Weddingbee Blog

Rewind back to October 2010. I had just come home to Ontario after spending part of spring, all of summer, and a tiny bit of fall in British Columbia, working at a resort. I knew I needed to get a “real” job instead of being a ski bum for life, so I headed to Ottawa, where my sister and father live.

I spent a few weeks there, applying for any and every journalism job I could find. One day, well past midnight, I stumbled across a posting for a newspaper position in Sioux Lookout, where I had once lived for a summer five years prior. My parents worked there for a couple of years, and I actually spent my formative years in nearby Pickle Lake, the most northern community in Ontario with year-round road access.

I fired off a resume and cover letter explaining I had lived there before and enjoyed it, and would love working there professionally. A week or so went by and I didn’t hear anything, so I promptly forgot about it until the day after Thanksgiving when I was awoken by a very early phone call from my future boss, who wanted to do a quick phone interview. He offered me the position later that day and I accepted—it took about five hours for me to start wondering what the heck I had signed on to.

I silently promised myself I would stick it out for a year, at which point I figured I’d be eager to head home. A few weeks of packing, organizing, and trying to locate an apartment flew by, and the next thing I knew I was loading up my car and settling in for a two-day drive.

All photos personal

I got stuck in a hotel room for two days straight with all my clothes packed away.

It was a challenging trip, to say the least, and I was eager to start work that Monday. The first thing I saw upon pulling into the parking lot was a guy running down the stairs outside and, I have to admit, my first thought was, “Yay! I get to work with a boy!”

…and that was my first impression of Mr. Dragon.

The first week, I thought he was dating someone thanks to a joke made by a coworker that I didn’t quite get. That weekend three of us went out for dinner and drinks, which turned into me spending hours and hours with Mr. Dragon telling stories and joking. The next week was painful, as we were both flirting up a storm at work, I was completely distracted from my new job, and I had no idea where it was all headed.

Some time toward the end of that week, a few of us went out for dinner again and I conveniently left my car behind at work, so I needed a ride back after we ate. Mr. Dragon offered to take me back to the office, and took that opportunity to try to gently dissuade me from pursuing a relationship with him. The story goes: I pouted, he gave in and agreed we could give it a shot, and that was that.

Our first real date was a climb up a mountain.

After several weeks of me constantly hanging around, he gave in and informed me that I was his girlfriend, officially.

We had lots of adventures in the following months, including the most northern Christmas I have ever experienced, a “dinner date” that was a few bags of chips and a bottle of wine at an abandoned logging area, hiking, snowshoeing, road trips, canoeing, and a few motorcycle rides.

I moved in with him, FBIL/GM Jesse, and FSIL/BM Ashley after a few months, and we somehow managed to not all kill each other sharing a small space. Mr. Dragon and I found our own cozy little house that fall and lived together there for about a year before we decided to upgrade to a larger living space.

At the end of summer 2011, we set off on a massive 10,000 kilometre cross-Canada motorcycle trip out to Nanaimo and back, which, although it was probably the most difficult thing we’ve endured as a couple, ultimately brought our relationship one level higher.

Have you ever dated a coworker? Did it turn out terribly or for the better?