30 Years, 30 Things: 22

After I graduated college, I spent a weekend in Boston with my dad looking at apartments I found on Craigslist. Saw some decent places, but settled on a smaller apartment in Natick because I clicked especially with one of the roommates. She had one of those license plates that you pay extra for and the money goes to the Children's Hospital or something. I remember thinking "she must be old," because I couldn't fathom anyone my age having money or charity enough to purchase a specialty plate like that. Heartbreak! My boyfriend at the time cried when he left me in my new city, then broke up with me a month later.

I crashed my car and lost the boyfriend.

Got a new car and a cat.

Found a friend for life in my roommate, Sara, who let me borrow her charity-licensed car while she walked to work until I was able to replace mine. Had good times at 113 South Main St., which was apparently referred to as “Animal House” by neighbors.

It seems like it was a lot longer, but it was really only seven months after I moved to Boston that I met my future husband. It was a cold and lonely winter when I started perusing sites like eharmony and match.com. I may have created profiles, but stopped when they wanted me to pay. So I mostly ended up on Craigslist, which was TOTALLY free! Despite what Steven likes to tell people, I was not looking in the personals or "casual encounters" sections. Anyway, he was the one who posted and all I did was reply to the young Southern boy who piqued my interest. We e-mailed witty banter back and forth for several weeks before we decided to meet in person. Another thing that Steven likes to say now is that I was dating seven different guys when I started dating him, which is not true. There were only two other guys. It was just strange because I had gone through a 6-7 month dry spell, then all of a sudden was asked on several different dates around the same time. All I did was say yes. Steven was the last one and I knew from our first date, the only one. He was funny and sweet over e-mail, and polite and cutely nervous in person. When I dared look into his eyes, I saw a genuine and kind soul. And he had a lot of smile lines, which is a really good thing.