Like all great love stories, Mason and I first met in a bar. (I know, shocker). Although past the initial greeting of "Hey I 'm Mason", not much was said. Looking back it amazes me how we ever ended up together, cause the next handful of times we were hanging out in the same group the same thing occurred. It wasn't until one weekend that half our friends went home early and there were only 4 of us that Mason and I were forced to communicate. Once we finally had a real conversation we realized it wasn't so bad and Mason not only asked me on a date, but being the romantic that he is, he even kissed me goodnight while one of our best friends was passed out in the back seat of a minivan. Then to top off this romantic story, I ended up canceling our first date to go rescue my best friend broke down on the side of the road. (In case any one is wondering, we have yet to reschedule that first date.)

That summer Mason moved in with one of my friends who I spent majority of my time with so we ended up seeing each other quite a bit. Mason had plans to move to Colorado at the end of the summer and I wasn't interested in any sort of long distance relationship so we agreed to stay friends. I had just started Bartending at The Bullhead about 2 minutes from where Paden and Mason were living so they came and hung out most nights I worked (They say it was to make sure I was safe, but we all know it was for the free beer). When we weren't all hanging out at my bar we were eating pizza watching Game of Thrones or going on another Cheney Summer adventure like touring an old abandoned train house or convincing Mason to play hooky and traveling to Coeur d'Alene where we ended up having a BBQ at John Elway's lake house. Before we knew it summer was coming to an end and the day Mason was going to move had already come and gone, yet Mason was still here. He ended up staying a lot longer than any of us anticipated and some how managed to trick me into liking him a little more than friends and even had me doing a distance "friendship" (I was very adamant that I was not his girlfriend) when he moved back to Vancouver for a year. This continued for awhile until finally the idea of me moving to Colorado with Mason was brought up and the rest was history.

Once Colorado was figured out, being with Mason was easy. Our personalities were so similar, yet different in all the right ways. I'm a planner who is packed and ready to go a week before a trip; Mason is not a planner and is usually doing laundry the night before we leave and then packing his bag 5 minutes before walking out the door. I like to constantly be doing something; Mason needs his naps. I freak out when I lose control of a situation; Mason stays calm, cool, and collected. I'll buy 20 little amazon packages; Mason will tease me about buying 20 little amazon packages and then turn around and buy 1 big package that cost about as much or more than my 20 little packages.

Despite our differences, which are much more than listed, we balance each other well. We count on each other, both work hard, and share the same views. Mason is patient, reminds me it's not the end of the world, and is probably the only person that doesn't complain when I turn on the same Disney movie for the 100th time. He is the person I want to chill on the couch with in sweat pants, an over sized t-shirt and a spoon full of cookie dough. He's my best friend, my shoulder to cry on, my cheer leader and I couldn't have found a better person to spend my life with. I love him dearly, but more importantly, I like him.

Here is the abridged version. Shania and I did meet at a bar.

Fast forward to us hanging out that Summer. We enjoyed each other's company and liked the same stuff.

Shania was into me enough that she picked up and moved with me to Denver, which I had been planning on doing for a long time. Got that bug out of our system and moved back to be grown-ups.

She has a lot of qualities that I like. She's empathetic when I'm apathetic. She's adventurous when I'm stuck in a routine. She's a planner when I'm flying by the seat of my pants. She's good lookin' when my looks lie somewhere in the meaty part of the Bell Curve.

Don't mean to bore you. All in all, just your classic love story. So I figured I'd ask her to marry me.

Basically, I'm just a guy that got stalked by a pretty lady and it ended up working out.