How Jenni and Derek Met

By an impartial observer.

By some stroke of luck, Derek was able to land an internship at PMA Media Group in March 2011. While he was there, he was assigned to write a variety of guest blog articles on topics such as, “Packing a Lunch in a Crunch”, “College Coupon Clipping Clues” and“How to Write a Novel in College”. Article by article, the world was slowly made a better place.

Because PMA was such a prosperous organization, Derek’s team was soon expanded and he began to share his desk with another employee. That worker would use the desk and computer in the morning, and Derek would use it in the afternoon. This doubled the amount of goodness flooding the world through PMA fingertips! But Derek always had that nagging curiosity about the morning occupant of his desk.

Then one fateful day, it all changed. Derek was assigned to edit instead of write. PMA’s SEO team had grown even more by that point so Derek was editing the articles of four different people. One of them had grammar so perfect, so flawless that he barely had to change a thing! The author of those articles was one Jenni Cutler.

His curiosity got the best of him. He had to know what this girl with such a beautiful writing style looked like. As usual, Facebook provided the answers he sought. But to Derek’s surprise, his curiosity wasn’t assuaged, but instead, piqued! Who was this Jenni Cutler who hadliked Josh Groban on Facebook? Why did she have a moustache in her profile picture? What was the Happy Valley Bookstore?

The chance to find out the answers to these and other important questions didn’t present itself until June 10, 2011. The occasion? A PMA company party at Boondocks. Jenni was sitting at the table with a friend. Derek and his entourage (Erin and Devin, his siblings) sat down across from her surreptitiously. They chatted for a few minutes. Jenni won a hair straightener. And that was that. Derek deemed this sufficient reason to add her on Facebook.

Time passed and Derek’s interest grew. Jenni was moved to another desk so that both she and Derek could start working full-time. Separation makes the heart grow fonder. Wanting to meet Jenni again, Derek sneakily asked for volunteers to come to the MTC with him. At that time, Derek frequented the MTC each week to practice Spanish with the missionaries there. Knowing that Jenni was an RM from another country that spoke the celestial language, Derek issued a general invitation on Skype to the SEO writing squad that went something like this:

Derek: Hey guys, sorry to interrupt, but I was wondering if any of you:

a. Speak Spanish
b. Are free this Friday at 5:30ish.
c. Are willing to come volunteer at the MTC.

They are apparently experiencing a real shortage of “volunteer investigators” and asked me to recruit.

Responder 1: i don’t speak spanish sorry!

Responder 2: yo hablar the espanol too

Responder 1: my roommate does though

Responder 2: i’m not sure if i’m available though.

Jenni: I can do it!

Derek: Score! (A note for historians: the previous IM wasn’t really sent on Skype. It was more of a mental IM.)

Jenni really did end up going to the MTC that Friday. Unfortunately, they drove in separate cars and were placed in separate rooms. There wasn’t much interaction between them. The idea was mostly a failure.

Then came the unexpected: Breanna Trost.

Breanna possessed a certain affinity for starting conversations. She frequently began conversations on Skype that permitted Jenni and Derek to get to know each other even better. Pretty soon, they had started a chat group known as the “Awesome three.” This allowed Breanna, Jenni, and Derek to chat without bugging anybody else. The three did a few activities together, outside of work. They watched Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides at Movies 8. Derek even reserved a room in the Tanner Building one night where they snuck in and watched The Scarlet Pimpernel.

Finally, Derek got up the guts (with a little help from a friend) to ask her out. It was done over Skype (which seemed fitting, given all of their other conversations had taken place there). Derek invited her to race rubber ducks.

And now they are about to begin the rubber ducky derby of life together. Soon thereafter, she posted a profile picture that denoted an interest in eternal commitment. Derek approved. 🙂