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Last Saturday was the one year anniversary of the first date that Kelly and I had.

Plans to make it a memorable event had been in the making for many days, and the payoff was grand.

We woke up early, and drove to South Lake Tahoe. Reservations for Montbleu and dinner were taken care of, and Kelly even scheduled us for a fancy couple’s massage at the spa in the hotel.

When we checked into the hotel, I was a bit disappointed about our view. Our window showed us the roof of some buildings, and a mountain that wasn’t even covered in snow. Yuck!
I called the front desk and asked if we could upgrade. They told me that they’d have a nicer room available in an hour or so (for a small fee, of course), so we decided to take the offer. The new room would be facing Lake Tahoe, a sight well worth a small upgrade fee.

We had a couple of hours to kill before our massage appointment, and I had just the plan for that time. We walked over to the Heavenly village to catch a gondola ride to the top of the mountain. It was cold and windy out, but my hands were sweating.

Luckily for us, we managed to get in a gondola by ourselves. The sky was cloudy, but the lake was a very deep blue, so the views we were about to take in got us excited. Kelly sat with her back to the lake, as I took a few pictures of her with Lake Tahoe in the background.
I sat next to her, and whispered some sweet things in her ear. We kissed a couple of times, celebrating our anniversary with a very romantic and private ride. Seizing the perfect moment, I told kelly to “Look at the lake, it’s so pretty!”.

When she turned around to look back at me, she found me on one knee, with a ring on my hand and a huge smile on my face. I simply asked her: “Will you marry me?”, and she said yes. The ring went on her finger, and we spent the rest of the ride looking deep into each other’s eyes.

When we arrived to the top, we walked around in bliss, enjoying the landscape, the view, and our love for each other. Kelly had been questioning me about when I was going to ask for her hand, and little did she know that I’d been planning it all along.

When we first talked about such things, many months ago, she told me that she wanted three things: A ring (she showed me a picture of “a ring”), a private circumstance, and a surprise.
I took these things to heart, and made sure that they were true at the moment that I went down on my knee. Her face told me I’d surprised her. Being on a little cart dangling from a wire above pine trees and snow on the side of a mountain… that’s rather private, I’d say. Happily, the ring requirement was also met, and I did actually hear her say “wow” a couple of times. Success!

When we went back to the hotel, we headed to the front desk to check in into our new and upgraded room. Kelly totally pulled a move from Friends (the TV show) and announced to the concierge that we had just gotten engaged. Luckily for us, it worked! The manager was there by coincidence, and we got a free upgrade to a mini-suite.

We had our couple’s massage at the spa in the hotel, and it was wonderfully relaxing. It was a royal treat to our bodies. The therapists were super nice, and we both felt at the end as if they had transmitted a lot of positive energy our way. If they hadn’t disappeared after leaving the room for us to get dressed, I probably would have given them a hug.

The last item on our anniversary plans involved a fancy dinner at Evan’s, the fanciest restaurant I could find. It had great reviews on Yelp and Zagat, so we had to check it out.
Dinner was very tasty , and the things we ate were straight out of Top Chef. However, the highlight of the experience wasn’t the incredible food. There was a small wedding party dining there, with the bride wearing her white dress and the groom in a tuxedo and all. I took it to be a very good sign of the day’s events.

In the end, the weekend turned out to be out of a movie. We celebrated our year of falling in love with each other, and we also celebrated our promise to continue to love each other forevermore.

It’s so hard to try to tell a story, that I’m not even going to try! Instead, here are a few tid-bits of how it all went, in no particular order:

• We left on Thursday, September 3rd. It took us about 3 hours to arrive to our camping spot. Not bad!
• One of the first people we saw at Burning Man was a man in his late 40s, wearing nothing but shoes and a hat. His testicles were dangling around, remarkably stretched. The heat probably was to blame for that.
  At any rate, Kelly was welcomed by cock and balls. We gave the guy a nice and cold beer, and chatted it for a few minutes. It was a great way to start, with a friendly naked guy.
• Our camp, BRCU, was awesome. We had two big domes, one for partying (with our DJ, dance floor and lights) and the other one for chilling out (full of kiddie swimming pools, overflowing with stuffed animals). It was home for a few days, and it really kicked a lot of ass.
• There was a lot dust wind. Of course there’s dust, it’s a dry lake bed. And the dust is a pleasant experience as long as the wind comes and goes, or is a breeze.
  On Friday, Saturday and Sunday, the wind was strong. It was also consistent, starting at around 10am and dying down sometime around 11pm. Ridiculous, crazy and annoying.
  What’s one to do? Well, you can either find shelter, or you can spontaneously dance.
• I’d always heard the myth that there are a lot of orgies at Burning Man. Well, let’s just say that -without participating!- it’s not a myth.
• On a somewhat related note, and once again without being involved in it, I’ve learned about more and more people into polyamory. I guess my upbringing makes it something that would never work for me, but that my open mind makes it acceptable as long as it’s not shoved into my face.
• Our diets consisted of a lot of canned foods, like Spaghettios. All we used was a couple of plastic spoons, and not even half of a very small camping propane tank.
• The one thing I enjoyed the most this year is easy for me to decide on, and probably easy for you to guess: having Kelly with me.
  We spent most of our time together, sharing our experiences and caring for each other. Every single moment worth remembering involves her as an integral part of that memory, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I love sharing my life with her!
• The second “best” thing this year was on Saturday morning. We rode our bikes into the “deep playa”, and checked out the random art installations that were there. There’s stuff out there that you can’t see from far away, but it’s definitely worth the shot journey. It’s far away enough from everything else that you don’t hear the incessant music, which is a welcome change.
  While cruising around, we found plenty of art pieces, ranging from a collection of statues to a huge guitar. We’d ride up to something, check it out, look around aimlessly until we saw that there was something out there, and then do it all over again. It was a very wonderful way to spend a day with Kelly.
  I’d like to share about one of the things we found: a typewriter on a tall desk, with a tall chair. There was roll of paper, and the machine seemed to be in very good working condition.
  I climbed on the chair, and while Kelly took some pictures, I figured that I might as well write something. Without difficulty, a love note was born. When I was done, I handed the note to Kelly. She smiled, and climbed on the tall chair to write a note to me.
  The notes that we wrote to each other will be a good addition to a little scrapbook that Kelly is making, but even if those were lost, I’ll never forget how we spent our time together. The fun, the playfulness and the love are things that I’m grateful for, and they sometimes make me wonder how I ended up being so lucky.
• Sleeping in a tent is nice, even with an air mattress. But it’s not nice enough for Burning Man, when your body needs good rest after battling playa whiteouts, climbing on art pieces and cars, dancing, walking and riding bicycles.
  We’ll try to rent an RV for next year, and hopefully we can share with a couple more people, to lower the cost, and share in the awesomeness of having some more comfortable living quarters.
• I’d never really gone and hung out at Center Camp, but this year we went there a handful of times. We had some iced coffee, and sat around enjoying all that goes on.
  The Center Camp scene is apparently what most people stereotype Burning Man to be: hippies hanging out, people doing Yoga, drum circles, dancing. And in a way, the stereotype is true – but with a twist.
  Most people’s stereotype includes the above mentioned activities, and that’s it. My stereotype goes a bit further, and involves the reason why people are doing such things. So of course it’s true that people are doing all those things that some people label as lame, stupid or childish. Of course they’re doing what they want to do. It’s obvious that all they want to do is enjoy themselves, and that there’s at least one place where they can totally freely do it, and that’s at Burning Man.
  I don’t really want to go deeper into how people could have fun in the “default” world, because that’s not what I’m trying to get to. My point is that I don’t understand the criticism of people doing things that they enjoy.
• I took my Canon 40D camera, and took a few pictures. I didn’t have it on me at all times (in fact, I had it with me very little), but when I did, I think I captured some decent photographs. If you’d like to check them out, head on over to my Flickr.I feel like Burning Man is my yearly test of how my photo skills are doing. It’s a good reference point to look back and compare, and -just like last year- I can say that this year’s pictures are better than last year’s. This is a nice feeling!
• Our “exodus” took us 5 and a half hours, with 2 of them being spent on the exit line from Black Rock City to the highway. We left on Sunday, because we were exhausted and ready to get home to our dreamy bed, and anxious to be able to spend at least one day snuggling in the morning. We got home, enjoyed the wonderful feeling of a hot shower, and went to bed.
• On Monday, Labor Day, we woke up 11 hours after having gone to sleep. And then we spent the rest of the day cleaning up, and enjoying each other. We had no regrets of having left on Sunday and missing the Temple burn.
  Our Burning Man experience ended on a high note. Additionally, we would have been dead to the world for the entire week if we had to do all the cleaning we did on Monday during the week, after very busy and stressful times at work. So busy, in fact, that it’s my excuse for posting this almost a whole week later!

