We had our first date in a corner café inside a Korean grocery store in Chicago. It was a hole in the wall restaurant where you order off a large placard menu taking up the entire wall, and lined up by dozens of people waiting for food. After dinner we proceeded to walk through the market looking at everything from frozen fish to a fridge lined with a variety of kimchi.

It was on Friday the 13th! The backyard was covered with 300 tea candles, string lines, and a chilled bottle of champagne. The VERY light summer breeze kept blowing out the candles and we had to keep re-lighting them with matchsticks, lighters, and even a blowtorch. Mike was at work all day while I was planning the proposal in the backyard. As usual, Mike left work later than expected and I asked him (repeatedly) what time he was coming home. I even tried to entice him with plans for a Taco Bell dinner fiesta! When he finally pulled into the driveway, I was ready -- he opened the back gate and I greeted him with the entire backyard illuminated and an engagement ring in my hand. I told him how much I loved him and how I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him. "Will you marry me?" I asked. And he, of course, said yes! A few tears may have been shed (by Mike) and we sat in our backyard for a while and talked about how incredibly lucky we were to have found each other. We then took our dogs for a long walk and ended up at Mike's favorite taco joint (Big Star!) for a few tacos on the patio with the dogs. It was the perfect night! Thanks to our friends/neighbors/tenants for their help!

Jack and I quickly realized that what we had was special -- we both knew it pretty instantly. We wasted no time and I moved from Lakeview to Jack's condo in Logan Square at the beginning of 2019. When he soon sold it, we moved to a small, but cozy apartment in a great part of Wicker Park. It was fun living there, but we knew that home ownership was something that was in our near future, so we started to casually look for condos and possible investment properties. After seven months of living in our tiny apartment, we found a great property between Wicker Park and Humboldt Park. It was a great, old building (built in the 1880s!) with two units, a large, functional basement and a big backyard (by Chicago standards). We knew that this place was meant to be our next home. We made an offer and waited. Finally, it was accepted and we closed on March 13, 2020. And then the world stopped a few days later. It was okay, though. It gave us the opportunity to work on the house, spend most of our time together and really strengthen our relationship and commitment to each other. Before the pandemic changed the world, we were able to travel to some great places -- Toronto, New York, Barcelona, Portland, Bangkok and Tokyo. Jack traveled down to South Florida to meet my family and I got the chance to meet his family as well. We're looking forward to our next adventures once we can start traveling again!