Christina and Joel met in an organic chemistry lab at the University of Vermont. They didn’t interact outside of a chemistry setting until the lab was over because Joel was the instructor for the lab! (and neither knew the other was harboring some interest). Christina attempted some flirting with Joel in her lab reports, but he either glossed over it while grader or dismissed it out of hand – because she wrote a ‘joke’ about her experiment failing because he had “stolen” an inconsequential piece of equipment for a neighboring group to borrow.

She didn’t realize this kind of blame on a ridiculous thing isn’t out of the norm for organic chemistry students, so it just caused Joel to harrumph and ignore it when he hit that line in the report.

Despite being blissfully unaware that Christina was interested in Joel, he decided to ask her out to drinks or dinner on the last day of lab. This would avoid the disapproved interaction because lab was over, but if she wasn’t interested…they’d never see each other again! So, Joel wrote a sticky note asking about drinks/dinner with his phone number and stuck it to the final returns of the year in lab. Then, as the students were leaving lab, he could hand it over and she could find it later avoiding an awkward lab session.

But Christina had other plans. Of all the students in lab, she unknowingly badgered Joel about whether he had reports and exams to hand back and asked if he could hand them back right then. In the middle of the lab session.

He didn’t have a good excuse not to do so, so he handed everything back (thankfully hers was at the bottom of the alphabetical pile) and then went into the hallway. Because he was worried about it becoming very strange quickly.

Thankfully Christina was in fact also interested and excitedly took a picture of the note and texted it to several of her friends. Then had to wait the other half of the lab session to talk to Joel because she’d demanded the reports back only partway through. She hung back until after the lab was over and they got to talking in the hallway after lab. She blurted out “so, it’s restaurant week?” in a questioning tone, so the two were able to plan their first date on the next Saturday evening.

The date, at the Daily Planet in downtown Burlington, went swimmingly. They swapped scar stories, stories about their respective family cabins on ponds in the woods, their athletics, organic chemistry of course, and many others. The date transitioned to the ice cream shop for some maple creemees (that’s soft-serve ice cream for the out-of-staters) and walking along the boardwalk on the shores of Lake Champlain. They spent the next few months together in Burlington while Joel finished his doctorate and Christina finished up the post-baccalaureate program for her medical school applications.

Then came time for Joel to move to Pittsburgh and there was a big obstacle, they’d either need to figure out how to do long-distance after only dating for six months or Christina would move to Pittsburgh for her gap year between the post-bac and med school. Thankfully Christina followed the advice of Nonna Supino: “You do like Andrea, you no go, you lose.” So, the two moved together to Pittsburgh and Christina worked at a local hospital while Joel was a postdoc. Their time in Pittsburgh was great and the city will always be the place that really cemented the relationship.

Soon enough it was time for Christina to move to Maine for med school. Joel and Christina figured out how to navigate long-distance until he completed his postdoc five months later. He moved into the tiny apartment in Biddeford, Maine while job hunting for about another five months to avoid the long-distance experience. He’s been in Tewksbury, MA since and the two are only about an hour and a half apart. They’re thankfully able see each other most every weekend or meet up in Portsmouth, NH for dinner during the week when needed.

They got engaged late on an evening in April 2019 after the ring traveled to Portland, a restaurant, a bar, and then a strange dance-club named Bubba’s. Joel had hidden the ring in a photo album (a third anniversary gift) and was originally planning on going to dinner with Christina and then heading back home with her and proposing on a walk to the beach. However, Christina has a knack for interrupting his best laid plans (see above about the initial asking out). When Joel arrived in Maine Christina said she wanted to meet up with another few friends after dinner at a bar for drinks, so the group of people had grown to five. While they were at the bar the group of friends grew to nine. And eight of them wanted to go to Bubba’s for 80’s night to do some dancing. Christina asked Joel if he wanted to go for just a little while, to which he replied…”no.” He’d already been carrying around the hidden ring in a backpack for a few hours and didn’t particularly want to carry it to a dance club. The “no” wasn’t taken for an answer though so he caved and the group travelled to Bubba’s. Where Joel had to put the backpack in the coat-check. They stayed for an hour and finally left to go home. They found the car at 12:05 AM in a locked parking garage. Thankfully their friend Taxia, who was with them, suggested checking the backdoor and they were able to get in and take the car home. The entire way Joel was having a furious internal debate about whether to give the ring at 1:00 AM or wait until the following day. He ultimately decided to give the ring to Christina and they got engaged at about 1:30 AM.

Since then they’ve been working, getting prepped for medical school exams, and of course planning the wedding. They can’t wait to see everyone in Vermont on May 23^rd, 2020!