20 years

The year was 1988.

The date: January 31st. New Year's Eve.

It was 5 days away from my 18th birthday.

I had agreed to go to a New Year's Eve party that night.
I was not looking forward to it. I was not the party type.

I was shy and there would be few people my age(or that I would know) there, but it was also a surprise 30th birthday for my horse trainer's(C) husband(T) and I had promised her I would attend.

The party thrower wanted the birthday boy there at 9:00 p.m. sharp, and I drove over in the truck with him(T) and C.

T knew as soon as we pulled into the driveway that something was up, even though people had parked way down the street so he wouldn't become suspicious.

Some late party goers had pulled up at the same time we had, carrying gifts. He instantly knew that the party was for him, ruining the surprise. C was pissed.

We entered the house to the shouts of "Surprise!", and I instantly snuck into the kitchen so as not to draw too much attention to myself.

That's where the kids were corralled. Even back then I had always felt more comfortable around the children than with the adults, or even people my own age.
I sat down and started helping the kids with a craft project.

Pretty soon the kids began to get bored and wandered off into the garage to play Ping Pong, leaving me alone in the kitchen at the kid's table.

People came in and out of the kitchen to grab food and drinks, then drifted back into the living room or garage where the party was taking place.

I sat awkwardly in the kitchen alone. I wanted to go home. It was only 10:00.

Most of the party guests were in their late 20's and early 30's, and aside from C and T and some of T's family, I did not know any of them.

All of T's nieces and nephews were there. Most of them were under the age of 7.

Soon T's sister arrived(late as usual), with her children, a boy, 12, and a girl, 16. The boy headed out to the garage for a game of ping pong. T spotted me sitting in the kitchen alone, and quickly paired me up with his 16 year old niece.

We had met several times before, at various functions. I did not like her. I don't even remember her name. Let's call her "Alexis".

Alexis was loud and obnoxious and wore lots of makeup and tight, revealing clothing. She liked to be the center of attention and had had a boyfriend for a year already.

I was shy and quiet, slightly preppy, and liked to blend into the woodwork. I had never even been on a date or kissed a boy before, let alone had a boyfriend.

She dragged me into the living room, where the majority of the people were, and pulled me down on the love seat next to her, right in the middle of the room, facing the front door.

She talked(loudly) about school, and her friends and how she had just gotten her driver's permit. She confided to me that she had broken up with her boyfriend recently.

I mostly smiled, and nodded, and made the appropriate sympathetic sounds.

I don't know how long this went on. It seemed like an eternity. People continued to show up for the party. We had a bird's eye view of the front door, watching people arrive, bringing gifts for T.

T's good friends arrived, E and M, and T saw me sitting on the couch and asked me to come over and say Hi. I knew E, as he owned an R.V. repair shop and he had fixed my parent's RV many times. He had even come out to meet us on the road when our RV broke down on the way to a horse show. I had been to his shop many times.

With E was his wife and son, whom I had never met.

T came over and introduced them to me.

"Michelle, you already know E, but this is his wife M and their son Joe.

I stood up to greet them. Glancing briefly at Joe, I saw the most beautiful brown eyes. I shifted my gaze back to the floor then smiled shyly and inched backwards towards the safety of the love seat.

Alexis sprang up from the love seat and came to stand next to me, giving me a look as if to say "Who do we have here"?

T introduced Alexis to Joe.

She smiled flirtatiously and said Hi.

We stood in a small circle in the middle of the living room, Alexis standing very close to Joe, me with my arms crossed in front of me, hugging myself as if I were cold.

They chatted for a few minutes while I stood uncomfortably, staring at the floor and not following the conversation.

Joe turned to me and asked "Are you cold?". I suppose because of the way I had my arms wrapped around myself.

I sputtered "Uh, no. I'm not cold". I was wearing a turtleneck with a sweater over it.

He asked if either of us would like something to drink. I said No thanks, but Alexis told him she would love a Coke.

He left us to go into the kitchen in search of one and we made our way back to the love seat and sat down. He returned shortly with the soda for her and a plastic cup for himself. The love seat sat three people comfortably. Alexis shoved me over to the opposite end and invited Joe to sit in the middle with one of us on either side.

