We eloped!!!

We had a very small ceremony in November of last year at Sutro Heights Park in San Francisco. Photos from our tiny ceremony can be seen in the Gallery tab at the top menu.

Kristy was a first-grade teacher at an elementary school down the road from the community garden where Aubrey was the Farm Manager. They met when Aubrey hosted a program assisting teachers (like Kristy) to install gardens on their school campuses. The reception will be hosted at the same garden where they met.

I was a teacher at a little elementary school that heard there was a community garden down the road, the Edible Schoolyard Project of Stockton (ESY). With the vision in my head of schools teaching nutrition and health through gardening, I was motivated to reconnect the two institutions. Going there for field trips wasn't enough. I wanted to give my students, and the school's community, a chance to feed themselves- a school garden! Having just been denied a grant from the county to fund my school garden, I thought it was kismet to receive an email from Aubrey Kimball, the farm manager of ESY, was partnering with the San Joaquin County Office of Education to offer a Community of Practice Cohort (COP) to offer stipends and educational materials to local educators! I had a feeling "Aubrey Kimball" was going to be important to me somehow... So I go to the informational meeting during ESY's Earth Day celebration, and as I lock eyes with the farm manager, the world blurs out, and I remember thinking "Finally! You exist!" in my head. OF COURSE, I was suspicious because WUT. And I listened to how she had heard about me before (since I had gone to field trips to the farm already), and noticed how she emphasized that her cellphone was in her emails and to text her if I had any "questions on gardening or whatever". I wasn't sure if I was being hit on, so I verified with my bestie from kindergarten, who was also tabling at that event (she ended up being the officiant of our ceremony); she confirmed that a) [Aubrey] was hot (just my type) and b) [Aubrey] was hitting on me. Nothing happened for a whole year... as I am particular with boundaries and had purposefully never treaded the "dating a coworker" scenario. But I kept bringing my students to the farm, kept going to COP meetings, and kept feeding Aubrey chocolate milk and mandarins. It wasn't until there was a "oh, we aren't going to work together officially" phone call that things turned more flirtatious and purposeful. One day, after a COP meeting, I was complaining about how fast the grass around my house grows when Aubrey interjects with "You know I have a lawnmower, right?", offering me hers because I didn't have one. After some snarky remarks from me, we agreed on a time and date for her to come and mow my lawn. Fast forward to that day, I got to meet Boogie, her dog, and gave her a tarot reading that dragged her and left an impression. She eventually gave me a reading back, went to the River Open Mic (the one I co-run every month), and the rest was written. Since then, I've filled her life with sass, ass, while being a little crass. And she's given me the space to decompress from teaching, judgments I had internalized, and good food that not only feeds my soul, but my body and heart. She's on my non-traditional hype and supports my whims. She led me through a bog so she could propose, and took me on a coastal tour to pick our ceremony venue. She's dedicated, determined, and actionable. Kind-hearted and pure, she's the only person I listen to and the only one I adjust for. The vibe I had been chasing my whole life led me to finding my wife! And I am so honored to be able to share this journey together now.

It all started at work...I was a farm manager at a community garden that hosted field trips for local schools, and had heard lore about a local teacher who would march her first graders from the campus around the corner, singing and chanting their whole way to the farm. According to my coworkers, Ms. Lauron was pretty cool, and they were exceedingly confident that she and I would get along ((I don't think they knew how right they were, but thanks anyway, Nick and Liesha)). At that time, I was responsible for running a program that would help educators install gardens on their school sites, and needed to host Q&A sessions with interested teachers. At one of these Q&As, I looked across the farm through a sea of people celebrating Earth Day, to notice a woman in a sundress--flowers clipped to the band of her wide-brimmed hat, hot pink hair flowing out from beneath it--talking to the lavender plants by the entrance of the farm. I was awestruck; first by her beauty of course, and then because WHO IS TALKING TO MY FRIENDS, THE FLOWERS...certainly not a common sight at the farm. She walked up to join the Q&A that followed, and as soon as our eyes met, I thought, "Wow, I cannot believe she's real." I gave the presentation and tried not to fumble my words whenever we'd make eye contact, but I'm sure I failed miserably. Ultimately, she joined the cohort of teachers that I was assisting, and continued bringing her students on field trips, so we began working together. I spent months and months pining hopelessly, but remained unwilling to cross the professional boundary. Still, anyone near us could feel the vibe, as I would do anything to find my way near her to talk during field trips, and she would feed me leftover mandarins and chocolate milk from their school lunches. It wasn't until we both decided that we were quitting our jobs and were no longer going to work with each other that we decided to meet outside of the farm. I offered to mow her lawn, and in return, she gave me the most brutal tarot reading I have ever experienced (if you know, you know). Our love blossomed out of hours and hours of conversation, our mutual love of food, channeling, evolution, and ultimately, our own commitments to loving ourselves as deeply as possible. Kristy has changed my life in more ways than I would ever be able to articulate, and is single-handedly the purest human I have ever met. I admire her endlessly and treasure her fire and thorns more than anything the earthly world could offer. She is nothing if not honest, true, steadfast, intelligent, passionate, and loving. I cannot wait to see what our future holds. Thank you for being a part of our love story!