IHOW WE MET Love at first Leprechaun? It was a cool March night for the leprechauns to come out and play. Claudia had just finished an evening shift and her friends had insisted she meet them at a bar called Sips. Sips was conveniently underneath a bar called Patty's, a well-known establishment for leprechauns to drink and dance. After meeting her friends on the dance floor, Claudia swayed and moved to the music for only a few moments before green lights caught her eye. The green hue came from a light up fedora, slightly tilted to create an enticing view of a gorgeously chiseled jaw. The man attached to the fedora wore a white t-shirt and black pants with green suspenders that hugged his muscles. It was hard not to miss this man since he danced his way around the circle bar, bobbing and smiling and laughing with those who decided to join him. She may have even seen him do a heel tap like a leprechaun would. Claudia couldn't keep her eyes off the man in the green flashing lights, probably because they were so bright, she had no other choice but to look. She was fascinated by what seemed to be a leprechaun on the night of Saint Patrick's Day. He and his friends must have come down from Patty's, she assumed. As we all know, leprechauns can disguise themselves very well as humans in these modern times of magic and are no longer short in stature as the fairytales describe. Quietly, a friend of the leprechaun approached, and Claudia was startled, realizing she was caught in the act of devising a plan to catch the leprechaun. He asked if Claudia would like to dance with the brightly lit leprechaun, and she quickly nodded, not holding back her eagerness to catch him and hopefully his gold too! When they were introduced, Claudia was shocked to hear that his name was Robert the lover of Hobbits and in fact a simple man with no magical abilities or gold. Claudia, still enchanted nonetheless by Robert's charm, proceeded to dance to a cheesy 2010's pop song. Immediately after the song ended, Robert tried his luck, despite not being a real leprechaun and went in for a kiss on the dance floor, to which Claudia did a whole-body wave away from his kiss and told him "I don't want to seem unavailable to other men on the dance floor." Robert quickly grabbed her hand and asked her preferred drink so that she would at least seem unavailable for the time she spent with him. After turning off his fedora and spending hours talking in the busy bar with everyone else buzzing around dancing and talking, Rob asked if Claudia would like to go somewhere a little quieter. At first Claudia resisted, wondering if this was actually a trick a leprechaun would play to entice a maiden as a means of escaping with his gold later and vanishing into the abyss of Ames Iowa. But Robert, being the peaceful Hobbit that he was, reassured her, they would only be watching the lore of his people and other mystical beings known as Lord of the Rings. Claudia did in fact accept his invitation. Claudia learned all about Hobbits, Elves and even the One Ring to Rule them all. Robert was a gentleman and drove her home that night after finishing the movie. They said their goodbyes, and Claudia slowly walked into her apartment. She thought she had caught a leprechaun when in fact she caught a Robert. A man with a heart of gold and his charm would make any girl feel lucky. She caught the Luck of the Irish that night, despite being 100% Polish! She didn't know this yet, but the leprechaun-looking Hobbit was going to give her the only piece of gold any girl wanted, the one and only golden ring. The one ring to rule them all.