It started with the most dull exchange of banal pleasantries between two strangers online.

Were we looking for love?  Were we hostages made to talk to each other? Hard to tell.

Kimber: “Hey. OkCupid says we chose each other. How are you?”

Colt: “I’m doing well. Unwinding after a long day of errands. I was back home for the holidays and just got back yesterday. How are you?”

Kimber: “I’m great as well. Also now unwinding. Got a haircut, went grocery shopping then made dinner after a busy day at work. Where did you go for the holidays and how was it?”

At the time, Kimber was a web producer and writer for a start-up news publication in Glencoe, Illinois, and Colt was a social worker at Heartland Health Outreach in Uptown.  Both lived only a few blocks away from each other in East Lakeview.  Colt was new to Chicago and didn’t know anybody - Kimber had just returned to the city after a stint in Monterey after graduate school.

After a few more days of messaging (yet saying nothing) we finally met on Jan. 4, 2013, at Sheffield’s in Lakeview.

But Sheffields was too busy so we went to Trader Todd’s down the street, a notorious “Sand Bar” type establishment. Under neon palm trees and with Jimmy Buffet in our ears, we started to see each other in full color. The irresistible Margaritaville energy combined with the excitement of a budding connection made for a first date we will never forget.     

And the rest is history…

We moved in together a year and a half later in Uptown. Over the past 12 years, we’ve traveled the world, hiked many of America’s National Parks, explored Chicago’s music and food scene, and adopted the joy of our life: Soots.