Ours is a tale of romance...

...we met in a bathroom, at a bar, in San Francisco. Yes, it was a unisex bathroom, no one wandered into the wrong one. He opened with a “Howya” like a true Irishman, we went on to chat for quite a while and he even doubled back to put the toilet seat down. A true gentleman! We were both in SF for work conferences and when these were done, he went back to Boston and I went back to Pittsburgh. We stayed in contact and one thing led to another…

After doing the long distance thing for awhile, things got a bit easier when I moved to Boston for my fellowship. A year was spent there before we both moved to Pittsburgh. Along the way, we’ve travelled all over, met each others’ friends and family near and far and learned alot from each other. For example, I’ve learned that “havin’ the craic” is a good time, tasty food is best described as “GARRGOUS!”, and one should never serve food on a cold plate. On the flip side, I’ve taught him the nuances of baseball (most importantly: Yankees > Red Sox), that a man’s best friend is actually two cats (see below) and sometimes an “s” is pronounced as just an “s” and not an “sh”.

In November, we went on a much needed vacation to Turks and Caicos. Things came down to the last minute, as we almost had to cancel because of a stolen passport, but we made it! And thank goodness we did! It was an amazing trip- full of relaxing beach time, snorkeling, margaritas and rum punches, delicious (pardon me, GAARGOUS!) dinners, sand dollar diving, boat trips, horseback riding (in the ocean!) and yes...of course… a proposal :) Micheál proposed in the ocean with a beautiful, unique, antique claddagh ring made in Dublin over 50 years ago. Thankfully, the ring made it back with us and didn’t end up on the ocean floor!

And now here we are. Getting ready to celebrate on 1.1.17. We are most thrilled to have all our friends and family in once place for a party we hope no one will soon forget!

Mouse and Choppy are our 2 crazy cats. And they are the only actual Yinzers in our house. What’s a “Yinzer”, you ask? It’s a native Pittsburgher and both Mouse and Choppy are born and bred in da’ Burgh. Mouse was rescued 5 years ago and happily lived a life of leisure up until this past summer when Choppy joined our clan. I couldn’t resist him in his Animal Rescue League cage at a sidewalk sale in our neighborhood. (Micheál was out of town!) Back he came with me and while it took a little while for everyone to get adjusted, we undoubtedly get plenty of entertainment from this pair on a daily basis. Mouse enjoys sleeping, cuddling, treats and avoiding her annoyingly over-energetic sidekick. Choppy loves being in the center of the action, chasing his own tail, purring and hair ties. Crazy cat lady? Guilty as charged. But I’m not even the one who talks to them the most ;).