The Day Brian and I First Met
Posted on August 5, 2011 by Ching under Life.
Dining at Walt’s the other day brought back memories of the day that Brian and I first met. It was April 17, 1999 and I was dating this guy name Jason. A couple of his coworkers got promoted and so their group decided to meet at Walt’s to celebrate. He took me with him.
I met Brian, who was one of Jason’s coworkers, that night. I don’t remember what he was wearing because he was already there and seated when Jason and I arrived. The one thing I remember is that he had so much facial hair that you could barely see his face. He had long hair that he wore in a pony tail and was wearing a baseball cap. I think it was the one with some kind of leprechaun figure on it, which is one that he used to wear all the time when we first got together.
I was wearing my red plaid pants (I think they were little girls’ pants actually – LOL – because I used to be able to wear size 12 or 14 girls clothes back then; regular pants were too long on me) and my gray Guess fitted shirt. I had a long bob, just above my shoulders and I used to wear green colored contacts. I don’t think Brian remembers this much detail about our first meeting actually. I have better memory than he does. 😉
If you ask Brian, the one thing that he does remember from that night is my response to him when he asked me about my web site. I guess I said something like, “It’s not a porn site.” I was already blogging back then and had my web site at Chingay.com. It’s not there anymore, but this is what the old blog/web site used to look like. Anyway, I guess he got teased a lot because of my response. His coworkers were like, “She just met you and she’s already got you pegged.” LOL.
He must have gone to my web site because he sent me an email asking me out a couple of weeks later. Naturally, I declined because I was dating his coworker. We became friends and corresponded by email on and off. He was a terrible speller, but he was funny and I looked forward to our correspondence. We talked on the phone a few times, but didn’t really start hanging out until after I got dumped by coworker.
I think it was July when Brian and I started hanging out. We officially became boyfriend-girlfriend around October that same year. By December-January, I had moved in. After living together for a year, we bought our first house. Our closing date was April 13, 2001, which serendipitously happens to be almost two years after our chance meeting at Walt’s. We got engaged in May 2001, two weeks after moving in to our house, and then were married a year and a half later on August 10, 2002, which also happens to be approximately three years after we officially became a couple.
So there you have it. The short version (maybe not so short for you, but this is short as my stories go) of how Brian and I got together. There’s more to the story, but I didn’t want to bore you all with every single detail. Anyway, the moral of this story is that your rebound guy can be your life partner. Brian and I are living proof of this.
1 Comment
My Baby is Back!
Posted on August 4, 2011 by Ching under Travel.
Yup. The clock reads 1:51 am. I’d been at the airport since about 9:30 pm last night because that’s when Brian’s flight was supposed to arrive. He called me while the plane was on the tarmac in Dallas to tell me that they’d been delayed to add additional fuel to the plane as they would have to fly around a storm. His new estimated arrival time was 9:40 pm or so. I figured, no worries. I could wait at the airport a few minutes.
By 10:30 pm, there was still no sign of Brian and I still hadn’t heard from him. I found out from others at the airport and finally when I checked the departures and arrivals board that Brian’s flight was one of several that had to be diverted due to the storm. Some were diverted to Kansas City and others got diverted to Oklahoma City. I think the idea was to divert them there and then try to come back after the storm subsides. Considering the distance, the flight from either location would only take about 20 minutes or so. I figured that it would take me a half an hour to get home and then another half an hour to come back to the airport to pick Brian up, so I might as well just stick around and wait it out.
I finally heard from Brian sometime after 11:00 pm. He said that the plane was diverted to Oklahoma City. The plane circled around Wichita several times, waiting for a good opportunity to land. Brian said that they were running low on fuel so instead of continuing to circle, the decision was made to divert to Oklahoma City to get more fuel. At the same time that we were talking on the phone, I saw several people walking by. A plane was able to land. I told Brian that it was probably safe enough to come to back. We figured that he’d probably be in by midnight.
Unfortunately, refueling a plane takes a lot longer than pumping gas in your car at a gas station. A little bit later, I heard back from Brian. They ran into another hitch. Their pilot had been flying since very early that morning and he was deemed illegal to fly. They had to wait for another flight crew to arrive, which caused further delay. I think it was well after midnight by the time they left Oklahoma City.
Their plane touched down safely in Wichita at 1:35 am, but it was 1:50 am before I saw Brian. You know how the deplaning process goes. You’re on the tarmac for a while and it takes several minutes before the plane gets to the gate and there’s lots of other safety procedures they have to follow before letting anyone off the plane.
Brian had to check his carry-on back in Boston so we had to wait at baggage claim for a while. There were several planes that came in back to back. I suspect some were regularly scheduled arrivals while others were the ones that got diverted earlier in the evening and were now coming back in. I think were were at least three flights waiting for their baggage at baggage claim around the same time.
It was well after 2:00 am when we finally got out to the car. I didn’t anticipate having to pay for parking, which was $12 because I was in short-term parking for about five hours, since I was thinking that I would wait for Brian for only about 30 minutes tops. In hindsight, if I knew how long I’d have to wait, I would have parked in long-term parking, which costs less. Actually, if I knew it would be 2:00 am before he’d arrive, I probably would have gone home after Zumba and just gone to bed and simply waited for his call. I told him, in the future, that is what we will do instead. If he calls me as soon as the plane lands, then I can immediately head to the airport. If I don’t have to park, I can probably get there in 20-25 minutes. Considering that it usually takes 15 minutes to deplane, he’d only have to wait 10-15 minutes. That’s not as bad as me being stuck at the airport for five hours because I’m not sure what’s going to happen. I mean, I don’t want to leave only to find out that the plane arrived shortly after I left the airport.
Anyway, we had to swing by his parents’ house on the way home. They’re out of town and wanted to make sure that the storm didn’t cause any major damage. It was about 3:00 am by the time we finally got home. Needless to say, I couldn’t go to work on only three hours of sleep so I decided to take a day of vacation.
I slept until about 10:00 am and then decided to thaw out some chicken for lunch and do some laundry. Brian took a half day today, but had to go in to work early this morning for a conference call. I felt so bad for him. What’s worse is that when he got there shortly after 7:00 am, he found out that his 8:00 am conference call had been moved to 10:00 am. So he could have slept in.
He watched part of “Inside Job” (this documentary that I got from Netflix, which I’ve had for a couple of weeks now and have never had time to watch until today) with me after lunch and is now catching up on sleep. I was going to do ATC and Zumba today, but I’m thinking that I’ll skip ATC so he can get more sleep. If I only do Zumba, then we won’t have to leave here until 6:00 pm.
Tomorrow, we’ll both be rested and back to our regular schedule. Then we do this all over again in about four weeks. Hopefully, sans the storm and flight delays. =P
2 Comments
Funny Stuff You Find on FourSquare
Posted on August 4, 2011 by Ching under Life.
I came across this when we were driving to MCI Airport in Kansas City last month. It’s funny what people put on FourSquare. I mean, really?
Comment on This
This is How We Roll!
Posted on August 1, 2011 by Brian under Travel.
This is how we roll at my job.
That’s right. We roll in the big boy van!
Comment on This
Tonight’s Festivities
Posted on August 1, 2011 by Brian under Travel.
I love my job. We are having a little get together later tonight. Pizza and beer. How can you go wrong?
Since this is a work function, I will keep it professional and only have one beer. Then again, it could also be because I am still a wuss when it comes to beer and, any more than that, I will be flat on my butt.
Comment on This
