We're getting married!

Mariana: surrounded by mountains, hummingbirds, sea froth, and palm trees in the Santa Barbara summer of 2017, we met within the drywall confines of work. I was instantly smitten by his sense of humor, tender heart, and bone structure, but for one moment feared he was gay when he teased someone once by singing the chorus of "Obsessed" by Mariah Carey. This was a false alarm, and I learned instead he was a rare breed: a straight man with good taste. He asked me out for ice cream and told me about how his front tooth was knocked out by a softball, and that was pretty much it. Steve: Mariana and I met at the Mission rose garden after a contractor caught on fire at work, and we got half day. My brain would autocorrect her name to Marinara, and I began to call her Marinara. It was a term of endearment that some people somehow found offensive and dehumanizing. Regardless, Mariana did not find it offensive. We went to Yogurtland in Goleta on a date, and when Mariana went back to Pittsburgh for CMU grad school, we dated long distance for about 7 months. Mariana then got a job in Goleta, moved to Santa Barbara, and we've been living together ever since.