For Scott Nowicki and Candace Nowicki, previously Barnes, the start of their relationship was a “two-year-long first date.”
They both had significant others when they met in 2006 at The State News in the advertising department.
“We always sat next to each other at work, but he had a girlfriend for a really long time in college and I had a boyfriend for a really long time in college,” Candace said. “So we didn’t really hang out until I became the manager.”
Following her spring semester abroad in Italy, Candace became the ad manager in the summer, and as a senior, Scott helped her learn the ropes, and by then both had broken up with their significant others.
“We were both really big baseball fans and I had been in Italy for six weeks so I was really dying to go to a baseball game,” Candace said. “We went to one Lansing Lugnuts game, and then the rest was history.”
Scott is a Chicago Cubs fan and Candace loves the Detroit Tigers, and since the teams are in different leagues they don’t play each other often, which reduces arguments, Candace said.
Scott graduated in August 2006, so they spent the summer at baseball games and barbecues, they said.
“We just had as much fun as we could, knowing that we didn’t know what was going to happen basically in August, so we made the most of our time at The State News and then the most of our time outside of The State News,” Scott said.
After he graduated, Scott moved to Chicago for a job and Candace graduated in spring 2008.
But, Scott did not want to do long distance while Candace was in school, so they didn’t officially label the relationship, instead they were “hanging out,” Candace said.
“So he very kindly told me he that he would not be doing a long distance relationship again, but that we can see each other when we see each other and see how it goes,” Candace said. “So for like two years we both refused to admit that we were dating each other and we saw each other when we saw each other.”
When Candace moved to California after she graduated for a job with Google, she gave Scott a chance to ask her to stay.
“I gave Scott the option the speak now or forever hold his peace and he chose to hold his peace, so I moved to California and I made it literally six months and then I moved to Chicago and we became boyfriend, girlfriend,” Candace said. “So it was like a two-year-long first date, if you will.”
During their times apart, they would still see each other pretty often, usually monthly while Candace was in college, she said.
“We kind of knew we’d see each other because I traveled a lot for work and spent a good amount of time in San Francisco,” Scott said.
But, it was not all roses and rainbows when they started living in Chicago at the same time, Scott said.
“It was a little bit of a rocky start because we had never actually lived in the same city for a prolonged period of time, being boyfriend, girlfriend,” Candace said.
However, they figured it out and moved in together in 2012, in a condo Candace bought that overlooked Wrigley Field. They got married in 2015, Scott said.
“We just bought a house together, had a baby and got a dog in the last two years, it’s been a big two years,” Candace said.
Their son is named George Allen and the dog is named Murphy after the bar across the street from them, Murphy’s Bleachers.
Both agree that without The State News their lives would look very different.
“The State News is the reason we met and I would say the reason we got pretty close was because I was managing the ad department and had no idea what I was doing,” Candace said. “Thank God for him because he was a senior.”
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