Love and Sex Feature: Couples Edition

Julia Saliba, Alana Beyer, and Natasha Roy

Natasha Roy, Editor-at-Large

For this year’s Love and Sex Feature, we asked some of the WSN staff — both past and present — and their significant others questions from the New York Times’ “The 36 Questions That Lead To Love” piece. Watch a few of the couples’ answers in the video below, and read about more couples afterward!

Emily Fagel, Books and Theater Editor, and Cole Otto: Two-And-A-Half Years

What would constitute the “perfect” day for you?
Emily Fagel: Mine’s underwhelming. Mine would involve a lot of me just being heavily waited on. I would be in my bed the whole day, and a lot of things would be brought to me. So I think snacks, I think a masseuse would be brought in at one point. Yeah — [there] would be a lot of TV watching involved — so basically what I did over winter break, but more things brought to me.

Cole Otto: You hated winter break.

EF: I liked it by the end.

CO: Okay — it’s November 22, 1963. I wake up, and I realize the date, so I get on a flight right away, as fast as I can —

EF: Of course.

CO: — to Dallas, Texas, where I make my way to the Texas School Book Depository.

EF: Of course.

CO: Lee Harvey Oswald is sitting —

EF: Is that where he works? Sorry.

CO: Well, it’s where he works, but it’s also where he shot Kennedy from. So Kennedy’s coming down the street, right? And the School Book Depository is up here, and Harvey shoots him above from the —

EF: Oh, so you go up there?

CO: So I go to where he is, and I punch him out, and I take his gun away.

EF: And you save the day.

CO: And I save the day.

EF: Wow.

CO: I save President John F. Kennedy, our nation’s hero.

EF: I have one quick detail question. When you wake up, how do you know, oh today’s the day he’s gonna shoot him?

CO: What do you mean?
EF: I think because a lot of people would have done what you wanna do if they had known —

CO: I’m saying my perfect day is I wake up in 1963 —

EF: Oh, but it’s now?
CO: — and I know everything. And then I’d probably invest in Apple and Bitcoin later.

 

Name three things you and your partner appear to have in common.

EF: I think we like similar music.
CO: We have brown eyes.

EF: *laughs* We have brown eyes. Look exactly the same. Same hair color, same height.

CO: Our dads are similar.

EF: No — they are.

CO: Yes, they are. They’re totally similar.

EF: What else? Oh, three things, well that’s about it. But I think we both have good taste in food. We both can spend a lot of money at a restaurant.

 

Tell your partner what you like about them; be very honest this time, saying things that you might not say to someone you’ve just met.

CO: You put up — should I not swear? — you put up with my, I don’t know, shit. You just deal with me being kind of annoying most of the time.
EF: That’s not true.

CO: I don’t know, being high maintenance. You have to listen to rant about me saving Kennedy.

EF: I liked it.

CO: Just being dumb

EF: I don’t think that’s true. It doesn’t feel like that. I think on the exact opposite end of that, you also deal with me, and I talk a lot and I, I don’t know, you’re very patient.

CO: So much.

EF: I do.

CO: I’m just joking. You are so nice.

EF: Was that your answer?
CO: No, no. Goofy sometimes. You’re so quirky. My favorite thing about you is you’re so quirky.

EF: Oh my God. You make me laugh, and one of my favorite things is seeing you with your siblings, because they’re little and I think you’re really sweet with them. I think that you think that you’re this man, but you’re just so sweet with them and it makes me laugh and it makes me happy.

CO: You, with your siblings, they’re —

EF: They’re 14 and 16.

CO: They’re 14 and 16, and you’re such a good sister.

EF: Thanks. Are you joking or no?

CO: I can’t tell. You’re really fun to do stuff with. You have good taste in things in general.

EF: Aw, that’s really nice. You’re fun to do stuff with too.

CO: I don’t know, I enjoy doing stuff with you.

EF: Thanks.


Is there something that you’ve dreamed of doing for a long time? Why haven’t you done it?

EF: The first thing that comes to mind is I want to read more, but that’s not like a dream — that’s like a New Years Resolution. I’ve said this before, but I want to get over my fear of heights — do really fun hike things like zip-lining and skydiving.
CO: You’re never gonna skydive.

EF: I know, I’m never going to.

CO: Not in your life.

EF: That’s really encouraging, thank you.

CO: I guess I’d like to do stand-up more, but that’s like —

EF: He’s a comedian.

 

Share with your partner an embarrassing moment in your life.
CO: The other day on my walk to class, I fell twice going up the hill and twice going down.
EF: On the ice?

CO: Yeah.

EF: Did anyone see?

CO: Yeah, there were people walking to their class.

EF: Did you swear when you fell? I can see it in my head, I can see you being like, ‘God dammit.’

CO: It’s more like disappointment. I’m just on the ground, and I’m just like, ‘Aw.’

EF: Here it goes again. Aw, are you okay now?

