While we're basically already married after 15 years together, we're thrilled to invite you to this next chapter in our story!

Historians seeking truth and facts about how Calvin & Lauren first met are in luck because I have observed them in detail and recorded meticulous notes. I've taken these notes and turned them into reports and I've filed them safely away. Who or what I am is to be left out. All that's important about me is I was there, somewhere, in everything I describe and I recount it all, perfectly, here. Let's start with the location. In a suburb 22 miles northeast of Sacramento, the humble city of Rocklin is notable for its hot, dry summers. On one side sits tracts of new single-family homes next to yet-to-be-developed flat land. The other side are the older homes enmeshed among structures showcasing a Railroad/Gold Rush aesthetic. It’s in this suburban town at the newly built Whitney High School all the way back in late 2007, a time before the iPad, before the Twilight movies, before the Obama presidency, that Lauren and Calvin met. When she first learned of Calvin, Lauren reacted with an eye-roll of annoyance. Social media, like the two of them, was in its teen years and before Facebook there was Myspace. It was a platform where users incessantly customized their profiles, posted on the bulletin board answers to 100 personal questions, ranked their top 8 friends for others to envy, and you’d see the iconic picture of Tom, founder of Myspace and your automatic first friend upon joining, wearing a white shirt, smiling. For Calvin, profile pictures were a perfect opportunity to practice photoshop. He’d make stylized pictures of himself pasted into a movie poster, or in front of a garish psychedelic background, or wearing a pig mask with layers of deep-fried filtered distortion. Doing something different with your Myspace picture just seemed natural. Yet, one could say that maybe it came across a little too strongly. Exploring Myspace, browsing friends of friends of friends, Lauren stumbled onto Calvin’s profile and was not impressed with what she saw. Who the hell is this guy, she thought, it’s like some weird, try-hard, “adult swim” fan humor that gets so annoying. And that could have been the end to that; a typical case of writing someone off without a second thought. But instead, something much better happened. Calvin was starting production on what would later become an award-winning short film. He had caught the filmmaking bug the previous year after being placed into Broadcasting class. He also had a synergistic friendship with some of the die-hard theater kids at school. They were dedicated thespians who starred in the fall and spring plays, and exuded the same performative hubris on stage as they did in their dramatic teenage lives. They jumped at the opportunity to act and could get others to join as well. For Calvin’s short film project, he needed a girl to play a brief part. His friend suggested someone from theater who would be perfect. Given the energy put off from Calvin’s Myspace profile, Lauren was surprised by how reserved he ended up being. She was picked up by their mutual theater friend with Calvin sitting in the passenger seat. He had camera equipment on his lap and stapled pieces of paper in his hand and didn’t offer much more than a wave as an introduction. They drove to the location and Calvin was straight to business. He gave quick descriptions of what to do, direct comments on what to change, but spoke in a low, sort of deadpan way where he’d only look at you in glances before looking back at the camera screen or some piece of paper. Calvin had a swirl of concerns going through his head but he also couldn’t help but notice Lauren. She had wavy, brown hair and wore a black bolero jean jacket, a Sonic Youth shirt, and red pants. He noticed she had big eyes and minutes later realized they were green, and she had a nice sense of humor with a laid back, observant, demeanor. As first impressions go, Calvin’s two word description for Lauren was “cool” and “pretty”. And that was how Lauren and Calvin met.