the story of ester & keith

Ester and Keith grew up in Claremont, California, a sleepy town east of Los Angeles. They spent their early years blissfully unaware of the existence of one another until a fateful day 13 years ago. It was on that day that Ester, a reporter with the high school newspaper, approached Keith, an editor, with a question.

The specifics of this momentous query have been lost to time; we can only speculate on what it may have been: "What are the acceptable uses of a semicolon?"; "Should the number 20 be spelled out?"; "Is there one space after a period, or two?". As the words rolled off Ester's lips, a dumbstruck Keith, afraid of girls at the time, quickly blurted out an answer and ran away. Thus began a beautiful friendship.

Skip ahead a few years to 2004. Keith was living in the bustling metropolis of San Jose, California. Ester lived nearby in Berkeley, a suburb of San Jose. On a warm summer day, the two somehow found themselves on a date — their first, and a picnic no less! Perhaps it was the sparkling conversation, perhaps it was the potato salad that Keith had left sitting in the sun during the drive up to Berkeley, but once they had finished eating, Ester promptly curled up and fell asleep under a large oak tree, concluding the date.

Summer turned to fall, and fall gave way to winter. This happened a few more times, and suddenly it was 2009. On the fifth anniversary of their first date, Keith and Ester found themselves once again in Berkeley. Keith, apparently still afraid of girls, had written a letter to Ester to ask her hand in marriage. He gave it to her and waited on one knee as she read it. Then he waited some more; it was a rather long letter. Eventually, Ester made it to the final page and, to Keith's great relief, said yes.

A few more months passed, and Ester and Keith set up a web page chronicling how they met. And you, dear reader and cherished friend, having made it through this long and somewhat tedious story, were persuaded — hopefully — to join the families of Ester and Keith to celebrate the end of their courtship and the beginning of their new lives together.

The end... or is it just the beginning?