According to Jessica!
The first night I met Murph was at a surprise birthday party his friends threw for his 25th birthday. My friend from work at Mass General (Maryanne) went to Holy Cross with Murph, and she invited a bunch of girls that we worked with to go to the party with her. I had recently been to Mare's bridal shower where I had met two of her friends (Al and Cos) and they had mentioned to Mare that I might be a good "match" with Murph. I'm not always a fan of being set up, but figured if he was a friend of Mare's that he must be a good guy. (Plus, I knew she would give me all the scoop on him and say nice things about me to him. Can't beat that.)
When we first got to the Hong Kong (the bar where the party was being held), I met Brian Murphy and thought for a minute he was Greg. (Heck, he was pretty cute, so I went with it.) We chatted for a bit since we both went to Fairfield and had some mutual friends. (Found out later that Brian once cleaned the kitchen floor of our beach house during a party senior year, but that's another story for another time.) The party swung into full gear and of course the MGH girls were the first to hit the dance floor. (You will witness some of their amazing moves on July 3rd.) After a little bit, Murph showed up and Mare brought him over to meet us. (I think we all signed his birthday card even though none us had met him yet.) I thought he was cute and very nice, he seemed laid back and we chatted for a while. (It was obvious from the start that he was smitten with me.) The night went on and he kept coming over to dance with us. (I think he may have consumed a few Scorpion Bowls along the way, which probably accounted for his interesting dance moves). At the end of the night, he asked me for my phone number. (As if I hadn't seen that coming.) He said, "Please don't think I'm one of 'those guys' because I'm programming it into my phone, it's just easier." (Again, obvious that he was trying to hide his feelings for me already.) He then told me he was going on vacation for the week so he would call when he got back, and not to be mad if I didn't hear from him before then. (I still make fun of him for that and whoever reads this should too.) I told him he was pretty full of himself for assuming I would be mad if he didn't call, and that may have been the first time I heard his infamous laugh.
He ended up calling me the next weekend and we made dinner plans for that week. He asked if I wanted to go to dinner on Tuesday night, (I remember thinking, "Who the heck goes out on a Tuesday night?") and I said yes. Ended up chatting/eating/drinking until the restaurant (a cute place in the North End) closed, and before I knew it he was shuffling off with a ring in his hand...
According to Gregory:
Two years ago, for my birthday, I went out with a few people to celebrate on a Thursday night. The night ended with Odie dragging me to the Hong Kong and having scorpion bowls until two in the morning. I was a zombie at work on Friday and there wasn’t much going on, so a few friends from work thought we should start the weekend early and continue my birthday celebration. We went to Clarke’s for a few beers. I felt awful from the night before and didn’t really feel like doing anything, but I rallied enough to get the first Bud Light down.
Then someone said that we should go somewhere else, and the Hong Kong was suggested. I said that I would go anywhere but the Hong Kong considering I was just there ten hours ago. Little did I know that Brian (and others) had been planning a surprise party at the Hong Kong. (The fact that Odie knew about the surprise and still took me to the Hong Kong the night before still puzzles me, considering that there are only about thirty other bars in the area.)
Anyway, I finally agreed to go to the Hong Kong, and as I walked in, I was all of a sudden greeted by a huge “Surprise.” I was totally shocked and looked around at a pretty full bar – people from work, people from Holy Cross, even people that drove up from New Jersey. There was also a group of girls that I had never seen before.
After I made the rounds, Mare came up to me and said that she was here with a group of girls that she worked with and Jess (“the girl I want you to meet”) was one of them. This is Mare’s claim that she introduced me to Jess, which is debatable on two grounds: 1) A few weeks before, both Allison and Meg had been at Mare’s wedding shower and had met Jess, and each told me individually that she thought Jess and I would make a good couple; and 2) Mare was convinced that I would be a “bad boyfriend.”
After being introduced to the other girls in the group, Mare introduced me to Jess. Like a sign from above, she was bathed in a white light, which radiated from her. Actually, it was just the neon lights bouncing off her really large forehead. Jess and I started to talk and I realized that not only was she pretty, but she was also really easy to talk to and incredibly cool. I still remember that she said that she would “rather be in sneakers,” which made me think that she was laid-back and fun (read: liked to hang around the house and sleep in late). So I was sold. I also remember that I asked for her phone number and then said that “I am going to be that guy and put your number into my cell phone.”
About a week later (I left on Saturday to go down to the Poconos for the family reunion) I called her and we made a date to go out. We decided to meet up after work at a bar called The Hill, where she was out with some friends from work. I showed up a little late (of course) and when I walked in my first thought was “Oh, yeah, that’s what she looks like.” I actually thought she looked great and we stayed at The Hill for awhile. I remember that everyone, including me and Jess, were making jokes that we were going to have a double wedding with Mare. We missed the double wedding, but who would have thought…
