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We met at a bar. Alissa hates when I start the story like that, but Hemingway's Cafe (voted best college bar in the Burgh) is where it all began. A mutual friend of ours invited us to go with a few other friends to a trivia night that the bar was hosting. I was running a little late because class had run over that night and I almost skipped trivia, but ending up deciding to go. When I got there, I strode in, dashing as ever and flashed my ID to that guy by the door. I flung the door open and all eyes went to me. Cameras flashed, people cheered... Mike, stop making stuff up and tell the story. And that guy is called a bouncer. Okay, sorry. So I got to the bar a little late, walked in without much ado, and saw the group sitting up at the front of the bar near the window. I sat down and was introduced to Alissa because we were the only ones who hadn't met before. Trivia started and we talked casually between rounds. Alissa hoped that there would be a super hero round because she was sure that she would do really well in that round - I hoped that there would be some sort of world geography round because I knew we would clean up. We did end up playing on both subjects at a later trivia night - we won't go into how those rounds went... The next week we all met up for trivia again. I wore a Canada shirt that I got in Niagara Falls because I thought Alissa was interesting and thought the shirt would be a good conversation starter. Actually, was that the super hero night? I think we got two out of ten of those right. Mike! Story! Whatever. So Mike started talking to a few of our friends about his annual wine party he had invited them to on Facebook. We weren't Facebook friends and I wanted to go because I thought I might kind of like him, so I chimed in saying, "I like wine." He told me that I could come and it was at his wine party that I decided that I really did like him. A couple weeks later we had our first date and have been together ever since!

So it was Groundhog Day - a good idea because if I messed up, Bill Murray could help me do it over again. I had picked up the ring about two weeks before (a couple days after our 4-year anniversary) and I think I did an okay job of keeping my cool. Alissa's parents were in town for an early birthday celebration and I had arranged for my parents to be ready for a video call. Alissa had a hair appointment in the morning - she wanted her hair to be ready for our vacation the following week. Everything was going according to plan. Alissa left for her appointment in the morning and I went to Alissa's parents' hotel room so I could ask them if it was okay for me to ask her to marry me. The ring company had a 30-day return policy, so there wasn't too much pressure - I could try to convince them over the next four years if I had to. I got their approval by the skin of my teeth and I told them how everything was about to go down. We drove to pick up Alissa from her hair appointment so that we could all go to the US Botanic Garden. We picked her up from and, of course, she looked beautiful, which made me even more nervous. I think I did a good job acting like myself on the drive - I cracked a lot of really dumb jokes. We got to the Garden and we slowly made our way to the place I had picked out the week before. I stopped her and started telling her how much I love her. She started crying which I hoped was a good sign. I got down on my knee and asked her if she would be with me for forever. Seconds that felt like minutes ticked by as I awaited her answer. "It's about damn time," she finally said. I took that as a yes and put the ring on her finger. My parents were on video and talked to us right after. Kimberly had popped out of the jungle moments before and had been taking pictures of us. We got a bunch of pictures and went out to dinner with her parents. When we came back, some of Alissa's friends were there in her parents' hotel for a surprise celebration.