After a rather uneventful series of flights, we landed in Mendoza. We walked off the plane (using airstairs) and into the airport, where a small welcoming party patienly awaited for us.

Fresh off the plane, and only a few hours later, my dad prepared a monumental asado to usher us into Argentina. Not only that, but we were joined by both my parents, both brothers and their girlfriends, my grandparents and my aunt. It was quite the committee, and even though I expected it, I think it took Kelly by surprise.

That was only a preview of what the next two weeks would be: an incomparable gastronomical journey, where we ingested food in both great quantity and quality. We had a little bit of everything, but I can’t miss the chance to mention some of my (and now Kelly’s!) favorites: milanesas, empanadas, alfajores and lots of delicious wine.

We visited a lot of people and places, and my mom had planned things for most days, which kept us plenty busy. I’m pretty sure Kelly met 90% of the family, all the way up to my grandmother’s sisters.
It was also gratifying to be able to show Kelly where I grew up. I showed her the schools I went to (and the one that inspired my tattoo), the streets I played in, the buses that I rode around and the places where I used to go.

There were a few memorable events that took place, which I will just itemize for brevity’s sake:

• We spent 4 days in a small apartment in downtown Mendoza. The place was very cold, but having to heat it up with precarious gas heaters was only a fraction of the weirdness.
  It was located right above a parking garage, which got unbearably loud as the business day started at 6am. Car alarms, traffic and people being loud woke us up, and would only let us be half-asleep until we gave up and got up half tired, and full cranky.
• On the first night in Mendoza, and in the apartment, Kelly was woken up at 2 in the morning by a very peculiar sound. There was someone driving down the street, with his music on full blast. Apparently, the car stopped at a red light. And the song that he was having all of the city listen to at this time of night was no other than Coolio’s Gangsta’s Paradise.
  When she told me this the next day, the song was stuck in my head for at least two entire days. Thankfully, we found it hilarious.
• We visited a couple of the finest wineries in Mendoza: Fournier and Salentein. We learned about the wine-making process, we sampled lots of delicious wines, and had a wonderful time with the family.
• On Saturday night, Kelly was brushing her teeth when a hose under the sink busted. Water was spraying everywhere, and the only solution was to shut off the main water line. This meant that we couldn’t flush the toilet or shower.
• On Sunday morning, we woke up and packed our stuff, and moved to a very nice hotel for the rest of our stay. Life was much better 6 stories away from downtown traffic, and with much better heating. As an added bonus, we also had internet access and my iPhone came in very handy to catch up and keep in touch with home.
• Hanging out with some of my old friends was just like time had never passed. We met, we talked, we had fun and we said goodbye in a “I’ll see you tomorrow” kind of vibe.

We spent the last 3 days in the country in Buenos Aires. The weather was perfect for walking around, and we did a lot of that: from the Congress to San Telmo (the Tango district), with stops at the Obelisk and the Pink House. We saw lots of things, and chose to walk because it’s better to be able to hear and breathe a city than to see it pass you by if you chose to ride a taxi from one destination to the other. And it’s also a lot nicer to walk when you have someone’s hand to hold in yours.

One of the reasons why we went to Buenos Aires was to check out a soccer game. And that we did. We stood in a long line, with lots of shady characters, and bought tickets from the nicest scalper in the world. Some teenage punk tried to spit at Kelly as we walked past the security line, and we didn’t really know if we were in the right line… but it all worked out, and we made it inside Boca Juniors‘ stadium. Despite Boca losing the match, we had a great time soaking in the fans’ passion, the songs, the fireworks and the entire experience. We even had a choripán from a street vendor on the way out!

We also spent a day walking around the more centric part of Buenos Aires, and we walked up and down Florida Avenue. We had lunch at my favorite restaurant, Los Inmortales. Oh, and I got a Rhodochrosite ring for Kelly, to mark the occasion of our unforgettable trip to my motherland.

