Everyone knew who Sam Conrad was. He was one of our class clowns. You were always hearing about some shenanigans he and his friends were getting into. I never actually met Sam until sophomore year of high school (Spring 2011) when we were both failing chemistry, in the after school chem remediation program. Sam was failing because he didn't do the homework, I was failing because I couldn't make sense of the material.

Fast forward to Junior year (Fall 2011). Sam and I had physics together. He sat right behind me, and bothered me, every single class. Shocker- I was failing physics because of this asinine grading scale- at one point I had a 13% in the class. Anyone who knows me knows I was very much not ok with this grade. Sam sometimes helped me study, when he wasn't too busy bothering me, and I eventually passed the class. We started to hang out at school and sometimes in study hall when I wasn't volunteering.

(For those of you who remember, the Tigger Situation goes here in the timeline of events.) In hanging out, I found out that Sam was funny, honest, intelligent, compassionate, and sweet. He saw me for who I was. The more I got to know him, the more I realized deep down he was a big softie and a wonderful human. He was different than his reputation. September 25th, 2011 Sam asked me to be his girlfriend. Our first date was Homecoming. We basically only saw each other at school because of sports and work (This is when Carisse started working at Pequod's Pizza in Morton Grove). We stayed together through college, which went by so slowly and so quickly at the same time. We graduated college May 2017, and I moved in with my Nonna. After my funemployed summer, I started my first nursing job Fall 2017, and Sam was working full time at Nels Johnson. Fast forward to September 2018, when we moved in together into our first apartment in Old Irving Park. We had a lot to learn about living with each other. One time, I had asked Sam to sweep the floors, and I almost had a stroke when he put the dust pan on the kitchen counter between sweeping. We learned so much about each other and grew together as a couple as a result.

Sam proposed to me at Fort Sheridan forest preserve on a beautiful stretch of prairie overlooking Lake Michigan. Sam was rushing me out of the house to go on a bike ride we had planned from his parents house to Fort Sheridan (anyone who knows me knows that I do not like to be rushed). I was very annoyed with him the whole car ride to his parents. I was thinking: "What in the world is the big deal? Why do we have to rush?" We arrived at his parents, and Molly was her usual self but was smiling at me a little more than usual. I didn't think anything of it. We then rode our bikes to Fort Sheridan and started walking around the preserve. I knew immediately that something was afoot. Sam was way to nervous and too particular about what paths we were walking on. Eventually we walked down a hillside path that was overlooking Lake Michigan, and at the bottom of the path was a picnic basket, blanket, and Tony Soldo. Tony had set up everything for us while we were riding to Fort Sheridan. Tony said: "Hey guys, hows it going?" and then left. Sam dug through the picnic basket, pulled out the ring, and proposed. I cried, and then we had a picnic overlooking the lake. It was wonderful.

After much consideration, going back and forth, planning and unplanning, we decided to postpone our big event and have a much more intimate wedding in Molly and David Conrad's backyard. I actually invited and then proceeded to uninvite our whole wedding party to our new event, because we thought 50 people would be too much for a backyard wedding. We were right. We had 25 of our closest family and friends, and it was perfect. I didn't know I woud want an intimate wedding until that day. There was so much less stress and I felt like I was able to enjoy it more. The weather was beautiful (9/26/20 was a gross cold and rainy day), the snacks and dessert were just what we needed, everyone had a blast, and it was truly a magical day.