For those who don't already know, we met at the dojo (Chapel Hill Quest Martial Arts). Brett began training in 2012. I began in the summer of 2017, after moving to Durham from Paramus, NJ. By that time, Brett had been promoted to an instructor, and was leading many of the classes. He happened to be helping out in my first white belt class. I was already a black belt in another martial art, but I didn't think to tell anyone. Brett was kindly trying to 'teach' me how to knee someone in the face. As I attempted the move, I realized only too late that he hadn't put his hands up to protect his face. Some people experience love at first sight. Us, well... it was definitely something like that. Right? Right.

After I successfully wooed/mildly concussed Brett, he asked me out on our first date. We made a plan to see Black Panther at a dine-in movie theater. We met up just prior to the start of the movie to grab drinks and snacks. I don't know if it was just first date nerves, or straight up delusion on both our parts, but for some reason we both had terribly high hopes in the spinach artichoke dip we ordered from the theater cafe. As you can imagine, we were sorely disappointed. To this day we still joke about how great of a time we still had despite the powdery texture of the dip (how can melted cheese taste chalky??). The first date was still an (obvious) success, however. We made up our poor appetizer choice by heading to Bar Taco for dinner. We ended up walking out with the closing staff at 2 am, after spending the entire evening just talking and enjoying each other's company.

One summer, about a year and a half after we started dating, we decided to do something most new couples don't typically do right away. Not only did we decide to move in together, we also decided to buy a house. A whole house. Together. Props to our parents who probably thought we were nuts, but tactfully refrained from telling us so. Almost 5 years later, we continue to be happily established residents of Hillsborough. We live together with our three spoiled cats: Bill, Beau, and Ama.