You’re probably wondering where all the pictures are. It was hard for me to chose which pictures to include in my post, since there’s a lot of good ones. Instead, you get to look at all of them by clicking the link:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nicoyogui/sets/72157620641833613/

And that’s that. Well, not really. There’s a lot to it, but I can’t do it justice without writing something akin to an essay. I can sum it all up by saying that it’s always great to see my family and friends, to be home and eat the stuff I grew up eating. But it’s even better to be able to do it in company of the love of my life.

A 3 day weekend? Why, let’s have a road trip!

But first, let’s spend Saturday hanging out and relaxing, and not getting stuck in traffic with everyone else.

Instead, we left on Sunday. We checked in at the Oakland Marriot at around 2pm, and right away we got in the BART headed to San Francisco. More specifically, to the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood.
We’d eaten a small breakfast, so by the time we made it there, we were ready to sit down and eat. And what better place to do that than Cha Cha Cha! The place was busy, but luckily we got to sit at the bar right away. A pitcher of sangria, and 3 different dishes later (plus an awesome caramel-covered bread pudding for dessert), we were feeling quite good, and more than satisfied. This is definitely a cool place to eat, and the food is delicious.

After eating, we went for a little walk around Golden Gate Park. Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t cooperating, so we didn’t get to enjoy the beautiful gardens as much, but that’s not saying we didn’t have a good time.
We walked through one of the many gardens, took some silly pictures, and headed back to the Haight.

We went into a few of the shops, killed some time and had some fun. Kelly even found something to wear at Burning Man that we could afford -because there are LOTS of things that would be great for Burning Man, but they’re just too expensive.

On Monday, Memorial Day, we headed out to Berkeley. We stumbled for a while looking for a place to eat, and we ended up going into Ann’s Kitchen, which served a glorious American style breakfast, perfect for the occasion.
The weather Gods (or the spirits of all those fallen soldiers) made this day much nicer, which we welcomed as we walked up and down Telegraph street, and checked out the shops and the diverse crowd that was doing the same thing we were.

We also checked out the UC Berkeley campus, where we proceeded to shmoop on the grass by the library. Good times.

With a lot of time to kill, we went on Wikitravel to see what we could do in the area, and that’s how we found out about the Indian Rock Park. Finding it curious enough, we went and checked it out.
Sure enough, it was just a big rock. But lots of people were there, mostly hanging out, and some practicing rock-climbing, some others photographing and at least a couple smoking marihuana.
From the top of the rock you can see most of the Bay. Sadly, it was mostly covered in fog, but despite that, we enjoyed the panoramic view.

However, the main event of our trip was a Flight of the Conchords concert. They toured the US in 2009, and this was their last stop. We HAD to see them, since Kelly and I both enjoy them.
At around 6pm, we sat on the balcony of the Berkeley Community Threatre. The opening act for FotC was Arj Barker, who played Dave in their HBO series. Little did we know that he’s a stand up comedian, and his routine was a great ice-breaker for what was to come. His style was sometimes very close to Dane Cook, but that’s alright by me, since it makes me laugh.

But then, it actually happened. Lights went dim. And …

Of course, that video is not from the same performance that we saw, but it was similar, and set the tone for what was to come: over an hour of silly songs, and the goofy kind of humor that only New Zealand’s fourth most popular digi-folk paradists provides.
There were lots of laughs, some songs I’d never head before, and a lot of singing along with Bret and Jemaine. It was a great live show, and some of the antics that they put on onstage were worth the ticket and the traveling.

To sum it up, we had a great time, and it was a weekend that won’t be forgotten. Or, to use the vernacular, an EPIC WEEKEND.

Monday, April 13th: After getting up at 8am, and going to get a car window replaced, we were ready to get on the road by 11am.
It took us about 9 hours to go from Reno to Huntington Beach. We took US 395 all the way south, and then went from there.
We arrived at the house of Kelly’s aunt and uncle, Ginny and Gary. They welcomed us and fed us leftover Easter dinner (which we missed thanks to the car theft that delayed us by a day and a half). We talked, and went to sleep to recover from the long trip… and be ready for the next day!

