I remember the exact day that I met Matt. It was September 3, 2015. My friend Natalie invited me to watch the UofM v Utah Football game at her friend's house. It was Jim Harbaugh's debut as football coach for the Wolverines. As a Spartan, I couldn’t have cared less, but it seemed like a good opportunity to get out and meet some new people. I met Natalie at her friend Motay's house. He said a total of 5 words to me while I was there. He was pretty invested in the game. Over the course of that football season I hung out with Natalie and Motay a few more times. I learned Motay has a full name - Matt Taylor. I learned he would likely never pay much attention to me during UofM Football Games. And I also learned he was fun, hilarious, caring and always the life of the party.

So I didn't exactly nail the first meeting. Or second, or third, etc. But I hung in there, and eventually after some perseverance, I was able to build up the courage to ask Liz on a date....sort of...well, actually I just found this one event that I thought looked cool and suggested it to friends, including Liz, and then all the friends bailed except for Liz....date time. It was a popup for the Detroit bar/restaurant Standby at the UM Business School, and since we bought tickets, we figured we would still go, with both of us loosely assuming this was a real life date. I remember having a couple cocktails and neither of us being able to stifle our laughter at how out of place we felt, being that it was a pretty formal event for a first date. We had a great time, but both were ready to get out of there, and I had an idea... A friend of mine had been telling me that he had a go-to first date spot in town that always went over well. For those familiar with Ann Arbor, it is The Bar at 327 Braun Ct. It's in the Kerrytown neighborhood of Ann Arbor, and is a house in the middle of a courtyard. When you go inside and walk upstairs, you kind of feel like you're in your grandma's house with a bar. This was more our speed. I remember the conversation flowing so much easier than any date I had ever been on. After a cocktail and a few PBRs, I even had this girl asking me to go on a trip with her to Peru. That's when I knew it was going well. I told her I would think about it, neglecting to address the fact that as a grad student, pretty much the only vacations that I went on at the time needed to revolve around conferences. I figured I'd cross that bridge when we came to it. I remember going home that night thinking about how fun and comfortable it was to be around Liz, and that this semi-accidental date might have been the best thing to ever happen to me.

I have to admit Bar at Braun Court was a fun first date location! One of the added benefits of dating Matt is that he is always finding fun bars/restaurants/activities to fill our schedule. Thinking back to the beginning of our relationship I think it all became very real for me around his birthday. We had been hanging out a lot, we started meeting eachothers friends and family and we planned a little weekend getaway to Cincinatti for Matt’s birthday. I remember having such a great time on that mini vacation. Road tripping down there, meeting his friends Kevin and Meagan, and exploring various cocktail bars around the city. If I could describe our relationship in 1 word it would be fun. We just have a great time together. We have traveled a lot together and in between our trips we love socializing, entertaining and trying new restaurants. We moved into our first house together in Ann Arbor, MI in August of 2017. It was an adorable house on a park and we quickly got to work making it our own. Shortly after got our dog Finnegan (the love of our lives). We have just started our new adventure in Chicago!