In late December 2018, we met at a birthday party for my brother-in-law, Michael, at a local dive bar called The Zoo. As the night progressed, my sister, Corissa, couldn't help but put her matchmaker hat on. She kept mentioning to Joe that her sister was single and to "go over and talk to her". Eventually, probably to get Corissa off his back, Joe came over and introduced himself. He spent the rest of the night buying me beers to paying up on his losing skeeball bets. Samma was sure he would ask for her number, but the end of the night came and they said their goodbyes. A couple days went by, and Samma decided she wanted to see Joe again - you don't find a bonafide man who can make gumbo around Seattle very often. She recruited Michael in law to give Joe her number the next week at work. Joe realized you don't find a woman who loves cheap beer and college football very often outside of the South. He wised up and the rest was history. - Samma

Summer was winding down and the weather was showing only one more sunny day. I insisted that we take advantage of this Friday evening and take the kayak out. We packed our finest Trader Joe's charcuterie board spread, a bottle of wine, and headed out on Greenlake. After thwarting off a couple question about where our relationship was going, the sun started to set and I "remembered" that I had brought one last but important thing for the outing. I reached back into the bag and pulled out the ring. Samma had to take a moment to catch her breath but she could not have been more ready to say YES! -Joe P.S. Yes, the ring was fully insured before I brought it out over an open body of water!