It was love at first sight...or at least that's what I tell myself!

We met on a rainy May night (May 5th, 2021 to be exact!) at our first co-ed softball game. Having gotten through the first year of COVID, we were both itching to find something to get us out and socializing again, and the opportunity came through a mutual friend, Caitlin, who invited us (separately, of course) to join the team.

Manny was speechless when he first saw me. (Literally, he didn't say a single word to me the whole game.) Despite this being obviously super rude, I thought he was really cute, and forced him into conversation the very next night at our second softball game (the time commitment of this team is no joke). We spoke for approximately 5 minutes: enough time for Manny to begin to realize that I might actually be single (how was that even possible?!?!)

The next week I had the whole team over to my house for a cookout to help everyone get to know each other better. In all honesty though, I planned the entire cookout as a way to get to know this very handsome (but apparently mute) mailman a bit better.

Manny came out of his shell (finally!!) and got along perfectly with my closest friends. I was, officially, ready to explore what Manny had to offer.

A couple of days later at a team practice (yes, we seriously played softball at least 3x a week that summer) I made my move. At the rate Manny was going, I knew it would be all summer before he asked me out and at 30 years old, I was far too impatient to sit around hoping to be asked on a date. Once everyone started to leave, I asked Manny if he wanted to share a pizza and some beer to which he (quite happily!) agreed.

The official first date was two days later at Briggs Corner Pizzeria after (you guessed it!) another softball game. It went well and after just a few more dates, we decided to make it official (!!!) when I asked Manny to be my boyfriend (because again, I was 30.)