It’s no secret that Alex Liollio is knowledgeable in all things having to do with space, injuries to the body, the good man jack, and loud unintelligible voices. Coincidentally, all of these things are also related to the beginning of our relationship.
The Good Man Jack
I first met Alex before I actually met him. Confused? I would be too. You won’t be when I explain that the same night I met him was the weekend of his 23rd birthday and he was already filling out his obligations to Jack Daniel’s. I met Alex for a brief moment at the AIGA Raleigh Casino Night event. However, I use the term “met” loosely because we didn’t actually meet… I was introduced to Alex when all the people around me started yelling, “Happy Birthday Alex, you need another shot”.
Loud Unintelligible Voices
The second time I met Alex was at Players Retreat. I heard stories about this guy with the weird last name and “cosmic” personality and never thought much about it until I was sitting across from him. He was making loud obnoxious voices for a knife shaped like a Peruvian tribal character and laughing at himself while doing so. I felt an urge inside of me to laugh at his silly actions, yet I held it in. He seemed comfortable with his friends but somewhat distant from this new girl sitting across from him. Most of the night had passed before either one of us really said a word to each other.
At this point, Alex comes up to me and introduces himself. I instantly laugh and say, “I have already met you”. The expression on Alex’s face looks like I just told him Santa Claus wasn’t real. I quickly say “at Casino Night”. He laughs and tells me to excuse his actions for that night. We proceed to geek out on several graphic design topics and neither of us seems to mind. At the end of the night Alex said he would like to see me again and we set up our first date.
Injuries to the Body
Our first date happened about a week later. Panera, that was good for me, not too fancy, perfect for a first date. I knew the conversation with Alex would be easy but what I didn’t know was that we would talk about blood for the first 15 minutes of our date. Ok, let me back up here… We had scheduled our first date for dinner after work. I had a giant project at work that needed to be finished before I could leave. I feverishly worked through the day and around 5:00 I realized I was not going to be able to make it to our date. Seriously, who cancels the first date? This girl, I guess. I called Alex to tell him I wouldn’t be able to make it.
We ended up moving the time of our date until later that night. While I was at work trying to finish up mock-ups for this project, my boss cut his finger with an Exacto blade. Luckily, it wasn’t a bad cut. Never the less, something to bring up on the first date… right? Ok, so back to Panera. Alex and I meet up at Panera and I instantly apologized for delaying our date. I proceeded to tell him about the crazy project that kept me late at work and how my boss cut his finger. Now, we all know Alex’s personality and you can only imagine his excitement to talk about injuries. He proceeded to tell me about the plethora of injuries he has obtained over the years while I volley back injuries that my family members had over the years. This goes on for some time when I finally blurt out “We have been talking about blood for 15 minutes on our first date”. We both laugh and I tell one more blood story.
All Things Having to do with Space
After our first date and several phone conversations later, I discovered how Alex geeks out on Outer Space. Of course, being the kind-hearted person that I am, I used this as ammunition to make fun of him. “Do you know how to speak Klingon?’“I bet you can name all the Star-Trek seasons”, “You know the radius of the Death Star?”… Ok, I made up that last one but you get the picture.
For our second date, I told Alex I wanted him to take me somewhere nice. This was a test. I wanted him to pick a nice place, not to take me wherever I said. He passed. He took me to Red Lobster. He showed up wearing a “Cosmic Alex” t-shirt that he had picked out special for our date. Nice. We sat down for dinner and our crazy waitress loved him. She told me that I had someone special and I should never let him go. That is when I first realized what a great catch I had (no pun intended with the seafood reference) and the rest is history.
Jessica Duensing
