Eli and I met in San Francisco on St. Patrick's Day of 2006. He was living in the city and I was home from Syracuse on spring break visiting family, celebrating my birthday and contemplating a transfer to the Academy of Art University. My parents were flying out early the next morning so after dinner with them, I had planned to meet up with the Russell cousins. Luckily for me, Kane and Eli were good friends and fraternity brothers at Dartmouth, and had reconnected when Eli moved West. After leaving a St. Patrick’s Day party at Stevie Kim’s apartment, Eli, Stevie, and friends had the same plan to meet up with the Russells.
The two groups met on a street corner in North Beach (Eli swears it was Powell and Green), we were introduced and connected immediately. After some late-night blueberry pancakes, I got back to the hotel around 3 am and passed my parents leaving for the airport. My dad says I told him I'd met a guy I really liked.
Happily, I "missed" my flight back to the East coast the next day and stayed for a week. When I moved to San Francisco the following August, Eli and I started dating. Through the hard time of long-distance and the good times on the same continent– and over many blueberry pancakes– we have only grown more excited to be married!