CO: Yeah, I’m fine. Some people asked me, they were like, ‘are you okay?’ and I was like, ‘yeah.’

EF: That’s nice of them. I have a lot of moments — I can’t think of one you don’t know. But, I don’t know, I embarrass myself all the time.

CO: Those shoes you wore yesterday.

EF: That’s rude, they’re these ones. One time I was waiting 15 minutes outside a bathroom, waiting to get inside, and I learned that there were stalls in there.

 

Alex Bazeley, 2016 Editor-in-Chief, and Gabriella Bower, Fall 2016 Beauty and Style Editor: Two Years

What would constitute a “perfect” day for you?

Gabriella Bower: So, my perfect day. I would wake up and play some tennis, and then I would go to a spa and get a facial and a massage.

Alex Bazeley: Of course.

GB: Then I would go to the beach and tan for the rest of the afternoon. Read books, listen to podcasts there.

AB: Packing a lot in.

GB: Yeah. And then I would go and get dinner with some of my favorite people. Obviously it would have to be super yummy, because it’s my perfect day.

AB: Of course.

GB: And then it would end with a concert of either The Lumineers or The Avett Brothers.

AB: My perfect day — I am probably a lot simpler for this — but it would be a baseball game, a late afternoon baseball game, so I can sleep in, obviously. And then I would probably set aside a couple hours to just read a book, just uninhibited, on my own, and then wrap it up with a concert of some sort. Although probably a different choice than yours.

 

Name three things you and your partner appear to have in common.

AB: We enjoy watching a lot of TV together, good or bad. That’s like our go-to destressor, and that’s certainly useful, and that’s fun to do together.

GB: I would say that we’re both pretty curious people. Everything from reading tons of articles and sharing them with each other and just always wanting to read a book, but also curious about places in the world and loving to travel and doing that together, and new food places in New York. Pretty curious.

AB: I would say we’re both big overthinkers, and I think it both serves us well and hurts us at times. But we certainly run through every possible scenario in our head, and we’re kind of neurotic about some sort of thing, I think, taking everything to its logical conclusion before carrying anything out.

GB: Which includes finding a place to go to dinner with like five apps open.

 

Tell your partner what you like about them; be very honest this time, saying things that you might not say to someone you’ve just met.

AB: You accept me, I think, for who I am. Maybe that’s a cliche answer, but with all my flaws. I don’t know, you put up with a lot, I think. I’m certainly a handful at times. Maybe it’s a bit self-serving, but I certainly like that you bring me back down to earth at times when I need it.

GB: Aw. I mean, I think I like a lot of things about you.

AB: Thank you. I would hope.

GB: I like how non-judgmental you are. I think you’re just accepting of everyone in general and really just open to all walks of life and stuff, which in turn makes me a better person. You help me see new perspectives, and because of that I think you make me a better person.

AB: And I think you see the best in everyone, which is certainly a plus. Including me, I mean that’s a good thing.

 

Is there something that you’ve dreamed of doing for a long time? Why haven’t you done it?

GB: I think one thing that I’ve dreamed of doing but haven’t yet with you is going to Europe together, because neither of us studied abroad but we’ve both been to Europe separately. That’s something I’ve dreamed of doing slash currently am dreaming. I guess we haven’t done it yet because of logistics, just not having enough time. But we’re planning it, after we graduate.

AB: I’ve always wanted to visit every baseball stadium.

GB: Oh yeah.

AB: That’s like the top of my bucket list, and it’s mostly money that is the thing that prohibits me from doing that at this point in time. Certainly if I had the means to do it, I would probably drop everything I was doing and scamper off.

GB: Scamper off to all these fields.

AB: Across the country.

 

Share with your partner an embarrassing moment in your life.

AB: I was in the school musical, at the end of the year. It was Bye Bye Birdy. I was singing the very last song of the entire play and it was like a solo song that I was singing to my counterpart in the scene. And at the very end of the song, like all eyes were on me, and I was like going to like sing the very last note and like my voice cracked on the last note. My hat had been slowly slipping off and it just fell off. Like it was just the two of us on stage and like everyone was staring at me and my face turned red. I was like how am I going to recover from this and of course no one cared, because it was like middle school.

 

Yasmin Gulec, Features Editor, and Charlie Thomas: One Year

What would constitute a “perfect” day for you?

Charlie Thomas: I think maybe getting brunch and then doing something cool afterward.

Yasmin Gulec: I like brunch, but also going to museums, I think, is fun.

 

Name three things you and your partner appear to have in common.

CT: Sense of humor, we have a similar sense of humor.

YG: I think we’re adventurous in the sense that we like trying new things, like food, especially. We’ll eat anything and try it.

CT: True.

YG: We’re fun. We like traveling.

CT: We both like dogs, both like animals.

 

Tell your partner what you like about them; be very honest this time, saying things that you might not say to someone you’ve just met.

