How They Met

EARLY MARCH 2005: Joanna was browsing profiles on Yahoo! Personals. She came across a profile with a picture of a handsome young man in Smithfield, RI. Not wanting to be presumptuous, she saved the profile and went on her way.

CUT TO MID JULY 2005: Joanna received a Yahoo! Message from the same young man whose profile she had saved. To quote a part of his original email: “I saw your profile and you seem like a nice girl. If you can't tell from my profile, I am a pretty nice guy.” Once it had been established that everyone involved was nice, things took off from there.

TWO WEEKS LATER: After several rounds of email back and forth, Joanna consented to giving the young man (hereinafter called “Nate”) her instant message screen name. After about a week of IMing, they spoke on the phone. Nate made that first call, and they ended up talking for over an hour. In an effort to ascertain if Joanna was really a “keeper,” Nate insisted that she be the one to call him the next time. After several phone calls, which established that they enjoyed conversing with one another, Nate and Joanna agreed to meet. (Aside: Joanna had to employ the subtle technique of “So, when are you going to ask me out?” in order to move things along.)

AUGUST 18, 2005: Joanna and Nate met for the first time in person. Being a prudent and thoughtful young woman, Joanna insisted that they meet at a neutral location (since she was not yet certain that Nate was as sane [and as cute] as he seemed). For this reason she chose the super-romantic location of the Dunkin Donuts on Gano Street in Providence. Arriving a calculated few minutes late, she got out of her car and looked around to see if Nate was there yet. As she scanned the parking lot, a man who was decidedly not the person she had pictures of lurched towards her, asking her, “Are you <something unintelligible>….<more unintelligible things>…?” She confirmed for him that she was not <something unintelligible>, and looked around again as she briefly entertained a fear that this was the adorable “Nate” she had agreed to meet. However, as she turned to her right, she spied the man from the pictures, with an amused look on his face. Nate remembers that his first thought upon seeing Joanna was, “Wow, she’s even prettier than her pictures.” (When Joanna eventually heard that, she was much flattered.)

From there, they proceeded to dinner (Nate paid), a walk, ice cream (Joanna paid), and another walk. After they'd spent several hours together, Joanna had to call it a night as she'd made plans to meet some friends. However, they both left the date with not a little bit of giddiness…

Read on to find out what happened after the first date...
 

Before they met, Jo tried some questionable dating strategies—yes, you'll attract attention while dressed like a pig, but is it the right kind of attention?—and Nate failed to find romantic success while hanging out with his friend's cat.