About Us
Today you crazy kids think nothing of meeting, dating, and even marrying on the internet. But back in 1996, it was much like the wild west, only a lot geekier.
Jeff and Anna met at the beginning of that fateful year, on Match.com. Jeff, working in Seattle, was doing research in order to possibly develop a competing online service. Anna, studying in New York, was looking for penpals in distant lands in order to satiate her wanderlust via correspondence.
Based on mutual interests, they were introduced via the wonders of the website. One of their earliest communications was on the topic of Valentine’s Day. Ironically, neither was fond of the day, and one of them mentioned wanting to inflict grave bodily harm on those celebrating it.
They continued to exchange emails, then photos (Jeff claimed that he kept Anna’s photo in a lead-lined box), then letters, and then phone calls. Jeff wooed Anna with flowers (to which she was allergic, but was too flattered to say so), and with a teddy bear sent to her in France, where she was studying, um, French. Jeff searched all over Seattle for the right sized beret, and “Pierre Le Bear” wears it to this day.
To the protests of her parents, Anna flew to Seattle to meet Jeff in person. It was a Goldilocks moment: Anna was too scrawny, Jeff was too chubby, but their feelings were “just right.” At the end of the action-packed week, Anna returned to New York, and both had a chance to rest and reflect.
Emails, letters, and both Anna and Jeff flew back and forth. But finally, at the beginning of 1997, they agreed it would be best if they remained on their respective coasts.
Although both Jeff and Anna moved on with their lives, they remained in each other’s thoughts, albeit somewhat sporatically (Anna denies this was her fault. Really.) They did their best to stay friends, offering comfort and (often unsoliticited) advice. Anna moved to California after graduation, and Jeff came to visit twice, but couldn’t convince Anna to give their relationship a second go.
In 2001, both Anna and Jeff avoided taking serious “plunges” that would have ended in both of them going off the “deep end.” (Anna broke off an engagement because she fell out of love, Jeff broke his knee because he fell down a mountain.) This resulted in both contemplating the east coast as a starting point for a new life.
It should therefore come as no great shock that in 2002 they met up again in upstate New York. And in 2003, from the NYC area, they started a new life: as husband and wife.
Anna and Jeff continue to live a life of adventure, aided by the wonders of modern technology. They hope to start yet another new life in 2005 or 2006, by introducing to the world a Wee Watkins.
God help us all.