CT: You wanna go first?
YG: No.

CT: I don’t know, there are so many things I could list.

YG: That was lame. That was so lame.

CT: But I really like your smile.

YG: Okay, thank you. I really like it when you hold my hand, because it’s warm.

 

Is there something that you’ve dreamed of doing for a long time? Why haven’t you done it?

CT: I really want to go to, I don’t know, other places. But I always think of different places I want to go to, so travel more, I guess.

YG: I think travel more is something for me too, but not maybe travel more, but travel New York more. Like, go around New York because we get so used to living here that we don’t do much.

CT: True.

 

Share with your partner an embarrassing moment in your life.

YG: I was in primary school. We had this going away, spring school’s ending party, and they brought in a mechanical bull. I was very chubby and not athletic as a child — still am — but I was hyping up this bull. I was like, ‘yeah I’m the queen of mechanical bulls. I can ride ‘em all day, all night.’ And then everyone was gathering around the mechanical bull and my friend was like, ‘oh yeah, you’re so good, you should go.’ They pushed me, and my whole grade was there, and I couldn’t get on the bull. And then two people, they tried to push me on the bull, and I couldn’t go up, and people started laughing at me because they were all around the bull. I couldn’t go on so they were trying to lift me.

CT: Like, hoist you up?

YG: When I finally did, the bull didn’t even start. It just did the starting thing, and I fell.

CT: Aw.

YG: It was very bad. I haven’t been on a mechanical bull since then, I think actually.

CT: We should go.

YG: Your turn.

CT: I did kazoo solo in my a cappella group. It wasn’t embarrassing for me because I really liked it, but it was for everybody else. That was fun. But also embarrassing.

 

Hailey Nuthals, Fall 2016 Arts Editor, and Kevin: 15 Months

What would constitute a “perfect” day for you?

Kevin: A day in which I finished a lot of the things I’d been meaning to do, but not out of stress — rather, completed by momentum. The building momentum of accomplishments.

Hailey Nuthals: Waking up on a crisp fall day without an alarm clock but still some time before 10 a.m., drinking a cup of fresh coffee, reading a book quietly by natural light in a comfy chair, then making lunch and putting the dishes in the dishwasher before going out for a walk in the park. The evening would be something inside — maybe board games or watching a movie with friends.

 

Name three things you and your partner appear to have in common.

Kevin: What are three things we have in common? We’re hard-headed, we like to try new things and we like our coffee.

HN: Definitely hard-headed, and used to doing things our own way. And we’ve observed that we’re both the type of people who will always raise our hands first in a discussion.

Kevin: We both come off as hard-asses.

HN: We kind of are.

Kevin: We have a tenderness!

 

Tell your partner what you like about them; be very honest this time, saying things you might not say to someone you’ve just met.

HN: I like that when you know something is important to me, you support me and support me doing it, even if it’s something as simple as washing dishes right away after dinner. And I like that you have lots of things that are important to you, that you go ahead and follow through with. And I like that you don’t take yourself so seriously that you’re not willing to make silly noises at small dogs.

Kevin: I used to think they made them at me! They never do!

Kevin: I like that you take great pains to speak fairly of others, and I like that you’re willing to do what you feel must be done.

 

Is there something you’ve dreamed of doing for a long time? Why haven’t you done it?

Kevin: I dreamed for a while of writing a book. Why have I not done it? Because I haven’t felt ready to go all in.

HN: I dreamed of going to Ireland since I was 6 years old and I joined an Irish dance academy. I used to rent books from the library on Ireland. I took one. I haven’t done it… because international travel is quite expensive unless you have a reason to go. And the rest of life gets in the way.

 

Share with your partner an embarrassing moment in your life.

HN: I used to play clarinet in band, right? And ninth grade was the first year we could play in the pep band. So while we were learning the songs, one of them was “My Sharona,” and this was like — the peak of FunnyJunk.Net, like memes before “meme” was a word. Peak ICanHasCheezburger. And there was this dumb parody of “My Sharona” called “My Corona,” and I didn’t know it was a parody, and it was this super inappropriate song about some guy getting super blasted on Corona. And our teacher, Mr. Finnegan, asked if anyone knew the song and I started singing these super inappropriate lyrics to my whole band class and my teacher looked so horrified, like “What?”

Kevin: So I’m part Czech, right? From Czechoslovakia. And there’s some home video situation where there’s a video of me 4 years old, and I’m trying to talk about my heritage. But I’m not saying the word right, so I keep proudly announcing that I’m “Czechoslo-fuckian,” and every once in a while that video gets carted out at family events.

HN: How did you possibly get that wrong?

Kevin: It’s a pretty big word! I was just mispronouncing it.

HN: Sure…

Kevin: The way the story’s been told there’s never been some sinister uncle in the corner teaching me how to say it…

 

These transcripts were lightly edited for clarity. Read more from Washington Square News’ Love & Sex Issue feature here.