A Lake Merritt Love Story

After getting vaccinated we were going to house parties – I was my friend Susan’s plus one, and Sam was Demir’s (birthday boy) coworker-friend. Demir has inadvertently introduced many pairs, at least three? Possibly millions? 

Sam asked to see a picture of my kitty Blanche, and raved about his one-eyed cat GB. He wanted to play trivia with me and my friends, and he had a cute kitty? Green flags! We also bonded over dorky topics like the street improvements that Oakland had been making in our community (green stormwater infrastructure, bike lanes around the lake, etc.).

However, it wasn’t until we were invited back to the same apartment a few months later, for Demir’s roommate’s birthday party, that I got the courage to actually ask to join her for an activity outside of these mutual friends’ birthday parties (I invited myself along to the next time her trivia group met up). Our actual first date was a double-date-minus-one type situation, as she had confused what week her trivia group was meeting and was off by one week. In an attempt to not crush my aspirations of impressing her at trivia with my endless breadth of knowledge, she convinced Susan to join her for a relatively intimate evening of trivia at The Alley up on Grand Ave. We ended up finishing top 3, and won a set of Aviator Gin + two glasses (Susan took the gin, I took the glasses). However, we both (embarrassingly) did not recognize a picture of Naomi Watts from Mulholland Drive as part of a “picture round” and later agreed we needed to watch it together.

We also had an afternoon coffee date where we stopped at the (now defunct) Mudlab, and went for a walk through the Oakland botanical gardens. I remember it started to rain and we took shelter in one of the little seating areas in the Japanese garden while we talked.

Our first real date was a movie night to watch Mulholland Drive (we’re both fans of David Lynch. And our aforementioned embarrassment.) Sam had gotten popcorn and hot chocolate and his apartment was so clean and cozy, but he forgot it was dinner time and I needed a real meal. So we ordered mac and cheese (from Homeroom!). We kissed and the next day Sam tested positive for covid! I didn’t end up testing positive, but I did cancel my holiday plans and stay local. She didn’t drink any of the fancy hot chocolate I bought, though. She also continues to tell me (and others) that she was impressed with my interior design skills after visiting my apartment. Conveniently left that out of her account here.

While Sam wasn’t feeling well, we went on walks and I cooked him pozole, even though he couldn’t taste very much. We wore masks and kept our distance so that I could spend Christmas Day with family. I spent Christmas afternoon with my uncle Gordo/Guillermo/Willie G/etc, aunt Annette and cousin Larena/Lali/Lo in Richmond. I think she left her family’s place around 3 or 4 PM and I met her at her apartment for our first(!) Christmas together!

The next morning, Sam sent me a playlist full of love songs. I sent him one right back… Sam and I spent so much time together between Christmas and New Years, our winter walks in the rain felt magical, and we fell fast. (Yeah you were freakin’ obsessed with me dude, I was definitely cool as cucumber.) Sometimes on our walks, our steps would sync up and I would joke that even though he’s taller, he’s all torso because our legs are around the same length. We would kill it at a three legged race! Even now, when we’re very connected, our steps sync up.