Interviewer: Rebecca Staltzman
Adam: 32 years old, athletic build, dark hair, thin beard, technology writer
Julia: 28 years old, pretty, with long, wavy, light brown hair, thin but curvy figure, published author and junior partner at large accounting firm
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Interviewer: Welcome to another installment of Intimate Portrayals; I'm Rebecca Staltzman. Today I'm here with Julia and Adam to talk about how they got together and some of their more, ah, intriguing interests.
Julia: Hi.
Adam: Hi there.
Interviewer: So why don't we start by talking about how you guys met.
(couple exchanges glances)
Adam: I'll take this one. Um, we met up in Walnut Creekâ
Julia: Totally the 'burbsâ
Adam: Yeah, totally. I was there for this technology conferenceâ
Interviewer: You're a writer, aren't you?
Adam: Yes, I do some freelance technology writing and I'm also an editor and a columnist at a couple of tech news sites. And the day I met Julia, I was with some of my co-workers at this conference, and we were stuck inside this ugly building for the better part of a morning. So, when we broke for lunch, a bunch of us went outside because there was this little farmer's market sort of thing outside with locally grown food, which is something I'm kind of into.
Julia: And that's where I was.
Adam: Yeah, the guys and I are walking down this path, and we turn a corner and I see the first booth, and I see the girl working at it, and she's the most striking female I've ever seen.
Interviewer: Aww.
Adam: No, I mean it, I was just stunned. And we sort of locked eyes for a secondâ
Julia: We did.
Adam: And when I looked away I was just thinking: wow.
Interviewer: So did you buy anything from her?
Adam: Well, what happened was that the other guys were blowing the whole thing off, and they were trying to figure out where they want to go to lunch. I just told them I'd meet them back at the conference, later on. And so then I take another stealthy glance at her, to get one really good look at her, and here is this lovely, willowy girl, long, flowing brown hair, and I see that she's putting her hair into a ponytail, with her arms up behind her head. It was a hot day, it was July, and she was wearing a tank top. Anyway, I realize that she's got this beautiful, thick underarm hair, and I'm just even more blown away, becauseâI'm not necessarily into hairy girls, reallyâbut somehow the armpit hair just emphasizes how beautiful she is, her face, her body, everything about her. It just didn't make any difference at all in how hot she is. I am just stunned, and I realize right then that I have to know her. And while she's doing this, putting her hair up, she looks right at me and we lock eyes again.
Interviewer: Julia, I guess this is a good time to discuss your shaving habits.
Julia: Or lack thereof! Actually, it's just my underarms; I shave my legs and other places.
Interviewer: What made you stop shaving under your arms?
Julia: I'm not sure. It's not that I'm lazy or anything. I think I just like the way it looks, the contrast between modern beauty and the raw primitive. It just works for me. Oh, and also, I like the shock factor. I like the "people say I'm a pretty girl but I have a lot of hair under my arms" sort of contradiction.
Adam: I like it. Although I never thought of it being "the raw primitive." Maybe it is, though. It is sort of primitive in a way. It was attractive, literally, like I was thinking "this girl has balls." It did make me want to meet her. Immediately.
Julia: And so he just walked right up to me and introduced himself.
Adam: I did. Like "Hi, my name is Adam and I'm a Libra."
Julia: (laughing) You didn't tell me your sign.
Adam: Well, I felt pretty cheesy just walking up like that, but like I said, I couldn't help myself.
Julia: So here's this cute, interesting guy talking to me, chatting me up, and I'm not selling any of this gluten-free crap my friend made anyway, so what the hell? Plus, I catch him sneaking glances under my arms, and I can tell that he likes the hair, and that's kind of turning me on. That shock value.
Adam: That shirt was just such a bold, I-don't-give-a-shit-what-you-think move.
Julia: You mean the tank top?
Adam: Yeah.
Julia: And he was looking at my boobsâ
Adam: I was not!
Julia: Oh, you were, too. I liked it! I liked the attention. You were looking at my face, too, so it was all good.
Adam: Yeah, wellâI could barely believe you were real. I still feel that way, but I was in shock.
(Julia gives Adam a peck on the lips.)
Julia: So at this point, we're talking, and we just have this amazing immediate chemistry, like we know exactly how to talk with each other, and we immediately like each other, we know how to get along. I liked the way he smelled. And so I just asked him out.
Adam: Actually we were talking about where we lived, and when we figured out that we both lived in the Cityâ
Julia: Adam was in the Mission, and I was in Potrero Hill. So I just say: "Why don't we go do something tomorrow night?"
Adam: This was on a Thursday, I think, and so Friday night was kind of obvious.
Interviewer: So where did he take you?
Julia: (laughing) Well, I asked him out, so it was on me. He wouldn't let me pay for dinner, but I did choose what we did. Which was just dinner, and then a little club on Potrero Hill where we could talk without yelling.
Adam: Which was a good idea.
Julia: Yeah, I mean, we could've done dancing or something, but we'd had such a good time talking that I figured we should do more of that. With drinks, of course.
Interviewer: Julia, just curious: what did you wear?
Julia: Well, Adam just had on jeans and some kind of hipster plaid shirt, if I remember.
Adam: Yup.
Julia: And I had on this white sleeveless dress with a flower print ...
Interviewer: Sleeveless is a thing with you.
Julia: Well, yeah, and I picked it partly because Adam seemed so enthused with my armpits and everything. I figured it might get him excited.
Adam: It did.
(Both laugh).
Adam: Anyway, so this club has a little backyard area, and we were back there, and by about midnight there was no one else around us, I don't think. Everyone had gone inside.