How we met - Todd's version

Way back before I lived at 1732, there was nothing my friends I liked more than squeezing into a cab in Sherman Oaks, CA for the $90 fare to Manhattan and Hermosa Beach. Harry O's was one of our favorite spots to hit on the South Bay bar scene, not becuase there was always a good girl to guy ratio, but because my friend John Gould once saw Mike Piazza and Eric Karros drinking there. I'm sure its not a coincidence Piazza and Karros never came back to the bar after their encounter with Gould.

There was a big group of us celebrating a going away party for a friend who was leaving for med school in Australia. My roommate and I went up to the bar for a drink, where some guy with condom lollipops was quite obviously bothering a group of good looking women. Squeezing between the sucker and the ladies, we started up a conversation and within minutes, the girl I wanted to talk to (Juli) was literally forcing me to enter her sister's number in my cell phone. Of course I took it, but I wasn't done - Juli was definitely piquing my interest - as we talked, I was more and more interested - but when she mentioned her 4.0 GPA at UCSB, that was the topper. I made sure to get Juli's number that night.

Then, 6 days later, I gave her a call and setup a date for a Sunday night when I would be getting back into town from SF. Our date reinforced almost everything I had found so attractive about her from the night at Harry O's. She was definitely intelligent, hot, athletic, and fun to hang out with, but she was also severely hungover and wasn't even down for a single margarita. She was however down for a few games of pool after dinner, where she summarily destroyed me in every single one...and I think even today she may be undefeated against me in any pool game.

So started the period in my life I like to refer to as "AJ".