We met back in 1991. That may not sound like a long time ago, but considering that's about 17 years ago, and neither of us is yet 30 years old, we've known each other and been friends for a majority of our lives. But our story goes back much further than that. Our mothers met and were best friends while they were in elementary, middle and high school together. We didn't meet through our mothers, though, as would be expected. Mike met Erin's older brother, Adam, when they were in homeroom together at Madison Middle School. Mike went home and was talking to his mom about his new friend, and the name immediately sparked in her memory. She gave him a bunch of random information about the Rizzo family, such as grandparents' names. Mike took these names back to school the next day and started spouting them off to Adam. He was a bit taken aback by the stalker-like knowledge, but it still lead them to become best friends. As best friends in middle school, they were, by law, required to hang out at each other's house a lot. That obviously lead to Mike and Erin meeting and becoming friends.
We've always understood each other, and always had each other's back, even if the official teenage friendship pyramid meant that Mike was Adam's friend first and foremost. We have always had the comfort of being able to talk to each other about anything. We hit our true stride as friends just before Erin got into high school (and just before Mike was a senior), which are some of the hardest years to get through and keep friendships. We got through the hardships as friends and never once wanted to break off the friendship, so the next logical step was dating.
Erin always had a not-so-secret crush on Mike. She held it secret from Mike until she was about 10 years old. Obviously we hadn't had an extremely deep friendship up to that point, and we were way too young to be dating at that point. There were times Mike wanted to ask Erin out during her high school years, but she moved to Texas. Long-distance relationships, as well as "high school romance" rarely seems to last forever, and getting that relationship for the short-term wasn't worth it. As time passed, we were talking less frequently, and the distance caused us to lose touch. But in late 2007, Mike got back in touch with Erin again. The timing couldn't have been better, because at that time we both needed someone to care.
We seemed destined to be stuck in the long-distance relationship, since we were now communicating from 1000 miles away. That didn't change how right it was for us to be together. We spent some time together over Thanksgiving and realized how perfect we were for each other, so we started dating in early December. We visited each other every couple of weeks, since that was as long as we could spend away from each other. Even more proof that we are supposed to be together came in March when Mike's company told him that he was going to be needed for a project in Albuquerque for a few months. The rest, as they say, is history the future. Wait, nobody says that.
Engagement
When: February 1, 2008
How: Since Mike lives in northern California, we visited each other every other weekend (or so). Erin was heading out there the first weekend in February. We had discussed getting married at some point, but needless to say, she was surprised. Mike picked Erin up from the airport and we drove back to his apartment. Erin sat down to relax after her long day of work and being on the plane. As she was taking off her shoes, Mike walked around the corner, dropped to one knee and asked her to marry him. She freaked out, said yes in not so many words ("Are you f***ing kidding me!?" were the exact words), called her mother to tell her the good news, and then realized that she hadn't officially said "yes" yet. Upon realizing this, she immediately said yes. And so it was official.