After college graduation, I (Alexa) decided to start dating, since college was slim pickings. My mom and I made a hobby of swiping through all the potential candidates on Bumble. I went on a few first dates without any success whatsoever. In fact, I felt like I was being cat-fished every time. It was so discouraging that I told my mom, to her dismay, that I was over the online dating game. However, if you know my mom, she is quite persistent. One day she asked me, "Can I play with your Bumble?" I gladly handed my phone over because I was planning on never going out on another online date again. After about an hour, my mom comes up to me and says, "I know you said you did not want to go on anymore dates, but you have to pick one of these guys and try again." To my surprise, my mom had picked 3 new bachelors to go on a date with. We fought for a bit: " I don't want to;" "Just pick one!" After about 20 minutes of bickering, I checked out all three and decided to text one guy "hey." Mostly, to just get my mom off my back.

Insert: William "Billy" Walsh.

After about a few days of lazy texting each other, we decided lets just skip the bullshit and meet. We were both discouraged from previous dates. We each built an expectation/excitement about our previous dates, only to be disappointed by the real thing. So we were both equally cautious/not as invested in each other. In fact, the night we met each other, we both had back up plans (meeting our friends at White Plains).

We met at Black Bear in White Plains. I was on time; he was late, which is completely paradoxical if you know us. I was midway through a beer when a big Stromboli nose slid onto the barstool next to me. With the thickest Italian American accent he said, "Hey, how you doin? My name is Billy." I guess that was enough to steal my heart. With some smooth talking on my end, I stole his heart when I told him I liked Lord of the Rings and Zelda lol. Who knew it was that easy?

Look at us now? 8 years later, with a lifetime to go :D.

So, if you made it this far, the moral of this cheesy story is: ALWAYS listen to your mother.

Thanks, Mom!

Love,

Alexa and Billy