How We Met

Pat and I met at the Doraville location of Atlanta Rocks. I was working and he was there climbing. I was having a conversation with some people about global warming when Patrick joined the conversation. His libertarian views did not mesh very well with my bleeding heart liberalism. After becoming completely irritated with him we parted ways for the night.

Three months went by before I saw Pat again. During that period I continued to think about him and was hoping that he would come in again. When he finally did, I was really happy and he ended up inviting me to an Auburn game. On our first date, Patrick, his dad, and I went to Auburn to watch Auburn play Vanderbilt. It was a fun game, but I was a lot quieter during this game than I normally am. :) When we got back to Atlanta, Pat and I drove to the Lawrenceville Airport (LZU) where we flew to Athens for fun and he forced me to take pictures on the ugly Georgia Bulldog outside the airport. I didn’t care that he loves bulldogs. That was the first time we almost ended our relationship!

When we got back to LZU, Patrick gave me our first kiss and then told me that he didn’t want me to get the wrong idea, but he was in love with someone else. We argued the whole way back to his house. That was the second time we almost broke up. Luckily there wasn’t a third time. Patrick insisted that it was not a date, so he was never worried.

Who is Patrick?

Patrick is the most gracious and loving man I have ever known. The first time most people meet Patrick they think he is a little arrogant and standoffish. I couldn’t disagree more. Patrick is a wonderful, caring, and loyal friend, brother, son, and fiancé. He is very playful with his friends and loves to laugh. He is brilliant and writes amazing software. We always joke that I am the artistic one and he is the technical one. Together we make a wonderful team. He is my best friend and is the smartest person I know. He always takes great care of me and makes me feel safe. He is very supportive of the things I care about regardless of his views. He is always around to lend an ear when I need to talk. He tells me he loves me around 20 times a day and gives me two kisses before leaving for work. He is my best friend, my companion, my travel partner, my supporter, my champion, and the one person that I go to with everything before anyone else. He always challenges me on my views, my beliefs, and my vocabulary. I am so excited to spend the rest of my life with Patrick and I am even more excited that I get to share that commitment with everyone I love.

How He Proposed

Patrick asked me to help him pick out my engagement ring. I have never really liked diamonds, so I knew I was interested in something different. After seeing an aquamarine on a great family friend, I decided that was what I wanted. We looked around and had a hard time finding something that I liked. Finally we found a ring that was very close to what I wanted and Patrick went and had it custom made with both our initials on it. I was a little impatient and was starting to be a little bit of a jerk about the whole thing. One day at our friends Charles and Julie Shipp’s house we started talking about how much fun it would be to fly to the beach for the weekend. Julie was a little scared, so we decided to make a “test” flight to Athens to see how Julie liked being in the small plane. When we got to LZU, Julie and Charles jumped in the backseat after Pat told Charles how to hook up a video camera to the microphone jack. Charles videoed most of the flight saying that “he wanted to tape Julie’s maiden voyage.” When we got close to Athens, the tower told Patrick that only married couples could land that day. After telling her that we were not he asked if we could land if I agreed to marry him. She said yes and then he took out the light brown leather box and told me how much I meant to his life while he put on the most beautiful aquamarine and sapphire ring. I was so shocked and happy that when the tower asked if I said yes, my answer was “Hell Yes” and I got scolded by Patrick, the tower, and another pilot. Patrick had arranged with the tower prior to our flight which was something I didn’t know about. When we landed I saw about ten friends from Atlanta that had driven to Athens to meet us at the airport there. I was so shocked, and feeling like I was a bad person for saying hell on the radio, that I didn’t realize what was going on until we were out of the plane and getting hugs from everyone. We all went to Athens and got ice cream before grabbing a burger at Pat’s favorite burger joint. We took the burgers back to the Episcopal Center at UGA and then headed back home. After arriving back at LZU Charles, Julie, Pat, and I went to Dave and Busters. We won as many tickets as we could and then bought as many stuffed animals as we could from the store. After handing them out to all the little children we could find we drove to Waffle House and ended our night with a fancy meal. :) It was a great day!!

How We Met

I used to do a lot of rock climbing. There were two good Atlanta Rocks indoor climbing gyms: in-town and perimeter. The in-town store was a little bit snooty, so I usually went to the perimeter gym. I had a lot of friends up there, but one time, I was up there and there was this really outgoing girl who seemed to be really enjoying herself. I went through my usual climbing routine, but kept an eye on her, trying to get a feel for what kind of girl she was.

My climbing routine usually comprised climbing for 5 minutes and resting for 15. At one point, I was sitting down during one of my rests when I overheard this girl and some of the other girls at the gym talking about global warming and deforestation. She said that we were cutting down all of our trees and that everything was terrible and getting worse. Being the politically responsible citizen I am, I felt it was my duty to inform her that there are in fact more trees in the United States now than ever before.

Of course, she thought I was absurd but that didn't stop her from asking if I wanted to climb. Well, climb we did. We spent most of the time just picking on each other and joking around (she was still bitter about the trees). I'm pretty sure she wanted me to ask her out on a date, but I didn't. I mean, nobody asks a girl out the first time they meet, right?

So, I keep going back to the gym always looking for that Lauren girl who works there, but she never did. Turns out, she worked down at the in-town gym most of the time. Unfortunately, the in-town gym is inside the perimeter and everybody knows, I pretty much never go into the Chitty of Atlanta. It really was too bad 'cause it must have been a solid 3 months before Lauren finally came back.

