The Story of Us
We met in Grand Central Station, New York City, after corresponding online for a week. Our first 'epic day' included a visit to the MOMA, a chilly picnic in Central Park, iPod dj playing in a toasty Starbucks, sushi dinner followed by drinks and dancing at the Campbell Apartment bar and lounge before C caught a late train to then-home New Haven, Connecticut. C left behind one scarf and one heart.
Many epic days later, weeks, months, train rides, trips, and crazy early morning commutes later, we moved in together in Midtown Manhattan. Within days of co-habitation, we jointly authored an op-ed in the Financial Times on energy and the environment and signed up to run the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington DC, to be held October 30th.
We love all things political, and enjoy the dialogue that comes from belonging to different political parties (L worked on the Hill, as a health care fellow for Senator Clinton, C worked with the Feds, serving as a paralegal specialist to Ken Starr during the Whitewater Investigation). Through bipartisan negotiations, we divvy up the Financial Times every morning while enjoying quality time with our cat, whose name is Michigan but who belongs to the world.
After an early-morning training run in Central Park, we both head to work at Mount Sinai. C is a postdoctoral fellow in molecular neuroscience and L helps run the Mount Sinai Center for Children's Health and the Environment while doing clinical duty as a general pediatrician.
It was during a conference on the environment in Italy that L proposed to C, on some nameless, unforgettable street in Venice, along the Grand Canal. The moon really did look like the sun that night. We will marry on July 1st, one year to the day after moving in together. Our wedding ceremony and swing-dance party will be held at C's undergraduate alma mater, St. John's College, in Annapolis, Maryland. We are writing our own vows, derived from insights of near and dear long-partnered couples. Life comes from life, love from love. We know how lucky we are.
Leonardo Trasande and Caitlin Aptowicz
September 2005, New York
