Thinking back on our relationship it's hard to find the start. We had to make up an anniversary that I could remember, so it became game 5 of the NLCS. That's the night we were at Wrigley Stadium, the Cubs won, and I went for a cheesy kiss under the fireworks. We both knew that dating could be risky and complicated because we shared all the same friends, but our friends aren't anything to write home about anyways. I remember our first date. It was more of a dating formality, had to check that box, but we both knew where this relationship was going. We went out to dinner and got drinks after. Jordann will tell you that I was nervous but she's the one that spilled an entire beer on my lap. Our dating history isn't that exciting of a story after that, because it's always been easy and we both knew the other was the one. My travel expenses have skyrocketed since meeting Jordann, but some of my favorite memories are wandering around cities with her heels in my backpack. We knew we were going to get married, the only question was when. Thankfully, the army sent me to Afghanistan and settled that question for us too. I proposed in Rome, at the Forum, and with some luck from the old gods, she said yes.

When I heard Chris was moving to Chicago, I was nervous. We had a good thing going with our group of friends and I was worried it would throw off the dynamic. He managed to win me over with his trivia acumen, political t-shirts and excessive holiday decorations. We became fast friends and began to develop feelings. Despite me previously authoring a poorly-received article on the perils of inter-friendgroup relationships, we took the plunge into dating. It paid off. We became serious quickly and cemented our relationship with kisses under the Eiffel Tower, motorbike rides through rice paddies and food poisoning in Mexico City. Together we built a quirky apartment ruled by an evil kitten and filled it with pies, books and the sounds of scratched thrift store records. We got engaged in Italy and spent our last few weeks together pre-deployment stuffing ourselves with pasta and wine.