Engaged!

Today I bring great news! I’m engaged! Actually, the big day was February 10th, 2009.

So, here’s the story, in all its glory. I tried to do something that would be remembered and told on to our kids (when we decided to have one, or two, or four, of course!).

The lucky girl is Christie, but that’s what she says; I’m the really lucky one here.

So, this is how it starts. I basically made reservations for a place in Sundance Square, Fort Worth, for a nice Mexican dinner, at Cantina Loredo. First off, I just want to say, this place is awesome, very good Mexican food. Back on track now, so I made the reservations and gave her my card and told her to get a nice dress, shoes and whatever else she wanted for a special night out, as we were going somewhere nice. Little did she know what would happen that night, just dinner, you know.

So she went out, bought a dress, new shoes, some earrings, etc etc (girls, you know, and I’m sure most people reading a post that says “Engaged”, are going to be girls). So a few weeks later, was the big day, February 10th. Forecast: Strong thunderstorms and possible tornadoes. Great! So, despite the weather, I told her that nothing would ruin this night, for anything. So, I drove us, it sprinkled, but nothing too bad, besides traffic, and we finally arrive. There was a nice calm breeze and so we walk into the restaurant.

Little did she know, I made reservations for a horse carriage ride that night for 8pm, which is why I made dinner reservations for dinner at 6:30. Well, let’s say that dinner was GREAT, however, we finished at about 7:10pm and I had to find a way to kill 50 minutes. So, even though I didn’t want it, I ordered a huge chocolate cake. We at about 1/3 of it. I still had 20 minutes to kill. Finally at around 7:50pm or so, I finally gave into going for a walk with her; the weather was still good. So we walked up the street, and at of the corner of my eye, I saw the horse carriage going towards the restaurant. Luckily, she didn’t see it, and she started complaining that it was too windy (she was in a dress), and it was quite windy at the time, so I played it off and just told her we could walk in the opposite direction. At this time, the horse carriage was in front of the restaurant. So we approached it, and I held her hand and told her that this was part of the date. Her smile lit up the town! So, I helped her into the carriage, put my arm around her, and we just stared at the night sky, talked a little, and whispered sweet nothings as we rode along for about 30 minutes. Little did she know I have previously spoken to the horse carriage company previously about working out a way to distract her (Christie) so that I could romantically propose. So, the horse carriage stopped around the Forth Worth Water Gardens, which is a very nice park with a beautiful water garden, however they told us that they had to repair one of the lights on the carriages for “safety reasons”. Nice. Of course it happened, Christie being Christie. “What’s broken? Can we just stay here and wait? What is going on?”. Yeah. That’s Christie for ya! So, I told her not to worry about it and that the park was nice and that it was our night to spend together, and that we should just take a walk. So, we walked around the stone side of the water garden and then I started basically pouring my heart out telling her how much I love her and how much has changed since day one, and how much we have grown with each other. Then beneath the moonlight, I took her hand, and we danced. Nothing crazy, just a romantic slow dance. I then wrapped my arms around her, told her how I really felt and that everything that night was because of how much I love her. I then hit one knee to the ground. Looked up, pulled a ring out, and asked her if she would be my wife.

She said yes!

Well, kind of. She said “Baby, baby, baby…”. She couldn’t stop stuttering “baby”, but it was adorable and I know that was “yes”. Then out of no where, there was lightning and thunder everywhere. See, I knew we were meant to be! I then walked us back to the carriage where they asked us how it went and, of course, Christie shows the ring off and says “So, the light’s not really broken is it”; there was laughter. I had some chocolates and a dozen roses waiting for her at the carriage when we got back into the carriage. We then rode around back to the restaurant for about 10 minutes while it just kept lightning the whole time, sometimes very bright. We got back to the restaurant and then drip, drop. No rain yet, but it sure was trying. So we walked as fast as we could to the car, and we left.

I pulled out of the parking garage, turned on the GPS, and was ready to get home and beat this storm. That didn’t end up happening. We hit smack dab in the middle of a hail storm, and then we drove through a small town and saw all the road lights and gas station lights flicker and go in and out. Scary stuff! About 30 minutes into the drive, I started noticing that all the streets that the GPS stated we were crossing, were the wrong streets. We were in the middle of basically nowhere, doing twists and turns, yet the GPS said that we were on 635. Right. I rebooted the GPS and it resynced. We should have been close to home, but we basically circled Forth Worth’s back roads.

We finally arrived in Plano, and we stopped at Christie’s dad’s house so she could pick up a few things and show her dad her ring. He was actually quite happy and ended up taking a few pictures of us dressed up.

No matter how it went in my head or imagined how it would be, it never came close to what I had ever imagined. The feeling of actually proposing; nervousness, excitement, and disbelief (in a good way). Some things you just can’t plan for and it goes by so fast. It was the best day ever and I can finally say that I know I’m in love and that I’ve never felt quite this complete. Here’s to the rest of my life and whatever comes Christie and my way.

