A girl walks into a bar with her Mom...

Eight years ago today I met NotBlondeHusband. People often ask how we met, how I became and expat so for those who don't already know here, in all it's glory, is how we met. It's much better told in person with my Mom butting in every two seconds to give her version but this will have to suffice.

I was interning in Washington DC at Choice USA in the summer of 2003 when my Mom and sister came to visit for a weekend.  One night my Mom and I went out for a drink and decided to go to Georgetown, but my Mom didn't want to walk far because she had on high heels, so we went to what I thought was the first "acceptable" bar on M Street, Garrett's. Anyone who's lived in NW DC will know what I'm talking about; there are bars before full of old coke heads and after Garrett's M Street begins to incline steeply so not ideal for hoofing it in heels.

When we walked in I noticed a cute guy and two friends sitting at the bar, normally I'd have headed to the upstairs bar, but I sat downstairs instead. I went to sit next to said guy, but my Mom insisted she didn't want to sit on the corner and plopped down next to the hottie in a Barcelona strip.

Not one to be deterred, after striking up conversation about their gold Elvis sunglasses (no matter how much my Mom tries to tell you she picked them up) NotBlondeHusband, the cute guy, and I got to talking and when my Mom went to the bathroom I took her seat next to him. Several Jaeger shots, discussions of hetero-life mates and ditching of my Mom and my friend I'd called in for back up later and I was hooked.


He was over on vacation with his two friends and for the remaining 4 days of his trip we spent every day together hanging out and getting to know each other. That's the good thing about working in a small female only office; when true love snogs you while your Mom's back is turned they let you have a few days off.

We visited back and forth across the Atlantic for 9 months and then NotBlondeHusband moved to live with me in DC for the summer of 2004 and that September I moved over to Glasgow with him.

I remember being really upset when he left and one of the Directors at my office said "you are going to marry him and have beautiful babies one day." Now this was a feminist organization so she wasn't just babbling. That being said I don't think I knew just then just how right she was.