Kat and I first met over a decade ago. I can't remember the first time we talked, but I can remember the first moment I saw her. I was working behind the bar at JR's Lightbulb Club in 2013 and she and a few friends walked in. She was the coolest person I had ever seen in denim jacket. Still is.

We were always around each other in some way, for just about our whole lives. We both grew up in Fort Smith and knew the same people at different times. I was in kindergarten with her sister, Sara, and Kat's mother, MJ, worked with my Grandmother occasionally.

Over the years, we grew closer and closer, connecting over shared experiences and life trajectories, songs and stories and projects and passions. She was always interested, always nice, always inspired, always supportive. She was a good friend.

When I moved back, I picked up work at Arasaga's Mill and Kat was the general manager. I suppose it was meant to be a long slow burn, until it wasn't. When I finally asked her out, she told me she was just about done with dating. I said, "Let me take you to dinner before you totally give up." The rest, as they say, is history.