We were sitting very close together. Our thighs were touching

I was nervous. We made small talk for a few minutes. I noticed that Joe was turned facing me, with his back to Alexis, and most of his conversation was focused on me.

I thought that was strange. To me Alexis was pretty and social and experienced and why in the world would he want to talk to me instead of her?

After a several more minutes of being ignored, Alexis left the couch to wander into the garage, leaving us alone. This made me very, very nervous. I excused myself to go to the bathroom, hoping I could ditch him.

He was waiting for me outside the bathroom door.

Darn, but he was persistent.

I said I was hungry, and headed for the kitchen, hoping once again to lose him. He followed me.

I decided there was no way I was getting rid of him, so we stood in the kitchen chatting while I pretended to eat something.

It was getting close to midnight. People were starting to congregate in the living room to watch the ball drop on the television.

We stood among the throng of people, me nervously nodding and smiling and Joe making conversation.

Suddenly it was 5 minutes until midnight and we were watching the countdown on the t.v. begin.

At the stroke of midnight, as everyone around us threw confetti and yelled happy new year, Joe turned to me and said "You're supposed to kiss me now".

I froze. I didn't know what to do. He came closer. And closer.

And then he leaned in and kissed me. And I kissed him back.

My very first kiss.

I thought I was going to be sick afterwards. I excused myself to go to the bathroom again, where I took deep cleansing breaths until my heart rate returned to normal.

I went back into the living room where he was waiting and told him I was tired and maybe I would go home now.

He offered to drive me. I declined. I had brought my own car.

He said he would like to take me out on a date.

I told him that would be okay. We decided on the following day(New Year's Day), as he was on a week's leave from the Navy and would have to return to duty in a couple of days.

I didn't think he would call. I sat by the phone all morning though, hopeful that he would.

At 2:00 p.m. he finally called.

He picked me up shortly after and we went on our first date.

I was less nervous. We went to the beach and sat on the sand and talked and talked. When we were all talked out, he took me miniature golfing, then back to his house where we watched a movie.

We spent the entire rest of the day together. When he dropped me back off at home, he promised to call me the next day.

And he did.

And the rest is history.


We don't have any special plans for tonight. After the kids go to bed we will lift a glass of champagne and toast the journey that has been the last 20 years. It has been quite a ride.


I love you Joe. Happy Anniversary. I'm so glad you took a chance and was persistent on that New Year's Eve night 20 years ago. I hope we have many, many more New Year's Eves to celebrate together.


This picture was taken a little more than a year after we met. 1990. My how we have aged! :)





.

Fire On The Mountain

 Monday started off like any other day.   I got up, went to work, and started my day.  A pretty bad fire had started quite a distance from my workplace, but nowhere near our house.  Our house was in the other direction.    People in the Trabuco canyon and Rancho Santa Margarita areas were starting to be evacuated.  Still no sense of danger to us at all.   The fire grew very quickly.  More and more people in Orange County were being evacuated.  So far no one in Riverside County were, which is where we lived.  Overnight we found out that the fire had started moving up the back of the mountain, towards our house, on the East side of Ortega Highway, which we live off of. It was moving quick.  Soon we were under voluntary evacuation.   This is not our first rodeo, so I immediately called Joe and told him to start packing.  Thank God he is off on Tuesdays. With a fire that size,  moving as quickly as it was, things could change in an instant.   

And they did.

This is the view from the parking lot of the rv park where we live.   It was coming our way very quickly.

 Very soon after voluntary evacuation were given, mandatory orders were put into place.  The sheriff came around and started telling people to leave now.  Joe began quickly filling the car with the belongings he thought we might need. The things you think you might need in an emergency situation?  You probably don’t. The only things I wanted from the house were scrapbooks and photos, a few items of clothing and our animals. (And Joe of course).  Nothing else matters in that situation.  He packed as much as he could in our little car, plus three animal carriers.  The car was stuffed to the brim.   Soon he was on his way to meet me at work.  

