JOE: So how did The Most Undesirable Human Being On The Planet(TM) meet, fall in love with, and eventually decide to marry a woman whose family were convinced would never move out and become an old maid?

ELIZABETH: It was by finding the right person. Of course, each of us having a love for music didn't hurt.

JOE: Well, yeah, but it started with you registering a complaint agaisnt me.

ELIZABETH: Excuse me, but that was not where it started. That was when you distracted me when we were both contestants in Bean Post Idol!

JOE: I can't help it if you found my charm irresistible!

ELIZABETH: It wasn't your charm! You prevented me from advancing!

JOE: I was trying to support all my fellow contestants! Besides, if it wasn't my charm, why did you tell all your friends to cheer for me once you were eliminated?

ELIZABETH: You needed the help more than everyone else, so I felt bad!

JOE: OK, let's skip forward then to Disco Night at Baia, where you made sure to invite me on your birthday cruise.

ELIZABETH: Well, first of all, it was Grotto Italian Table, not Baia.

JOE: Eh, they're both closed now.

ELIZABETH: True. Anyway, I wasn't planning to invite you, but you tricked me into believing that you know how to dress!

JOE: It was a costume!! A polyester outfit I bought in a retro clothing store just for disco-themed events and performaces! I was so happy because I fit in it again after losing all that weight!

ELIZABETH: Regardless, you proved you could dress well enough for that cruise.

JOE: Plus, I looked hot.

ELIZABETH: Hot it pushing it, but you did look handsome. Then there was my birthday dinner at Perry's, where Andrea first thought we were dating! I told her to keep quiet. I didn't want you to hear and get any ideas!

JOE: SURE you didn't! Andrea started the old "everyone thinks we're one step ahead in our relationship than we actually are" syndrome!

ELIZABRETH: I also liked the way you coerced me into our first date at your performance at The Greenhouse Cafe. With Gloria and Rys there, I didn't think it was a date right away!

JOE: See, I didn't ask you on a date, in case you didn't want it to be a date. I just offered to treat you to dinner. Gloria and Rys were my operatives, making sure everything went right.

ELIZABETH: Well, I wish they made my Access-A-Ride pickup actually show up, and the busses run on time!

JOE: Hey, I tried to come get you. Not my fault we were on opposite sides of the street! Besides, my operatives were there to greet you until I came back.

ELIZABETH: Yeah, I concluded it was a date when you and I were eating without them.

JOE: Thankfully, Gloria and Rys made sure you had a front-row seat to see me perform!

ELIZABETH: We had a lot of great times together, but they got even better around the Christmas of 2019.

JOE: Yeah, I'm still not sure why you enjoyed being in the hospital with pneumonia on Christmas. I certainly hated sitting there working until 10pm while you were sleeping.

ELIZABETH: But look what it led up to two days later! I arrived at your doorstep and said: "By the way, I live here now!"

JOE: Some of the happiest words I've ever heard, and it didn't stop there. I had been at my job for about six months at that point, so it looked like things were finally looking up for me! Then the pandemic hit.

ELIZABETH: Hey, we survived a LOT better than most people did! We had Tommy Eyebrows entertaining us during the week. We had Zomma Dooma and the Facebook chat girls to socialize with on the weekends. We Zoomed with your family a lot. We had Nancy's live COVID video podcasts.

JOE: Yup, and, learning that you saved me from a life of isolation during the pandemic, I decided one day that I wanted to PIN you, and actually pinned you five minutes later.

ELZABETH: And it wasn't even in the wrestling sense of the term!!

JOE: HA HA!!! No. In the 1950's sense. I knew I would marry you some day. It was just that so much was taken away from my life in 2018 and 2019, and it felt like it all came back to me in a very different way when you came into my life.

ELIZABETH: Wow!! So did I! I even told Aunt Lourdes and Uncle Victor that I was dating a wonderful man, and that he was the one I was going to marry. I even felt it in my heart! I just never felt this way with anyone else!

JOE: And I'm so happy that Wilson and Cathy captured the moment I proposed with the beautiful ring you designed. I swore I'd never get engaged, but my life had changed so much, I knew it was the correct thing to do.

ELIZABETH: No matter the challenges we have encountered, good or bad, together we have faced them and embraced them. For any relationship to work, there must be dedication, perseverance, determination, communication, trust, faith and love. We have all that and more.

JOE: I feel exactly the same way, Angel! I call you that because you genuinely saved my life twice, and I'm so ecstatic to share it with you going forward!

ELIZABETH: I feel so blessed that God has brought us together. We have so many adventures still ahead of us, and I'm looking forward to experiencing them all with the man I love and will be proud to call my husband! This is more than a fairy tale come true! We WILL like Happily Ever After!

Q + A

Q + A coming soon!