How I Met Your Father

Alex and Kevin

It was three years ago today....

Alex and I recently moved into an apartment on Woodside Ave in Elmhurst, Queens.  We were new to the city and new to Queens.  In fact we had only met a couple months before when our mutual friend Mike Cades, introduced us.  We were both living in horrible basement apartments, a rite of passage in NYC, and we wanted to find a better living situation.  We found a cute, affordable one bedroom that we converted to a two.

Alex's mom came to visit one weekend.  She brought lots of booze from a cheap liquor store she passed by on her way down from Maine.  We drank a couple bottles of wine before we went out to eat Korean BBQ where we drank more wine.  The three of us went back to the apartment and Alex's mom and I were ready for bed.  Alex wasn't tired and she convinced me to go bar hunting with her.  Our bar hunting experiences up to this point consisted of a lesbian booty bar and a latino sports bar.  What we wanted was a good old man's bar where we could drink a few pints of Guiness and not be bothered by sleezy men with too much cologne or scantily clad lesbos.

We decided to walk until we found something interesting.  Six blocks later we came across a shack with a Guiness light in the window.  When we crossed the threshold we new we found it.  We took our stools right next to the two old men (one would later become my landlord) at the end of the bar.  We were enjoying our pints and our conversation.  Alex went to the bathroom and when she returned she quipped "There's a goldmine of hot Irish guys in the back of the bar!".  One of the guys yelled down to us to see if we'd like to try some of his chicken balls.  Apparently there were appetizers in the back of the bar as well.  This guy made his way over and asked us to play a game of pool with the gang.  We agreed.

Alex was partnered with Ciaran and I was partnered with Kevin.  Ciaran was a tall, clean cut sporty guy and Kevin had longish, shaggy hair and hadn't shaved in a good while.  We could hardly understand their thick accents.  I am a horrible pool player and to spite Kevin's talent, we lost miserably.  He vowed he would never play pool with me again.  The night wore on and we all exchanged numbers.  Kevin promised to call the next day to "strike while the iron's hot."

He never called!  ALex and I went to the bar's Christmas party a few days later.  Ciaran, who called Alex twice a day since we met them, was sitting at the bar.  He tracked Kevin down to let him know we were there and a couple hours later, he walked through the door.  We had a great night...lots of dancing...lots of drinking.  Both the boys ended up back at our place where we all stayed up well into the next day.

The third time I saw Kevin was on Christmas day when we'd arranged to meet at the bar.  I told my family I had to work that night so I could get back to Queens to see him.  Alex told her family the same as she was meeting up with Ciaran too.  When Kevin walked in, I hardly recognized him.  He'd shaved his face and his head and I think he even showered.  We sat and talked for a while and then he asked me to marry him.  He said we could go to Vegas and get Elvis to marry us and get our wedding bands tattooed on our fingers.  I knew it was meant to be as this had forever been my dream.  Also, he loved Erasure, John Prine and Eddie Izzard...find me another heterosexual single guy with those qualities...oh, and he had the most striking blue eyes and a deep raspy Irish voice.


Kevin moved into our apartment the next day.  Alex's mom was afraid he'd try to steal our passports.  Six weeks later Kevin and I got married.  Two years later Alex and Ciaran got married.  See, you really can still meet a great guy in a bar.