Dear Tripped Up, My husband and I are currently planning a trip to Ireland, Portugal and Italy for August and September. We are only reserving hotels with free cancellation policies and our airline tickets can be changed to a future date. Knowing that much of Europe is closed right now to United States citizens because…
The terrible human and economic cost of the pandemic cannot be ignored. It has forced many people to test the limits of their creativity and endurance. And maybe, for a lucky unburdened few, all that time at home has provided an opportunity to explore new interests. It may have been cooking or knitting. Sales of…
Carmen Myer and Aaron James have made it through plenty of storms together, and many more over the years as children, including Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Gustav. The most recent, and perhaps most nerve-racking, occurred just three weeks before their wedding. A fierce February storm brought freezing temperatures throughout Texas, taxing the state’s electrical infrastructure…
Melissa Marcus had been on four dating apps for almost two years when she matched on Bumble with Justin Wass in June 2016. “He was creative and goofy. In one photo he was wearing a tie-dye shirt with cats on it and he wrote a haiku,” said Ms. Marcus, 30, a senior program officer at…
One day in late spring 2016, Olympia L. Moy was thumbing through listings on the dating app Coffee Meets Bagel when she came across a profile that looked promising. The page belonged to Elizabeth A. Ingriselli. Ms. Ingriselli had graduated from Princeton; Ms. Moy had, too. Ms. Ingriselli was starting a career in law; Ms.…
Her dress, borrowed from a colleague at CVS, was almost an afterthought. “She had said earlier in the year, ‘I have a wedding dress and I’m not going to be keeping it.’ I called her and said, ‘Can I borrow it?’” Dr. Moore and Ms. Moore picked it up from the drugstore on the way…
Cristina Lara and Kevin Bailey dated twice in Raleigh, N.C. The first time, in 2015, they were focused on setting up their careers and continuing to adjust to adult life. They had met at the Cary Wine and Food Festival and hit it off. But the relationship was “super casual,” Ms. Lara said, and a…
Chelsea Crowder stood several feet from a dart board hanging on the wall of a Sacramento bar in December 2017. She was on a first date with Emerson Luke, who held a drink in one hand and a dart in the other. “If I get a bull’s-eye,” Mr. Luke, 33, said to Ms. Crowder, 28,…
When Amit Seth began to propose to Sue Jin Lee in 2019 on a balcony overlooking the ocean in Ischia, an Italian island off the coast of Naples, she walked away, back inside their hotel room. She wasn’t overcome with emotion or opposed to getting engaged. She was hungry, cranky, and she had already moved…
Kristen Bandoo fell in love with Anthony Denning because of an early promise he made her that he has not been able to keep. “One of the first things he said to me was, ‘I could never be mad at you because you’re always smiling,’” Ms. Bandoo said. “Boy was I wrong,” Mr. Denning said.…