## Wedding Bells on the Blockchain
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On Saturday - *May 26th* - I got married! I took a much needed 2 week break from the blockchain / slack / my computer to be with my wife. She jokes all the time that I never “Steem” any stories about *her*, so here ya go my love, our painting story is forever on the blockchain now ;)

## A Painting and a Plane Ticket…
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This post won’t have any wedding photos. Instead, I wanted to share a memory that I’ve never written about before. This story began back in the summer of 2011. I was packing my bags and preparing a move to Berlin, and my college sweetheart was moving to New York. We were in love with one another, but our lives were pulling us towards different places.

She got a job and an apartment in New York City. That summer we exchanged letters, phone calls, and bus rides to keep connected. The move from college into the “real world” was pretty tough. Subways and sidewalks were big and busy. Apartments were small and unfamiliar. She told me that her white empty walls made her homesick. It’s hard to make a true home in NYC when you know you’ll get priced out of your own room every year or two. But I didn't want her to feel alone.

Before I left for Berlin, I sat down at my desk and started to paint. I wasn’t much of a romantic writer so I figured I’d break out my oils and have a go at a canvas. I painted a place that the two of us had passed by nearly everyday back in college. It was a small lake in Ithaca surrounded by hills and cliffs of colorful trees. In the winter it was clear cold and white, but in the autumn it would burst into an intense palette of reds, yellows and greens. The calm water would reflect the hillside, drawing in the blues of the sky. We used to walk across the lake, staring at it as it evolved across seasons, and over time, we fell in love with it. 

![our painting.png](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmeVEWQhB8qpytdeas1vThmFFPMMKfXYVu4aYdCgkbhzPY/our%20painting.png)


![3.png](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmW3rDFboUreZTBnRftXVeVA5KaEZ36Xa83r1RB17X1cnk/3.png) | ![1.png](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmZguApWw44wCXZ4STW2vPEx2yGDDg3G9EyiE9DMUx5pCU/1.png) |  ![2.png](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmUJxUPytFLAV26UvzYX2hgsF9LqBMj7N4nDcNPJhMp6rL/2.png)
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I couldn’t say the phrase “I love you” before I got on that plane to Germany. So I painted the words into the place where we first met one another. It was a place and a memory we would always share, no matter where we arrive. The last thing I did before hopping on the plane was mail the painting to her New York apartment.

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***Fast forward.*** She loved it and I guess it worked! A year later that painting ended up becoming my ticket back to the States. I moved to the big city, proposed to her in our first apartment together (under the watchful eye of the painting). Now, the three of us together will have a home wherever we end up.

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<center>Samantha, I love you.</center>