I moved to New York City in the summer of 2003. I had spent the summer living with a friend in a dorm style apartment while I was attending a summer musical theatre program. I decided that NYC was the place for me so I found an apartment via craigslist and moved in on September 6, 2003. My new roommate Julie was lovely and she decided that I should meet her friend Rob who lived in the neighborhood but was also in musical theatre. Luckily Rob was singing in a concert the next weekend so Julie decided that we would go so she could introduce us.
We were late to the concert. I had no idea how long it would take us to get from Astoria to the York Theatre! We were about 15 minutes late and missed the first song that Rob sang that night. The concert was fun and I did get to see him sing a duet later in the show. Afterwards we met in the lobby in front of the now extinct pay phones. He was cute. And tall. I liked that.
Julie and I joined Rob and his cast for a drink afterwards and Rob was complaining about having to lug his guitar with him to a friends birthday party later that night. I offered to take his guitar back to Astoria since we lived near each other. I figured he could come by and get it at a later date. Believe it or not, this was actually just me being nice and not me masterminding a grand, romantic plan. I am from Texas after all where we are bred to be polite.
I saw Rob again the next week when we went to see some really terrible theatre together. It was supposed to be a group outing with friends but everyone cancelled so it suddenly became a date. Interesting how that happens. We walked around the San Gennaro Festival in Little Italy and I kept making “Into The Woods” jokes. (bonus points if you know the joke I was making)
Rob eventually came over to get his guitar and I made him dinner. We flirted. We kept seeing each other over the next few weeks and eventually he swept in for a kiss when I wasn’t expecting it. He’s sneaky like that.
Those magical months were almost 10 years ago. We’ve managed to figure out this crazy life of being performers living in New York City. I think. Maybe we haven’t figured it out completely but we are trying together.
Last month Rob took me to The York Theatre where we met to see a show. Afterwards he said that he had a meeting with the company manager to talk about getting a show produced. We walked back into the theatre and this happened.
Flynn Says YES! from Mike Bradley on Vimeo.
I’m really excited about celebrating 10 years together with this amazing man and I can’t think of any better way than with an exchange of vows and a killer dance party. It’s gonna be awesome.