THE ADVENTURE BEGINS
we should first look inward and make a list
of what we are looking for in ourselves."
--Patricia Vining
Japanese Rice Paper
Japanese Rice Paper
Japanese Rice Paper 2
Clearly, Patricia was not only brilliant but also eminently kind. On our first date, her arm in mine, we took a barefoot walk along the ocean after dinner. I brought us to a pause after a few minutes when ahead I saw many people taking photos of an uncommonly beautiful sunset. Shortly I spun her around for by then it was my custom to always look behind us, at what others were not seeing. And there to our prescient surprise was a splendid full moon rising over the nearby ridge. “Setting sun, rising moon.” A harbinger of how our relationship was to unfold. An experience worthy of a poem. So I took to writing her poems enlivened by her kindness.
I was so inspired I made a movie about our coming together. It took quite some time, the editing and music had to be perfect to match the emotions dancing through our days together. When we finally viewed the movie together, her eyes glistened with a beautiful emotion I’d not expected. Not long after, she presented me with our love story wrapped in a Japanese stitch bound art book. Amazing it was and the rarest of books for there is only one copy.
This book was a gift to me from Patricia Vining.
Preface
Just weeks before we met, Patricia had an epiphany: “I can't make a list of what I want in a man until I know what I want in me.” She wanted to visualize the person she was becoming, so she sat down and wrote this:
“I want a Spectacular & Magnificent Love—with passion, heat, laughter, romance, and a true partner in crime to help me squeeze every drop of joy out of the time we have left . . .
A love where I can totally be myself and feel like I am 16 again—giddy, light-headed, sexy, beautiful . . .
I am very independent and a working girl as well, and understand and need the time and solitude necessary for that “creative flow.” But I also a would like a partner who is willing to truly be IN a relationship and understands that it needs nourishment as well . . .
I want to feel butterflies in anticipation . . .
I want to tease, admire, challenge, respect, arouse, uplift, treasure, inspire, and would only ask
the same in return . . .
How it comes to me, the package it comes in, or whether it is a slow burn or a five-alarm fire,
I will leave to the universe.”
I was immediately struck by her ability to communicate so much in her short message. That's her epiphany. Patricia would put to the universe exactly who she was to see if that would change who was coming into her life. Here's hoping that be me.
Here was her new profile. And for comparison it's right next to mine.
The "Adventurer" on her profile caught my eye. When I noticed we were both educators I penned to her a quick message, a question about her latest adventure.
The "Sapiophile" on my profile caught her eye. She looked it up:
The "Sapiophile" on my profile caught her eye. She looked it up:
"A person who finds intelligence attractive. This attraction can be romantic."Patricia returned my message, something about sledging in New Zealand. She had me. Sledging? Never heard of it. Now, I was curious.
Sledging: "White water rafting ... without the raft."
An odd bunch New Zealanders, rafting without a raft, leaving Patricia and I with a boat load of talking to do when we’d finally meet.
Somewhere around September 27th, 2015 we exchanged phone numbers liberating us from the Plenty Of Fish website. After teaching science for 39 years, I'd become a numbers and big data kind of guy, which influenced the management of my online dating.
I was looking for that “one in a million” match but after nine years I wondered if a new algorythm was in order. Thinking that 3 different approaches might help, I added Plenty of Fish to my portfolio of referral services that included eHarmony and Match).
Chapter 2 Japan Together The First Time
Chapter 3
.
Chapter 4
.
First Principles
Patricia Vining and Toby Manzanares
Morning coffee in hand Patricia and I were reading to each other from The Log From The Sea of Cortez by John Steinbeck and Ed Ricketts. They were planning an extensive expedition together and agreed to mutually pen a set of guiding principles for their scientific journey, First Principles.
Patricia and I were soon talking about First Principles for our relationship to guide our together life long journey. Dating for almost a year, we penned four guiding thoughts (it would be a year before I translated them into Japanese):
Morning coffee in hand Patricia and I were reading to each other from The Log From The Sea of Cortez by John Steinbeck and Ed Ricketts. They were planning an extensive expedition together and agreed to mutually pen a set of guiding principles for their scientific journey, First Principles.
Patricia and I were soon talking about First Principles for our relationship to guide our together life long journey. Dating for almost a year, we penned four guiding thoughts (it would be a year before I translated them into Japanese):
第一原理 First Principles Daiichigenri
名誉 Honor Meiyo (May yo)
尊敬 Respect Sonkei (Son kay)
育む Nurture Inner Growth Hagukumu
愛 Love One the Other Ai (eye e)
My mother told me I descended from a long line of Samurai. So when I discovered that gold could be folded in a style similar to how samurai swords are forged, I imagined a forged folded gold engagement ring.
Fast forward one year to the beginning of conspiratorial initiative with Mokumeganea of Japan (a fine jewelry company in Japan) to have these First Principles engraved in Japanese on the inside of Patricia's engagement ring, on gold forged Samurai style which leaves a distinguished wood grain pattern in the polished metal. Then . . . I dreamed of proposing to her in Kyoto.
