Late August 2021. I worked whatever that location was needing. I worked the night before and woke up late afternoon. I head to Red Robin to pick up my partner from a birthday party they were attending. Alister was there. We didn't talk to each other. there was a lot of people I wasn't yet familiar with there and it was overwhelming. I believe for some of those friends it was "Oh yeah this person does really exist" I only stayed a few minutes before heading back out.

In the ensuing time after our run-in at Red Robin we ran around in the same circles but didn't really talk. (trouble with a couple of mostly introverted people) over a year later around early summer 23 we had a river float that I was reminding people I had a zoo membership with guest access and liked to go with people. I specifically invited Alister after being thrilled to learn we shared a week day off. He did not take me up on it at that time. Then I was on the sidelines at his wedding to Tai. I *might* have met his family there. I'm not big on crowds of new people and they all seemed so busy. but they also seemed happy. After the wedding came Port Nassau where he was coerced into accompanying me while I wandered around with a bottle of liquor (not so) slowly disappearing. we had a fun event and connected over Facebook after with the statement "how were we not already FB friends?" It was at this point (assumedly after he was reminded by Tai) that Alister brought up going to the zoo again.

I'll be the first to admit- I'm quite dense, to put it gently. I don't really pick up on subtle signals, or even some blunt ones. Pair that with quite the nasty cocktail of bad dating past and anxiety, and you get someone who really doesn't know if they're being flirted with in the slightest. So when I properly connected with Mary at some of our pirate events, it was actually my partner at the time, Tai, who noticed the start of interest and pushed me to pursue things with Mary. Which i will admit, did include reminding my forgetful ADHD brain about the zoo. Although this wasn't the first push I received. Very few people are aware of the fact that I am a follower of the roman God, Vulcan. I bring this up because in hindsight, this might have been my first actual push towards Mary. Details regarding timing are a little fuzzy but I distinctly remember wandering an event site with a few friends one night when I felt the sense of a firm hand upon my shoulders, kind of like a parent, and subtly guiding my focus towards a seemingly random direction. When I followed that direction, I ended up running into Mary and spending the rest of that night aimlessly wandering with Mary and friends.

Fast forward to after our zoo outing, I can't recall who invited who to MOPOP for an exhibit featuring Kubo and the Two Strings. But by then, I knew I had started to develop my own romantic interest in this chaotic gremlin that stole my heart. Through the date, I started my iconic brand of what some call "flirting", cheeky comments here and there including something along the lines of "that sign says you should kiss the peacock" said as a joke. Little did I know that following that date, Mary would try and kiss my cheek. Now my oblivious self did not realize what was going on, so I turned towards the movement I caught in my vision and what had started as a simple peck on the cheek led to my panicked texting to friends about incoherent screaming about "do they really like me? am i reading too much into things? What do i do? AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! I think i like them, what do i do?" You know, the normal responses. At some point during the anxiety I invited Mary to share in tickets to an Icon for Hire concert that I had been given as a birthday gift. And I think since then time has flown by with so many chaotic adventures, like trying to stop Mary from stealing British pigeons in her pockets while in London.

Some of the special events may be more intimate than some would like to read here but a small moment shines through for me. Over time we just hung out more. Through some of life chaos', multiple moves, and friends coming and going we found some strange semblance of routine. He kept some clothes at my place in case he needed them and I did the same. One day we were folding laundry at his place and I noticed him pairing my socks. my socks don't match. He has mentioned it drives him nuts seeing it sometimes. But there he was, folding mismatched socks together so that when I grabbed them one morning my socks still didn't match as usual. I'm not sure he realized how loud he was silently yelling that "its OK to be you"