A friend on my unit, Kassie, asked me one day during our shift if she could arrange a blind date with her, her husband, me, and a guy who watched their dog for them from time to time. I figured he liked dogs so that was a good sign, and Kassie was speaking highly of him which was another good sign, so I agreed. February 16th was our scheduled date at Strike ‘N Spare Lanes. I did take a one-credit bowling class in college so I felt confident that this was my time to shine. I walked in to the bowling alley to see Kassie, Chris, and…no date. Chris assured me my date was coming but I wasn’t so sure. Ten minutes late (by my account, Michael will tell you it was five), Michael comes walking into the bowling alley. After a fun night of talking football and bowling (I remember Michael played well and I played terribly - so much for that class in college), Michael invited Kassie, Chris, and I to a little bar in Chatham called Tap Room. His friend was due to become a dad the next day, and a bunch of the guys were meeting up to send him off into fatherhood with a beer. So we all went, and as Michael was opening the door for me to enter Tap Room, he nervously said, “oh yeah, my parents’ car is in the lot so they’re here too.” So I got to meet the parents, the brother, and the friends on night number one. I was immediately welcomed and learned quickly just how wonderful the people are that Michael surrounds himself with. A night of laughter, darts, and TouchTunes lead to date number two, and as they say, the rest is history. 💙