P.S.: We plan on sending out our RSVPs soon, and the wedding will be around the end of May 2010.

My 1st Car Crash

Call it a car crash, a car wreck, or an accident. Whatever you wanna call it, my first car accident was a scary one. So, let’s get to the point, you wanna know what happened – I got it. So, here’s the story.

Oh, before I start this, this is almost two weeks old, but just not got around to actually writing this out.

The Crash

I was on highway 75, this was right before Royal Lane exit. The roads were dry, but it was cold outside; it was November 22nd, Thanksgiving Day. I was on my way to work, since I was scheduled on Thanksgiving and I work at an “Essential Operations” type of business, so to me, it was a normal day. I was in what you could call the middle lane. Highway 75 is a four-laned highway, with various “exit only” lanes here and there. We were all maintaining the healthy speed limit of 60MPH. There was a car or SUV in front of me (really can’t remember; everything happened so fast). Out of nowhere, he swerved into the third lane (to the left), revealing a huge tired, with a rim. If you have ever driven a truck, you will know that a car can swerve out of the way and still keep from losing control, a truck, not so much. I truck is not necessarily “top heavy”, but the weight sure isn’t proportional. My right-front tire clipped the random tire in the middle of the road. This is where it all started. Traffic was moderate – not heavy, but it was quite busy for it being Thanksgiving holiday. My truck lost control due to clipping the tire in the middle of the road. My truck fishtailed to the right, where I gained about 1/2 a second of control back on the truck, when it fishtailed to the right, when I uncontrollably sent into the two (to the right), where another car tried to get away from me, ended up right in the path of my truck (he should have just slowed down to avoid me). I hit him on his left side, causing me to shatter his windows. This is the scary part. The fact that the truck was still doing a good amount of speed (remember, if you do not have control of the vehicle, the worst thing you can do is slam on your brakes) and the fact that when I hit the car on the front-right side of my truck, this pushed the front part of my truck to turn. I did a 180 in the middle of the highway (lane 2 to the right), causing me to slide backwards, while at the same time, watching traffic come towards me. From here, I had no way of gaining control back of the truck. For all that it was worth, someone could have been playing the song “Jesus, Take the wheel”, since I really couldn’t do anything, but let this take the course of action (don’t worry, I never let go of the steering wheel). While sliding backwards, I was still probably doing about 45MPH, when the highway sidewall stopped me as I slammed into the side of the highway wall and my airbag had deployed. Smoke poured into my truck, and for about 5 seconds there, I really didn’t know what had just happened. I guess I was in a little state of shock. I looked out my door, and found that all types of oil, antifreeze, windshield wiper fluid, transmission fluid, and whatever else goes in the front of you truck came pouring out.

I have to admit something. The ambulance, firetruck, and two cop cars were there within 3 minutes of the wreck. Not too shabby.

Life Lessons

This has been a learning lesson for me. Not one of “don’t speed” (cause I wasn’t speeding), or “look before you change lanes” (since I wasn’t changing lanes). Nope, I have been learning about why insurance pays off. First off, I want to say this: I have Allstate Insurance, and they ROCK. They have been there for me throughout this whole ordeal and have taken care of pretty much everything, and that is what they are suppose to do. Truth is, I’m lucky. The paramedics told me I was extremely lucky that I was able to walk away from the wreck without any issues, much less without a scratch on my body. So, now you probably want to know a little bit about the truck’s condition, whether it’s totaled and whatnot.

How did you feel afterwards

Actually, I was in so much shock, that my brain had to catch up. I never really believed the whole “you’ll feel something the day after the wreck”. It’s so true. I might not have had a scratch on my body, but I ached in places I didn’t know existed. My neck was killing me for a few days as well, but that only lasted for a few days, probably some form of whiplash. However, my leg hurt, too. I think I might have hit it on my dash or the steering column. It still hurts, and there’s actually a knot and a big brush on my leg – actually it’s my shin. Anyways, as you can tell, I’m doing alright.

How’s the truck doing and was it totaled?

The truck was not totaled, which was a big surprise to me. See for yourself, that the damage was pretty bad. Allstate did a quote on my vehicle, and I don’t want to really give away actual numbers, so I’ll just say this – they wrote me a check for an amount that exceeds $10,000. Currently the truck is being worked on and I await to hear anymore information regarding it. So far, there are no additional issues with the truck, but they haven’t taken the whole thing apart yet. What I do know that they are going to be repairing are the real left side panel of my truck (it hit against the wall as well), the whole major front-end of my truck, and the running boards (these are the stepping things that help us short people get into a high-rised vehicle.

Well, that’s all for now. I’m going to go enjoy the rest of my Vacation.

ITToolBox Welcomes Me

I don’t really get recognized for much, but when I do it’s my acomplishments that keep me going. I don’t feel like I need to be recognized for the work I love to contribute to, but when I do, I am overwhelmed. Another day, another acomplishment, just doing what I enjoy. Continue reading ITToolBox Welcomes Me