It was my first day of orientation at Big Sky. I was sitting front and center, by myself, like a nerd. Marley and her crew rolled in all joking and laughing with each other and sat in the back. Troy Nedved asked if everyone in the back of the room could come fill up the seats in front. So the delinquents in the back of the room all sauntered up to the front to join me. Marley and one of her best friends, Ruth, came and sat next to me. Marley introduced herself to me in her usual enthusiastic way of talking, "Hi! I'm Marley, this is my friend Ruth, what's your name?" They were both wearing wool sweaters and Carhartt pants with matching Thunderbird necklaces. I thought to myself, 'What and attractive couple.' Little did I know that just a few months later we would be at Beehive Brewery with mutual friends where I learned that not only was Marley NOT gay, but that she was single. It was also the first time I met Sampson; needless to say he loved me, and the rest, as they say is history.

A few friends and I were walking in late to our orientation session for our second season at Big Sky Resort. After 6 months apart, we obviously all had a lot to catch up on. Sitting in the back row of the conference room, carrying on with our conversations, we were interrupted by the CEO. He politely asked us to move up to fill in the seats toward the front. In order to find multiple seats for us all together, I had to lead the way to the very front row. No one sits in the front row, you see, so there'd be plenty or room. Ah, but to my surprise, this time, there was. One lone ranger, sitting in the very first seat of the very first row. How attentive. I didn't recognize him so I decided to introduce myself. I marched right up and said, "Hi, my name is Marley. What's your name? You must be new here, I don't forget a face. Can my friends and I sit here?" I learned that he would be a ski instructor that winter as well, but on the other side of the mountain. He was a little quiet and shy for my taste, but I decided that he was super attractive and would keep my eyes out for him on the hill. That first month, he didn't seem very interested. Which, obviously, made me even more interested. Weird how that works. We should change that. Anyway, come February, he was at a local bar and overheard that I had broken up with my boyfriend a few months before and was on the market again. When he finally asked me to hang out shortly thereafter, I was stoked! We hung out a few times, but I found him rather boring and lost interest. Then I moved home for the summer to work at camp, so we lost touch for a bit. I did, however, decide to let him sublet my room from May-September. We talked a handful of times over the course of the summer, but nothing serious. That is, until I moved back to Bozeman that fall.... I kept asking if he had found somewhere else to live, locked anything down, had any leads, when he was moving out, etc. His answers were pretty vague.

A couple months later, on my drive back to Bozeman, I called Pat. I told him I was moving back in in 3 days and asked where had planned to go. He then came up with this crazy idea. He suggested, "I was thinking of just staying here, and we could share this room." The questions started pouring out, "How's that going to work? How are we going to separate the room? What do we do when we have friends over? How are we supposed to date people? I'll be undateable!" He said, "Well, we'd just date each other." Now, if you know Pat, you know that he's not great at communicating his feelings. So while I was aware that he showed interest when we talked, he never once told me that he liked me or wanted to date me or had feelings for me, etc. Needless to say, this suggestion of living together came as a shock. We went out a few more times, my dog approved of him, I liked him, so we moved in together. By this point, I realized he wasn't that boring or shy, I just never gave him the time to talk. I do that sometimes, talk a lot. But I've learned, that if you're patient, present and a good listener, you may invite some of the most amazing, life changing people to enter your life. It pays off. Now, we're getting married. YAY