Years ago, Diane Curtis supervised an intern, Robert Levy, while working at Microsoft. Diane helped Robert find his professional footing in the company, and even offered advice like, “Don’t wear hockey jerseys when trying to woo your girlfriend flying out here.” and “Cut your hair.”
Later on, after Robert moved back to the East coast with his family, Robert joined Facebook, and the first post he saw was from Diane about her younger sister, Jane, looking for a place to stay during a summer internship. Robert and Christyn offered to take her in for the summer, and over the next three months Jane bonded with the two of them and 1 year old Rebecca. Jane met a majority of the Levy family over the summer, but never Robert’s younger brother, Mike, because he was working on an internship in Alabama at the time. At the end of summer, Jane found a full time position in the area and moved out, keeping in close touch with Robert and Christyn.
Christyn, Jane, and Diane signed up for the Virginia Beach Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon in 2013 and coordinated a trip to Virginia Beach. Meanwhile, Mike’s parents invited him for the weekend to enjoy the concerts put on as part of the event. On August 30, 2013, Mike and Jane finally met at a beach concert in Virginia Beach while Fuel played Shimmer.
That night, after Mike and Robert went back to the Levy house and after Christyn and Jane went back to the Weinstein house. Mike and Robert setup a breakfast the next morning to spend more time with Rebecca, Carson, and Jane, and then we joined everybody else for another day of music on the beach. The night ended early and the girls ran their half marathon in the humid heat on the boardwalk early the next morning. The humid weather turned into rain so we ended up skipping the last concert to play laser tag. At the end of laser tag, Mike gave back the license and cards he held in his pockets, but managed to sneak his business card in between the cards he returned to Jane. Mike insists that the business card helped him seal the deal, but Jane says it was really his super awesome laser tagging skills. The next day, Jane made changes to her original itinerary to make a trip to Busch Gardens with Christyn, Robert, their kids, and especially Mike. Later, Mike drove Jane the rest of the way to Richmond for her train, but along the way his car overheated. After a couple stops on the side of the highway, Mike made a dumb decision to open the coolant cap while the car was still hot, causing hot coolant to spray everywhere, soaking both himself and Jane. The issue was never resolved, but Mike and Jane still managed to find fun in the ordeal, and even had their first kiss while the car cooled off at a gas station while soaked in coolant. Finally, after a slow journey through traffic and overheating the car, Jane made it to the train station by the last possible moment, running to jump on the train seconds before it pulled away.
After the first weekend we met, we both returned to our normal lives- Jane in Arlington, VA and Mike in Lexington, VA. Mike apologized for the crazy car troubles by sending Jane cupcakes from one of her favorite bakeries with a note saying “Sorry my car sprayed you with hot chemicals.” and Jane accepted the apology.
From there, we spent almost every weekend together, either Jane driving out to the mountains or Mike visiting the city, planning a special outing each time like hiking Big House Mountain and taking “2 mile” walks to city parks that were actually 4 miles long.
July 2, 2014 moved in together after Mike accepted a new job in Arlington, VA. The trips and outings became much easier, and we’ve made the effort to do everything together- including a trip to Columbus, OH for the VT vs OSU football game, a trip Allentown, PA for the 2014 DCI Eastern Classic, and a boatload of family gatherings.
In February 2016, Mike and Jane went on a cruise to the Bahamas. Leading up to the cruise, Mike had secured a custom ring from Quest Jewelers and Jane started getting suspicious of Mike’s subpar alibis. “I have to do that chore without you,” was one of Mike’s actual terrible phrases he thought would help get her off the trail. A few days before the cruise Jane suggested getting a manicure, and Mike hinted she should probably aim for a neutral color.
Mike had planned to propose at some point on the trip but did not plan the details of how he would propose– though he almost planned to propose underwater while snorkeling but decided not to lose the ring. With that in mind, Mike carried the ring everywhere with him on the cruise in case the opportunity arose– for example, they had a fancy dinner reserved for just the two of them, but it didn’t match the story of their relationship.
Finally, on February 11, when Mike and Jane ventured along the beach in Nassau, Mike found the opportunity he was looking for- but not until he had already started filming with a GoPro camera attached to the top of his head. The video is shared here.