In September of my last year in graduate school, my lovely roommate convinced me to attend a social hosted by Ballroom at Maryland. One short waltz lesson later, and I was completely hooked! It wasn't until the next week while at a West Coast Swing class, that I met James. It was a huge round robin style lesson, so I probably danced with 30 guys that night. Several of the guys stuck out because they were especially nice or good leads. James did because he was an exceptionally good dancer AND was wearing a grey engineering shirt, which I figured meant that he HAD to be smart. Fast forward a couple months until November at UMD's big ballroom competition: DCDI. I wasn't competing (mostly because I was way too much of a chicken... and also I wasn't very good!). James was the team captain at the time and was competing standard and latin. He realized that I was there helping out even though I didn't have to and was impressed by my willingness to pitch in and help the team as best I could. For me the moment that sticks out the most was walking up to him having his hair done. In the ballroom world, hair is meant to be completely stationary. When I arrived that morning, one of the newbie freshman girls was coating James' head with SO MUCH hairspray that it was actually running down the sides of his face. Like any true, helpful adult, I doubled over laughing. The girl was so embarrassed, but James was such a good sport and just so thankful that she'd been willing to help, that I was honestly impressed. I watched how they interacted and immediately thought "now this is someone who I'd like to be friends with." The rest is history!

James popped the question just a few days before our anniversary. We had planned a trip to Olympic National Park (one of my bucket list items) with the two of us and his childhood best friend. I was originally suspicious, but he was so calm and normal the entire weekend, that I figured I must be wrong, and he wasn't planning to propose after all. Then, on our drive to Crescent Lake, he had me play my favorite romantic Louis Armstrong and Frank Sinatra songs. Once we got there, Peter snuck away to set up and hide to take pictures, while James shepherded a completely oblivious me out of the way. Then, right as the sun was setting, he walked me out to where he had a picnic blanket (complete with twinkle lights and a basket of my favorite candy ) waiting at the end of the dock. He got down on one knee and asked me to be his. Easiest question I've ever answered!