We of course met the old-fashioned way...and by that, I mean we matched multiple times on a dating app over multiple months before actually finding time in our schedules to meet. What I believe finally won her over was my magical line of "you, me, drinks this weekend...who says no?" turns out, she said no...along with making a comment about me still being a Yankees fan as she is a Dodgers fan... BUT luckily for her, I had tickets to Lainey Wilson the following weekend. Amanda said she loved Lainey and would love to go (turns out she only knew one song and had to listen to Lainey the whole week leading up to it.) We ended up making it through that concert together (with her knowing one song) and somehow made it through the Dodgers/Yankees world series (still not over that result). The rest is happily ever after!!!

Let’s start by saying it wasn’t love at first swipe… or the second… or even the third. Nope, we matched five times on Hinge before we finally went on a date. Five! I know what you’re thinking: “Amanda, why did it take so long?” Well, let’s just say, when I first saw his photo, he looked like a total punk. (I wasn’t shy about telling him that on our first date, either.) He was persistent. He messaged me asking, “You, me, drinks this weekend. Who says no?” My response was “no.” To be fair, I was in Alaska for work and wasn’t going to be available until the following weekend. I may have said something about the silly Yankees jersey he was wearing in his photo too—but after the World Series this past year, I think my comment made complete sense. We FaceTimed multiple nights leading up to our first date. I knew he was a keeper when I answered the door and the first thing he said was, “Woah, look at you.” From there, we went to see my now-favorite country artist, Lainey Wilson. Best last first date ever.