Our story begins when two strangers casually chatted on the bleachers at a swim meet in 2005 in Alexandria, VA. We both noted the conversation and found it fun and engaging, but we both were in other relationships. Years later, in 2009, we found ourselves single, in DC, and swimming on the same local masters team. At the end of the summer swim season, we crossed paths again at a happy hour but didn't interact much with each other. In December 2009, Brian had a party to celebrate completing his first semester of business school and invited many of the swimmers from the summer happy hour, including Julie. The night of the party turned out to be one of DC's worst snowstorms in its history. It was called "Snowpocalypse" and it shut down the DC area for a week or more. Naturally, most people weren't able to make the party. Since Julie lived in the city only 2.5 miles away, she was able to take the metro to the party, although it took 1.5 hours to get there! Homemade cookies in hand, Julie arrived at the party. Later in the evening, Brian asked Julie to go to dinner with him sometime. The swimming circle in DC is pretty small, so by our second or third date, we realized we were the two strangers who had met 5 years earlier on the bleachers at the swim meet! And the rest, as they say, is history. Our first date was 12/30/2009, so our wedding on 12/31/2019 will officially start a new chapter and day 1 of year 11 together.