The last photo he took as he drove down Ortega Highway to get to safety.  Terrifying   

While is was waiting for him at work(not much work was getting done), I was in search of a pet friendly hotel to bring our zoo to until it was safe to return home.   I had no luck.  All of the nearby hotels were booked solid. Too many other communities had already been evacuated and filled up all of the hotels.   I was panicking.  I extended our search for several more miles and found a  motel by the beach, about twenty five minutes from my workplace.  They did not take pets, but made an exception for us due to the evacuation.   I did not look at the reviews for this place. It was cheap, and I was just happy to have a safe place to go.   When we got there, things seemed….off. There were a ton of people loitering around, smoking and drinking.  There seemed to be a small population of homeless men hanging around on the patio too.  The small office was trippy. Psychedelic lights flashing all over the walls and ceilings.  Tye Dye decorations, with a plethora of pot leaves mixed in.  The “Manager” was playing a guitar when I entered the office.  I didn’t feel unsafe,  but the men out front made me uneasy.   I  noticed a lot of people seemed to be living there long term, and I found out later it was because they had very cheap weekly rates.  As soon as we got into the room I thought Joe was going to have a heart attack.  This room was NOT clean.  Not by any means.   I don’t even think the sheets were fresh.  Joe was like “Nope.  We’re sleeping in our cars”.  It was that bad.  I made the manager come check it out, and he went in and cleaned it himself, saying “Oops, my bad”.     “I thought it had already been cleaned”.  Dude, really?! Meanwhile two cats and a dog are in our car, freaking out.   After he “cleaned” the room, we started bringing stuff in. There were cigarette burns in the kitchen.    The curtains had stains on them.   The bedspreads had large holes in them.  Joe had me go to the store immediately and buy some Clorox wipes.   He used an entire container wiping down every single surface in that room, including the walls.  Joe can be a bit of a germaphobe, but in this case it was warranted.   Then we checked the bed for bed bugs (none, thank God). It was seven o’clock by that time, we hadn’t eaten and we were exhausted.   I ran and got some food, we ate and then fell I into bed.   Neither of us got very much sleep that night. After goggling the motel, I saw it was a two star motel.   Two stars.  Yikes! Won’t be staying there again any time soon!

On Wednesday I asked Joe to stay home from work so he could find us a better hotel and stay with the animals.  I called around and got the last room at a Staybridge hotel,  20 minutes from my work, and ten minutes from Joe’s.  We got the last  room.  The entire hotel was booked except for this one room.   Thank you God.  I was able to get off at noon to help Joe with the transfer to the new hotel.  This hotel was more like what we were expecting.  It was NICE.   It had a small kitchenette.   Body wash, shampoo and conditioner in the shower (I had forgotten all of my toiletries).  This will do.  The animals were finally let free. They hid under the bed for a whole day, but have finally ventured out and have become somewhat more comfortable.  It’s still a lot having two cats,  a dog and two adults in a small hotel room.  Just….a lot.

I called our renter’s insurance and they transferred me the money to pay for five days at the hotel.  We were so relieved.    Finally things started to feel a little more “normal”, whatever that means in this situation.   

On Thursday we both desperately had to go back to work. The hotel policy is that all  pets must be in a crate when you are not in the room with them.   Off we went to petsmart to purchase a crate    Now, I know that Lola did not do well in crates.  If fact, she hated them and hadn’t been in one since she was a baby.    I wasn’t sure how this would go.  I went off to work first, and Joe put her in the crate and went off to work about a half an hour later.  Everything seemed to be fine.  No call from the hotel telling us that she was barking.   When I pulled into the hotel parking lot on Thursday night, I could hear her from the parking lot.   She was barking and crying and making SO much noise.  LOUDLY.  I have no idea how long she was doing this.   I’m hoping she heard my car coming into the parking lot and it had started then.  I have no idea how long she was carrying on like that.   So I was stuck in the hotel room with her, because I couldn’t leave her alone.  So boring.  On Fridays Joe goes to work early, so I was the one who had to walk her and put her in her crate.  This did not go well, right from the  start. She started barking and carrying on,  crying the minute I put her in there   I rushed off to work, hoping that once I left she would be okay.  Nope.   The hotel called me 10 minutes later, letting me know that she was being too loud and I had to come and get her.  Another day of missed work.  Sigh.   The lost wages were starting to build up.  

