Like so many others in Los Angeles, our story begins in Hollywood - Hollywood Blvd. to be precise - on February 8, 2020. We were both there to attend our friend Wilfred Man’s neon-themed birthday party. In true Jarin fashion, he went all in on his neon outfit (see below) and in true Ana fashion, she was above it. Shortly after entering the party, Ana was pushed into Jarin by a mutual friend, John Doh. “Ana wants to go to law school, talk to her!” Jarin tried telling Ana that we didn’t have to talk about law school, but she was already going a mile a minute about just how excited she was to go. “Don’t do it,” Jarin said. “Oh, it’s happening,” Ana said without hesitation. Little did Jarin know that this would be the first of an ongoing trend of Ana not taking Jarin’s advice.

While Jarin was too “overserved” to get Ana’s number the night of the party, fate made it so that we would again run into each other just 2 weeks later at Doh’s house. Though neither of us initially recognized each other, once Jarin put it together he reinitiated his pursuit of Ana - this time armed with regular clothing, sobriety, and his usual wit. It worked.

We were able to go on two dates before Los Angeles was shut down due to Covid. After two weeks of being alone in his apartment, Jarin built up the courage to ask Ana to violate the quarantine by coming over; his first time breaking the law. “I thought you’d never ask,” Ana responded, clearly not her first time breaking the law. From then on, Ana, who was quarantining with her family, would sneak over to Jarin’s apartment every weekend. While there, Jarin would woo her with trivia games, chess, and Bloody Mary’s. No wonder she kept coming back.

Ana knew Jarin was serious about the relationship when he agreed to meet her in Brazil for several months while she figured out how to bring home (i.e., steal) a Brazilian street dog that her family named Gina. There, Ana took full advantage of her remote law school courses while Jarin risked losing his job every day due to the poor wifi. Despite the stress of managing school/work while also trying to explore this beautiful country, we made it work and our love grew stronger because of it.

After a few months of living in Brazil, we returned to Los Angeles with the street dog in tow. Shortly thereafter, Ana came up with a great idea: Jarin could take care of Gina - just while she was at work! “Just while she was at work” quickly turned into “every day” and “take care of Gina'' quickly turned into “take care of Gina and Ana.” Ana finally moved in and our little family was born.