our story began, as all great
romances do, at an insurance conference. the date was sept.
16, 2008. the night before, american international group had
just received an $85 billion bailout from the federal reserve.
ray, a financial journalist who covers the insurance markets,
had his hands full with that story, but also had to
travel to hilton head, s.c. for a conference co-hosted by
insurance commissioner scott richardson and the competitive
enterprise institute. little did he know that among the
newest employees at what arin would call 'the kooky
libertarian think tank' was his future wife, who had taken a
gig there writing papers on immigration, gambling and, yes,
insurance.
Ray
arin and ray both were serving
as moderators of discussion panels at the conference. arin
liked ray's glasses. ray liked arin's legs. we took a
very long walk on the beach, discussing subsidized reinsurance
and whether the global financial system would collapse by the
time we got back to d.c., all while pretending to ignore
another couple having sex in the sand.
we kept in touch, although it
took five months, and some heavy-duty wooing on ray's part,
before we decided we'd found a love match. the rest, as they
say, is history.
Derrick and Murray
today, we have a wonderful
life together in lovely old town alexandria, va., where we
live above a dog and cat bakery (they bake things *for* dogs
and cats; they don't bake dogs and cats. it's an important
distinction) we've become a part of each other's families, and
have formed a little family of our own, with our cat derrick
coleman and our dog murray rothbark. and though neither of us
is much given to sentimentality, we still felt the best way to
cap all that we've been through these past three years is by
making it all official-like, sharing our love with everyone we
care about in a public (if unconventional) wedding ceremony.
so, if you have any
questions whatsoever that we don't answer here, please
don't hesitate to drop us a line. ray can be reached at raylehmann@gmail.com, while arin is
at aringreenwood@gmail.com. (murray and
derrick can generally be reached by tossing a toy toward the
door and waiting for them to go chasing after it.)