We met at The Brewery in State College...

Art & I actually crossed paths several times during our tenure in State College. Most of those times were at The Brewery when he was in the band "bluesudegroove" and I was a local barfly.

We apparently played pool against each other once about 10 years ago. I don't really remember it but he does. I think I won the game. He thinks he did. But we didn't really get to know each other until January 2004, when my roommate, Deb, and I entered the Crowbar Idol competition, where our good friend Melanie was a judge and Art was the emcee.

Melanie and Deb introduced us and two weeks later we started dating.   

How we got engaged....as told by Carolyn

On Christmas Eve 2006, Art took me to a Christmas light show down in Delaware County where I thought we were going to meet up with some of his family. He made a "phone call" as we got out of the car and then we started walking through the park, oooohing and aaaahing over the pretty lights.

The park had a "Peanuts" display, complete with huge wooden cutouts of Charlie Brown, Lucy, and Schroeder at the piano. And there in front was a little Christmas tree with one lonely ornament. Standing there in front of the tree, Art says "It needs more decorations".

Playing along I said that we should put a red ball here, a green one here, and asked if he brought any with him. "Well, how about this?" he says, turning to me and showing me this little box with a very spakly rock inside. He then got down on one knee and asked me to marry him.

I stood there, with one hand over my mouth and the other on his shoulder to keep myself from falling over, crying my eyes out and kept staring from him to this absolutely perfect ring. I managed to squeak out a "Yes"-literally squeaked.

Apparently we had an audience 'cause we got some applause. As it turns out, his family was not going to meet us there- they were all back at his brother's house. And they already knew.