The Beginning

I never thought this would ever be the opening line of the story we tell our kid(s), but it's true. We met in a bar. In fact, I was the one that started chatting with him first (Though Bill thinks I'm in denial, I really wasn't hitting on him! Not intentionally at least).

Bill and I came to Taiwan for different reasons. Bill and his girlfriend-at-the-time wanted to see the world. They had planned to join the Peace Corps, and when that didn't work out, they came to Taiwan because Bill had come and performed at the Taiwan National Concert Hall with his university band (he played the French horn) and had fond memories of this island.

I had just completed all the courses in speech pathology, gotten out of a 3-year-relationship with a broken heart, and quit my teaching job 'cause I was planning on going to University of Arizona with my adviser as a lab assistant. My plan was to come home for the summer and move down to Arizona at the end of August.

From different places at different times, Bill and I boxed up what defined who we were and left it with our families in North America. We both ended up staying in Taiwan longer than planned. Like two ship captains, we each set the course of our next voyage, unaware that we'd be swept off-course by the unforeseeable currents along the way, which eventually led us to one another.

We met in November 2004. It was one of the first few times I went out with my colleagues (I was the newbie who had only worked at the school for one semester). We went to this "neighborhood watering hole" after the 9pm classes. After a couple of rounds from the more senior teachers, I hurried to the bar to order more drinks and noticed this guy who was "watching" the Eleven-O'clock News on mute. I thought, "Wow! This guy's Chinese must be really good in order to be able to read the headline scrolls." I also thought, "and he has the gentlest eyes. I could get lost in them and wouldn't care." I was giddily intrigued and appropriately intoxicated I thought I had to pay him a compliment... about his Chinese, at least. Turned out, he just happened to be staring at the TV, lamenting the lack of romance in his life at that time (the girlfriend with whom he originally came to Taiwan had left him).

I never returned to my colleagues that night (I brought the drinks to them though). Bill and I talked passionately about a story of his that we thought should totally be made into a movie. We wrote down the plot on the back of beer coasters and several pieces of napkins and agreed that Philip Seymour Hoffman should be the leading actor. We also exchanged cell phone numbers.

From different places at different times, separately we set sail in search of new beginnings. We both had a change of plan along the way, which eventually led us to that neighborhood bar on that November night in 2004.

And that was the beginning of our story.