Marky and I met my first week at Trader Joe’s In Orange CA.. February 2016.. He was a vet, and I was a newbie.. so he had some training tips for me during that week… or two.. that we’re not asked for.. but if you know Mark then you know. One very distinct early memory, we were facing the cereal aisle together and he said something very Mark-like and I responded with “you’re killing me smalls” and that’s when he said “I knew we’d be friends” The years of coworkers went on very friendly and competitive (as we are) .. but I it made working at Trader Joe’s so fun. Mark had/has a way of pushing me to my potential and always knows how to say things to get me there. His “coaching” techniques are some that I just get. Another example is when I was acting to be a damsel in distress trying to lift onion boxes to the top shelf .. he simply said ok.. “college athlete”. As sarcastic Mark does.. So my competitive self just had to go on and do it! During these years as coworkers/ friends we really found ourselves to confide in each other, we both had separate relationships that we would discuss, we’d talk about a lot! All the good, bad and the ugly.. we were just great friends, that never judged. …. Fast forward .. Mark left TJ’s to go to paramedic school, and I left to a different store. We lost contact.. after about a year.. during the summer of a really shitty (there is no better word for it) year -2020- Mark slidddd into my DM’s and simply said.. I hope all is well, and I hope you’re reaching all your goals you wanted to in life. Well, spoiler alert. I hadn’t… it was such a refreshing thing to read because there was a lotttt to fill him in on, and him to fill me in on. So we messaged back and forth for a bit and compared how shitty our year had been. Then we agreed to meet up and catch up further. After a long beach walk we had spilled everything about past year… we met up quite a few more times that summer… and it was just .. well EASY. And we pretended like it was just a our great friendship rekindling. Till someeeeonne (me) got feels, and well.. I told him.. and as you can tell.. ya We’re getting Married!!! Such a wild Ride.. but Marky .. I’ve loved every bit of it.. and I can’t wait for FOR.EV.ER

We all know Amanda and I first met at Trader Joe’s. I remember the first time I saw her it was 4:55 in the morning and she was coming in for her 5 am shift. I saw her and was like oh okay she’s cute and a friend of mine saw me make a face when I saw Amanda and my friend said oh you think she’s cute huh. So from that moment on I was waiting for a good time to talk to her, and it finally happened a few days later when I was saying or doing something silly and she said “you’re killing me smalls” and from that moment I knew there was something about Amanda that I liked. Through the years of working at traders we were pretty close friends, occasionally went line dancing, went to the park to play catch and “hit bombs off her pitching”.. but mainly, we had good talks and helped each other through many life’s troubles. It wasn’t because I had a crush on her or anything we truly just had a special friendship. The one thing that Amanda did that annoyed me was, she would steal my sharpies from my work locker and me being an only child…. I don’t share.. She was the only one that I’d let that slide for. As time went on, I left Trader Joe’s to peruse paramedic school and Amanda transferred to a different store. We lost touch for a bit. Then the greatest year yet .. 2020 comes along and my world changed, my dream job that I had been working over ten years to have, was swept from Me. I was in a very low spot and to top it off I dumped a month before. But as life happens I just had this feeling that I needed to reach out to Amanda and just check in on her so I “DM’d” her on instagram saying hey, hope all is well and you’re living the dream or something along those lines. A few weeks later “because she didn’t see it” she responds and says hi. We ended up meeting in Huntington Beach and we went for a walk and talked about our life and how much has changed since the last time we had seen each other. Then it became a let’s hang out again and again. I was fighting the feelings the whole time of falling for her and just calling her my girlfriend not girlfriend or as my family knew her as “BB” aka baking buddy. She would make desserts for my family for thanksgiving even when she hadn’t met them before. That just is a small part of why Amanda is so amazing! We finally decided to go on a real “first date” .. and the rest is history.