About Us
A few words about Damon, written by Eve:
Damon is from New Jersey and has lived in Chicago since 2010. He loves 90s hip-hop (which he knows everything about), basketball, tragic sports teams like the Knicks and the Jets, tall socks, going to see live music, biking, going to the theater, art museums and galleries, and eating Eve's delicious cooking. He is really adventurous and fun to be around, and is always up for anything. He's also very thoughtful, reliable, loving, and kind. Damon is an economist at the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago, where his research is on taxes, household finance, and behavioral economics. The work he does is interesting and engages in topics that really matter for people's lives. He has an awesome sense of humor. His favorite playwright is August Wilson and his favorite hip-hop groups are The Roots and A Tribe Called Quest. Damon has one older sister, Nikki, and two nieces, Assata and Samaya. He went to Stanford and is very active in the alumni community. He's a really good rapper and in college was at the helm of a hip-hop group. His name is pronounced "day-MON" (rhymes with "game on!"). He is one of the most grounded and patient people in the world in addition to being incredibly good-looking.
A few words about Eve, written by Damon:
I was only given 200 words to describe Eve, which is not enough to capture her greatness. So, I drew some pictures, which are worth a million words:
- Eve knows everything. You definitely want her on your trivia team
- Eve is very loving. It informs all the great things she does
- Eve is strong. She stands up for what she believes in (or sits down and turns her back, as needed)
- Eve is a brilliant writer. Her pen is mighty (as is her pencil)
- Eve will never let you forget that she is from Chicago!
- Eve is a an awesome teacher, in and out of the classroom
- I fell in love with Eve's smile at first sight, which I saw on OKCupid
- Eve wrote a book that came from the future. I hope I can go with her next time, using a companion pass
- Eve is a great listener, with an ear for lovely music, including Hamilton
We both like:
- Spending time with family
- Exploring cities
- Chicago
- Engaging in service and trying to help others
- Exercising and being healthy
- Riding bikes
- Working as a team and encouraging and supporting each other
- Hamilton
- Playing videogames
- Good food
- New challenges and solving problems
- Lake Michigan
The Storyboard
We got engaged in August 2017 on Jekyll Island, in Georgia. Damon surprised Eve by showing her a storyboard, which he had had professionally commissioned. This storyboard shows the "movie" of our lives... based on a true story, as they say. The storyboard is below, with details about what each image represents.
We are both fans of comic books and superheroes. In one of our first conversations we bonded over a shared love of Batman: The Animated Series, which has an iconic opening sequence featuring music composed by Danny Elfman.
In March 2016, we took a trip to Japan. This was a lifelong dream of Eve's and when tickets unexpectedly went on sale, we decided to go. This was our first international trip together, which can often be a major relationship test, but everything went smoothly and we had a marvelous time. In Kyoto, we rented bikes and road them to Arashiyama, home of the Sagano Bamboo Forest.
For Valentine's Day 2017, Eve got Damon a PlayStation 4, which we both used to play the game Uncharted 4 (which Kwame got us hooked on). The game is highly cinematic and engaging and we both took turns beating it and watching the other one play. The game is about two brothers who are treasure hunters evading pirates and endowed with an uncanny ability to scale cliffs.
Okay, this last one has a lot of levels. One of our favorite things to do is to go look at art together, at museums and galleries. One of the best art museums in the world is right in our backyard-- the Art Institute of Chicago. One of the most famous paintings in the museum is "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte" by Georges Seurat. There is a famous scene in Ferris Bueller's Day Off where the characters visit the museum and look at this painting. One of them stares deeply into the dots that make up the painting (Seurat, an impressionist, used the technique of pointillism--using tiny dots to make an image) and reflects on the meaning of his life. In one of our earliest conversations, we had an extended discussion about this scene and shared articles about it with each other.
Bonus: in shot #2 below, the painting on the left is one we saw at the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo by the artist Goto Yasuka, and the one on the right is one we saw as part of the Kerry James Marshall retrospective at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago.
