Jolene & Jon's Story...

How we met (a.k.a. Jon's most expensive "first date"!)

The way that Jon and I met was completely random. Considering the situation, it's probably rare that any two other people in our shoes would have ended up dating. Yet, here we are, two years later, engaged and crazy about each other.

The "Incident": It was Halloween morning 2006 and I was heading downtown in the thick of rush hour traffic. While stopped at a red light at the intersection of Crowchild Trail and 24th Ave NW, I happened to look into my rear view mirror and noticed that the truck behind me was slowly rolling forward. Seconds later, Jon's truck bumped my car. I later learned that, bagged from playing a late hockey game the night before, Jon had taken a moment to rest his eyes at the red light not realizing his foot was easing off the brake pedal. I wish I could joke that Jon deliberately hit my car to score a date, except that I was wearing a little platinum blonde bob wig – part of my Halloween costume - and at the time he thought that he had rear-ended a little old lady.

We Swap Digits: Because I was rushing to get to work and figured there wouldn't be any damage I planned to hop out of my car, do a quick scan and, if all looked good, just forget about the accident. But Jon has a pet peeve about people tying up traffic for minor fender benders and asked me to pull into an adjacent parking lot. Closer inspection revealed a hairline crack in my bumper. We exchanged info and I told Jon I'd have it looked at.

Rocky Start turns On the Rocks: The next day, I called Jon with a body shop estimate. I asked if he was sitting down and he nearly lost his mind when I quoted the $700 figure. He said it couldn't possibly cost that much; I said I was looking at the quote right now. He said he wanted a second estimate; I told him I wasn't about to drive my car around town to save him $50. He said he "knew a guy..."; I cut him off with a sarcastic "Oh, you know a guy! Does he work out of a van in a back alley somewhere?" This became a day-long disagreement. It's all very funny when we think back about it now but at the time we were both pretty miffed about the situation. In the end, Jon paid for the repairs. A couple of weeks later, he called to ask how everything was and suggested we chat over some drinks. The rest is history.

Infamous Intersection, Part II: This past December, Jon fooled me into believing that we were going out with friends. On the way to dinner, he said he heard his truck making noises and pulled over. I didn't think anything of it when he stopped in the parking lot where we first met... until he went down on one knee and proposed. Kind of has romantic comedy written all over it!

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