THE STORY OF US

10 years ago I was living in a pool house in Beverly Hills with my best friend while attending Cal State San Bernardino my junior year of college and interning at E! True Hollywood Story.  It was so surreal as a girl from Louisville, Kentucky, but I was chasing my dream to work at E! News.  I was only out in Los Angeles for a year exchange program, so I was living it up and partying like a rockstar, while working my butt off and commuting an hour to school two days per week.  It was a Saturday night in February when we met.  A sorority sister from Kentucky, who also was living in LA at the time, told me to get off the couch and come out with her.  I was tired and wasn’t really feeling up to it, but I am sure glad I got up and went because that night probably changed the rest of my life.  She and her boyfriend picked me up and said they had some other friends to pick up that I had never met.  We pulled up to an apartment in West Hollywood and in got this guy and his friends.  The car was little, so we were very crammed in the back seat – and these people were strangers, so it wasn’t the most comfortable situation to have this one guy basically put his arm up and around me in order to all squeeze in.

Side note:  At this point in my stay in the city of angels, I was very jaded by the LA douchebags I had met for the last six months, and was not interested in dating.  Not to mention, I knew I would be going home in three short months so what was the point anyway… Sure the guy sitting next to me was cute, but what was the point of even going there.

Ok back to the story.  We were all dressed to impress and headed to a club in Hollywood called Cabana Club.  Drinking and dancing ensued and we all had a great time.  I was actually not feeling like much of a third wheel like I had anticipated being earlier in the night since I was going out with my friend and her boyfriend, because I had a new dancing partner.  His name was Doug and he was from St. Louis.  He had just graduated college and moved to LA the month before.  As the night came to a close, my girlfriend was asking what I thought of him and I told her I thought he was cute, but that was the end of it.  No big deal.  We went back to drop him off at his apartment and said our goodbyes – no numbers exchanged.

Then the following weekend we all ended up meeting out at another club in Hollywood where a friend had a table.  By this time, my friend told me Doug thought I was cute and since I thought he was cute she was trying to play matchmaker!  We ended up kissing that night, which is totally unlike me, but somehow I knew this guy was worth it.

Fast forward three months and lots of dates and fun nights later, and we were a couple.  There was only one problem, and that was I was moving back to Kentucky for my senior year of college and Doug was now going to be in LA 2500 miles away working a full-time job.  When we first started dating we never considered a long distance relationship and both thought it was just a fling, but then before I left he told me he loved me and he wanted to make it work.  From then on I knew there was no going back.  We made sure to see each other at least once a month until I could move back to LA when I finished school.  It was never easy, in fact it was brutal, but somehow we did it!

After graduation I moved to LA, got my job at E! News and the rest is history with Doug and I.  We have had lots of ups and downs and seen each other go through crazy life changes, but we have always stayed together and supported each other.  We got engaged on 11/11/11 and then married on 10/13/12 in Maui, Hawaii.  Good relationships usually don’t come easy, ours certainly hasn’t, but we are both very committed to making it work and making each other happy.  I cannot imagine spending this life with anyone else and feel so lucky to have such a loyal and loving husband and father to our son by my side.

Hope you enjoyed our little love story!  Happy 10 year anniversary babe!