(as told from Richard’s POV…)
Lili & I began our adventure 6 years ago. It was at the end of June 2009.
At the time, I was living in the Washington, DC area and Lili was living in the San Francisco Bay Area.
You may ask, how is it possible for two people who were worlds apart, living on different coasts, to meet?
Yet our worlds collided, literally, when we met in June 2009 in Las Vegas randomly at TAO Night Club. Things would not have fallen into place more perfectly for us. It was as if it was our destiny to meet.
Lili was in town visiting with some new friends she just met at church, and I was in town visiting for my best friend Carl’s bachelor party. We met out on the dance floor when Lili noticed and danced with me. At that moment, I knew I was in love and that Lili was someone special.
I’m pretty smooth with words, so when I first talked to her, I told her I was a writer when she told me she was an English teacher. She looked at me with skepticism. She had good reason to be skeptical though. Later she asked what I wrote, and I told her I wrote computer programs. Hey, I got her on a technicality. I AM a writer, and I didn’t lie to her. Haha.
Later on that evening, we went out to Denny’s because the line at McDonald’s was too long. That was quite fortunate for us, because that allowed us to sit down and chat under bright fluorescent lights. For some weird reason, the place mats at the table had the Chinese zodiac symbols on it, and I was able to determine that we were both compatible signs. I’m a clever monkey, and she’s a rat. Lili didn’t believe me, but according to the folklore, these two creatures are crazy for each other and have really high compatibility! Things just kept falling into place.
Moving along, we had a conversation that went something like this:
Me: “So… what are you doing this summer”
Lili: “Oh nothing, just going to Chicago with my mom and sister”
Me: “Really? That’s a coincidence, because I’ll be going there too for a wedding. When are you going?”
Lili: “Next month” (Lili looked at me like I was full of it)
Me: “No way! His wedding is next month. What weekend is it?”
Lili: “Last weekend of July”
Me: “That’s crazy, because his wedding is that same weekend! Let’s meet up again.”
We later on would keep in contact via telephone, spending endless nights talking on the phone. We’d have epic conversations that would continue to go until the sun went up. Through the magic of technology, we’d spend all day chatting and texting each other and would find that we just clicked – like that first time we met. We found out that we were quite different, but yet had so much in common. We even found out that our oldest siblings have the exact same birth date!
The next month, we met up again in Chicago and Lili went to Carl’s wedding where I was the Best Man. Lili and I continued our long distance relationship for almost a year, flying coast to coast, before I quit my job and moved out to California to be with her.
And the rest is history!
The slideshow below was presented in front of 100 of our friends and family at our wedding on July 5, 2014. Previously it was only available for Lili’s viewing, but now it’s being shared with the world.