurous. We did not have any doubts that that moving halfway around the world would be a decision we would never regret, so we took the plunge without thinking twice (and also because Jay had convinced me that the flight from Sydney to Hong Kong was only four hours, and I took his word for it without checking Kayak – it is actually nine and a half hours).

From October 2008 to October 2009 Jay and I lived a fantasy life. We met up in exotic destinations such as Bali, Beijing, Koh Samui, and Bangkok, not to mention our travels within Australia and New Zealand and my trips to visit him in Hong Kong. It felt like a dream, (but one where you also attain high status with airlines and many free flights on Virgin Atlantic). In October 2009, I took a big leap by leaving a job and city I loved to move to Hong Kong to be with someone I loved more than those two combined.

And that brings us to now. Well, actually, we are now almost two months into our engagement, but let's start the story back in October 2008…