That’s the one thing that you don’t think about when you are displaced from your home.  We are bleeding money right now   I am so grateful that the renter’s insurance paid for our hotel because if they hadn’t, we would be screwed.  It’s the take out, and groceries, and clothing that are adding up.  Joe packed me ten T-shirts and zero pairs of pants.   lol.  I had to  do a pick up order at Target for some jeans.  I have no idea if renter’s insurance will cover that.  I’m just praying that it will all work out and we will recoup some of the money we have spent.

That being said, we are blessed and lucky to have a home to go home to at all.   The town three miles up the hill from us suffered devastating loss.  Homes burned to the ground.  I can’t fathom the fear and pain those people have, and will continue to suffer in the months and years to come. Please send prayers and good thoughts to those affected in El Cariso village.  They need them.  Thank you.

 I think that about sums our week.   We are waiting until the power comes back at our place before returning home, which could be until this coming Wednesday.  Three more days in a hotel.  We may take a drive tomorrow with Lola, just to get out.   I’m going a little stir crazy here.   

Thank you for all of your support and prayers and good vibes being sent our way.   We can feel them and they are greatly appreciated.  Soon we’ll be back home and this will be a just another story we tell people of our time living in our tiny house in the mountains.   Until then, we will be thankful for our safety and a home to return to.  

Disney Cruise Day Four

 Day Four was a sea day, so we hung around the ship and relaxed all day.  We went to the spa for two and a half hours, read our books out on the verandah, took our time with breakfast and lunch. After lunch we went to a champagne tasting class that I had signed us up for. It was fun tasting all the expensive champagnes, but the class was supposed to teach us how to make champagne cocktails, and it did not do that. I'm not sure what was up with that, but I was really looking forward to it. We did enjoy the tasting though.

We did some activities like trivia and played some Bingo but did not win. It was fun playing.

This was not regular BINGO, like you have in your head where people sit in a crowded room and the caller slowly calls out each number and people are quiet because they are concentrating.  Nope!  This BINGO was nothing like that. There was singing, there was dancing, there was jumping up and down.  They know how to do BINGO!  Super fun. We were one number off two times. So close!

We found this door on our deck. I love, love, love this. Up is one of my favorite Pixar films.  I love Carl and Ellie so much!  The creativity this took is amazing. Next time I'm going to up my cruise ship door game.

Joe took this photo at sunset. 

                                         

Dinner tonight is at Tiana's Place. This was the restaurant I was looking forward to the most. It's based after The Princess and the Frog movie.  It's set in New Orleans and the theming is amazing.  Look at these plates!  So cute!  I did remember to take pictures of my food tonight.

We both started with the sausage fritters. So good.

I then had the wedge salad, which was both pretty and delicious. Joe got the Gumbo soup. He was very happy with it too.

Joe got the pork tenderloin. I got the prime rib steak. I almost never eat beef but it looked so good I made an exception. We both had the beignets with chocolate sauce and a bread pudding. I had two desserts almost every night!  So good. 

Tiana's place isn't just a restaurant, it has a show too.  While we were eating Tiana was singing

on stage with a piano player.  Halfway through dinner she started a Congo line. There was singing and dancing and clapping. We even did the limbo. The little kids loved it so much!  OK, I did too. Afterwards Tiana comes around to each and every table to say hello, and we got a photo. Such a fun dinner. Would have loved to do that one twice.

Our last towel creation: a seal.  Cute!

So we had dinner at four restaurants:

Triton's the first night, themed after The Little Mermaid.

Palo, the adults only upcharge restaurant, which was Italian themed.

Animator's Palette, where the walls came alive with animation and colors,

and Tiana's Place, which was my favorite.  

I don't have many photos for Debarkation Day, but I'll write a little bit about it tomorrow 

because some of it surprised me.

We had a great last day!

Disney Cruise Day Three

 Day Three. 

