The story begins in March of 2018. On March 17th, 2018 (St. Patrick’s Day) Kirsten was just finishing up a tattoo appointment and decided to meet up with friends for a festive night in Lancaster, California. Mikey, at the time, was living with one of the friends that she was meeting. Upon arriving at her friend’s house, she was having issues with her tattoo bandage. Yes, it’s as ridiculous as it sounds. Mikey, being the sweet guy he is, tried to say something about the tattoo being pretty and making small talk. Kirsten, in her true Kirsten fashion, very abruptly responded and said “Yeah…and it hurts” then proceeded to run to the bathroom where her friend could help her with her very critical “bandage crisis”. Once the crisis was averted, she wanted to apologize to Mikey for her abrupt and possibly rude response to his compliment, but he was gone. After a few weeks, in April of 2018. The two connected over social media with Kirsten apologizing to Mikey and asking him to join her and her friends for games and drinks one night. At the time, Mikey was working in Pacific Palisades, California. He would work long hours and would often come home exhausted. While he will tell you, her response wasn’t rude to him at all, he appreciated that she wanted to make up for it get to know him further. He thought she was funny and had a great smile. During the evening they chatted off and on between games and drinks. Remember the statement about him coming home exhausted a lot? Well, in true Mikey fashion, he fell asleep during a game of Cards Against Humanity. Something he still has not had the opportunity to live down. The next morning, Mikey woke up to Kirsten making everyone breakfast. He apologized for falling asleep so early and explained that his work schedule was at its busiest time. He liked that Kirsten wasn’t upset but understood because her family worked in the same field as him. He was intrigued and the conversation went from work, to family, to childhoods, to hobbies, and so on. After talking all day long, Kirsten had to leave and return home to Bakersfield. While the couple tried to play it cool with each other, both ended up calling their mothers to tell them about their weekends. Specifically, to talk about the person they got to meet and get to know. Mikey’s mother, Debby, will tell you that when he called her, he said “Mom, I met a girl, I think I like her, she’s really nice.” Additionally, when Kirsten contacted her mother, Cindy, she said something similar, saying “Mom, I met a guy, he’s cute and I think I like him.” Little did they know that this one weekend would set the course for their relationship. A relationship that included growth and understanding. Even through some of the difficult times, they found their way through, being there for each other, and bringing each of their families together and making one of their own. Now, some might say “the rest is history”, but they will tell you “This is just the beginning. This is history in the making.”