That Sunday morning, I got up and tried on a gray knit dress of Eden’s that she was getting rid of. It was fine, but I wasn’t sure if I wanted to keep it. So I decided to employ my litmus test of wearing it out, seeing how it went, and then deciding whether to keep it. With the gray knit dress, my black laced up boots, and a jean jacket with black sweatshirt-like sleeves and hood, I thought to myself… it’s a little edgy to wear to Mass. But the thing is, it was definitely my style, and if I knew that if I changed I was going to be late.

I always sat behind the altar by the choir. After Mass, I turned to talk to a friend who had been sitting near me, when all of a sudden, I hear my name.

I was surprised because it was only a couple of minutes after mass had ended, but as I turned around, sure enough there was our priest Fr. Colin. And standing next to him there was this guy I hadn’t seen before. He looked slightly confused, and in desperate need of the after-Mass coffee he already had in his hand. Fr. Colin had clearly caught this guy right before he walked out the door and dragged him all the way back through the church.

Father introduced me to this guy Patrick, telling me he was in the Coast Guard and had just arrived back from a 6-month trip that took him to the North Pole. I was intrigued. Father then went on to introduce me and make my job sound 100x cooler than I’ve ever been able to. Then, without letting either of us get much of a word in edgewise, Fr. asked us both to go to a program called Alpha to see what it’s like and whether we’d like to volunteer at it in the future. After I said I’d already signed up, Patrick said he probably would too. Then father walked away, leaving this poor guy who had been awake on watch half the night, standing there at the mercy of my questions about the coast guard and the North Pole.

When Eden got home to our apartment later that day, I was SO excited to tell her… I met a guy.

A week and a half later I walked into the first session of Alpha, very intentionally wearing my favorite boots, jeans, and shirt, hoping he’d be there. After a slight moment of disappointment, I saw him sitting by the wall towards the front of the room. So naturally I sat across from him.

Later that night he messaged me, inviting me to trivia with him and some coast guard friends the following evening. He offered to drive, but after arguing with Eden about personal safety vs not wanting to drive/park somewhere I wasn’t familiar with, she talked me out of getting in the car with this guy I barely knew. So I tried on five (more like 10) outfits, drove through a sketchy part of Seattle, to a bar I’d never been to, to meet Patrick for trivia with his friends. He bought me a beer, and when I sat down his friends immediately started asking me questions about myself, and it was obvious they already knew the answers.

Sunday at church I introduced Patrick to Eden after Mass, and she was definitely still in protective big sister mode.
Monday I had to get my mini Christmas tree to a friend’s house for a bonfire that night. Patrick heard and insisted on coming midday to my apartment to pick it up so I wouldn’t get pine needles all over my car. We went to the bonfire later that night (again driving separately) but as I left just a bit before him, it was clear that other people there thought we had come together.
Tuesday we got dinner together then went to alpha.
Wednesday we went to evening mass, and then trivia with his friends again.
Thursday night we walked from the Coast Guard station to the Seattle waterfront, got dinner, rode the ferris wheel, and then walked back, stopping on a quiet spot on a bridge overlooking the bay where we talked for who knows how long.
And Friday he left to go to North Carolina for like two weeks to visit his family.

While he was in NC, he called me more than once. Valentine’s Day came, and he sent me a cute little Valentine’s Day GIF with him and his baby nephew Liam, asking me to be his valentine. Patrick got back from NC on Feb 15th, and even though I was leaving later that night to go to St. Louis for a few days we wanted to see each other. He showed up at my apartment holding fake blue hydrangeas behind his back, because he knew I loved blue and purple flowers, and that I was allergic to a bunch of plants (he didn’t know which ones yet). He took me to dinner, and I toured him around Mercer Island a bit before I had to catch my red-eye.

When I got back from St. Louis we went to alpha, then mass and trivia again, falling right into a routine of seeing each other most days of the week, which we would keep up until he deployed in June, with a planned return in December.

Fast-forward and our relationship continued to grow stronger and deeper long distance through a couple of months of Patrick being at sea. We were spoiled by the boat having newly-installed Starlink Wi-Fi. Though to an extent, ignorance is bliss. My least favorite moment of his deployment was when on FaceTime, I heard an alarm go off on the ship and Patrick said “I gotta go, the Russians are back”.

6 months apart turned into 2 1/2 when a small electrical fire on the ship caused them to come home for a few weeks, giving us just enough time to spend some time together, and go visit Patrick’s family in NC, before he had to head back out to sea for another 2 1/2 months.

Since then Patrick has been on land most of the time, with shorter trips out on a smaller boat. I far prefer those short trips in the Puget sound to him being in the Arctic. But if you ever want to see pictures of polar bears and a really cool ship, you can check out our photos page.