The first time I saw Kalen was in the 911 Communications Center of the Clay County Sheriff’s Office. It’s a narrow room, with no windows. A cacophony of muted radio transmissions hum in the background. The only illumination is a dull-blue glow emanating from the multiple computer and television monitors strategically arranged throughout.
Kalen was seated at her terminal and looked up to meet my glance. The light coming off of her monitor accentuated her bluish-green eyes. She was stunning. I tried not to stare, probably with little success, as we were introduced by her supervisor.
And so my daily morning pilgrimage to the Comm Center became routine. Armed with coffee and my bravado, I would awkwardly engage in the type of flirtation disguised as teasing - A skill that had been perfected years ago in grade school.
One particular morning the conversation turned to travel, and Greece. Using Kalen’s terminal I searched for an image of Hydra, then waxed poetic about the quiet little island, it’s donkeys, and my crazy Uncle Pandelis, who lives on the island. I went on to tell Kalen that when I get married that it would be on Hydra. Neither of us in that moment could have known that we were discussing the wedding we were to have to each other.
As weeks went on we talked more and more. Our morning meetings expanded to chats over text throughout the work day. During a particularly rough week at work I suggested to Kalen and her supervisor that we all go out for drinks, and everyone agreed.
On the night that we had agreed to go out Kalen’s supervisor auspiciously backed out in the last minute, leaving just me and Kalen on our own. A move which Kalen and I agree was orchestrated by her supervisor with that specific result in mind.
We spent that first night out together sitting at the bar at Chicken & Pickle, laughing and talking over several rounds of Old Fashioned and Vodka Cranberry. The confidence I exuded was all I could do to mask the insecurity I felt sitting next to someone so beautiful - Why would she want to spend an evening with me? But then she would smile, and laugh, and all of those insecurities went away.
Kalen agreed to go out with me again. And again after that. Soon our lives seemed intertwined. Nights were spent staying up late watching “My 600 Pound Life” while eating Taco Bell, pretending that the cast could see us; Mornings at coffee shops, afternoon at wineries; We went to airshows and obstacle runs, and Kalen was always sweet enough to feign enjoyment whenever I would drag her to a Mark Knopfler or Dweezil Zappa concert. We would turn a morning of exploring antique shops into and an afternoon of exploring abandoned buildings. We went to every Chiefs game, except one, during the 2019 season, sometimes after stepping off a flight from Chicago to catch an Uber to the stadium, with luggage still in hand. We kissed as the clock ran down at the end of AFC Championship game, and we watch as for the first time in fifty years the Chiefs were Super Bowl Bound.
And we traveled.
In 2019 I got the opportunity to take Kalen to Hydra, where she got to know and love island just as she got to know and love Pandelis.
Two years and four days from that first impromptu “date”, I got down on a knee and asked Kalen to marry me. She graciously said yes.
So much has changed over these past couple of years. The world is just now beginning to wake from the pandemic which has redefined so much of what we knew to be normal, and important. It challenged bonds and our ideas of the future, and it forced us to live more authentically.
But the foundations still remain the same.
An Old Fashioned sits on the table in front of me as I write this. Kalen is beside me, holding a martini. She long ago abandoned Vodka Cranberry. And just like that first night the pangs of insecurity still stalk me when I look at her wondering what such an amazing woman would want with me. Then she smiles at me.
It all started at the beginning of 2019. I had just started as a dispatcher at the sheriff’s office a few months earlier and Neil got moved to days on my rotation. Because of how the shifts lined up before, we had never met.
Over time we started to become friends and he started coming into work early every morning. He would come tell me good morning and hangout in dispatch before roll call started. We started talking and joking around with each other all the time at work, but that was as far as it went for now.
One day, I decided to look up his phone number in the system so I could text him “about his call” I had just given him. His reply was “finally, you looked up my number.” We started texting a lot and then ended up in a group text between us and another co-worker from dispatch on our shift. We started texting non-stop.
One particular week that had been very busy and stressful, Neil asked if we all wanted to go have drinks that weekend and well, if you know us, you know I did not turn that down. The day we were supposed to meet up, our co-worker conveniently bailed out on us. Neil asked if I still wanted to go and I of course did not hesitate to go with him.
Even though it had not been said that it was a date, he picked me up, came to the door, met my dogs Moose and Tobie and even opened the car door for me. On March 2, 2019, we went to Chicken N Pickle and had our first date. We spent the entire night talking and laughing so much our cheeks hurt. We had the best time.
We had such a great time the first night, we did not wait to make plans for a second date a few days later and our relationship very quickly grew to something more. I very quickly fell in love with him.
We were even more reassured it was meant to be when we introduced Moose, Tobie and Spar and they loved each other. After 2 months dating, we moved in together and became inseparable.
We spent the next two years living an amazing life together. We took our first trip together in September 2019 to no other than Hydra, went to almost all of the Chiefs game for the 2019 and 2020 seasons, tried as many new restaurants and all of the new, unique food we could, survived through a pandemic and quarantine together, we spent Christmas 2020 jumping into the Caribbean Ocean to pull out a live conch and again for a giant starfish, we swam with pigs and sea turtles. We tried and continue trying to live every day to the fullest among so many other things.
On March 6, 2021 we were going to dinner to celebrate our two year anniversary. Neil told me throughout our entire relationship that he would never propose on a special occasion, especially Valentine’s Day or an anniversary so it was no surprise that I was not expecting him to propose at all.
When he got down on one knee, I was crying so much I could not manage to say yes, but rather could just shake my head. So, I made sure to shake “yes” like crazy so that he knew my answer as if he had any doubt what it would be.
There is so much that I love about Neil, but one of the things I love most is his outlook on life. We only get one and he wants to make it the absolute best that it can be, not only for himself but our family. He has opened my eyes to so many things and I cannot wait to spend my life with him trying every new thing possible, building our new home together on the farm with the boys and making the most amazing memories together that will last a lifetime.