"Before we start looking for someone else, we should first look inward and make a list of what we are looking for in ourselves." Patricia Vining
My mother told me I descended from a long line of Samurai. So when I discovered that gold could be folded in a style similar to how samurai swords are forged, I imagined a forged folded gold engagement ring.
Fast forward one year to the beginning of conspiratorial initiative with Mokumeganea of Japan (a fine jewelry company in Japan) to have these First Principles engraved in Japanese on the inside of Patricia's engagement ring, on gold forged Samurai style which leaves a distinguished wood grain pattern in the polished metal. Then . . . I dreamed of proposing to her in Kyoto.
"Before we start looking for someone else, we should first look inward and make a list of what we are looking for in ourselves." Patricia Vining
Preface
Just weeks before we met, Patricia had an epiphany: I can't make a list of what I want in a man until I know what I want in me. She wanted to visualize the person she was becoming, so she sat down and wrote this:
“I want a Spectacular & Magnificent Love—with passion, heat, laughter, romance, and a true partner in crime to help me squeeze every drop of joy out of the time we have left . . .
A love where I can totally be myself and feel like I am 16 again—giddy, light-headed, sexy, beautiful . . .
I am very independent and a working girl as well, and understand and need the time and solitude necessary for that “creative flow.” But I also a would like a partner who is willing to truly be IN a relationship and understands that it needs nourishment as well . . .
I want to feel butterflies in anticipation . . .
I want to tease, admire, challenge, respect, arouse, uplift, treasure, inspire, and would only ask
the same in return . . .
How it comes to me, the package it comes in, or whether it is a slow burn or a five-alarm fire,
I will leave to the universe.”
I was immediately struck by her ability to communicate so much in her short message. That's her epiphany. Patricia would put to the universe exactly who she was to see if that would change who was coming into her life. Here's hoping that be me.
Here was her new profile. And for comparison it's right next to mine.
The "Adventurer" on her profile caught my eye. When I noticed we were both educators I penned to her a quick message, a question about her latest adventure.
The "Sapiophile" on my profile caught her eye. She looked it up:
The "Sapiophile" on my profile caught her eye. She looked it up:
"A person who finds intelligence attractive. This attraction can be romantic."Patricia returned my message, something about sledging in New Zealand. She had me. Never heard of it. Now, I was curious.
Sledging: "White water rafting ... without the raft."
An odd bunch New Zealanders, rafting without a raft, leaving Patricia and I with a boat load of talking to do down stream ...
Somewhere around September 27th, 2015 we exchanged phone numbers liberating us from the Plenty Of Fish website. After teaching science for 39 years, I'd become a numbers and big data kind of guy, which influenced the management of my online dating.
I was looking for that “one in a million” match but after nine years I wondered if a new strategy was in order. Thinking that 3 different approaches might help, I added Plenty of Fish to my portfolio of referral services that included eHarmony and Match).
Chapter 2 Japan Together The First Time
Chapter 3
.
Chapter 4
.
First Principles
Patricia Vining and Toby Manzanares
Morning coffee in hand Patricia and I were reading to each other from The Log From The Sea of Cortez by John Steinbeck and Ed Ricketts. They were planning an extensive expedition together and agreed to mutually pen a set of guiding principles for their scientific journey, First Principles.
Patricia and I were soon talking about First Principles for our relationship to guide our together life long journey. Dating for almost a year, we penned four guiding thoughts (it would be a year before I translated them into Japanese):
Morning coffee in hand Patricia and I were reading to each other from The Log From The Sea of Cortez by John Steinbeck and Ed Ricketts. They were planning an extensive expedition together and agreed to mutually pen a set of guiding principles for their scientific journey, First Principles.
Patricia and I were soon talking about First Principles for our relationship to guide our together life long journey. Dating for almost a year, we penned four guiding thoughts (it would be a year before I translated them into Japanese):
第一原理 First Principles Daiichigenri
名誉 Honor Meiyo (May yo)
尊敬 Respect Sonkei (Son kay)
育む Nurture Inner Growth Hagukumu
愛 Love One the Other Ai (eye e)
My mother told me I descended from a long line of Samurai. So when I discovered that gold could be folded in a style similar to how samurai swords are forged, I imagined a forged folded gold engagement ring.
Fast forward one year to the beginning of conspiratorial initiative with Mokumeganea of Japan (a fine jewelry company in Japan) to have these First Principles engraved in Japanese on the inside of Patricia's engagement ring, on gold forged Samurai style which leaves a distinguished wood grain pattern in the polished metal. Then . . . I dreamed of proposing to her in Kyoto.
"Before we start looking for someone else, we should first look inward and make a list of what we are looking for in ourselves." Patricia Vining
My mother told me I descended from a long line of Samurai. So when I discovered that gold could be folded in a style similar to how samurai swords are forged, I imagined a forged folded gold engagement ring.
Fast forward one year to the beginning of conspiratorial initiative with Mokumeganea of Japan (a fine jewelry company in Japan) to have these First Principles engraved in Japanese on the inside of Patricia's engagement ring, on gold forged Samurai style which leaves a distinguished wood grain pattern in the polished metal. Then . . . I dreamed of proposing to her in Kyoto.
"Before we start looking for someone else, we should first look inward and make a list of what we are looking for in ourselves." Patricia Vining
