Logan & I got to know each other while living in Texas, but that's not where our story begins. When we first met, I was only a glow in the dark wrist band running around the Oak Bridge golf course. In high school, Lauren invited me to play "Night Friz" with her and her friends. What is Night Friz? Well, it's ultimate frisbee played at night with a glow in the dark frisbee and wristbands to denote team allegiance. It was awesome. While I made lots of friends during these nighttime excursions, I was not blessed with the pleasure of Logan's conversation. I like to say it's because he was too cool for me, but Logan disagrees. He insists it's because we were never on the same team and I was too much of a threat on the field. No "fraternizing with the enemy". Flash forward 7 years, and we had gone our separate ways for college and had our own early adulthood adventures. Logan was living it up on the West coast and I was holding down the fort on the East. While visiting home, I ran into Morgan (a member of the Night Friz group who DID speak to me). While catching up, we realized Morgan and Logan were also planning to move to Austin! Not only were they planning to move to the same city as me and Carlye, but their move date was 2 days after ours! Thankfully, nobody had any prior connections in Austin, so we agreed to tackle this adventure together. Well, Morgan and I did at least. Since I wasn't friends with Logan on FB, I slid into his DM's with "A little birdie told me you're moving to Austin!" (insert cringe here). He proceeded to ignore my message for a few days before responding, continuing the aforementioned pattern... All of us moved to Austin on a wing and a prayer without much knowledge of the city, which made for great adventures and explorations. The 4 of us quickly became inseparable and got to know each other on a weirdly personal level. We were our true and honest selves; the good, the bad, and the bizarre. From there I guess it was only a matter of time...

When: October 27th, 2018 Where: Charlottesville, VA On our first date, I fell in love with Jean. Two months later, I realized she was the girl I was going to marry. People can hate on Nicholas Sparks novels all they want, but I’m sorry, when you know you know, and I knew. I couldn't have been more excited thinking about us getting married. The thought genuinely ran through my mind every time I saw her. However, due to societal norms, I decided to play it slow-(ish?) and not jump the gun. After a few months, I decided to go ring shopping. Fueled with knowledge from WikiHow, I went to jeweler after jeweler searching for the right ring. After utilizing a plethora of microscopes and black lights, I finally found the one. It was perfect, and I was ready to give it to her that day. The only thing was...the plan was to propose in October. So, I stored the ring and waited….and waited….and waited. During this exercise in patience, I started to finalize proposal specifics. I wanted to make sure Jean’s friends and family (Carlye, Casey, Chip, & Coco) could be there, so these four “C” named people became Team NSFJ (Not Safe For Jean) as we ironed out the details. On Oct 26th, Jean and I got on our plane to Charlottesville. Naturally, our plane was delayed causing us to land in the tiny airport the same time as Carlye. After a series of “DO NOT GET OFF YOUR PLANE UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES! FAKE A HEART ATTACK IF YOU NEED TO!” texts, Jean and I left without her suspecting a thing. The next morning I knew I had my work cut out for me. I knew where and when I wanted to propose, but I couldn’t be the one to say where to go; Jean had been to Charlottesville many times before, so if I was calling the shots, she would have been suspicious. Fortunately, I know Jean loves brunch and wineries, so everything fit perfectly within my plans….mwahaha.

After brunch, we went to Pippin Hill Vineyard (the final stop before proposal time). Our timing was looking great. Chip & Coco were going to land soon, and we would all meet within the hour. As fate would have it, Chip and Coco’s plane was delayed and I had to stall further. (Enter more bottles of wine) After we stayed as long as we could, we left for our final spot, King Family Vineyard. We got there 30 min before Team NSFJ, so I exclaimed, “boy am I hungry,” and grabbed food and a table. As soon as we sat down, Jean wanted to FaceTime her mom. Knowing her mom would immediately answer with “CONGRATULATIONS,” I told Jean I wasn't hungry anymore and wanted to get photos of us first. With that painful excuse in hand, we went to the back lawn and had a couple take photos of us. Team NSFJ was still 10 min out, so I told Jean I wanted to take photos of her. After that, Team NSFJ was still 5 min out, so I told Jean I wanted her to take photos of me….cue the most awkward photoshoot of my life. As I was going through uncomfortable pose after uncomfortable pose, the surprise guests started to walk over. With them in sight, I told Jean I love how we can always make any moment special, but for today, I needed a little help. Jean turned and saw her friends and family, and then I got down on one knee and asked her to marry me. She said “yes,” knelt down with me, and then accidentally poured her glass of red wine on the back of my shirt; a souvenir I will never forget. We all celebrated together, but the day was not yet over. It was Halloween weekend, so later that night we went out in costume as Burt Macklin and Janet Snakehole to a rowdy college bar (shout out to our Parks and Rec fans). If this wasn’t indicative of our relationship, then I don’t know what is. It was the best weekend of my life, and I couldn’t’ have asked for anything better. TLDR: Jean and I went to Charlottesville. I proposed. She said “yes.”