It only took eight years.

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In early January 2014, Felicity went to a Meetup.com event in West L.A. to play board games. She met a fellow elementary school teacher named Kim, and the two women lamented having to drive all the way over the hill to the Westside to play board games and meet new people. Right then and there, the single-and-ready-to-mingle Sherman Oaks residents vowed to join forces and start their own board games Meetup group in the East Valley, ostensibly to expand their social circles to non-teacher friends, but in reality, to meet available men.

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Over the next eight years, East Valley Board Games grew to be a rousing success. It cycled through several iterations of group organizers (Felicity remaining the only original organizer!) But, Felicity's dreams of a board game romance remained elusive. 

 

Unexpectedly, eight years later, that changed.

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In late February 2022, days before Felicity's birthday, Alan came to his first East Valley Board Games event. He had driven all the way from "beautiful downtown La Puente", a full hour away. Alan and Felicity met that day and gamed together, but as it turned out, another man from the event asked her out that day. As was often the case with these situations, after three increasingly bad dates (what can we say, Felicity likes to give people undeserved chances!), the fling crashed and burned rather spectacularly. Time carried on.

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In March 2022, Alan attended the next board games event, hoping to see Felicity again, but she was working weekends on Open House projects. Alan left, disappointed at having driven all that way. There were other gaming venues much closer to La Puente, after all.

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On April 10th, 2022, Felicity met her younger sister Genevieve at the Rose Bowl Flea Market. It was a gorgeous, warm, sunny day, and the two wandered around the market. After a few hours, Flis said goodbye to Gen and drove back to Sherman Oaks to host board games.​​​ As luck would have it on that beautiful day, Alan was also at board games, having decided to make the hour drive one last time. Felicity and Alan ended up at a table, just the two of them. Playing Upwords together, Felicity prayed the whole time that no one else would walk up and want to join their game! She was thrilled, because she'd thought Alan was handsome and sweet from the first day she'd met him. Now was Flis' chance to get to know Alan and see if he was as intelligent as he seemed. Happily, he was.

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On May 22nd, 2022, Alan and Felicity gamed together again. That day, a male gamer Felicity had known for years (but hadn't seen in a long while) came to the event and commented unfavorably on her appearance, pointing out her weight gain. Felicity was understandably upset and vented to her friend and co-organizer Mike and her new friend Alan about the upsetting interaction. Alan was a sounding board for Felicity and cheered her up. He commented an aside to Mike about how attractive he found Felicity to be. Matchmaker Mike relayed Alan's compliment to Feli​city.

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Two days later, buoyed by the compliment, Felicity messaged Alan on the Meetup app, allegedly to thank him for being a supportive friend, but in actuality to flirt with him. Thankfully, Alan picked up on her true intentions and flirted right back.  He offered her his phone number to text, and alternatively suggested they could connect via Facebook messenger, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, or the like.

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Felicity responded via text message and deadpanned, "How 'bout you just CALL me?"

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Their first date was on Memorial Day weekend, on Sunday, May 29, 2022. They ate dinner at Lucky Baldwin's in Pasadena, played board games at Odyssey Games, went for a walk, and got some ice cream.

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Three weeks later, Felicity threw Alan in the deep end, nearly literally. She invited him to a birthday pool party for her niece, Sophie. At the party, most of Felicity's family members were there, so Alan met Felicity's mom, several siblings, and niblings (aka nieces and nephews). It was a high pressure situation, and Alan handled it with great aplomb, acquitting himself quite well. 

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Later on that summer, during trivia at a restaurant with board game buddies, close friend named Julie piped up, "Alan and Felicity...hey, you're Alanicity!" Thus, the new couple's portmanteau was born.

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