Our story starts bright and early on a Monday morning in April, 2017 on Mari's first day at a new job. There was a team meeting that day and last to enter the room was Jim, outfitted in what is now dubbed as the "Classic Jim" (aka a white t-shirt and some old Levi's).
Over the next six months their paths crossed at work regularly, and they would casually chat at happy hours as an excuse to get to know each other better. One day at a happy hour with a group of colleagues Mari asked Jim what he likes to do for fun. He replied, "I like to cook food and read books". After some follow up questions from the group Jim said he liked to make goulash, as did several other people in the group. Mari suggested a "Goulash-off" to determine who in the group made the best goulash, and of course she would be one of the judges to decide who the Goulash champion would be.
Not surprisingly, Jim did win the Goulash-off, and he and Mari went out for their first date the following week. They spent so long walking around a bookstore that the workers had to ask them to leave so they could close up the store.
The following 4+ years have been filled with cooking lots of food, reading lots of books, and embarking on an amazing life together.