Sean and I first made eye contact at a show in February of 2020. We didn't connect that night, but we did match on Bumble a few days later and realized we'd met in passing the weekend prior. Turns out the concert I'd gone to was Sean's. We immediately started comparing notes about our favorite bands and set a date to meet up.

Back in 2020, Worcester was in the midst of a booming economic renaissance, so we decided to get together for a beer at the newly opened Worcester Public Market. You can tell a lot about a person from their Bumble profile, but you cant tell how tall they are unless they list their height, and Sean had not provided that info... Sean and I met in person when I nearly trampled him  coming out of the ladies room at a brewery and shared an awkward laugh about it.  We sat down for our chat and I could tell immediately that something special was happening.  I had just started to appreciate his gorgeous blue eyes, when I was accidentally introduced to a good chunk of his extended family. Turns out half of the O'Connell clan was also excited by the prospect of a new brewery. When the bar closed, we were having so much fun that neither of us wanted the date to end, so like a true gentleman, Sean took me to an absolute dive across the street known as The White Eagle, where we continued to have a fantastic evening/early morning.

At the end of the night, Sean walked me to my car and opened  the door for me. Before I could get in, he got on his tiptoes and  gave me the best (albeit surprising) goodnight kiss that I've ever had. While we both agreed that neither of us was interested in anything serious, we agreed to get together again for coffee the next morning. Of all the coffee shops in all the world, Sean's cousin also felt compelled to try the one we went to that morning, so I was reintroduced to the family while we stood in line for drinks, in what must have looked like, from their perspective, a scandalous encounter. We talked for a long time, mostly about our shared love of travel, and by our third date on Sunday, we had a Greece trip all planned out for that summer.

Unfortunately, or maybe not, life had other plans, and by the end of that first weekend, the lockdowns started. We couldn't have known then how long the world be still and quiet, but in that isolation, love bloomed. We found fun where we could, and many of our early dates involved takeaway food and spending time at Seans place, or my apartment listening to music or playing video games. I've heard it said that the lockdowns could "make or break" a relationship, and I think its fair to say it made ours. In a world full of distractions, we suddenly had none, and that gave us a lot of time to get to know each other.

By the time the pandemic was over 3 years later, "nothing serious" had turned into a mortgage and 3 different overseas adventures together.  I had to wait 2 years for Sean and the guys to play another show, but we enjoyed making some music together in between the all the wild times we had in our first apartment on Harding St. Its funny how sometimes the most challenging years, can be the most fun. We've seen and done more crazy things in the last 3 than some people see in a lifetime, but I hope Sean and I will enjoy another 80 with the same sense of adventure and humor we survived a pandemic with.

If nothing else, we'll always have the music, and when words fail, music speaks. It speaks into the silence even when the world goes quiet for a while.