My Otter Half

Once upon a time, we were Facebook friends who had never met in person. On one fateful day I posted an open invite to a Flight of the Conchords show and low and behold he was the only one interested. He said he'd look into tickets and a few hours later he surprised me with already having bought them. After a few weeks of not being able to meet, we finally set up our first date on September 16, 2016. The first meeting place was at an Irish bar called McElroy’s, and when I walked in I noticed a handsomely dressed guy with perfectly styled hair sitting on a couch watching the television up above. I startled him by plopping onto the couch beside him. He was a gentleman with the sweetest smile. I talked most of the night. He was nervous as was I but it ended up being a magical time as we hopped from place to place that Friday. He was everything I had ever wanted in a partner but had never had until him. I had no idea that I had met my otter half that night. Two weeks later at a Dynamo game he asked me to be his girlfriend after buying me a warm scarf on a chilly night. "Boyfriends are supposed to keep their girlfriends warm," he said and that was that. Life has been easy, happy and wonderful with him by my side -through the good and bad times and highs and lows. We both had waited a lifetime to find our special someone and luckily we found each other. :)

In 2018, we had traveled to Barcelona to celebrate Jose's birthday and we have a marvelous, wonderful time so it was only fair to celebrate my birthday the following year in France, one of my favorite places! I had already been twice, and I was nervous that I wouldn't be able to show him why I loved Paris so much. Maybe it was all the romanticism that surrounds the famous city of lights. After visiting almost all the tourist destinations and celebrating my birthday under the twinkling midnight lights of the Eifel Tower we decided to drive out of the city towards the Forest of Fontainebleau. Jose and I love nature and a quiet, peaceful hike through the woods seemed like a good idea after surviving all the tourist crowds and noises that constantly flock the city. Jose seemed calm and cool with his adventurous decision to find the Tour Denecourt inside what seemed like a vast and wide area of forest. The cool, fresh air and lush trees were quite the sight but excitement really set in when we realized we had found the tower and scaled up the steps to take in the view from above. It was breathtaking and most certainly worthy of taking video and pictures! And as I waited for Jose to set up his phone on the tower edge for the perfect selfie of us, I realized he was taking a little longer than usual. As he turned around he pulled a ring out of what seemed to be a small plastic bag out of his front shirt pocket. I immediately broke into tears of joy as I realized what was happening! He went down on one knee and I continued to cry but happily nodded yes. Just the two of us, two beautiful rings (one from my mom) at the top of a tower in the middle of a beautiful French forest on a crisp, cool afternoon. My mom had known since February the 14th and she passed on her wedding ring for him to give to me. I had waited for that day all my life and I wouldn't change it for the world. And even better, he caught the whole teary eyed proposal on video: https://youtu.be/QLJ0xOAV8Z8