It all started when my cousin Tommy Sean sent me a facebook message back in April of 2008:
"Ok so i was wondering what you are up to the 1st of may and that weekend cause me and my friend were thinking about going to Philly for my birthday to watch the Padres play the Phillies. The plan is still tentative but I was wondering if we are able to do it, if it was at all possible for us to stay at your place (being you are in South Philly) we would make ourselves scarce and we would get u a ticket too if u wanted!"
Seeing as though I lived in South Philly at the time - literally a ten minute walk from the Stadium - I had no issues at all with having my cousin out for his Birthday (and to watch the Phillies beat up on the Padres as well). We shored up our plans and made everything concrete, and all was looking like it was going to be a great time. He also mentioned that his "friend" was a girl - which was intriguing to say the least as I was quite single at the time.
I could tell that my good friend Tommy Sean needed to do something special for his Birthday. While we were brainstorming one afternoon, I came up with a crazy idea of watching a Padre's game and drinking a few beers. When I asked where the Padres were playing, Sean said "Oh bummer, they're in Philadelphia that week". I responded with "Isn't that your other favorite team?" which was all the motivation he needed to contact his cousin in Philadelphia.
Since they were coming in on a red-eye flight, it was going to be quite an early "meeting" so to speak. In fact, they were going to be arriving at 6am, so pleasantries were discarded on both sides. When I got the call from Tommy Sean that they had arrived, I rolled out of bed, said my hello's, and rolled right back into bed. When I woke up for work, I left them a note about where they were, how to get around Philly, and any prominent stops that they might want to look into during their stay. I ended up heading back early from work so that we could all head out to the Phillies/Padre's game and my dad managed to get down to South Philly as well, so we all were able to head down to the stadium. Erin got her first real taste of what Philly had to offer - both in food and culture. Even though Erin swore up and down that the Padres were the "Comeback kids", the Phillies ended up being victorious that night - giving me some ammo to rub in both Erin and my cousin's faces. We ended up going out to a club that night down in South Philly and had a blast dancing until the place closed down for the evening.
*Bing!* "This is your captain speaking..." was what woke me up. It felt like it was the longest trip that I had ever been on, and it wasn't over yet. I don't even remember dragging myself to the cab, infact, the first thing that I do remember was checking out Sean while the funk of the plane, and the taste of jet-lag was running around my head. When I woke up and read Sean's note I could tell that he cared about his cousin - it was really detailed, and it even had a hand-drawn map. My first impression of Philly was cat-calls on the street while walking next to Tommy Sean on our way to breakfast - "Brotherly love" indeed. The best part of the Padre's game was getting to know Jim in the line, waiting to get french fries and a beer. Little did I know what I know now.
The entire weekend was a blast - we hit it off that Thursday night almost immediately, and everyone had a great time. Each night we went out to another place, culminating in a Cinco De Mayo party that Saturday night with a bunch of people that I worked with. The best part of the night was introducing my cousin Tommy Sean to everyone else that I worked with, when a friend of mine went "Wait a minute...you mean you have a cousin who's also named Sean Ahern? This is out of control!". It was that Saturday night that Erin also got a chance to meet Al and the rest of my friends as well when we went to another club down in South Philly. Through the weekend there was lots of fun - taking them to the Franklin Institute to try and go see a Star Wars exhibit, going to tour Independence hall and the rest of the tourist spots, having a cheese steak at Jim's on South St., and even Jiu Jitsu. There was one thing that Erin said that stuck with me - even to this day. I was doing Jiu Jitsu with Erin and she said "I'm not like any girl you've ever met before" - and it's true! I've still never met anyone like her and I doubt I ever will. Early that Sunday morning as they were heading out back to the West Coast, Erin and I exchanged numbers - me saying that I would come out and visit some time, Erin laughing and saying "Sure you will". We said our goodbyes, and I head back up to bed to finally get some sleep.
He was a good host - taking us around town, and making us feel welcomed. It wasn't until we were dancing at a night club and I busted out the robot, that I knew he was special. His reaction was...to also bust out the robot. Soulmates! We had a great time and on the flight home, I texted him thanks. Little did I know that on my return to Chico, Ca, we would have two hour long conversations pretty much every night.
When Erin got back to California, we started talking pretty much every night for easily two to three hours. Being on the west coast, it was sometimes difficult for me to stay up and talk as long as we did, but I made it work. We talked about everything - from favorite colors to dreams and aspirations that we both had. I wanted to be true to my word, so I booked a flight for Chico at the end of that month. It was booked for Memorial Day weekend that year, making sure that I could get more time out of the trip to spend with her. I think we were both pretty nervous to say the least when I was at the Airport and her picking me up - hoping that we hadn't forgotten what each other looked like in the month since we'd seen each other last. We drove the hour from Sacramento to Chico - a drive that we both became extremely familiar with due to how frequently we ended up taking that road, and finally had one of our long conversations...in person! It was great to finally be around each other and just be able to hang out. We went on our first date at the Red Rooster Cafe - and I had one of the best steak dinners I've ever had. Erin had started taking Jiu Jitsu in the time since leaving Philadelphia, and took me to the place that she trained at, and basically showed me her life out in sunny California. That weekend Erin asked "So...are we girlfriend and boyfriend?", even though the both of us knew how ridiculous the situation was - with each of us living across the country from each other and how difficult it would most likely be on each other, I agreed that we should be "official".
After Sean told me he had bought his ticket, the next call I made was to his cousin "So what kind of a guy is this cousin of yours?". Tommy Sean laughed and said he was a good guy. I told Tommy Sean of his cousin's planned trip and what a surprise it was to me that he actually went through with it. The next thing that I remember was driving nervously to the airport, wishing that we had developed some sort of a sign, so that I would know how to identify him. A rose, yellow colored shirt, a hat...anything would have helped at that point. As I pulled up the Baggage claim, he wasn't hard to spot - the whitest kid in California. Over the trips back and forth, I learned a few things - I learned to appreciate central air, I learned to value my California lifestyle, and I grew to love Sean.
Over the many trips, and calls - good times and bad - we both realized that we were meant to be living with each other, rather than apart from each other. All of this travel back and forth was for the birds. After lots of thinking and discussing with everyone I knew, I finally made the decision to drop everything and move out to California to try to make it work and see what happened. Everyone thought I was crazy - leaving a job that I basically had for life, in a horrific economy, to just "see what happened", but I had to do it. We've survived unemployment, the good times, the bad, and we've still got plenty of steam left. Please join us September 24th, 2011 in San Diego to help us celebrate the next chapter of our lives together.
