Picture it: Washington DC, March 2010. My friends suggested that I join them for MADJam - an international swing dance competition. For those of you who don't dance, imagine 800 people (it's grown since then) packed in a hotel and an overflow hotel for classes, competitions, and then social dancing from midnight till dawn. It's great fun!

On Friday afternoon, I joined my friend (and bridesmaid) Jamie for a class. A tall gentleman asked us if one of us wanted to dance a little to warm up before the class. I said yes. He was a good dancer - much better than me - and I enjoyed myself, so we danced again after the class.

Turns out, this gentleman was Louis Sheridan. He had traveled to the event by himself at the last minute from Charleston, SC. Raleigh had dozens of people there, so we adopted him for the weekend.

On Saturday night (okay, probably about 3am Sunday morning) as he was leaving the ballroom to walk back to his hotel, I offered him my email address. Talk about a faux pas! He thought I was blowing him off, and he said he didn't want it. I thought I was giving him a more reliable way of contacting me, so I was miffed. So that was over.

Or was it? Sunday morning, we crossed paths in the lobby as my friends and I were leaving. One of them had gotten his phone number over the weekend and they convinced me that this was a missed opportunity if I didn't text him. I did, and we texted most of the way home. And talked the next day. And the next. And we decided he would come up to Raleigh the next weekend for the St. Patrick's Day Parade.

And to paraphrase "Casablanca" - "Louis, this was the beginning of a beautiful friendship!"