When I saw her online profile I was instantly very interested because I could tell that not only was this girl a hottie but she had good taste in music, was a hipster, into health/yoga, a Scifi nerd (LOTR) and a member of the Jew tribe — certainly a rare find on the Westside of LA. I asked her out pretty quickly into chatting and immediately after doing that, I was a little concerned that I blew it and she would turn me down. Luckily she agreed. Phew! Because we were in the midst of lockdowns, we opted for grabbing coffee and going for a walk around Santa Monica and the beach. Though it was a chilly winter night I felt very comfortable around her. So comfortable that I felt fine with peeing on the beach when we found out the bathrooms were closed. We had a nice laugh about it. At the end of the date she gave me a warm hug and said “Well that was awesome!”. I remember thinking that that was so sweet and genuine of her to say — something I wasn’t used to living and dating in LA. I was later to find out that that first impression of sweetness and genuineness was just a glimpse of what a special person I had just met.

It was 2020, and the world was shut down. Trying to date online was just as weird as you think it’d be. I’d been watching lots of New Girl episodes, and developed a crush on Schmidts character. The quirky Jewish roommate with abs (if you know you know). While watching an episode, I was scrolling through the dating app Hinge, and came upon Yarden’s profile. He was super handsome, had pictures of him surfing, traveling the world, is Jewish…..and has abs :) Could this be my real life Schmidt? I don’t recall who initiated the conversation first, but we set a date to meet up to grab some coffee in Santa Monica. We ended up having a great evening walking along the beach and boardwalk, talking for hours and getting to know each other. I think he was a little nervous because he was pretty serious the whole time, which made me a little unsure tbh. This girl likes to laugh! But as we were walking back to our cars, he made a funny, and slightly inappropriate joke, and so I knew it was worth another date. And the rest, as they say, is history :)