October 12th, 2018

Has an event ever occurred in your life due to a set of circumstances so perfectly random and chaotic you thought - “There’s no way this could all happen by chance. This was Divine intervention.”? That’s how I met my future wife, Katie. It was a Saturday in July, and I had made the trip down from Fort Collins, where I was living at the time, to spend a night at TopGolf with my dad. We had a well laid out plan of beer and golf that would last until around 10 o’clock. Little did we know, God had planned a series of events that would change my life forever. We arrived at TopGolf prepared for a 2 hour wait. We were assured it would only be an hour and a half. It was 6 o’clock, so things were looking up. I mean, an hour and a half can easily be filled with the 3 B’s… Beer, Burgers and Baseball. So, we sat at the only 2 seats left at the bar, and started in on the first B. Our hour and a half wait time had come and gone as fast as our first pitcher of beer. My dad quizzed the hostess on the outlook of our wait, and to his dismay, we were still looking at an hour and a half. I’m no mathematician, but doesn’t (1.5 hour wait time - 1.5 hours waited) = NO MORE WAITING? Well, apparently it doesn’t! We discussed the idea of leaving, but seeing how the Rockies were leading the Braves, we figured we would just tip back another “B”, order a “B” and continue watching “B”.

Another hour and a half of baseball and laughter passed for my dad and I, when the craziest sentence poured out of his mouth - “Your mom said something interesting today. She told me she had a feeling you were going to ‘meet someone’ tonight.” You might be thinking this is the part where Katie magically appears like an angel from heaven and cheesily falls in love with me as we walk off into the sunset, but you would be mistaken! You see, the sun had set a half an hour ago, and the closest thing to an angel I could see was the 250 pound bartender with lats like wings and a tattoo of a cross on his arm. So, maybe it goes without saying, but the prospects were not good; even for a man wearing beer goggles. So, I quickly gave up on the idea and got back to baseball. Priorities, right? The clock struck 10 as the beer goggles turned to beer muscles.The 4 hour wait had transformed into something greater than just a desire to hit some golf balls. It was a war of attrition, and we were determined to fight until the bitter end! So, when our turn to play golf finally arrived, we paid our tab, grabbed our half empty beers, stormed the front desk, and like the couple of angry thugs we were… handed in our buzzer, said thank you, and lightheartedly proceeded to our bay downstairs. This is it. This is what you’ve all been waiting for!This is the divine intervention I referenced so long ago. Our waitress arrived. (My heart is pounding as I’m writing this part of the story.) I had seen women with blue eyes before, but never this blue. I had always been into brunettes, but her blonde hair instantly changed my mind. I had seen beautiful smiles before, but none this bright and joyful. And those legs…don’t get me started on her legs! To top it all off, the first thing she said to me - “Hi, I’m Katie. Would you like another beer?” I should have asked her to marry me right then and there, because it turns out, I hadn’t been waiting 4 hours for this moment. I had been waiting 24 years.