In summer of 2005, I had just begun working at a music agency. BJ was in my boss’s band’s video, but wasn’t an official member of the band.  Whenever I saw BJ in that video, I thought, “man oh man, if only I were 10 years younger, he would be just my type!”  I was 29 at the time, and I guessed that BJ was 24 (I was right!).

A year later, my boss decided to create a new band with myself, and we began assembling the players of “The Avenue.”  I was ordered to call BJ on the phone and see if he wanted to be a member. Tough assignment!  I remember thinking he probably wouldn’t want to be tied down to a silly cover band, he was probably one of those ‘original music only’ dudes.  But to my delight, he said “Sure!” enthusiastically.  So a few weeks later was the first time I saw him in person, at practice.

We didn’t talk much at our rehearsals, if at all. We were green and focused on trying to live up to the agency’s name. We did a couple shows by the end of 2006, and then during the fall I began rehearsing for a show backup singing for the marvelous Helen Welch. When we finally rehearsed with the full band, there was BJ in her band as well!

At this time something had changed. He started smiling at me, a lot, a different kind of smile than he ever had before. We started getting intrigued by each other and talking when we could at rehearsals. Here’s a photo from that show, I’m in the middle of the backup singers and BJ’s on trombone:

We performed at the Carousel Dinner Theatre (ironically, where I had been the PR Assistant for 3 years directly following college), The Palace Theater in Cleveland, and a show in Erie, PA with a different band. When the shows were finishing, I told BJ to be on the lookout for an invitation to our company Christmas party for the agency.  I helped mail out the invites, so on BJ’s I put “Hope you can make it! -Leigh” 

A few days later, BJ got his invitation and I saw on our rsvp list that he had called in to rsvp…for ONE.  Yes!

So at the party, I had my eyes peeled for him and we spent the whole night talking. Awkward. Then after, we decided to hang out some more. Very awkward. I was sure my initial instinct was correct…maybe in another time and place this would work.  But I thought he was nice, and could be fun to hang out with “as a friend,” so when he asked for my number, I gave it to him. Then we hugged. Can you say, AWKWARD!? Here’s a pic of us at that party. Yeah, awkward.

Three days later, BJ called and asked if I wanted to go dancing that night. It was Saturday, December 28, 2006.  I loved dancing!  I said sure!

Somewhere around midnight, on the dance floor (Velvet Dog in Cleveland), things moved from awkward to tense. By the end of the night I knew we would be much more than just friends. No hug was ever awkward again.

So that’s how we met, and this blog is how we came to be…