I met Pat on the very first day of freshman orientation at the University of Tulsa. Both Pat & I procrastinated in filling out our housing forms, so I got stuck in the all-girls dorm & he got stuck in 7th street. After getting settled into our dorm, my friend Rachel & I went to the much cooler, co-ed dorm, Fisher South, to meet people. The first day of college is so exciting, but it can also be very intimidating. On our way out of the lobby, we ran into Patrick Harle & a gaggle of boys from 7th Street. I was relieved to see a familiar face, I’ve known Harle since I was 5 years old. Our groups quickly latched on to each other & that is when I met Pat. We hung out all through orientation, went to countless school sanctioned bonding events, & rented season one of Arrested Development on DVD from the McFarlin Library. One night, our group snuck into the Mayo pool & we all showcased our winks. When Pat winked, he opened his mouth & slowly closed both eyes. Looking back, I think that’s when I fell in love with him. By the end of the first week of classes, Pat & I were officially dating. I defended the fact that I already had a boyfriend to my sister Andrea by saying, “we were friends first!!” I stand by that because 2 weeks in college is like 2 years in the real world. As most orientation romances go, we broke up by the end of our first semester, but that was not the end of our love story. We were young & dumb & definitely not ready to be with the person we were supposed to marry. Until one day we were. In 2017, Pat finally asked me on a real date to the Cheesecake Factory. I was so nervous to go on a real date with Pat. That day any time I thought of something I wanted to tell Pat, I wrote it down instead of texting him so I would have something to say at dinner. That was unnecessary because there is no one who gets me like Pat Fox. We’ve been together ever since. Now the question of “will they, won’t they” has finally been answered & it turns out we will.

It was a Tuesday in June, the second day of the week to some and the third to others, but that’s neither here nor there. I ordered the ring back in April, but it was being delayed because of COVID (thanks Gavin Newsome). I’d known since our first date back at The Cheesecake Facory that I wanted to marry J.J. and almost three years later I was finally going to propose. That morning the ring had finally arrived and I decided I couldn’t wait another day to ask her to marry me. I’ve been planning on how to ask her for months and was ready to go. She knew I was going to ask her at some point in 2020 so I wanted to catch her by surprise. And no one expects to get proposed to on a Tuesday at 5 pm. I spent the whole day editing Marc Miller commercials and watching Mission Impossible II, but I didn’t let that ring box out if my sight. All I could think about was how I was going to ask her to marry me later that day. As 5 o’clock approached I put on my nicest suit and got my hair did (Thanks, Ronald!). My plan was to surprise J.J. and propose to her in her parents’ backyard so I got her sisters to help me trick J.J. into going out into her backyard. They told her that Lucy, their dog, made a mess outside and she had to go outside and clean it up, but little did she know that instead of a mess waiting for her, it was me on one knee. She went from complete disgust of having to clean up Lucy’s mess to total bliss when she saw me(or at least I hope so). She walked up to me and I asked her “Jana Jacklestill Cristin Cody, will you marry and not divorce me?” She responded, “Duh Yes!” And the rest is history. After knowing each other for 10 years and dating for over 4 years, we are finally getting married and not divorced.