It all comes down to chocolate chip cookie dough.

It was "Single Awareness Day" in the year 2001. For those of you who don't know, Single Awareness Day happens to fall on February 14th. My roommates and I celebrated with great vigor. TiffanyA (full and current names will not be used to protect the guilty) was busily creating BTS chocolate cake as I dished up a few batches of chocolate chip cookies. We would take the cookies to boys' apartments in a yummy although somewhat mocking "celebration" of our single status.

Teresa came into the kitchen with a big, suspicious grin on her face. "Which apartments are you taking cookies to?" she asked, although I am sure she already knew the top few on the list and definitely knew who was absolutely NOT on the list.

Suddenly an unexpected visitor came into the kitchen. Our neighbor walks in, apparently lost, and has some cookie dough. He loves cookie dough. This cookie dough happens to be delicious anyway, but it is also given with a smile. Apparently our common friend, TiffanyW, does not allow dough-eating and she finds it to be absolutely repulsive. This neighbor had been interested in TiffanyW, but the whole cookie-dough issue was a monumental blockade.

Later that day I got a phone call. Paul decided to ask me out on a date. Yes, a date. I had been on one date in the past 2 1/2 years and that one was kinda creepy. "Yes, I will go on a date with you" I heard myself saying, yet I was wondering whether it had been a good idea to take a plate of cookies to that particular apartment. We went Uno bowling a few days later and had an awesome time. I have not celebrated Single Awareness Day since and now Valentine's Day has a special meaning because that was the day that Paul entered my life. Paul walked into my apartment for a bite of cookie dough (probably more like 6 or 7 bites) and neither of us even realized that he was walking into my life forever.