Julian and I met in 2003 at the illustrious Mexicali Rosa's on the Rideau Canal. My friend Ben had invited me out to join him, and I asked him as to whether any interesting boys would be there. He thought there might be. Once I got there, Ben kept pointing out Julian to me in a rather obvious way. Embarrassed, I proceeded to try and ignore him all night so that I wouldn't look too interested, though I thought he had lovely eyes. I decided that ignoring him cultivated a rather mysterious aura.

Later that night, I was giving Ben a ride home, and being the generous sort, also offered to give Julian and his friend a ride too. My car was rather, well, 'dented' might be a polite way of saying it. I had also covered it in stickers. So they were all teasing me about my driving and the stickers and I ignored them even more. But Julian made some great jokes in the backseat, which intrigued me further. I've always loved a sense of humour.

I didn't hear from Julian again for a while, but my our friend Ben kept mentioning how Julian thought I was so interesting, and how he'd really like to see me again. He also told me what a nice, smart and sweet guy he was. When I finally realised that the ignoring tactic wasn't working I called Julian and asked him out. He wasn't too hard to convince (and I made Ben suss him out first).

For our second encounter (and first date) we met at another fine Ottawa dining establishment, a Mexican restaurant in the market called the Blue Cactus. (Julian wasn't much help in picking the venue since he hadn't seemed to have heard of any restaurant I'd suggested.) I'd kind of forgotten how strong it smelled in there of Mexican food. But despite the smell of quesadillas we managed to make it romantic anyway and ended up chatting for a long time. Conversation came extremely easily and I found I could talk to him about almost anything. Julian mentioned that he'd hurt his knee the day before, and when he got up to go to the bathroom, I realised he could barely walk at all. (He found out later he'd torn his ACL.) I was so flattered and touched that he'd come out with me that night being in so much pain.

When we said goodnight, Julian asked me if I wanted to see him the next day. I did.

Since we've been together, we've had lots of adventures, including a week-long festival in the Nevada desert, fly-fishing near Lake Placid, driving through Death Valley in August, staying at a B&B in Newfoundland, and moving thousands of miles across the country to Vancouver.

So far, we still haven't run out of things to talk about, he still has a great sense of humour, and I still want to see him tomorrow, and every day after that.