The night we met has two different variations depending on who you are talking to….Mine (Christine) is the truth.

I have worked for the Hartford Wolf Pack since college and for some reason haven’t stopped. In March 2019 Steve attended a game for a friends birthday. He came up to me early on and asked to get the birthday boy on the camera, I shooed him away.

Later on, after a pull up contest, he was talking Damon's ear off—but Damon loves it. I had about 30 seconds to find a contestant and told him now is your chance to get your friend on camera. His friend quickly declined and I told Steve he had to do it because he distracted Damon. He agreed under one condition, he gets my phone number.

This is where the story differs. I forgot I owned a cell phone and thought I must write it on paper for him (logic). At the same time I get a call on the radio to check on our table. I run to go take care of that. Upon coming back I took a pen and paper out of my backpack and wrote down my number. The other side of the story is I ran to go get the pen and paper.

We met at the bar after the game and haven’t looked back.

After we started dating I learned Steve worked on the road during the week. We would FaceTime nightly until he came home on Friday nights and we could go out.

Then 2020 hit... We had our first anniversary on my apartment living room on the floor, watched Tiger King, got kitchen haircuts and wayyyy to much take-out.

At the end of 2021 we signed on the dotted lines and bought our first home. Closed and got Covid all in the same day.

We took off for Jamaica 15 days later. Our first real trip together. Two non-beach people enjoyed sitting by the water for a week before we came back to all the house projects.

Thursday night on the way home, Steve called to say he had to go to an emergency work call. Not unusual. He came home, got dressed for work again and left. Little did I know he was headed to my parents house.

The next day, Kelli had said we were going out to dinner—also not unusual for this to be sprung on us. She suggested Mill on the River, to which Steve quickly shot down. He finally “came around” and agreed to go.

While pulling into the parking lot I noticed my sisters car—it’s quite an obvious car— and started calling and texting her. She played dumb, everyone else told me to drop it so I did…

While we waited for our reservation we walked up along the outdoor patio. After many failed attempts to get me to turn around, Greg managed to pull it off with a “would you kayak here?”

I turned around to find Steve on one knee with the ring of my dreams 🤍