In November 2016, Annie tagged along with a friend from work to visit Milwaukee, where Annie's freshman year college roommate, Lauren, also lived. When they got there, Annie met Sam's roommate at the time, Dave. After a *classic* MKE lunch at Wicked Hop & friends meeting friends, Lauren offered to host a pregame before everyone went out downtown that night. When Sam walked into the party with Dave, he thought he was ALL THAT and a bag of chips, and Annie made it her mission to fully shut him down. After all, he was a college kid with a massive ego, and she was a well-established Chicago *career woman* with a too-expensive apartment. Nothing happened after that weekend (Sam: "we texted like four times") until Annie came back to visit in February 2017, when they realized the other person was actually pretty cool. Sam made the first move by visiting Annie over his spring break, then Annie came up over St. Patrick's day to "meet the parents", and the rest was history! "Long distance" ended in August 2018 when Annie moved to Milwaukee - they purchased their first house & got engaged on March 19th, 2021.