So, it's late 2019. I'm new to the dating app scene in San Francisco. I don't have a car so I set my dating pool radius to the smallest setting: less than 2 miles away, thinking I could easily run or bike to these dates. A few matches in, a handsome and sporty gentleman pops up who *also* happens to be an Actuary. I've always held Actuaries in the highest regard. They're hardworking, intelligent, and great at math. The best part was that his office was close to my work bus stop and he lived in the next neighborhood over - everything seemed to line up. Little did I know, the universe had a good laugh planned. Fast forward to our first date at the Ferry Building, and I'm totally smitten... then I realize that Richard had moved recently and didn't update his address on the dating app. He's a whopping 7 miles away – practically a cross-country trek in San Francisco's less-than-stellar public transit system. Plus, his office had moved across the Bay to Oakland. But hey, love knows no distance, right? We make it work. Those 7 miles prepared us for the COVID-19 lockdown where we had to live 3000 miles and 3 time zones away for a few months. It dawned on me early just how special Richard was and what an awesome duo we made. I guess love always finds a way...and no matter how much I wanted to infuse a sense of control in life on making the *right decisions*, it's more fun to enjoy the journey and make the *decision right*.

I was on the dating apps for a while trying to find the right person. As time wore on, the process became more and more tiring. One day, in the midst of eating lunch and swiping, I saw a tall, beautiful, athletic girl come across my screen, simply 10/10. I looked through her photos and saw that she also had a huge white fluffy dog. Wow, 11/10. I shot my shot thinking nothing of it. There is so much competition in SF, surely I would be lucky just to get matched, much less a date. We did match and I was determined to not screw it up. We started talking and I learned more about her goals, ambitions, what made her tick, and what made her ick. Her whole perspective felt like a breath of fresh air as she wasn’t gonna to let anyone stop her, no matter what she set her mind to. Her only negative was that the dog in the profile was not hers, but actually a close friend’s (we eventually got our huge, fluffy, white samoyed Hero from the same NJ breeder). Dog ownership aside, I knew I had to meet her. Unfortunately we had some trouble finding a date that worked for both of us due to it being Christmastime. Eventually we set our 1st date for nearly a month after matching. Talk about a long wait. We settled on dinner at the Ferry building in downtown SF. The food was delicious, but the conversation was better. Our chemistry was great off the bat, switching between deeper topics like careers to lighter topics like who “her” dog actually belonged to. She even called me out for a few things haha. I cherished every bit of that date. I was so used to dates lasting only a couple hours, but we ended up talking so long we had to be kicked out since the building was closing! From that single date, I knew I had the person I wanted to keep talking with, I knew I was 100% all-in for Anna.