Carla and Pat met on a cool autumn evening in New York City back in the fall of 2018 at one of the most acclaimed, romantic spots in all of Manhattan. Is it the top of the Empire State Building overlooking the big apple in the moonlight you ask? Or maybe the Brooklyn bridge, both wishing on a star at the same moment when their eyes met, and they felt the hands of destiny bringing them together? No...it was a much more realistic and fitting location for them both...the Stumble Inn located in the Upper East Side on a Sunday evening after having both been watching football all day.

Pat had gone out with his good friend, Chris Stankiewicz, for beers and wings to watch football, when they were passing the Stumble Inn on their way home. "Let's go in for a drink" said Chris, to which Pat politely refused saying he needed to get home and go to bed. "You're here for one year, and you're a YES man for that year" replied Chris, knowing Pat's weakness for peer pressure. Pat reluctantly agreed, and after they found themselves at a table full of Irishmen, Carla entered the bar.

Carla had also been out in one of Manhattan's finest watering holes watching her beloved JETS (let's just pretend they won that day) with one her best friends Kristina Figueroa. The two met that night, and that is where the magic began.

The next day (yes, neither could wait the traditional "3 days"), they had their first date. Due to Pat's inability to keep his days straight, he forgot that his beloved Chiefs were playing Monday Night Football that week, so their first date was watching a Chiefs game and he cooked for her in their humble, 5th floor walk up NYC apartment...such a romantic.

The two continued to date, some would say at a snail's pace, but they would both tell you it was a perfect pace, and over that year, that slow pace allowed both of them to let their guards down and fall in love with one another. At the end of Pat's fellowship, he took a job in Denver, CO while he and Carla did long distance for a year, and while neither of them would call it their favorite year together, the difficulty of nearly 1800 miles apart only made them stronger.

After a year of visits to Denver & NYC, their love reached new heights when Carla moved to Denver and the two started their life there together, where they've lived since 2019.

In May of 2020, the two officially became (dog) parents to a scrappy little rescue mutt named Bodhi, and they got engaged only a few short weeks later...on top of a mountain...at sunset. The two will tell you that their love grows daily, and they so look forward to taking the next step in their relationship by making everything official (finally) in front of God and all the most important people in their lives.