How we met
Paula and Anthony met in San Francisco on August 5, 2016 in the most non-millennial way: in person!
Basically Anthony crashed a birthday party Paula had planned for a friend. He was a friend of one of the guests. That Friday night, Anthony took an Uber from happy hour at Steffs Bar in the Financial District to the Outer Excelsior district for the party.
At the party, Paula was trying to play DJ, helped prep food, and was busy trying to make sure people were having fun. When Anthony got out of the Uber he actually had to use the restroom since he had a few too many drinks at Steffs (ahem… to throw up). Once he was done, he got out and saw Paula in the center of the living room. It was love at first sight. He tried to make conversation with her but Paula just wanted to talk about Pokemon GO. Anthony even pretended to play the game just to spend a few more moments talking to her.
At the end of the evening they exchanged numbers and started out getting lunch and boba as friends since they worked close by in the Financial District in San Francisco.
Their first lunch date (as a couple) was at Bun Mee next to Paula’s office on Market Street. Their early dates included walks to the Ferry Building so Paula could play Pokemon GO.
“
He asked me out to get boba and pretended to play Pokemon GO.”
- Paula
Over the years
Paula and Anthony bonded over their love for traveling, food, and most importantly, the Dodgers. They both discovered that they both grew up in LA County.
Their first flight together was to Chicago in 2017. Outside of California they’ve also been to Las Vegas, Honolulu, New York City, Seattle, Portland, Durango, Ouray, Telluride, Albuquerque, Santa Fe and hope to see many more!
Their first international trip together was to Indonesia - Paula ended up crashing Anthony’s solo trip to Bali. They work together well as a team - Anthony is usually in charge of the larger planning details and Paula takes care of the minute details. The trip to Bali evolved into seeing other islands nearby like Lombok and the Gili Islands.
Other places they’ve traveled internationally have been the Philippines (Manila and Boracay), and Vietnam (Ho Chi Minh, My Tho, Hông Ngú, Càn Thó, Haiphong, Halong Bay, Da Nang, Hoi An).
Growing in love
As a couple, Paula and Anthony have gone through their relationship challenges and overcome them together. They had a break in their relationship fairly early on but got back together after four months. They went through the experience of a long distance relationship when Paula moved back to Los Angeles in 2018.
Anthony even gave Paula an ultimatum (like the Netflix TV show) to eventually move back to the Bay Area. This turned out for the better, Paula moved back to the Bay Area in late 2019.
In early 2020, Anthony was able to purchase his own condo and Paula and Anthony found themselves living together for the first time, while experiencing the global pandemic together.
In July 2020 Paula and Anthony adopted their baby girl, Arwen, from a rescue org that saves international rescue dogs from Korea, Taiwan, and other parts of Asia. Together they became a family.
“
I knew he was the one when we survived a storm in Bali and he let me wear his helmet while he rode in the pouring rain to get us to safety.”
-Paula