Tuesday: I hadn’t gotten much sleep. It was hot, humid and I guess I still had a bit of anxiety about the burglary. It also didn’t help that I woke up at around 8, ready to go… because we were going to Disneyland!
The lack of sleep didn’t get in the way though, because as soon as we set step upon the happiest place on earth, I was too excited to be tired.
Kelly had promised to buy me a Mickey hat and a churro as soon as we walked in the park, and that was exactly what happened.
It was my first time in Disneyland, and I was enjoying every minute of it. Everyone was so happy!
My first ride ever was Star Tours. It was a great start to the day, and my experience: old-school, classic, fun and silly.
From there, my memory gets blurry in a haze of laughs, rides, cartoon characters and feelings of happiness.
My favorite parts were the rides that involved movement, screaming and laughs: Screamin’ (in California Adventure), Big Thunder, Indiana Jones Adventure and Space Mountain (Kelly’s favorite ride!). I also really enjoyed Toon Town, because it really made me feel like I was in a cartoon, and it was just so goofy and happy!
Kelly and I also enjoyed observing all the park-goers, specially the little ones. Early in the day, most kids were litteraly bouncing up and down, running around as the excitement overwhelmed them. But later in the afternoon, the sight was quite different: temper tantrums, kids crying and our favorite: just passed out, so tired that they couldn’t even stay awake, and crashed on a bench somewhere.

Wednesday was a much more laid back day. We slept in for the first time since Sunday, which we deserved since we were on vacation after all.
The plans for the day were quite simple: go visit some relatives. And that’s how I ended up hanging out with Kelly and her grandpa for about 3 hours. Propitiously, he had a large stack of old pictures, and it was very enjoyable to see pictures of Kelly when she was a young one.
On the way back, we drove a little bit of the Pacific Coast Highway, from Orange County to Huntington Beach. The scenery was beautiful, and we both longed to go hang out at the beach, which we would soon do.
For dinner, we met up with Kelly’s cousin Gillian, her husband Dave and their 3 kids, at their house. We had pizza, some beer, and chatted for a good while. It was very laid back, relaxing and enjoyable.

On Thursday, we had major plans. In the morning, we traveled across LA, through some really shitty traffic, to arrive at the gorgeous Getty Center. We spent a few hours there. Kelly gave me a private history lesson about art and the Renaissance, and we enjoyed the sun and warm weather in the beautiful gardens.
While at the Getty, I couldn’t help but think of my parents, who would love the architecture of the place (my mom is an architect, my dad a civil engineer). It also was when I was hurt the most about not having my camera, because I really wanted to take some pretty pictures.

Afraid of what getting back on a freeway -at rush hour- would do for my mental sanity, we decided to take an alternative route to our next destination. Kelly’s excellent navigational skills determined that we could take Sunset Boulevard, so we did just that. It was another great drive!
We went from the Getty, through Bel-Air and Beverly Hills, seeing incredible houses mansions and fancy cars, and into Hollywood and LA, where the feeling was not quite the same, and we got to see a bit more of the “west side” feel.

Anyway, our final destination for the evening was the LA Dodger’s stadium. It was time for another First Ever for me! I’d never been to a baseball game, and this was the perfect opportunity to cross that out of my list.
It was awesome! There were a lot of people, and we got some pretty good seats, so we were able to even see the ball as it got pitched and swung at.
In an attempt to get the real experience, we got hot-dogs and beer. I wasn’t quite ready for the wallet shock that this was going to be: three hot dogs at $5 each, and four beers at $10 each. An expense of $55 for something that was really worth less than $20. Oh well. Had to do it at least once.
The game was entertaining, and we got to learn about the Dodger’s fans and their passion for Manny. The other team was the S.F. Giants… and I could have probably pitched for them and gotten away with it, because they were horrible at it.
The Dodgers won, and that sealed my first official baseball experience as a very positive one.

After such a long day, Friday was time to finally go to Huntington Beach, aka SurfCity USA. The temperature wasn’t very hot, so we laid out on the sand to enjoy the sun, and watched some surfers do their thing.
Before we knew it, a couple of hours had gone by, and we were getting cooked. We decided to take a break, go have dinner with Kelly’s aunt and uncle, and to come back to watch the sunset.

So nice! A cool breeze blew as we sat on the sand and saw the sun slowly disappear. It was very romantic, and I hope we can do it again on beaches all over the world.

On Saturday, we did it all over again. Beach, sun, relax. I even got in the water and went for a very short swim, since the water temperature was of only 58 degrees.
The day ended with a big birthday party for Gary, with all of Kelly’s relatives that live in the area. It was fun to be in such a big family setting, with the kids being noisy playing, and everyone chatting it up. I think I did an ok impression on everyone, other than the couple of times when I called someone by someone else’s name. Oops.

