Stu & I

My friend Jenny found this list of questions from another friend (that seems to be the way these things work), and I thought it would be fun to fill out about Stu & I:

• What are your middle names? Mine is Colleen; his is James. Both are passed down from one of our parents.
• How long have you been together? A year and a half.
• How long did you know each other before you started dating? I met him in San Diego at my cousin Jaymee’s in May 2007. We started dating in August 2007, so 3 months, except we didn't really have any contact in those three months (I'm convinced I sent him an email, but he will argue otherwise). I knew someone named Stu was coming down to San Diego while I was visiting over Memorial Day, but I didn't meet him until I woke up on the air mattress in the living room to find him on the couch 12” away from me. Stu, Jeff (my cousin’s husband), and I went golfing at Torrey Pines the next day, and Stu swindled me into getting a cart for us to share while Jeff walked the course. That night he slept on the couch again, and I slept on the floor next to the couch. We stayed up talking while everyone else was sleeping, and in the morning he took me to the airport on his way back to LA. Yes, it felt like high school.
• Who asked whom out? He likes to say/think he did, but I’m the one that booked a flight to LA.
• How old are each of you? I'm 31 (32 in 5 days); he’s 29 (30 in 22 days). Yes, there is a period of 17 days that I am 3 years older than him. *sigh*
• Whose siblings do you see the most? His sister, Sara, and her husband, Jason, because they live 2 hours away in Palm Springs.
• Which situation is the hardest on you as a couple? 3044 miles, but that’s all about to change.
• Did you go to the same school? I went to Arizona and then Penn for business school; he went to Colorado State followed by LMU for law school.
• Are you from the same home town? No, but he grew up in the same town as my cousins (Great Falls, MT) and went to the same high school as my cousin's husband (Jeff) – and that’s how we know each other.
• Who is smarter? It depends on if we’re talking about legal proceedings or financial statements.
• Who is the most sensitive? I have yet to see Stu shed a tear. I, on the other hand, can cry if you look at me funny on the wrong day.
• Where do you eat out most as a couple? Sadly, Olive Garden, but it’s always take-out, and it’s usually on the nights that I fly out (I will secretly admit that we had Olive Garden take-out for our Valentine's Day dinner this year). If it’s before 10:30am, McDonald’s breakfast sandwiches. If we’re in Boston, Bricco in the North End and Charley’s for brunch.
• Where is the furthest you two have traveled together as a couple? It depends on if you mean from LA or from Boston, but probably Montana because it’s the only place where both of us had to connect to get there.
• Who has the craziest exes? You mean the one that broke open a door to get to me? He claims to have not dated very seriously before me.
• Who has the worst temper? I suppose if I’m going to take the “most sensitive”, I also have to admit having the worst temper. Stu is ridiculously even-keeled. Although his mom tells me he had quite the temper as a little boy. I didn’t realize you could grow out of that.
• Who does the cooking? One time Stu asked if I had to use a cookie base to make Banana Jumbos. As though a “cookie base” was something you bought at the store. I gently informed him that a “cookie base” is simply flour, eggs, butter, and sugar.
• Who is the neat-freak? When we were moving Stu last month, we got 80% unpacked and organized in one day – I was energized; he wanted a nap. When I got back two weeks later, maybe 1% had been touched while the rest was still in haphazard piles. Cleaning makes me happy.
• Who is more stubborn? Me, and don’t try to argue with me about it.
• Who hogs the bed? It’s not so much that he “hogs” the bed as it is what he calls “cuddling”. I generally have a small 6” sliver of bed to work with.
• Who wakes up earlier? I am generally awake and excited to get going around 9am. In LA that means 6am. We’ll have to see what happens when we’re on the same coast.
• Where was your first date? McDonald’s breakfast sandwiches en route to a hike in LA. I’m not supposed to admit that to anyone.
• Who is more jealous? If he went to dinner with as many girls as I do with guys in Boston, I would be a basket case.
• How long did it take to get serious? We were always serious.
• Who eats more? Are we talking a Chipotle burrito? Because you should see Stu mow them down. He can eat more in one sitting; I graze throughout the day.
• Who does the laundry? I might say we’re pretty even on this, but again, we’ll have to see once we’re in under the same roof. He definitely does it more often.
• Who's better with the computer? Probably me, but it’s not like either of us does anything that’s very complicated.
• Who drives when you are together? Stu. Especially in LA – I just don’t have the patience.