In the summer of 2013, Harley and I both joined JDate. He was moving to South Florida by himself from Montreal and looking to make a connection, and I may have been a bit bored in graduate school looking for some Jewish romance! Although neither of us actually lived in Palm Beach County at the time (he still had a few more weeks in Montreal, and although I am originally from Palm Beach I had one more year of graduate school in North Florida), we both indicated that we were from the area and showed up in each other’s searches. We began messaging, Facebook-ing, texting, and Skype-ing (to ensure that neither one was a 60 year old cat lady) every day until we finally met on June 24th, 2013…just hours after he had officially moved to the United States!
Our first date consisted of eating “snowballs” at Jupiter Beach, and I later admitted that I probably would have done a lot more complaining about the sand burning my feet if we had known each other longer! I had to return to school in Jacksonville immediately after our date, but it would only be two days until we’d see each other again because Harley conveniently purchased a car from South Carolina and had to drive it back down to Florida.
He quickly passed the roommate/friend test by becoming an extension of our friend group that week and even going on “man dates” with my friend’s boyfriend while we were in class. Being the themed-party lover that I am, I wanted to make sure that Harley was able to properly celebrate his first Canada Day living in the United States. My friends and I surprised him with a celebration even William Shatner would envy. complete with Canadian beer, maple syrup, “ice fishing” in the sink with a Fischer Price toy fishing set, and a homemade version of “Pin the Antlers on the Moose.” I had officially won Harley over by throwing him his first ever surprise party, and so began our love story!
