Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Act I: Boy Meets Girl


This begins the unfolding of events that led to our eventual betrothal. I write them as best I remember them, although they may not be exactly how they happened.

It was the beginning of spring term and I had signed up for a landscape painting class. And we all know the first thing you do when you find yourself in a new classroom. You look around. And I don't just mean look around, I mean you look around. You look for cute girls. That's just what you do, if you're a single guy. And that's what I did.

But sometimes you're disappointed. And I was, at first. We met in the figure drawing room in the HFAC. I looked around and didn't see anyone that piqued my interest. Bethanne Anderson, the teacher, began the introduction and roll call, in her usual bubbly manner. She checked off the names. Then she told us we were going to look at some landscape paintings in the MOA (BYU's Museum of Art). She said that Megan would be joining us there.

A glimmer of hope.

As we're examining the paintings, I get tired and decide to sit down. This is when she walks in. I see the most gorgeous pair of eyes on any woman I have ever seen. Exaggeration? No. She has this long hair with these cute bangs that make her look really modern and classy. She's wearing an outfit that says she knows good style. I think, "bingo."

But there's something else. Megan, when she comes into the room, has this distinct aura of "coolness." She is so confident and cool that it throws me off a little. I hear her talk about a favorite artsist, Alphonse Mucha. I awkwardly interject and try to show her I'm into Mucha, too. "I saw his museum in Prague," I boast. As I'm doing this, I feel very much like a middle school kid trying to ask out the high school prom queen. She nods and smiles, very politely.

"This isn't starting off so well for me," I think.

It's been a while . . .





Well, as you can see, it's been a long time since our last post. It's been crazy. We've been so busy, it's been hard to find time to do anything fun.

After our housing falling through for our New York internship, we were frantically searching for new places to stay. Thankfully, two very affordable locations were found, so we're good on that front . . . for now. Because of the change in housing, we had to shift our whole trip one week later, so we'll be in NYC from June 3 to June 30.

And as if planning a wedding weren't work enough, we're also planning for a trip to Brazil in August for a grant-funded art project, where we'll be learning about Bahian art (a region in Brazil) and gathering photographic reference for a series of paintings to be made later as our BFA senior projects! Our whole experience will be documented by our friends, Christian Jensen and Nick Stentzel, as a documentary film for Christian's senior capstone project. It's a lot of work, and I have to give props to Christian for really heading it up and making things happen.

Megan and I just got our engagement shots the other day. Once again, Claire did a fantastic job. The photos are awesome. By the way, Claire is getting married soon, too! Andy Buys, my ex-roommate, is the lucky man, and I have to remind them often that it was my uncanny matchmaking that brought them together. Kind of.

"Up next . . . an unparalleled story of love and romance. Two artists meet in a plein aire painting class. One is a boy, the other, a girl. You know the rest." (Now say that in your head with the voice of Ira Glass; it makes more sense).