As already mentioned in our perspectives, we gave a brief glimpse on how we met. We were both looking for someone new, whether that be to pass the time briefly or maybe something long-term.

2020

Anna and I officially matched with each other on tinder! We instantly connected on about everything one of us talked about, especially music. She recently had graduated with her Bachelors in music therapy, and I listen(ed) to almost every genre under the sun. I grew up playing in Jazz band, marching bands, school bands pretty much anything band so there was a good balance of me being able to connect while she was still the talented and smarter one. I liked listening to her talk about the science behind melodies and she liked me making my high school drum beats and sending her my Heavy metal into Shania Twain playlists. After we had hung out the first time, I ended up heading home to where I grew up to visit family which is Hudson Falls, NY. We both did not quiet know what would happen but I remember that four hour drive going by so fast as we were

talking the whole time. At this point I had a funny feeling she wasn't going to leave me alone, and neither was I.

2021

We started officially dating in January of 2021 and over the next few months continued to learn new things about each other. I was still in the military and she was working at Applebee's while teaching music lessons at Bach to Rock. I remember buying us a date night book where you would scratch off a random activity, do whatever it says, and then take a picture of you two doing it. We tried to do a lot of them but most of the time it was too messy. One of them was to body paint each other and I don't think my apartment complex would have liked that.... We did however bake cupcakes while we were blind folded and although they looked like a newborn made them, they tasted great! During this time she also made me fall in love with Greys anatomy

(George is the best) and we proceed to binge watch it for months! She also learned quickly that I loved animals as she fell in love with my dog Okami and my late cat Tiny (RIP Angel). I think this grew our relationship greatly as

most of you know we now have 3 dogs together ( I do not recommend it for the average couple, but we are both mental). I learned that she hates mustard, she learned I hate olives. She hates pickles, I do not enjoy soup.

She doesn't like bluecheese....but lets hold it here one minute. How can you be a Buffalo fan, grow up in western NY and NOT LIKE BLUE CHEESE WITH YOUR CHICKEN WINGS. That brings us to the next discovery we learned during this period, I am Patriots fan and she and her whole family like the Bills. I guess I grew up a winner while she got used to losing. This can be proven even more as I found her (win for me) and she found me (seems like a loss, I don't know its 50/50).

2022

2022 was a busy time for us. I was in the height of Grad school and Caleb was taking on new responsibilities at RIT. We took more trips to Hudson Falls, Marco Island, and all around the East Coast to celebrate milestones of our friends It was also the year Zippy yeeted himself out the window and Tiny died (RIP). Zippy is fine by the way and still to this day goes to look out the window he jumped out of. Lastly this was the year of 4 weddings in 3 weeks which tested our patience with one another. We were lucky enough to be able to celebrate with everyone and make it through it without biting each others heads off.

2023

I completed my student teaching and graduated Grad school with the Grad Gang. We took a trip to celebrate at Myrtle Beach and made a pit stop to Charleston to show Caleb our future residence (I'm just kidding. While I love SC and would love to move back I know I would miss the NY winters... I think). We celebrated a few more weddings where the cousins tried to guess who was going to be getting engaged and married next. I got my first teaching gig in Greece (NY not the country). All the teachers were right the first year was definitely challenging. Lastly Caleb proposed during my families family Christmas on December 17. He was acting rather nervous but I didn't think that much on it (he was in the middle of his fantasy football league and I didn't know if maybe he had people playing during the game). He called me over while I was helping Anzhela in the kitchen. I was going to decline and tell him to wait but Anzhela kind of shooed me away. He got down on one knee in front of the beautifully decorated Christopher Radco tree (Thank you Aunt Maureen) and asked the question: Will you marry me?" And the rest is history.

Holiday Inn Express & Suites Rochester Webster, an IHG Hotel