I was pretty excited to see her there and she gave me a great big hug so I suppose she was excited to see me too. She informed me that she verified what I said about the trees and that she was annoyed with me. We climbed together for a while but she's afraid of heights so she was kind of a wuss. She kept trying to come down, but I kept not letting her. The rule is, you finish the route or you show blood but there's no giving up.

In any event, I guess I wasn't quick enough asking her out on a date so she asked if I wanted to get together sometime. I knew that she was an Auburn fan and my dad and I had 3 season tickets so I asked if she wanted to go down to an Auburn game. The three of us had a great time and Lauren was way cute. When we got back, I wasn't really ready for the date to be over.

I asked her if she wanted to keep hanging out. She did, so we drove out to the Lawrenceville airport, rented a plane, and flew out to Athens. We flew over the lake, played some airplane games, I made her take pictures on the Athens pilot bulldog, and we flew home.

I didn't know this was gonna be the girl I would end up marrying, but I was very sure I wanted to keep seeing her, so I decided I had to do something to make her think I wasn't really that interested. I told her, "Lauren, I really like you, but I don't want you to get the wrong idea. This isn't a date. I just got out of this relationship with a girl and I really just need friends. I want to keep our relationship platonic."

Evidently, it was too convincing 'cause now she always tells people I said, "Sorry, but I'm in love with someone else." That's not exactly what I said, but lucky for me, Lauren is very competitive and was not gonna let some other girl best her. Lauren and I started seeing much more of each other.

It wasn't long after that Lauren told me, "You know what?! We're not seeing other people. We're not just friends. You're my boyfriend and the trip to Auburn and to Athens was a date, 'cause it was the best date I've ever been on and that's final."

I thought, "aren't we supposed to have a conversation about this and come to a mutual agreement?" Turns out, the day Lauren forced me to be her boyfriend was the best day of my life.

Who is Lauren?

Lauren has the most strikingly beautiful heart of anybody I've ever known. She cares sincerely, hopes abundantly, and loves fully. She enriches the lives of everyone around her and she selflessly serves her friends, her family, her community, and her church.

Lauren has helped me grow into the kind of man I want to be. Someday, I hope that people will know and remember me as the person she sees inside me. Together, she and I continue to grow in family, in love, and in spirit.

There's no way that I would be where I am today or who I am today if it wasn't for Lauren's love, guidance, and eternal hopefulness and positivity. She takes great care of me, she helps me through the hardest times, she puts up with living with an asocial engineer, and for some inexplicable reason she thinks I'm funny.

Oh, also, she's pretty cute too.

How I Proposed

If you've been reading everything on this page, you probably remember that on our first date, Lauren and I flew from Lawrenceville to Athens. I decided that it'd be really cool to propose to Lauren in Athens. I was trying to figure out a way to make it more special and decided that I could propose on the way to Athens instead.

The problem was Lauren knew I had the ring because we designed it together. How do you surprise a girl who knows the proposal is imminent? Well, I pretty much figured it out. My friend Charles and I put together a pretty good scheme. Charles, Julie, Lauren, and I would fly to Athens to take Charles and Julie on their first airplane ride.

Lauren and I love taking folks on their first small plane ride, so I'm sure she considered it possible that this trip was the special trip but that it wasn't a sure thing. Before we left, I made a quick phone call to the Athens tower. I gave them a brief script and rushed out to the plane before Lauren wondered where I was.

We took off, headed towards Athens, and I called in, "Athens Tower N7090Y 15 miles east inbound at 3000 feet."

Athens called back and said, "90Y, please verify all occupants are married. It's married couples only here at Athens."

"Negative Athens Tower, one married couple and one dating couple 90Y."

"Negative 90Y."

"Athens, if I can get my girlfriend to agree to marry me, can we still land? 90Y."

"Standby 90Y, we'll ask."

Athens tower came back and said, "Affirmative 90Y, if you can get her to do that, then you you are welcome to land."

I pulled the ring out of my kneeboard, handed it to Lauren, and told her that I couldn't ask for a better co-pilot, that I love who she has helped me become, and that I want to spend the rest of my life with her. The only downside is that I didn't get a chance to look her in the eye when I proposed 'cause, well, frankly, I had to fly the airplane.

Lauren said yes and I pulled a short script out of my kneeboard. Lauren keyed the microphone and read, "Athens Tower, N7090Y. Affirmative on the proposal. Inbound for landing."

We made an uneventful landing and taxied in to the FBO. About 10 of our friends were there to greet us. We all went out on the town. We bought everyone some frozen yogurt for making the drive up to Athens to help us celebrate the special day. We went to Clocked (my favorite burger spot in the world) and ordered some burgers which we took back to the Episcopal Center.

Charles, Julie, Lauren, and I flew home early evening. We were hungry again and decided to grab some snacks at the Awful House. We decided we were having such a great day that we didn't want it to end. We continued our great day with a trip to Dave and Busters. The four of us won so many tickets we had no idea what we could possibly spend them on.

We decided we'd buy as many stuffed animals as we could. We got myriad stuffed critters including dolphins, frogs, fish, and the like. We set out into the Dave and Busters on a mission to give away every single stuffed animal. We scoured the arcade for kids who looked like they'd enjoy a stuffed animal, we made sure the parents were okay with it, and we were able to give away all but one pink dolphin.