Sunday was the sad day of traveling back to Reno, but it had to be done. We decided to just come up the same roads that took us down there.
We stopped in Mammoth to visit the Coach Outlet store, and found Kelly a replacement wallet for the one that had been stolen from her. We saved about 60% by shopping at the outlet! And by we, I mean me, because it was Kelly’s advance birthday present. Win-win, all the way.

The trip ended on a very high note when I got a phone call from someone that had found Kelly’s purse in their garbage can. The irreplaceable bag from Fiji was safe, and saved! The rest of the items were not there, but the most important one was the bag, and that made us happy to be back home.

It was a very long one week, and an excellent vacation. Kelly was an excellent tour guide, and it was a great road trip from beginning to end. We drove a little bit over 1300 miles total, and we were apart only when the other one was using the bathroom. Oh yeah!

Even though I didn’t have my camera, we had Kelly’s. We took a few pictures, and you can see all of them on my flickr page. I leave you with a link to that: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nicoyogui/sets/72157616981363233/

Last weekend was ScalleyCat. A bike “race” that’s more like a scavenger hunt of random things in Reno.

It works like this. First, you find a partner who likes to ride bikes as much as you do. Lucky me, that one is Kelly!
Second, you show up to the event. It started at noon on Saturday. Your team gets a “bible”, a booklet with all the objectives of things you have to find. They range from innocuous acts like getting a picture by a landmark  -such as a statue- or riding long distances around town… and then there are things that border the lines of law or ethics, such as nudity or trespassing.
Since you have to prove that you did fulfill the task, and there are too many to have witnesses, you have to take a picture of you in the act of everything.
Finally, you have 24 hours to get as many things as you can from that list. Some are worth a lot of points, some are worth just a few. You and your teammate can do as many as you want, and in whichever order you prefer to. It’s strategy!

However, there’s more! Before the main event, there were smaller ones, which built up momentum and excitement.
On Wednesday, the opening night, I took part of the Time Trials competition. We started at the Lincoln Lounge, and raced all the way to Chapel Tavern, and back!
A short course, and at 8pm there wasn’t a lot of traffic… I was lucky and got mostly green lights the whole way, and I was able to complete the 3+ mile course in about 12 minutes. But that was too slow, because the top 3 teams (which included a couple of the awesome Bootleg Couriers) finished in about 9 minutes.

Thursday had an event taking place at the Hideout. The band “White Mice” was playing… and if you clicked on that link, you’ll know that they’re not exactly my cup of tea. That, and the room being the size of my office, combined for my ears imploding and making us not last very long at this shindig.
I will also take the opportunity to mention that although this is a dive bar that allows smoking, the smoke was not offensive. The body odor of the party goers was. I had to wash my nostrils with drano.

Anyway. Friday had us back at the Lincoln Lounge, where all we did was chill out and drink. There was a bluegrass band playing, which was a much better background music, but I was too busy having a good time with Kelly, Cory and Mikey.

Saturday came. We got our Bible. We got on our bikes… and we went! We tried to stick to our plan, which was do as much as possible without getting sent to jail. And we did! We had great time, and ended up gathering a bit above 75000 points, after riding somewhere around 45 miles in total, after 24 hours.
The pictures that we took show exactly which challenges we did, so to get to see what Team Skanksquatch went through, you should click here. Beware, some of the pictures include me with few clothes, or no clothes at all!

All in all, it was a great weekend. That’s what happens when you combine hanging out with your dream girl, riding bicycles, drinking Joose and doin’ hoodrat stuff. I’d definitely do it again. But hopefully I’ll have a nicer bike by then, and we’ll be able to go further, longer and crazier!

Oh, you can also see other team’s pictures over here. This is cool, because not everyone did the same challenges, and there are pictures of random people sleeping with bums, getting tattoos, doing karaoke at the Cal-Neva and making out with total strangers.

Things are happenin’!

Earlier today, I called the USCIS (ex INS) to check up on the status of my Visa. I wanted to make sure that after my upcoming trip to Argentina with Kelly, I could re-enter without much trouble.
Turns out the answer was a big fat no.

And that I have to leave the United States within 30 days.

Unless…

This is where the “welp” part kicks in. You see, Kelly and I have been going pretty solid for the last 4 months. We’ve talked about raising a family, having a white picket fenced house, going on a Cruise in the Mediterranean and all that jazz…
And given the circumstances, we’re going to elope.

