Our Story
HOW WE MET
Eric: My friend Mark invited me to a Y2K New Year's party at his house in Castro Valley. He said he had invited a few friends of his, who he would be going to New Zealand with. Hari was one of those friends, and when I walked in, I can remember thinking, "Oh, now this is something new." I immediately set about impressing her by making sizzling meat fondue with Mark -- and splattering hot oil all over myself.
Hari: I was, indeed, very impressed. It was pretty funny. But what impressed me more was that within the first five minutes of meeting him he was asking all kinds of questions about New Zealand and helping us plan our trip. And once that was taken care of, we partied like it was 1999.
Eric: I decided I wanted to see more of Hari. On New Year's Day, I got the door code at Canoe & Kayak and took everyone kayaking. It was cold and miserable and gray, and evidently, everyone realized that I just wanted to see more of Hari. Shots out to Yen and Lindsey for going along with it anyway.
Hari: I thought it was fun. Maybe a little cold, but fun. I had never been sea kayaking before, and Eric was sooooo helpful teaching me how.
Eric: At the end of the next school quarter, Mark invited me on a backpacking trip to the Lost Coast with Hari and Lindsey. It was insanely gorgeous for all three days. We saw elk. Lark on the wing, snail on the thorn, elk on the beach, eh?
Hari: It was lovely. Eric picked us flowers, pointed out constellations, and carried lots of heavy stuff around. He and Mark even tried to make cheesecake, and they washed dishes.
Eric: Right. This is the point at which Mark and Hari and a few other people run off to Mexico for the weekend. Hari lets something slip to Mark (let's just say the details are rather scandalous and appropriate for things like the bachelor party). Mark reports it to me. I can remember quite clearly my reaction. Mark and I were IMing at the time. "Oh my god," I wrote to him. Then I went running around the beach at Campus Point at UCSB.
Hari: Running? Anyway, I hadn't been able to stop thinking about him for a while, but wasn't so sure I wanted to start anything long distance.
Eric: Next weekend I'm in San Diego. We go out on a triple date with Mark and Paul and their respective girlfriends. All three of the girls were vegetarians. Mark and Paul picked Jake's surf and turf restaurant in Del Mar. All three of the girls ordered the same thing, the pasta primavera.
Hari: Seriously, guys.
Eric: She didn't blame me, at least, for the dinner difficulties. I asked her out the next morning on the beachwalk overlooking La Jolla Cove. She said no. She didn't want a long distance relationship. I drove back to Santa Barbara, and Hari called me the same night.
Hari: We had to give it a shot.
Eric: Next weekend I was back in San Diego. It was to become a recurring trend. No proof of greater love than driving through Los Angeles on Friday afternoon on a weekly basis. And that's basically the story of the first three years. Now let's skip to the sixth.
Hari: Yep. Very impressive that he visited nearly every weekend. Such a sweetie.
THE PROPOSAL
Eric: On our sixth anniversary, we were in San Diego and we went back to La Jolla Cove. It was completely and totally obvious. We went out to breakfast, then we went strolling along the beach back to the same spot where I originally asked her out. Nice day out. Blue and all that, don't you know. I did the whole down-on-one-knee thing. We called her family. I seem to remember one of them saying, "Finally!"
Hari: Be serious. They didn't say "finally."
Eric: Mmm?
Hari: Well, not all of them.
Eric: We went back to Paul and Theresa's house, where we were staying. Hari basically opened the door and Paul screams, "You've got something on your finger!" They were looking for it, obviously, even though I hadn't told anyone. We invited Mark and Lacey over, and Lacey walks in the door and before Mark's even stepped in, whacks him hard and says, "I told you we should have brought the champagne!" Mark's still standing there in the doorway, stunned, rubbing his arm where Lacey hit him. "Ow," he says.