Mark and Joanne met at the Comcast Silicon Valley Innovation Center in Sunnyvale, California. Joanne was fresh out of grad school just starting her career in tech as a Project Manager. Mark was an experienced Software Engineer. She thought Mark had really beautiful eyes and found him to be funny, goofy and sweet. Mark thought she was totes adorbs and super cute to boot. They became fast friends, chatted at work often, hung out at various company and team events, worked out at the gym, and even attended BlizzCon together (thanks Jerome). Joanne loved to bake desserts and treats for her team and always made sure that he got to sample them as well. One random day, Mark sent Joanne a Slack DM (direct message) asking her to coffee, but she was busy with meetings and sadly declined the invite. After a Hawaii trip, Mark brought her a mini snow globe back from Maui (and he NEVER buys gifts for anyone). Joanne thought, "Wow, what a nice friend." After years of friendship and supposed flirting, in November 2018 Joanne invited Mark to her holiday work party (she was now at Salesforce) but he couldn't make it. In return, Mark invited her to the Comcast holiday party on January 2019 and luckily she was available. It turned out that this was actually their first date! The attraction that evening was so strong and they had so much fun together that they ended up having a second date. In February 2019 during a romantic date day in Santa Cruz (Mystery Spot, Marianne's Ice Cream, the Boardwalk), their relationship went to the next level when Mark got down on one knee at the pier and popped the questions "Will you....be my girlfriend?" to which of course, Joanne said, "Yes!" Who knew it would be a prelude for what was to come. Mark and Joanne have been inseparable ever since, even so far as moving to a different state to be together.

It was March 31, an important day in history because that was when Joanne was born. She woke up feeling ecstatic and very blessed to be alive. She started work early, then took a quick break to attend mass where Fr. Moore gave her a birthday blessing. When she arrived home, Mark made her a delicious breakfast - eggs with corn tortillas. Yum! The day proceeded as normal. Mark was at his computer coding away while Joanne led numerous back to back meetings and followed up on work related tasks. Oddly around noon Mark said he had to leave to 'run some errands' which he rarely ever did. When he came home, he surprised Joanne with her favorite Avocado Matcha Boba drink - 25% sweet. He also bought her favorite treats from the grocery store - peanut butter pretzels, plantain chips, and organic banana chips. After a few minutes, he called Joanne to the kitchen where she was surprised to find a beautiful birthday cake. She thought it was from Mark, but it was actually a gift from her girlfriends, Stella Wu and Shan Gunning. Mark sang happy birthday, Joanne made a wish, and then she blew out the candles. While licking the frosting off a candle, Mark started talking about how he wasn't sure where to do 'this' but it made sense to do 'it' in the house they would potentially grow old in together. Unfortunately Joanne was only half paying attention as she focused diligently on the delicious vanilla strawberry cake before her and continued licking off more frosting, wondering when Mark would finally bring a plate and knife so she could start digging in. The rambling Joanne heard continued and at the corner of her eye, she saw Mark slowly get down on one knee and he presented a sparkly ring. Her eyebrows rose as he spoke. "Will you marry me?" he asked. Joanne started crying hysterically and replied "Yes, yes, yes!" She continued to cry, Mark got teary eyed, and they both hugged each other tightly for a long time. Afterward, they called their families and friends to share the wonderful news. March 31 will always be a truly memorable and historic day!