Kathy and I met outside of The Black Sheep Bar in NYC in 2003. She was a graduate student in her Speech Language Pathology program that she was taking with a group of City Educators. One of her fellow students was married to a friend that was working with me as an equities trader in NYC. One night I was out with a couple of friends and he called me sort of late in the evening, around 10:30 or so. He said ‘Dude, you gotta come to this bar. Some of my wife’s friends are here and they are so much fun’ also alluding to them being easy on the eyes. It was a Thursday night, so I figured there was certainly another stop in our evening. So I swung down to the bar and they were all hanging outside the bar chatting and smoking cigarettes… yes, Kathy was known to have an occasional cigarette back in the day. And this was when NYC had just passed the law of no smoking in the bars, so the outside of bars became the best social scene in the city.

I was drawn to her right away, and went right up to her and asked if she had a light. I think she asked me if I had one (which I did) and we started chatting a bit outside the bar over a Parliament light. After a bit, we all went back in and were having a beer at the bar. For some reason Kathy had these tongs that she was using to drink, and she was showing off her skills of how she could drink a beer using salad tongs. I said, well how about we see if I can do better. But she wouldn’t let me use her tongs, she said I needed my own… in a witty, sort of flirty manner. I obliged, but made her come with me to the deli next door so she could set up a distraction for me. And she did so, in only a way that ‘rock star’ Kathy could do so. She came into the deli and started chatting it up with the man at the register, asking him questions that I can’t recall .. but she had him so engaged. She purchased an RC Cola (I only remember that because I hadn’t seen it since I was a kid!) and as she distracted him, I grabbed a pair of tongs from the salad bar (sorry, Lord) and we went back to the bar to finish our beers.

We laughed, chatted and innocently flirted throughout the night and it got late fast, as we both knew we had something special happening. I remember when she told me her name was Kathy Nemeth (pronounced Namath),  I asked if she was related to Joe Namath. She said ‘who… Uncle Joe? Of course! We see him like every Sunday for dinner’. Now, mind you I had never met anyone with the last name Nemeth, so I bought into this hook, line and sinker asking if I could come over one Sunday to join dinner!  Later on in our relationship, I learned that Nemeth in Hungarian was like Smith in English, so there was zero relationship to Joe… but boy did she have me going. And that was Kathy… that was her funny, witty, sarcastic humor that I fell in love with the very first night that we met. 

At this time I was living in White Plains and the last train was at 12:50 am. It was rolling around 12:30 and I told her I had to catch a train home but asked for her number so I could ask her out. She looked at me with this disapproving, quirky smile and said ‘You can’t leave now, it’s only 12:30… we’re still hanging out!’ I was of course thrilled to hear that she still wanted to hang out with me and so I responded to her ‘OK, I’m game to hang, but if I miss that train that means I need to take a car service home which ain’t cheap. So if I’m missing that train, then you need to guarantee another couple of hours of hanging out with me. Let’s call it a 2:30 minimum curfew?’ This was back in the day when we would close bars at 4:00 am, so 2:30 seemed like a reasonable ask. One of her friends was the designated driver for the crew for the night, and I will never forget this part of the night as long as I live. Kathy looked back at her friend, who I noticed had been listening to this whole part of the conversation. Kathy didn’t have to say a word… she just looked at her friend with a ‘you know you have to wait for me until 2:30, right?!’ type of glare. Her friend just sort of shrugged her shoulders and nodded, as she knew something special was happening and she had no choice in the matter. And so our night (into the morning) continued as we talked, laughed, drank and learned a bit about each other… and it was a truly magical experience.

As 2:30 was starting to get close, I asked her for her number so we could go out sometime. Typically I would be a little apprehensive when doing so, but everything felt so right I didn’t have a second thought about asking. Kathy looked me dead in the eyes and said, ‘Let’s just make a date now, how about this Saturday night?” Without hesitation, I said yes… as I couldn’t believe this stunning, hysterical and charming woman wanted to see me again! I must have really been on my A game that night 😊 So Saturday came, 2 days after the night we met, and I was so excited for our date. We were going to Canyon Road on the Upper East side, and some friends were over at Mo’s Caribbean watching the Knick game that evening. I decided to pop in and grab a beer before meeting her. I was so nervous and was also thinking that if she thought I was funny and charming from our first encounter, I may need to get just a little loose for a repeat performance. For those who remember the dating scene, sometimes things are not always what they seem at 2:30 am on a Thursday night. So I had a couple of beers and left Mo’s and walked into Canyon Road and saw her sitting at the table… and my jaw dropped. She was even more beautiful and breathtaking than the night we met. I knew that that night… and really at that instant… that I had met the love of my life, my soulmate… my wife. And as they say, the rest is history.