Friday, January 30, 2015

Julia was in her sophomore year at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and Andy was a senior.

Julia was having a fun night out with old friends from high school. They were at a Dance Marathon fundraiser night at a local bar.

Andy had just been out to dinner with his family to celebrate his admission to grad school and was getting ready to attend a midnight showing of the notoriously bad movie The Room with his friend Kyle.

Saturday, January 31, 2015

When the night was winding down, Julia’s roommate Nonie called wondering if she was free. Although it was already pretty late, Julia agreed to meet up with Nonie and their friend Shannon at the Ugli. Nonie said she wanted to hang out with her friend who was somewhere on South U, so Julia, Nonie, and Shannon all headed that way.

After the movie was over, Andy and Kyle went to Tio’s for drinks and a snack. It was getting late and the restaurant was closing, so they thought about heading home. But instead, they ended up heading to South U Pizza, which was open until 4 A.M., to meet up with one of Kyle’s friends.

As it turned out, Nonie’s friend and Kyle’s friend were one and the same, and Julia and Andy ended up in the same place at the same time at 2 A.M. early on a Saturday morning.

Andy’s phone background at the time was the album cover for Kishi Bashi’s 151a. At some point, Julia noticed it, which helped to strike up a conversation about music (as well as TV, life at UofM, goals and aspirations, and so on) that lasted until 4 A.M. Thankfully, they remembered to exchange phone numbers.

That afternoon, Andy sent Julia a text while studying at the Ugli, and they set up a time to meet up--just the two of them, this time.

Sunday, February 1, 2015

Julia and Andy had their first date over breakfast at Angelo’s. It was ridiculously cold and there was a blizzard going on, but they each braved the long walk to Catherine St. They finished their eggs and raisin toast, but they weren’t quite done talking yet, so they continued on to Starbucks for lattes and warmth.

Saturday, February 14, 2015

Andy picked up Julia, rose in hand, for their first Valentine’s Day together. They went to Grizzly Peak; there were sub-zero wind chills, so they decided to take an Uber rather than walking.

Sunday, February 15, 2015

They made it official!

Sunday, August 12, 2018

Julia and Andy now lived in Texas, with Julia going to Physical Therapy school at Texas Woman’s University. On this day, Andy flew home to Michigan carrying a little box with him.

Wednesday, August 15, 2018

Julia had arrived in Michigan. She was a little suspicious when Andy made a big deal out of visiting Ann Arbor during their visit. But she went along with it.

The day started off at Angelo’s, where they had their first date. They walked around Ann Arbor for old time’s sake, stopping by Literati, Vault of Midnight, and Roo’s Roast for a cup of coffee. Pleased that he had seemingly thrown Julia off the scent, Andy let the way to HopCat for an afternoon beer.

The next stop was South U, ostensibly to meet up with Andy’s sister, Emily, and her boyfriend, Jared. This, Andy knew, would force them to walk right through the Diag--where Emily lay in wait behind a tree, ready to take pictures. In the middle of the Diag (but not directly on the “M,” of course!), Andy got down on one knee and asked Julia to marry him. They really did head to South U after that, for celebratory drinks at Good Time Charley’s.

The rest of their visit to Michigan was filled with the joy of sharing the news with friends and family.

. . .

The title of Kishi Bashi’s 151a--the album that helped bring Julia and Andy together--is read “ichi-go-ichi-ē” in Japanese. This makes it a play on the Japanese idiom “ichi-go ichi-e,” which literally means “one time, one meeting.” The phrase is generally used to mean “once in a lifetime” and to evoke the “cultural concept of treasuring the unrepeatable nature of a moment.”

In the years since the weekend they met late at night in 2015, Julia and Andy have seen The Room together numerous times, and they’ve seen Kishi Bashi in concert twice. They almost never stay up until 4 A.M. anymore (except for the time they woke up at 1 A.M. for a roadtrip across Texas, to New Mexico). But they sure are thankful for the chance encounter that was made possible by their decision to stay up late that one January evening in Ann Arbor. Ichi-go ichi-e. Once in a lifetime.