I went to UC Santa Barbara for college. In my dorm freshman year was a girl who one day took me to play video games with a friend she knew from high school in the Bay Area. I, as per usual, promptly forgot the guy's name and didn't see him again until we had a calculus class together. Then, as the one familiar face, we reintroduced ourselves and became friends. Nick and I were in the same dorm complex sophomore year, which cemented the friendship. My junior year, Nick's high school girlfriend Nina matriculated at UCSB and Nick introduced us. I spent even more time with Nina my senior year, while Nick and I were roommates, and she and I became friends beyond the "Nick's girlfriend" level. I promise, eventually this gets around to Akemi. As I tend to do, I did a poor job of keeping in touch with people after I graduated in 2006. After a brief stint in Orange County, I landed my dream job working in aerospace and off I went to the Bay Area. I relit a few friendships, but not with Nick, who had a job in Santa Barbara. Nina was still there finishing her degree. Fast-forward to 2012. I took a job building satellites (cool!) on the graveyard shift (not cool). Being lonely from working odd hours, I reached out to the one person who seemed to be awake when I was awake - Nina. Turns out she was in the Philippines working for her extended family. So we reconnected. She returned to the US, and realizing we were in the same geographic area again, she invited me to a Dungeons and Dragons Convention in San Ramon. Funny enough, over Valentines Day weekend. Enter Akemi. Sort of. I went to the convention for a whole 3 hours. Nina introduced me to her rather extensive friend group, at least a dozen people who all knew each other, largely since high school. Among them was Akemi, but I don't remember if we said anything more than hi to each other. I quickly became overwhelmed and left the convention. Important point: knowing I met Akemi then is a reconstructed memory. I know it happened, but don't have a particular memory of it. 2013 continued, and for my birthday. I decided to take a bunch of friends to dinner, including Nina. I got to order "one of everything" from the menu, highly recommended. Anyway, Nina mentioned that her friends traditionally held a Fourth of July LAN party, where everyone brings their computers and plays video games. I decided to go. It was all the same people from the convention! This time I was able to be sociable and actually talk to these people. Akemi let me use her computer for a game she had been hyping to me. Later, we all watched fireworks from the balcony, and Akemi and I stayed there talking after everyone returned to video games. There were fireworks, and there were fireworks. Later, Akemi and I talked on the couch. I lay my arm over the back of the couch, something I've long done for comfort. Akemi took that as a very smooth thing for me to do and cuddled up against me. Not enough of a clue for me. We were too inept to exchange contact info before the party dispersed. Of course, I wasn't even sure of her name at that time because by the time things were clicking, asking "what's your name again?" would have been rather awkward. Luckily, the group had plans to go to the fair the next day and see Weird Al, and I was invited. I got there too early to watch with Akemi, but met up after. We spent even more time together, and, well, there were fireworks and there were fireworks. This time we exchanged numbers. I put her name in my phone spelled wrong. The number was right at least, so the next day I asked her for a date on Sunday. She said yes and spent the intervening Saturday grilling Nina about me. I just worried. Akemi missed her train and was late to our first date at the Exploratorium. Her text didn't go through so I thought she stood me up. I waited anyway. It was a date that every activity ended with "let's find something else to do together now, and not let this end." She was worth the wait.

The very short version, my childhood best friend Nina introduced Greg and I at a 4th of July LAN party. The slightly longer version, but not as long or complicated as Greg's version. My childhood best friend Nina who I met when we were little kids playing youth soccer together introduced me to Greg after talking him up and telling me that "You should meet my friend Greg Thor". Our first official meeting was in Feb 2013 at a gaming convention but Greg didn't really say anything so I didn't think much of it. A few months later Nina invited Greg to our friends' annual 4th of July LAN party where we got to chatting and hit it off while standing outside on the balcony watching fireworks sparkle in the night sky. There were fireworks and there were fireworks. We made plans for the following day to meet up at the Alameda County Fair to see Weird Al but failed to get each other's phone numbers. At the fair we saw the concert separately but met up with friends in time for the fireworks again with help from Nina. After the fireworks while in line for funnel cake we made plans to go on a date to the Exploratorium in two days. This time we made sure to get each other's numbers. Saturday, Nina and I went to see Neil Gaiman and I had the chance to ask her about Greg. Sunday Greg and I went to the Exploratorium, found out how good peanut butter on burgers can be, and found the person that was to become my favorite human.

Akemi and I had talked about marriage and a proposal for quite a while. She even helped order her own ring and knew that it had arrived and was hidden in the house, but didn't know any details on when or how the proposal was going to happen. She only wanted the proposal itself to be a surprise and to have it occur in front of friends. Eventually she said that proposing as part of a tabletop role-playing game (RPG - think Dungeons and Dragons) would be a fun way to do it. In clever misdirection, I told her I couldn't do that since she had suggested it, and so it wouldn't be a surprise. Once the ring arrived, I started plotting. Akemi collects RPG books with all sorts of different rule systems and fantastical settings, but never gets to play them. No one else has the books or wants to run the game. I recruited our friend Dave to run a one-session game for us, and we pored through the games Akemi collected. We settled on one where the team rescues mythical creatures from curses, and the creature generally gives the team a gift in thanks. Dave did a phenomenal job crafting a story. He tweaked a setting in the game to be an icy island, and gave the creature we needed to rescue penguin attributes. I made a character with a number of clues for Akemi. The character's name was Reijo (Finnish for Gregory.) His traits were traits I had, like mechanical aptitude and knowledge of space. She didn't notice. The day of the proposal, Dave ran the game for us. Also playing were Dave's spouse Kathy, Nina (there she is again!), and Nina's husband Mark (in front of friends, check). They were all in on the proposal plan, and knew to take photos and videos when the time came. We worked through the story, found a cure for the penguin's curse, and cured the penguin. Dave described the penguin giving my character a box as thanks. That was my cue. I opened a drawer in our game table, took out the ring box, and presented the ring inside to Akemi. "And in that box was a ring. Akemi Lynn Maniwa, will you marry me?"