My good friend (and now officiant!) Justin Castro invited me to his house for a normal football Sunday viewing party, in late November of 2022. Not necessarily being in a place of trying to find a future beau, I oddly remember wearing my most comfortable go-to clothing attire: a backwards hat, a hand-me-down t-shirt, my oldest pair of jeans with a hole in the inseam, and flip-flop sandals. Upon arrival, everything seemed standard; I admittedly didn't recognize the vast majority of people there. I found an open chair where a small circle of people were gathered, watching the Raiders inevitably losing by 30 points in the second quarter of play. Later I would realize that this open chair was part of an otherwise brilliant and effective plan to have me sit directly next to a beautiful, very friendly, very inquisitive girl, with (as I remember noticing immediately) "hair that dances when she walks and talks." I also notably remember assuming this girl absolutely had to be married, or at least taken by some lucky guy (presumably a former Mr. Olympia or something to that tune) in the inner circles of Livermore. Without being able to see her ring finger, I relaxed on the topic and instead concentrated entirely on our conversation. Within 10 minutes, I felt like I had known this beautiful human my entire life. The day proceeded with us being partners in an overly competitive game of darts, where Paige carried our team's success like a backpack. I played barefoot and thankfully wasn't embarrassed with my poor performance, as I've never been great at picking up when someone may, or may not, be putting out a strong flirtatious vibe. I had no idea, and for that, I remain an idiot, but thankfully an idiot that Paige hadn't given up on that early in the day. We ended the evening by unexpectedly being the last two visitors at the Castro's house, and I offered to walk Paige to her car. In the midst of my nice gesture, Paige took the cue to make fun of the red Porsche in the outside parking lot, which of course ended up being mine. After 5 hours of one-way flirtation, I still wasn't fully convinced this was real, or that I had any shot at getting to know this perfect specimen in the days ahead, so I gave her a hug and followed with the ever-so-suave comment: "Okay, well, have a good night." Paige, being the brave and thankfully resilient individual that she is, followed with a much more straight forward question to me: "So are you going to ask me for my number or not?" I of course obliged, and we have been inseparable ever since. I still don't know when she's flirting with me, but she promises me it is constant, and I believe her! I am blessed daily to have been "trapped" (in her own words) by Paige Allender, and all that she brings to this relationship and this family. She has changed my life, plus my children's lives, for the much much better. I will always love her dearly, and will ALWAYS remember that day, when I met the girl with the beautiful dancing hair.