We were destined to be together, it may sound trite, but it's true. Eric likes to say, that he woke up one day and decided to join Match.com, and within a day, he had met Matt. What are the odds? After a couple of weeks of daily phone calls and texts, on January 14th 2017, we met face-to-face for the longest first date...ever. It was more like 3 dates in one day; and we've been together ever since. From the beginning we were amazed at the number of commonalities we found. We share the same middle name; we were born a year and a day apart; and we're both teachers. However, we credit it each other with new things we've learned and done. Eric credits Matt for learning how to spend less and live more simply. Conversely, Matt loves how his wardrobe has doubled! But seriously, when it came to designing our engagement/wedding rings we started with completely different ideas, but as we talked with the jeweler our ideas evolved, moving closer together, to result in exactly what we both wanted. It was pretty clear early on that we would be together forever, and weren't the least bit hesitant about talking about the future. So, we got engaged on April 14th, 2018. What an epic day! Matt filled, not just the day, but the entire weekend with so many surprises. The story of that day has been chronicled on Eric's Facebook page. During the summer of 2018, Eric retired from his teaching career, sold his loft, and moved-in with Matt. We've set up housekeeping in our beautiful Salinas house, and spend our free time making it a home.