but mostly because I wanted her to see me studying. I had my multi-engine commercial check-ride coming up in two weeks. The more books, maneuver guides, and aeronautical charts I had strewn open on the table when she got there, the more impressive it would seem when she asked about it and I could casually shrug it off as ‘no big deal’ and would get to say ‘oh this stuff? Hmm, you see, aviation is its own intricate language, this is all of the vocabulary, and the actual flying is the grammar, my upcoming check-ride is where I get to prove to the world and myself that I’m fluent.’

She didn’t ask. Thank God. Had she asked, I would have said some nonsense like that and the date would have been over. She didn’t ask not because she wasn’t interested, but because from the second I saw her blue and white striped shirt, denim skirt, and vans skip passed a less than cute dog, across the street, with her curls down in a futile attempt to hide her face, but bouncing with life up and out of the way, I fell in love and had to know every single other detail about her. Every single detail that I spent the next three and a half hours asking her about. Three and a half hours of a first date that Andrea fondly refers to as “the most intensive and comprehensive interview that I have ever been a part of.” 

It worked, apparently, and a student pilot and social media content creator for a 90’s B list celebrity’s baked goods company began to date.

My father gave me advice on love and marriage: you should know by the second date whether or not the person you are dating is someone you can marry. Something I thought sounded insane. Something that sounds even more insane is that I told this advice to Andrea on our second date. Something that would be put to the test and given proof over quarantine in Los Angeles. In a five hundred square foot studio apartment. On lock down. For over one hundred days. Despite all the odds, in a timespan that showed an increase in divorces of 93%, this fledgling Flight Instructor and Creative Director thrived both personally and professionally. That advice does not seem insane to me anymore.

So here we are, a bunny, a dog, two Danielles, two coasts, three cars, four apartments, and five years later, and I still cant get that image of you walking across the street out of my head. I still can’t wait to sit down with you and figure out every detail about you. Whoops I’m turning this into a love letter instead of a story. You want to know something funny? As I write this I have another check-ride coming up that I need to study for. No seriously, its in two weeks. I’m going to end this here and make sure that when you come home, I have all of my books, charts, and guides strewn out all over the table and have coffee in the mug we got from dinosaur coffee on our first date. We’ve come so far, but some things never change.