Bruna and Stephen met around Halloween 2022, in an old movie theater in El Segundo at a showing of Young Frankenstein. Bruna was invited by an old grad school friend to see the movie and told that she was brining a new faculty colleague from Occidental College along.

Bruna was dressed as Columbia from Rocky Horror picture show and Stephen was wearing his signature all black look. They chatted about their shared love of old film theaters, and both rolled their eyes at the half-time intermission sing-along of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” with neon Wurlitzer organ accompaniment.

Both were shy and nervous—no numbers were exchanged!

A month later, Bruna’s colleague gave her two tickets to see the indie band Helen play at Zebulon, but everyone she knew was busy that night. So she bravely reached out to her friend and asked for Stephen’s number because she had a “music theory question” for him. Armed with Stephen’s contact info, Bruna invited him to the show, and they spent the entire night talking in 40ºF weather on the patio and missing the music. They haven’t stopped talking and joking since!

Turns out that they were neighbors, 8 minutes drive from each other. Both are professors and love reading, puzzles, and love being outdoors in nature. They live together in their cozy home with squish-faced cat, Sophia.