Once & Forever Co. — Museum of Us
Something
at First Sight
Not love at first sight. Something at first sight.
What if it wasn't love at first sight, but it was something at first sight?
This is a belief long held by our Lani. That when one meets the love of one's life, of course it can't be love in the truest sense of the word, but that there would have to be something at first sight. Something which feels different, almost familiar, and definitely right.
This exhibit aims to tell that story, through the lens of Lani and Spencer's own love story.
We hope you feel a little of yourselves in our story.
The Pager
It all starts here, with a seemingly insignificant object, a pager. Its buzz would signify the domino effect of our couple meeting.
A tour guide, and a visitor who hadn't planned to take a tour that day.
And then, it happened. They see each other, lock eyes, and say hi.
The rest, as you will see dear reader, is the very history all around you.
The Tulips
Well, the concept of something at first sight believes that there's something that shows up before you even know to look for it. And this artifact, dear reader, is proof.
February 22nd, 2022. 2/22/22. Our girl was buzzing about it for weeks.
She got a tutu. She made him take the day off work so they could spend the whole day on it, together. Tomato soup got renamed 2MA2 Soup. Screenshots were taken at 2:22, down to the seconds. They went looking that morning for a sign, any sign, that would let them take a picture that said 2/22/22, and they found one, and they took the picture at 2:22 PM.
She thought she'd thought of everything.
Then our boy left the house. He was gone a few minutes. And he came back with tulips.
A whole bouquet. Because, well — tu-lips. Say it out loud, dear reader. You'll get there.
Now, our girl is used to being the silly one. The one who gets excited about numbers on a calendar and dates that line up and a soup with a cute name nobody asked for. She's used to people letting her have her fun, tolerating it, waiting for it to pass.
Our boy didn't tolerate it. He didn't dim it either.
He went out and found a bouquet of tulips, on 2/22, for the girl who'd spent the whole day counting twos. He didn't just go along with the day. He added to it. And in that small, quiet decision, dear reader, she realized something: this was her guy. Not someone who'd let her be this excited about the little things. Someone who'd meet her there.
The Mugs
Some days, dear reader, two people are living out the same story without either one knowing it.
This is one of those days.
Our girl was helping friends move. In a box headed for the trash, she spotted a pair of mugs, mister and missus, and she was devastated at the thought of them being thrown away. "You cannot throw these away," she said. So they gave them to her.
She turned to the room and said, without thinking twice, "my future husband is going to love these." The room laughed her off. Men don't get excited about mugs, they told her. You'll be disappointed if that's what you're waiting for.
She didn't budge. The man she wanted would be excited about mugs. Not because it meant anything about who he was. Just because she knew, somehow, that he would be.
That same day, miles away, our boy was having a day of his own. A package had just arrived. Custom mugs, a matching pair, ordered before he'd said a word to her about it.
That night, before she could tell him anything about her day, he couldn't wait to show her his. Mugs. A matching set. Bought the same day, hours apart, neither one knowing what the other was holding.
"Did you just get us matching mugs?"
He had. On the very same day she'd told a room full of strangers exactly what kind of man her future husband would be, he was, at that exact moment, becoming him.
On display: the custom-ordered mugs Spencer sent that same night.Shadow the Hedgehog Poster
Every story needs one moment that's more funny than romantic, dear reader. This is that moment.
It started with a PowerPoint. Our boy, deep in a Sonic the Hedgehog phase, put one together and shared it with our girl and a mutual friend over Zoom, fully expecting them to catch the excitement.
They did not. What they caught instead was how seriously he meant it, and it became something of a running joke between them.
Then he had a dream. He doesn't remember most of it, but one detail stayed with him when he woke up: a Shadow the Hedgehog poster, hanging on her wall.
He told her about it. She laughed. So he did the obvious thing and ordered her a Shadow the Hedgehog poster from Amazon, mostly to see what she'd do with it. A joke disguised as a gift, or a gift disguised as a joke.
She framed it.
Not tucked away, not lost in a drawer. Framed, and hung on her wall, the same way it had appeared in his dream. Their mutual friend was the one who said it plainly: there's no way she does that for a poster she doesn't care about.
The poster made it into both of their first apartments together. It will very likely make it into the next one too.
Step Into the Story
This is it. You can't miss it.
This is my interpretation of the actual moment we met. Nothing dramatic, no big gesture, just two people saying hi. But it was something. It was something at first sight.
Step into the footprints. Look at each other. Say hi, the same way we did. I hope you get to feel a piece of the moment you met your person too.
You've reached the end of this wing
There's more of the story waiting on the other side.
Once & Forever Co.