On a Thursday night in January, I was grabbing a glass of wine with a friend and Mike was having more than one tequila drink at Don Titos in Arlington, Virginia—just outside of DC. Mike wasn't like anyone I had ever met and I was intrigued. Before the night ended, he asked for my number. I told him he could have it as long as he took me on a date. It turns out, the fact I knew exactly what I wanted had him intrigued too. A few weeks later, he picked me up for our first date at the Mussel Bar and Grille. He picked the place because I told him I loved mussels. Despite the fact the restaurant was out of mussels, we kept each other laughing all night. A couple new jobs (me), a move to DC (Mike) and many mussels later we cannot wait to embark on our next great adventure.

Like everyone else, the pandemic put a wrench in my original plans. The one thing I knew for sure is I wanted the proposal to be as "us" as possible. I started brainstorming all these fantastical ideas at first but nothing truly felt like us. Then, one day while inspecting the roof for our neighbor, it hit me. Our roof was the perfect location to propose my love for Tana. Tana and I love to spend time together on our roof whether we're having a tasty cocktail on a warm summer evening or sipping cocoa on a cold fall night. On a beautiful summer day, I took Tana to her favorite restaurant: Le Diplomate. I wanted to make the whole experience as us as possible. Everyone who knows us, knows we love to ride scooters around town. So, we scooted to the restaurant, had a delicious meal and scooted back to our place for a night cap on our roof. After nervously babbling for probably like 45 minutes, I finally looked Tana in the eye, took a knee before her and asked her to marry me.