On a warm Tuesday night in Dallas, Texas, Brendan and I first met at Top Golf. We were both traveling for work to consult on the American Airlines bankruptcy, and Deloitte had planned an event to get all of our teams together. After Brendan came over and introduced himself, our competitive sides quickly kicked in, and immediately money was put on the table (I am a Waclawik after all). As I struggled to hit the ball farther than 10 yards, Brendan couldn't hit a target to save his life. He quickly realized this race for the bottom required a bit of strategy, as he started chipping it into my closer and less valuable targets. After many laughs, Brendan was the victor. Now that neither of us work for Deloitte anymore, I can say, the rest is history...

As we prepared for a big trip to Italy, before we left, Brendan suggested we visit the tidal basin at sunrise, claiming the cherry blossoms were still in bloom. I didn't think much of it, as we hadn't been down in awhile, and the Jefferson Memorial is our favorite. The night before, Brendan made several comments about the state of my nail polish (something he'd never taken note of before...) Just in case (it had been 9 years), I decided to quickly throw on a fresh coat. We woke up the next morning, bright and early, and I came down in yoga pants and a sweatshirt (it was 5 AM!) When I saw Brendan in a cable knit sweater and jeans, hair freshly combed, I decided I may want to step it up a notch. We strolled around the tidal basin to the Jefferson Memorial as the sun began to rise. Under the rotunda (as I rambled on about the carved epitaphs), Brendan got down on one knee! Though there wasn't a cherry blossom in sight, we walked (I floated...) around the tidal basin as the sun rose, happily engaged!