This was Cabo San Lucas, Mexico day and we were excited. They don't have a large enough port in Cabo San Lucas to dock the ship, so you have to take little boats called "tenders" and they take you to the pier.  I booked an excursion for today, so we had to meet up with the rest of our party in the theater to be taken to the boats. Our excursion didn't start until 10:15, so we didn't have to get up super early. I booked a sightseeing tour to go on a boat to see the famous rock arch, and then a bus to see the coastline. What I didn't realize is that it was going to take all day and we weren't going to have time to go exploring on our own, which Joe really wanted to do.  In fact we had only 25 minutes to shop, so we didn't get anything we had wanted. (T-shirts, magnets and such). It was still a great day of sightseeing.

View of our ship from the pier in Cabo.

The famous arch. Lover's beach is to the right. It's great for swimming and snorkeling.  On the other side they call it divorce beach (it's a joke but they do call it that).  That side the water is very choppy and dangerous so nobody goes there.

Joe in vacation mode.

After the boat ride to see the arch, we took a bus to visit a glass factory. We watched the glassblowers make some items before we took a look around the shop of items for sale.

He's making a turtle wearing a sombrero with a bottle of tequila in his hand.  No joke. I should have taken photos of the end product.

I love the colorful glassware

We bought margarita glasses just like these but in a different shape. They were so pretty. I say HAD, because I dropped them and they broke on debarkation day.  I cried.  I found them on Etsy for three times the price. I'll probably get them there.

They had a large selection of glasses and vases, as well as little animals you could purchase.  We only got the margarita glasses and a shot glass for Joe's co-worker.

After that we took bus to see the coastline. That's our boat way out there.

Dinner that night was at Animator's Palette.  I took only one photo in there. I swear this is so unlike me.  I was seriously just having so much fun I either didn't remember to take photos, or left my phone in the room. There was no cell service anyway.  I'm kind of disappointed in myself because I forgot a lot of things due to not taking any photos.  

These walls start out black and white and then turn beautiful colors as the nights go on, and the screens on the walls  have animation on them. Very nice visual effects. This restaurant was directly below our room, so again with the vibrations. 

Saw Chip and Dale on the way back from dinner. They had their tuxedos on because it was semi formal night. You'll see us in the same clothes two nights in a row because we had the nice dinner at Palo last night and semi formal night tonight.  We chose to dress up. Not everyone did.

We got pictures with Minnie Mouse in her ball gown, but of course the professionals photographers have them and are holding them hostage. I'll post them later for sure. She looked so pretty!

That was it for Day Three.  Tomorrow is our last night! (sob)

Disney Cruise Day Two

I just realized a few of those photos of us exploring the ship are from different days. Thus the outfit changes. LOL. 

                                  

After the movie we went back to our room to get ready for bed.  This was our towel creation for the night. We had no idea what it was? Anyone know?

Our room was as far aft as you can get.  (As far in the back of the ship). Like there was no room to the left of us, because our room was the very last one before hitting the back of the ship. Such a long walk from the elevators! Anyway, I had read that rooms that are in the back of the ship, you can feel "some vibrations".  I was expecting this, but Holy Cow cruise ship, "some" vibrations actually meant the bed actually MOVED from the vibrations, and they were loud! You know in old movies or tv shows where they have those machines on the bed in a hotel room where there's a switch and you can make the bed vibrate, for like a massage or something?  I have no idea if you know what I am talking about, but man did that bed vibrate!  I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to sleep, it was that bad. Thankfully I was able to sleep with some ear plugs and I got used to the motion of the vibrating.  This is something I think should definitely be disclosed to the people who purchase rooms way back there.  Turns out we didn't have a neighbor to our left and only a wall on the right, so our room was SUPER quiet. (Except for the vibrations).  It turned out not to be a big deal for us in the end, but keep in mind if you are going on a cruise and choosing your room.  Two of the restaurants are also aft of the ship and it vibrated down there too.

Today we slept in a little since we had such a late night last night.  We headed to the buffet at Cabanas again, but for breakfast, not lunch. I found the breakfast buffet to be much better than the lunch. After lunch we visited "Cove Cafe", which is an adults only coffee bar and I got this cute coffee. I love him!

