Of all the people in New York City (8 million to be exact), it only takes one right swipe to find your other half (as it turns out). After much back and forth texting - which included Ryan trashing Rachel's 76ers (who went 51-31 that season, while his Knicks went 17 - 65), they agreed to meet for drinks at the W Hotel in Union Square for their first date on April 20th. Friday night dates don't always end well - and some never end, because who has plans to get up early to go to work the next day? Not many people. In thinking ahead, Rachel had an out for their first date (just in case Ryan turned out to be boring or weird or just not her type). She told Ryan she had a cousins surprise party and could only stay for a few drinks. Needless to say, the drinks were great, so were the snacks, and the company was even better. Fast forward 315 days later, on March 1st Ryan asked Rachel what she thought of roommates - specifically, the two of them being roommates. Rachel had been talking to everyone but Ryan about how she hoped he'd ask her to move in, and with the question sitting in her lap at dinner in the LES one night, she was completely surprised. In April, Rachel (and Penn) moved to the Upper East Side, and Ryan lost 90% of his closet space as a result.

After a busy Summer, we were excited to settle back into life in NYC, especially when it came to weekend plans. As such, a big part of our weekends have always consisted of neighborhood walks, specifically to Central Park. Our walks to the park typically happen after dinner. For our first official weekend back in the city, we were excited for a few days of plans that involved some of our favorite spots and some of our favorite people. On Friday night we headed down to the Lower East Side for some sushi (Rachel's favorite) at Blue Ribbon. Afterward we would head for drinks at Public Hotel, which had become a frequent stop on our date nights down in LES. On Saturday, we went about our usual activities, the gym, grabbing lunch and bringing it back to the apartment. Ryan had mentioned going for a walk prior to heading out for drinks and dinner, which Rachel thought was suspicious but went along with anyway. All dressed up and ready to go, we walked to Central Park (despite the fact that it was 80 degree weather and 100% humidity). Because it was "such a nice day" (in Ryan's opinion) we had to walk to Rachel's favorite spot. At this point, she was convinced he had something up his sleeve, but Ryan, being the planner that he is, threw her off and said that Jonathan and Nadia who were joining us for dinner, were running late. We went to sit on a bench, where Ryan asked Rachel what things she had coming up in the week ahead, to which Rachel said she had no clue because it was Saturday and the following week was the last thing she was thinking about. Finally, Ryan swiftly got down on one knee, and asked her what she was doing for the rest of her life. In total shock and surprise, Rachel said "of course!" Ryan is such a good planner that he coordinated with Rachel's parents to be in NYC, along with his own family, who was waiting for us at the Mark hotel for celebratory drinks and dinner.