How We Met

Way back in the spring of 2008, when Laura and Dan were teenage party-animals, they met at a frat house in Berkeley. (Yes, we are embarrassed to fess up about this.) The fraternity, Alpha Sig, was hosting its signature jungle party, and it was a packed house.

The line for beer—yes, it gets worse—wound down the stairwell from the third floor all the way to the first. Dan, who had arrived earlier with friends, was nearing the front of the line. Laura, who’d only just shown up, did not want to wait in line, and headed straight for the third floor. At the top of the stairs she scanned the crowd for the sexiest guy to cut behind.

That guy was Dan. (He’s still suffering from the ego boost.)

She sauntered up to him and began flirting with him in the hopes that the people behind him would assume they knew each other. Luckily for her, Dan dished back the playful banter, and she successfully slid into the line behind him. A competition quickly developed between the two about who would be first one to charm a beer from the pledges serving it.

Laura, seeing that Dan was momentarily distracted by his friends, swooped in front of him and reached for the beer in the pledge’s outstretched hand. But Dan, ever the wily one, was not one to so soon neglect a wager. At the last minute, he took the beer from the pledge’s hand with a “thanks” and a wink Laura’s way. Shocked at his audacity, she grabbed the next beer and they split ways ...

Until they saw each other again at a party the following week.

Cops had just broken up the party, and Laura was on her way out just as Dan was on his way in. Miraculously, the two remembered each other’s names and were excited to see each other. Dan told Laura to look him up on Facebook, but anyone who has heard Dan’s last name knows that it is not spelled the way it is pronounced ... which was a problem for a buzzed Laura.

“It’s Rick-YATZEE, R-I-C-C-H—”

“Ricky-what?” she said. “Just look me up. My last name’s Carlson, it’s spelled how it’s pronounced.”

And with that, the two parted, and the rest is history!