We spent a good part of our first day at sea at the Spa.  I forgot to say, on the first day, right when we boarded we booked it to the spa to get passes to the "Senses Spa", because day passes sell out quick.  The pass lasted your whole trip and you could go as many times as you wanted throughout your trip.  We only went two days but spent a few hours there each time. Again, no photos because it was wet in there and I didn't want my phone to get ruined.  Not until later did I realize my phone is water proof and I could have taken it with me.  Duh!

Anyway, the spa has several different sections to it.  The first are the saunas.  There are two.  I referred to them as 1. The scorching one, and 2. The essential oils one.  In reality they are called the "mid temperature sauna", (apparently there is one in each locker room that is hotter!) and the "aromatic sauna".  

Guess which one I chose?  The mid temperature sauna was scorching hot and I couldn't stay in that one for more than five minutes.  It was so hot!  I don't know how people handle that kind of damp heat.  Not for me.  The Aromatic sauna was lovely. It was less hot, had a shower nozzle to add steam or cool off with, and smelled of lavender.  I spent all my time in that one. When you need a break you head over to one of their showers to rinse off.  The first shower was super hot, and again I couldn't handle the heat. The second one is medium hot and just right. The third one was the "cold fog" shower and I liked that one too.  After you take your shower you head over to the "heated loungers". These were her heavenly!  I don't know what it was about them, because they were simply lounge chairs with little tiles on them that heated up, but they felt so good!  Especially after the cold fog shower.  I could have spent days there! The spa was wonderful.

After the spa we went back to the room to change.  We went back up to the pool deck to grab a bite to eat. They have three quick service restaurants up there.  Daisy's Dee-Lites, Pinnochio's Pizza, and Pete's Boiler Bites.  Daisy's is salads and sandwiches, more lighter fair.  Pinnochio's was Pizza of course, but they made it right there and it was so fresh and yummy.  Pete's was burgers and hot dogs, with different types of proteins like fish, chicken or veggie in addition to beef patties. I didn't eat here at all but Joe had a really good pork sandwich there on our last day. We spent the day at the adult pool(not swimming just reading at a table in the sun).

Our first sunset at sea

The first sea day was Pirate Night. We inadvertently kind of skipped Pirate Night, as that was the night I booked us to go to the Fancy restaurant on board, which was called "Palo".  It has an extra charge and is adults only.  Well it turns out that because it was pirates night, no one wanted to eat at Palo and we were essentially alone in there! The service we got was amazing! I mean, the service would have been amazing anyway, but to have the waiter to ourselves was awesome!

I had the Salmon (again-but this one was so much better). Again, can't find any other photos I took of food here. I also had the caprese as an appetizer, and Joe had the Calamari. Both were so fresh and so good.  For dessert we shared the chocolate Soufflé.  To die for.

                                     

                          

                                             

I found some more photos of the exterior of the ship. This is the adult only pool area.  It was really nice!

Palo was so much fun.

After Palo it was time for Pirate night up on the ship deck. We went out for a little bit and it was cold and windy. The show was very high energy and loud, and we were tired. We decided to call it a night so we missed most of the show. Here's a few photos:

They had sent a message out letting guests know to keep your verandah doors closed during Fireworks and to please stay inside while the were going on.  Well, they were shooting them off right above us, so we opened the verandah door a teeny bit and took these photos. It was pretty cool!

To end the night I ordered room service for a a couple of Mickey Bars.  So cute and yummy!

Our towel (blanket) creation for  the night. A Pirate, of course!  Very clever.

I'm super bummed because we ordered a photo package that included all of the professional photographs to download. Well, the watermarks are still on them.  I called and they said I have to email them to get support, and that can take up to 20 days!  I'm super disappointed because I really wanted to include them here. I also want to start a scrapbook.  I know it's not the end of the world but I am disappointed that they can't help me sooner.   Others in our group are having the same problem.  I don't even have any iPhone pictures because I didn't have them take them with my phone because I knew I was getting the package.Hey, if that's the worst thing to happen to me today I'm doing alright.  

Day Three is Cabo San Lucas.  I'll post that later today.