Remember those first few months of the pandemic, where nothing about Matt's life changed at all except that he got to start wearing pajamas to work and Catherine was locked in her house going mad from isolation? Eventually, even the introverts got lonely enough to start swiping on Tinder. And that's where Matt found Catherine. Even though she was significantly outside of his maximum distance, Matt trekked up to Green Lake (a full fifteen minute drive!) to meet Cathy Jo.

Matthew had a window in which to act, one that was closing rapidly. The ask was to be done before the two went back to Iowa, such that the entire Merdinger family could be flexed upon in person. After some friends cancelled dinner plans (shoutouts those friends), an innocent suggestion was made to try a new place up around Green Lake. At this point Matt was confident in his level of sneakeration, he had the perfect plan. Allowing Matthew to believe this, Catherine went up to Green Lake and agreed to ‘walk around’ when the ‘new place’ didn’t have a ‘reservation’ for the two of them. She appeared to be surprised. It was a perfect day.