Anthony:
To provide some context it started in the Fall of 2013, and one of my good friends just got married to the love of his life, and I remember thinking that it would be cool to experience that kind of love and get married at some point. I was just starting to get a hang of my career, I was a single dad, and I wanted to re-evaluate my goals in life, starting with finding a partner.

So, I signed up for this dating website called ‘Match.com’. At the time, I guess it was still kinda taboo to be on a dating website, but we live in a world of technology, so why should this be stigmatized? I thought, ‘whatever, I might as well try it.’ That was September 28.

On October 1, I messaged this girl, who wasn’t even on my matches list (you used to get a matches list on the daily), and she just popped up on “you may also like…”. I clicked on her profile, and after reading it, which was amazingly detailed, I just had to message something.

My very first message was on the level of sports metaphors (one strikes out if one doesn’t swing the bat). I also let her know that I read her profile because she had a list (I told her that I love Star Wars also, I dislike bad grammar, and her being class president Freshman year). Lo and behold, she responded.

The messages on the app were getting longer and longer, and that was the first instance of ‘Double A’ because our band name was supposed to be ‘Double A Batteries’ since the both of us loved music so much. The conversations felt so natural and easy, and I got a sense of Ariane’s awesome personality through those emails we exchanged. It was shortly after that we began to talk on the phone, and then we texted each other. Again, the flow of our conversations felt so natural, and Ariane made it so easy to talk to her. Not too long after that, we finally met up.

I still consider this our first date, but Ariane doesn’t. We met up kind of spur-of-the-moment because I was already in the city after doing a training for work, so I asked her if she wanted to meet up for a quick cup of coffee before I head back home to the East Bay. She agreed, and I remember how super nervous I was. I know I didn’t need to be, but this is a testament to Ariane’s presence because as soon as I met her, it was just so easy to talk to her (don’t get me wrong, I was still so nervous, but she made me comfortable enough to sit and enjoy her company. This was on October 19, 2013.

I saw Ariane again the following Wednesday, and we shared our first meal together that night at Mokutanya. I stopped by to see her a few times on my way to work, and then by October 31, we decided that we were just going to be together. I remember asking her that night, and she said, “Naks Naman” (lol). The rest as they say is history.

Since then, we have about a million experiences such as taking an impromptu trip to a closed hotel, overpaying for a Valentine’s dinner, being tourists in the Bay Area (Alcatraz yeah!!!), going back to Maui multiple times a year, watching the kids grow up, both of us dealing with their growing pains, buying a home, and the list goes on and on . We have also grown to be what I would say is a pretty good blended family. Alex and Alexis (can’t make that up) have grown to be good friends as well as also very competitive (never challenge them to Puyo Puyo).

It wasn’t all easy, however, as we experienced disagreements and issues like any other couple would, dealing with losses in our families, rough schedules, and break-ups (plural because there were times when we weren’t sure that we were gonna make it…but we did; also we did ultimately break-up in 2019 only to find ourselves and find each other once again). Still, I would not trade these moments for anything in the universe because it has strengthen us beyond anything that we can compare it to.

To Ariane: I am forever grateful to be your partner and am blessed to start this new chapter with you. 10/10/2020 cannot come soon enough, but I am appreciative of the moments leading up to that day and am looking forward to our next beginning.

#DoubleAAllTheWay