It all started with a Ke$ha concert. Yes, you read that right. Amanda and I met before the Ke$ha concert at (what was then) Pier Six Pavilion in September of 2013. She was new to town (had just moved here from Greene New York) and had a friend that was taking her out to introduce her to some of his coworkers. One of those people was me. I’m a Baltimore transplant as well. I grew up in New Hampshire and moved here in 2008 to work at 93.1 WPOC on the Laurie DeYoung Show. I knew what it was like to be the new person in a brand new city, so Amanda and I had a good conversation at drinks before the show. I’ll be honest here, there’s not a whole lot I remember from the night (It was a Ke$ha concert after all), but I do remember her stepping in front of a glitter bomb for me. If that isn’t love, I don’t know what is.
That first meeting was a little crazy given the surroundings. It would be a few months before our paths crossed again. The next time was at a work event for me at the House of Rock in White Marsh. Not exactly the place I thought I would find love, but it did give me another chance to spend some time with Amanda. We had a good conversation going and I knew I wanted to get to know her better. But, in true guy fashion, I blew it and didn’t get her number. Thankfully, she friended me on Facebook (how Millennial).
Our first date was January 23rd of 2014. I ‘conned’ her into going on a date with me by asking her to show me around Ellicott City because I wasn’t familiar with it. I didn’t lie about that. Even though I had lived in the area for about six years, I hadn’t spent much time in Old Ellicott City. We ended up getting some food at Diamondback Tavern while college basketball was on TV. That’s where I discovered she was a big Syracuse basketball fan. As a Villanova alum, I fought through an inner crisis here. Should I leave? How could a Villanova fan date a Syracuse fan? It’s just not possible. Thanks to a stroke of luck, we met during Syracuse’s first season in the ACC. I figured since the teams were no longer in the same conference that we were fine to continue with the date.
Oh, side note . . . she would be mad at me if I didn’t point out that I was late to our first date because Lucy Hale stopped by my office. How could I leave early from a meeting with a Pretty Little Liar? I still maintain that I made the right decision.
We would date for about 18 months before moving into an apartment together. A couple years there, and one dog adoption, and we decided it was time to buy our first home. We fell in love with an area near Belvedere Square and closed on our home in December 2017.
Then came proposal time. I made the decision in October 2018 that we should make this family official. I knew what she wanted in a ring, so that process was pretty easy. She wanted to do something a little different and wanted an emerald engagement ring. I still love the idea. No disrespect to traditional rings, but I really like that hers is different.
I kind of used the engagement as a way to benefit myself. We had been talking about adopting another dog. We had an 8-year-old that we rescued about a year prior, and I thought he needed a friend. I found a younger husky through a local rescue organization that I knew was perfect for us. But, Amanda was not totally on board. I figured if I brought the dog home and gave her a ring at the same time she wouldn’t be upset with the dog. I was going to surprise her with the dog and have a ring tied to a bow around the pooch’s neck.
Unfortunately, things didn’t work out the way I was hoping. Amanda ended up finding out about the dog when the organization came to do a thorough home visit. I couldn’t let that ruin my plans though because that ring was burning a hole in my pocket. Instead of changing everything, I ended up popping the question as our new pooch was meeting our older dog. To say that meeting wasn’t going well would be an understatement. She was stressing, so I got on one knee and said, “What do you say we make this crazy family official?” She thought I was kidding at first. Then she saw that I was tearing up (yes, I get emotional) and knew I was serious. Oh, she said yes.
Even though neither of us is originally from Baltimore we decided we wanted to be married in Charm City. It’s become our home. Our date is 12/7/19 and we couldn’t be more excited for it to get here!
