How We Met: Tom and I met through mutual friends. They invited us both to dinner, and at first I wasn’t too taken with Tom. If you know us, you know he sometimes has to work overnights. That particular day he had just woken up and still had to go in for his overnight shift, so he wasn’t the most alert or talkative. When he called to ask me to go to a Pittsburgh Pirates game with him, I decided to give it a try, and at the very least I’d get to see a baseball game.
First impressions aren’t always accurate, because we clicked immediately, and thank goodness because the evening wasn’t ideal. After sitting through horrible rush hour traffic we walked along the North Shore river trail to the game. We sat through what felt like the world’s longest baseball game that resulted in a 14-2 Pirates loss, and we didn’t even care because we had such a great time.
After that came a series of equally as fun, and sometimes funny and unfortunate dates to follow. Fortunately for us, our string of bad dates has ended and we’ve been together ever since.
how they asked: Tom and I had recently moved in together after I got a new job, and things were going great. I had thought that a proposal was coming, but had no idea when it finally happened.
We were very excited because we had finally gotten Pittsburgh Pirates tickets after not attending a game together yet this year. For us that’s rare because by this time last year we had already been to several.
Tom purchased tickets and had decided we would go to the casino beforehand for dinner. All week he kept dropping hints, and had hidden the ring in a place I walked past at least five times a day, but I was too oblivious and didn’t catch on. That morning started like a typical Friday. Tom had gotten off midnight shift, and we went for a bike ride. As we were getting ready things were normal, because I was running late getting ready and he asked me if we were ever going to leave the house.
As we were driving to the game he turned to me and said “Babe, are you ready for the greatest night of our lives?” My response was, “I don’t know about that. It’s just a baseball game.”
We had a great time with dinner and gambling at the casino. Even though Tom was winning, he announced it was time to go so we could make sure we got the right sized free t-shirts at the game. He then rushed us out of the casino and down the river trail.
I still had no clue what was going on as we walked and reminisced about how this was exactly like our first date, another hint I missed. We stopped just below Heinz Field to look at all the boats on the water and the fountain at The Point.
All of a sudden he turned to me and said, “Are you going to love me forever?”. I still had no idea what was about to happen and sarcastically replied, “I though we already established this”.
It was then that I saw him pull the ring box and ask, “Will you marry me?”. I started crying and hugging him and when I didn’t give an answer, he had to ask again.
After finally saying “Yes” he slid the ring on my hand and said, “We have paparazzi”. I turned around to see his dad coming out from the shadows where he was hiding to take pictures of the special moment.
After the shock wore off, our engagement went much the way our first date did. The Pirates had an hour and a half rain delay, and although we hated it we were still having a great time. Tom and I are excited to start planning our wedding and sharing the day with our friends and family.