GL_020818

28 | February 8, 2018 | The glenview lantern life & arts
glenviewlantern.com
How We Met Contest
Love is in the ... paper
Chris Pullam, Editor
Valentine’s Day has almost
passed, but it will
live forever in my email
inbox.
Over the past month,
I’ve received How We
Met contest submissions
from several infatuated
Glenview residents recounting
their romantic
origin stories.
These submission
ranged from funny and
sentimental to cute and
heart-warming, and the
process of whittling down
the entries to one winner
was hard and arduous.
So, at the bottom of
this introduction, you’ll
see the story of how CarrieLynn
and Christopher
Olson met. The couple
will receive a dozen roses
from Morning Glory
Flower Shop, 1822 Glenview
Road, Glenview, to
help them celebrate V-
Day. So, congratulations
on finding love and winning
a local newspaper
contest!
I also want to thank the
many other residents who
wrote in about their fairytale
endings.
And without further
ado, here is the winning
entry, as well as an entry
from another pair of Glenview
lovebirds:
CarrieLynn and
Christopher Olson
CarrieLynn and I grew
up 42 miles from one another,
but did not meet until
we were living on opposite
sides of the world.
I was living in Green
Bay, Wisc., and CarrieLynn
was doing her postdoctoral
work in Roskilde,
Denmark. A mutual
friend introduced us via
Glenview residents CarrieLynn and Christopher Olson
won The Lantern ’s How We Met contest with their
powerful love story about finding each other from
opposite sides of the world. PHOTOS SUBMITTED
Facebook in 2009, and we
began chatting regularly.
I developed feelings for
CarrieLynn early on, but
tried to suppress them due
to the distance between
us. (I remember thinking,
“Great. I meet the woman
of my dreams and she
lives on the other side of
the world.”)
I also didn’t know how
CarrieLynn felt until later.
After a few months of
this, CarrieLynn said she
was coming back to the
United States for a pair
of academic conferences
(one in Chicago and one
in California), and that she
would be returning home
to Abrams, Wisc., (a small
town about 25 miles from
Green Bay) before flying
back to Denmark. She
said she wanted to meet in
person, so we made plans
to see the Pixar film “Up”
with her family.
I remember feeling nervous
the entire day before
meeting CarrieLynn, but
needn’t have worried because
we ended up having
a delightful time. Afterward,
CarrieLynn and
I excused ourselves and
went to a small café to
drink tea and talk together
for several hours. I then
drove her home and said
good night, and returned
to my apartment with a
goofy grin on my face the
entire time.
The next morning,
CarrieLynn invited me
to have dinner with her
and her family. We spent
a lovely afternoon and
evening together talking,
golfing and playing
games. Of course, we both
knew that CarrieLynn was
flying back to Denmark
the next morning, but we
tried not to let that affect
our time together. Instead,
we just focused on having
fun while we could, and
when it came time to say
good night, we shared a
long kiss that left me feeling
weak in the knees.
That night, I made CarrieLynn
a mix CD, which
I gave to her the next
morning when I accompanied
her and her family to
the airport. We said a tearful
goodbye, but promised
that we would be together
again soon. A few months
later, CarrieLynn helped
me get a job as a research
assistant at Roskilde University,
and I flew out to
join her in Denmark.
We have been together
ever since.
Maury and Tom
Sochowski
And you may find yourself
living in a shotgun
shack
And you may find yourself
in another part of the
world
And you may find yourself
behind the wheel of a
large automobile
And you may find yourself
in a beautiful house,
with a beautiful wife
And you may ask yourself
Well ... How did I get
here?
Talking Heads — “Once
In A Lifetime”
Maury and Tom Sochowski submitted their love story,
which started with a chance encounter at The Vic
Theater in 1994.
Little did I know that
the words of David Byrne
would lead me to The
Vic Theater on Tuesday,
June 21, 1994, to meet
the woman that was to
become my beautiful
wife.
I was attending a David
Byrne concert with three
friends, one from my current
workplace, two from
my former. One person
backed out and Maury
became a last-minute replacement.
I will always remember
the moment in front of
the Vic when I first saw
the woman I was going
to marry standing at the
curb. While I had once
worked at the same company
as her, our paths
had not crossed until that
night. The venue was
crowded and we were all
overheated, yet a feeling
of being so incredibly
comfortable with this
engaging woman carried
throughout the night.
Months later, Maury
said she went home with
such a nice feeling that
evening but didn’t know
why at the time. The next
day, I poured over an old
company phone directory
trying to find the last name
of this incredible woman.
I made roundabout inquiries
with former colleagues
and eventually a
dinner get together was
arranged at the apartment
of one of the people who
attended the concert that
night. Being under scrutinizing
eyes from fellow
dinner guests, the evening
did not go as well as our
initial meeting, but Maury
observed how I politely
reacted to eating something
that I am not particularly
fond of and keeps
that in her back pocket
when introducing new
foods to me.
It is a mystery to me
still to this day. One takeaway
from the evening —
a discussion on PEZ.
A few days later, Maury
received a package from
me at her work containing
a PEZ dispenser and an
invite for further discussion.
After a few extended
phone calls and our first
official date that July to
see “Forrest Gump” at
the Golf Mill Theater and
dinner at Hackney’s on
Harms, I can fondly answer
the question: “Well
... How did I get here?”