How we met
In 2008, Anderson was living with six other people in an old house with no right angles. Sarah was invited to visit the house by a friend, where she met Anderson in the living room. Sarah started flirting with him and he, at some point, looked at her and said, “You're trouble.”
He proved to be entirely correct.
Four years later, Anderson and Sarah finally started dating on April 5, 2012
at 9:00pm.
Who is Sarah?
Sarah is an absolutely amazing woman. She is the combination of some of the best parts of her parents: her mother’s thoughtfulness towards others and ability to prepare and plan events, and her father’s generosity and spontaneity. Sarah is very much her own being, though, and is made out of hugs, energy, adventure, and affection. She’s always up for a challenge, and is an instigator and a troublemaker in all the best ways.
She’s engaged in what she’s doing, but somehow always manages to be available for others. She is the first person to suggest taking the path less traveled, and springs forth, full of color and life. She’s great at flipping all over the place on trampolines or diving boards, and staying healthy and fit comes naturally to her. She asks people questions because she truly wants to know what others are thinking. You can trust her to be totally honest with you, because she’s terrible at telling lies and keeping a straight face about it.
Anderson pretty much feels like he won the lottery every day, because he gets to be with this funky spunky chick-a-dee.
Who is Anderson?
Many people are under the impression that Anderson is what happened when a nerdy engineer, an exuberant professional dancer, a raucous 1980's heavy metal rock star, a mischievous misanthrope, and a surreal
art performer somehow all got together, defied the normal rules of
procreative biology, and had a baby. But in fact, Anderson was raised
by two remarkably kind, respectable, and relatively normal people in
South Carolina.
He's taken a less conventional route through life,
which has eventually culminated in a PhD in electrical engineering, a
career in software engineering, 2 years living abroad in Belgium, a
number of professional dance performances, a naked hug from a fat
Elvis impersonator, an enthusiasm for "breaking his brain" as he
learns new skills, a passion for playing music with other people, and a love for art projects involving blinky lights. While that does
already seem like a pretty full life, perhaps Anderson's greatest
passion is his love of cultivating relationships with other people.
He has a knack for bringing groups of people together and creating
community around him. And while he may live his life by his own set
of rules, he certainly stands by those rules with honesty and
integrity.
Sarah considers herself exceedingly lucky to have such an adventurous
and kind partner with whom she can explore and share the world.
The Proposals
One day after dating for about 6 months, Anderson turned to Sarah and said, “I’m not going to agree to marry you until we’ve been together for at least a year.” Sarah said, “Well, duh.” Then their one year anniversary came. They
went out, saw a play, had a really great date, and no one proposed.
The next day, Anderson told Sarah, “You know, I’m really surprised we’re not engaged right now.” Sarah asked, “Was I supposed to propose last night?” Anderson said, “No. I just thought that you would.” Sarah replied, “Do you want me to the be the one to propose?” Anderson considered, and said that he did, in fact, want Sarah to propose, but thought that Sarah should also have the experience of being proposed to.
So, as they were planning on moving to Portland in just a few months, they agreed that sometime before the move, they would each propose to each other, though they did not know exactly when.
Anderson ended up proposing first. He proposed at a joint Black Squiddy Overlord vs Rainbow Stork birthday party for Sarah and Aneel. It can be seen right here:
Sarah proposed to Anderson two weeks later at their going away party. They invited over all of their friends from Austin for one last hurray before they left town. There, Sarah gave a speech up on a chair to her community of friends. She expressed how much she loved them and truly appreciated them all, and how much she would miss them. She then smoothly segued into how lucky she was to have such an amazing partner to move up to Portland with her. And then, while still on a chair, she got down on one knee and proposed.
Sarah’s proposal was not filmed, but it was photographed by the talanted Trisha Kummer. Photos can be seen in Trisha's Flickr Album.