John and I met at Tigins in Stamford, CT. At the time, I was working in the area and decided to grab a drink with a co-worker. John, who lived a block away, was at Tigins with his housemates. The Winter Olympics were being aired on TV, which allowed John and his housemate to walk up to the bar and loudly proclaim that "the male figure skater had more technique than Shaun White." This led to a debate and John invited my friend and I to their table for a drink. One drink turned into three and at the end the of the night we did "the whole awkward number exchange". The following night my co-worker and I ended up at Tigins (secretly hoping to run into the boys - since they proclaimed they go to Tigins every Friday night), only to find out that John was climbing Mount Washington. We had a lengthy text message exchange all weekend, and I managed to get a date for that Tuesday. Our first date resulted in a very annoyed waitress who had to check in on us at least four times (before we even looked at the menu), failed trivia and hours of great conversation. During this first date, I remember thinking to myself, "God, I hope I marry this man." Well, one date turned into two, which turned into seeing each other every week, to every other day, to daily, with great adventures in between. As we love traveling, John arranged a trip to Ireland as a Christmas present. We would be in Ireland over St. Patrick's Day weekend with an agenda full of places to see, horses to ride and castles to visit. As 2020 and COVID have no regard for the best laid plans, we had to cancel that trip and hastily plan a trip out to our favorite destination, Block Island. John asked me to marry him on Mohegan Bluffs and that's where we started the greatest adventure of our lives....together! My first date hope of marrying this man, turned into a reality. I get to marry my best friend, with our friends and family by our side.