Jebby + Grinesy

Happy Anniversary!

Matt and I are celebrating our 5 year anniversary today. To commemorate the occasion I am posting this blog.

Matt and I met in June of 2003 in San Francisco. I was on a road trip with some new friends from Utah that Matt had been friends with while he was at BYU. So my group of friends had Matt show us around the city. I remember the first thing I said to him when we met was "Hey Jespersen." I don't know why. But I do know that I thought he was so cool! I remember that I laughed ALL day at him. I thought he was hilarious! And he had a non-overbearing confidence about him that was so alluring. But due to him being 7 years older than me and living in far-away San Francisco (and that I quite frankly considered him out of my league) I never thought about actually LIKING him. But thank heavens he was thinking differently!

Here's the only picture I have with both of us in it from that day. But we're sitting quite far apart!


After our road trip Matt talked to my friend Shauna and she of course shared every detail with me. He was interested in me and wanted me to email him!! What?! I couldn't believe it. He told Shauna to tell me to email under the pretense of him wanting me to send him the pictures that I took that day in San Francisco. She did tell me that but also told me everything else of course. I couldn't believe such an awesome, cute, and funny guy was showing any interest in me!

So I emailed him and never heard back. Hmmm... Shauna intervened and found out that Matt had deleted my email since he didn't recognize the name. Here's what he had to say in his email about it:

"Oh Ella, do forgive my gaffe. Who but a filthy porn-peddler goes by the name of Marcella Griner? I had no choice but to erase it. As I clicked on your email and waited for the page to download, I still had some misgivings and nearly ran outside to the circuit breaker and shut off the electricity, so great had become the fear of porn in the land. Of course you know I'm kidding. I truly think you have a lovely name. I just didn't recognize it."

And our email correspondence began. I remember being so excited to check my email on campus. It was hard to get to know him any better through emails though because his emails were always completely comprised of humor. I loved them! Here's some excerpts:

"I really love Utah. Besides, my nieces and nephews are going to start forgetting me. I had worked pretty hard to be the favorite uncle. I even considered disfiguring my brothers so the kids would be frightened of them, but I thought better of it at the last second."

"On Saturday when I went to the temple, just before I went inside I heard one girl say to another, "You do not have a ghetto booty." At first I was startled because I didn't expect such conversation considering the setting. But after giving it some thought, I suppose there's never an inappropriate moment to assess the condition of one's fanny. If someone is suffering from ghetto booty, it should be announced at once to the person, no matter when or where. And likewise if you sense that someone is concerned that they might have ghetto booty, and you know that they don't, you should not withhold that information. Rather, you must put them at ease immediately, while it is fresh on the mind."

"Which brings me to my next point, Ella. I just got called into jury duty, and I can't decide what to wear. Let me quote you from the letter:
'Since the temperature in the jury assembly areas and courtrooms can be unpredictable, please dress accordingly.'
Wow. Please dress accordingly. How do I know with what to accord myself when the situation will be unpredictable? Am I supposed to also dress unpredictably? I considered renting a tuxedo because I thought that no one would predict that. But that's not so far-fetched and out of the realms of predictability. But what if I wore a kimono of sown together pringles and a violin bow for a hat? I doubt that a soul would predict that. Truly the judge would commend me for that. Perhaps I would receive a small stipend from the goverment as a reward."

"I don't want to marry the perfect girl. But I do want to divorce her, and then toilet paper her house every year on our anniversary."

I guess I started telling him how funny I thought his emails were because he responded:

"Oh Ella, the pressure you put on me is enormous. I'm often very unfunny. As you can already see, glory fades. My emails are only getting lamer. So as I drift from an entertaining emailer to a creepy idiot swine whose guts you hate and want to step on and punch, stop and think, "Would the Lord hate somebody's guts and want to punch them and step on them?" Ella, He wouldn't. Should you? You shouldn't."

And then we even got up the courage to talk on the phone!

"I'm so glad you enjoyed our phone conversation. You made me nervous, Ella. Are you a mannequin? Ella, I have to study for my final tonight, so I must be brief. I just want to say that I was so excited to hear your voice yesterday. I had almost forgot that you can speak. I had been telling my friends, "I've become friends with a wonderfully fun and pretty girl. Oh, and by the way, she's a mute." And then I would wait for their response. And wait. Then when I heard you speaking last night, I thought, "Wow, that traumatic experience that she had when she was little that had forced her to silence is finally overcome. Good for her." And then I thought, "You idiot, don't you remember when she talked in San Francisco, and you said to yourself, 'Hey this girl's pretty cool, plus she's not a mute'?" Well Ella, my lame jokes aside, it really was quite wonderful to talk to you. When you come to California, all my spare time will be available. That's understood. I can only hope you find my company less than boring. We manufacture party decorations.
Matt
The company joke was lame, too. Oh Ella, please read my next email still."

He's adorable, right? In August Matt came out to Utah to see me (and other friends I suppose) and to look into the possibility of moving out to Utah. I was SO nervous when he was in Utah and I felt a lot of pressure like we were trying to find out already if we were ready to date seriously. But Matt was nervous too because on our first date we got Subway sandwiches and had a picnic. But Matt said he was too nervous to eat so he just laid down and left his sandwich in the wrapper. It was quite awkward because I was starving! But Matt will tell you that my behavior was the strangest because according to him I was always running away from him in order to go bake bread or something. Despite our social setbacks that week Matt took a job working at an arrow manufacturing factory so that he could move out to Utah. Thanks, Matt!



So we started dating and despite a couple breakups we got engaged in January. And we got married on May 1 in the St. Louis temple.

And I must say, five years later, I still think Matt is awesome, cute, and oh-so funny! I love you, Matt!