I met Chad in my second year of grad school at the University of Georgia. We met the day before my 24th birthday and I invited him to my birthday party. He was the only available guy in his incoming class so, even though he shaved his legs (for cycling, ya’ll), I was interested. Well, we were off to a great start when he declined to show up for the party. He says he was “tired,” but I’ve heard that one before and I know its code for I am intimidated by your good looks and great personality. Chad and I share a great love of food and drinks. After he stood me up on my birthday we shared many lunches, dinners, and nights on the town until I finally got him to take me on a real date. Chad studied history at the University of North Carolina. On one of our first dates he tried to impress me with his knowledge of history and his world travels. Ask him about the Chestnut Blight next time you need to impress a date.
If you haven’t gotten to meet Chad yet, here is what you need to know: He grew up in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, he likes sports that are boring to watch (soccer, cycling…), he is a great cook and is very liberal with the red pepper flakes, sometimes I think he likes the red pepper flakes more than me, although he enjoys cooking–he does not enjoy grocery shopping with me (probably because I skip the red pepper flake aisle), and he enjoys movies with subtitles. The only thing Chad might like more than red pepper flakes is his computer. After we had been dating for about three months I asked him to help me choose and buy a laptop. The next day he gave into temptation and ordered the exact same computer that I bought – though he got himself more ‘stuff.’ At the time I don’t think we ever imagined we’d be sharing a house with matching computers, but here we are. Chad’s love of computers is the very foundation of knowledge on which this blog is built, so we won’t make fun of him too much. However, he is the only person I know that has his calendar synched with his cell phone, laptop, and ipod.
Liz and Chad in Denver 