We met in a similar fashion to any great love story: at the gym. When I first moved to Charlotte, my first order of business was finding a "home" gym where I could go after long days working in my fellowship to de-stress. Little did I know, some members there, including the coach on my first day, had other plans for me. At the urging to come to a different class time the following day, I showed up and happened to meet George, which was not at all an accident as we found out later on. He beat me in the workout, so naturally he was on my radar (but in the vengeful sort of "I'm coming for you" kind of way). I facebook-stalked him that night and in doing so, I noticed he had a beautiful german shepherd in his pictures. The next day, as I was exploring Freedom Park, I saw a very familiar shepherd walking towards me and when I looked up, recognized it was George. We ended up walking around the park and talking for hours. He will say that the dog, our girl Sammy, was the reason I even stopped to talk to him that day. (We will leave that up for debate). That night, I received a message on FB from him that he was down the street at Brixx and offered for me to join him. I had already eaten, but I figured "why not?" and joined. We sat there talking until close. As I found out later, it was his friends at the gym who helped facilitate this little rendezvous. Never would have thought our gym had a side hustle in match making, but here we are. Over the following month or two, we spent a lot of time together before my fellowship began, hiking with Sammy and exploring the areas around Charlotte. While our relationship started off strictly in the "friend zone," we began to recognize how much we loved each other's company and the support system that came with it. Then on October 17th, while we were out at the White Water Center with Sam Sam having lunch, we decided we were officially "a thing," as let's be honest, it really had been for awhile at that point. Now here we are, many years later. That time has been filled with travel, hiking, laughter, never taking anything seriously, adopting another german shepherd (just as beautiful, but much more cray), buying a house and getting engaged. Oh and lots and lots of brewery hopping. Cheers to the next adventure!

We had a trip planned to Charlottesville for my birthday to do wine tasting and brewery hopping before finishing the weekend in Baltimore where Arsenal was playing in a pre-season match. We had a reservation at Pippin Hill Winery to start out the trip and when we got out of the car, George grabs his backpack. Eyebrows raised, I asked what he was doing. Ever so smoothly, he tells me he has a gift for me from his mom for my birthday, a family heirloom. I let it go (for now) and we do our wine tasting and have a lovely time enjoying the views and delicious wine. Our waiter casually recommends that we get a glass of our favorite wine and tour the grounds, offering suggestions for some nice secluded areas (hint hint, wink wink.) We do so and find ourselves by a weeping willow with a view of the vineyards and hills beyond. George tells me to turn around to surprise me with my gift and when I turn back around he is down on one knee holding the most gorgeous ring. Granted, the surprise factor could have used a little tuning, but it fit our imperfect and often goofy relationship to a T and I wouldn't have wanted it any other way.