Todd Christensen & Wendy Quesinberry
Todd Christensen, senior designer; Wendy Quesinberry, principal/creative director, Quesinberry and Associates (Q&A)
Homebase: Seattle
How did your love story begin? In the 90’s, Todd worked the graveyard shift at Kinko’s, managing both copies and the computer center. It was quite expensive to own a computer back then. After midnight, Kinko’s offered computer rentals and prints for 50 percent off. So Wendy would spend days working at a wildlife art gallery and then, after midnight, headed to Kinko’s to work on freelance design projects. One night Todd asked, “Have I ever told you about the time I met Michael Stipe?” Wendy replied, “I don’t know you.” He didn’t skip a beat. “Oh great! Then let me tell you about it!” They started dating soon after.
From Todd: I was very smooth. And to totally name drop I had met Michael Stipe (for the young people: a singer in an old person’s rock and roll band in the old days) that very day and was dying to brag to someone about it. Anyone else want to know the celebrities I have met?
Favorite thing about one another: Wendy: Todd is very funny and calm when life throws a sucker punch.
Todd: Wendy is an unbeatable combination of positive, compassionate and wicked.
Favorite date night: Oh. This is hard. Pre-pandemic, we used to go to a neighborhood joint (the late great Joe Bar — pour one out) and sit at the outdoor tables. Joe Bar was the closest Seattle ever got to a Parisian cafe. We’d have glass after glass of Lillet, talk all night to the Cornish art students, bond with our neighbors and then stumble home half in the bag. We are easy to please.
Now, date night is us watching weirdo art movies and grumbling about how everything we used to love about the neighborhood has been sold out to rich people. If anyone has any new ideas about good spots, we’re all ears. We’d like to stop grumbling.
Favorite tradition you have as a couple: Traveling in January. This may be a bummer, but there’s been a lot of death in Wendy’s family—most of which has been in January. Traveling became a way to find some joy out of that month. And it stuck. Plus, the best-kept secret is most of the EU is on sale in January. Dang. I wish we didn’t tell you that.
What does your happily ever after look like? To travel all the time, visit our international friends and family, eat good food, help younger people get a leg up, beat the fascists, and maybe write a few terrible genre books.