That’s right, ladies and gentlemen. It’s happening a little sooner than planned and/or expected, but it was going to happen sooner or later… and sooner it is!
Kelly is the woman of my dreams, and makes me feel like no one ever has. She’s been incredibly understanding about these shenanigans, and as soon as I kneeled to ask for her hand, I already knew she was going to say yes. I have no doubts that we’ll make it, and this might just be a blessing in disguise!

We’re looking for a place to make it all happen, soon. Probably nothing big, just friends and close family. It has to happen probably in less than 2 weeks, so that afterwards I still have time to clear all the paperwork and go through all the red tape.

You want to give the newlyweds a present? Just head on over to PayPal and help out with a few dollars!

Last weekend, Kelly showed me some of her yearbooks from her youth. We found the one for her senior year, at McQueen High School. The year that I was there too, as an exchange student.
As we opened it, the first thing we saw was my writing. On the top of the back of the cover. Basically, the “first” place where one could ever possibly write. And here’s what I wrote:

Kelly!!! I love you woman! You are one of the first sexy women who talked to me! I feel sooo special :) Have fun in college, don’t get naked and drunk at the same time (or you’ll get pregnant), but still have fun forever. You’ll hear more from me!!! (he he)

Whoa! As we finished reading it out loud, we looked at each other and laughed out loud. The words “you’ll hear more from me” echoing, and changing meanings as our history replayed in a flash: It all started with occasionally chatting on the internet, to seeing each other here and there… several months of no contact, and then starting again with chatting online more and more. From there, things translated into the real world, and we started hanging out more and more, falling in love slowly to recently end up becoming quite inseparable.

He he, indeed, Kelly. And I still think she’ll hear more from me.

Well, hello there. It’s been a while since I posted. Since last year, in fact. So, let me catch you up to speed.

I’m in love. Let me tell you who I’m in love with.

Kelly  has been part of my life since 1999. It’s really quite the story. We first talked on AOL when I was an exchange student. You know, the typical A/S/L kind of conversation.
I remember the first day we met face to face. I was playing soccer with the school team. She had just finished her cheerleading practice, and she came over to say hi, in her uniform and all. We awkwardly shook hands, and she walked away, giggling. Seems like so long ago!

However, between then and 2006, our interaction was little and infrequent (me living in Argentina between 2000 and 2003 certainly didn’t help). We’d run into each other here and there, but never “hang out”. Her circle of friends and life intersected mine in the smallest of ways.

In the beginning of 2007,  when my (ex)wife kicked me out of the house, I forced myself to re-establish relationships and friendships. Kelly was one of them.
I sent her a message over Mypace, asking her if she’d like to meet up and catch up. I honestly wasn’t looking for a hot date, I was just trying to reach out and make some friends. We met at Bully’s, had a burger and talked for a few hours. We caught up. We said goodbye. Nothing more.
After that, things get blurry. We chatted online frequently, several times a week. We joined Twitter at about the same time. We rode our bicycles in the Reno Critical Mass meetups…
Since she would often talk about how much it sucked being single, I tried to hook her up with every one of my single friends. She gave them all a shot, but nothing ever came out of any of the encounters.
As time passed, we became good friends. Even though we’d rarely get to chat in person, we’d talk over the intertubez quite often, about all sorts of different things… from superficial silly things like the weather and sharing links to YouTube videos, to deeper and more private things that involved feelings, thoughts and all that stuff that makes you feel like you know someone better, and that they’re letting you in on something that only a few know.

Fast forward to the end of November of 2008, and I was single again. After putting 1 and 1 together, I asked her out on a date. She said yes right away, which I took as a good sign.
The day came. A nice dinner, a few glasses of fine wine, and 5 hours later, I dropped her off at her house, and that was the beginning of the transition…  going from good friends, to falling head over heels in love. This moment was marked with a most intense and welcome good night kiss.

Within a few weeks, we made it “official” and changed out status on Facebook to “in a relationship”. We did it together, in the living room of her house. It was quite the romantic moment. Gotta love technology!

She invited me to her family’s house to have Christmas dinner, which I took as another very good sign. If I was good enough to be introduced to the parents -on Christmas day, none the less-, I wasn’t just a passing thing.
My Christmas present from her was a framed picture of her school portrait. To most people, this might be the lamest thing you could come up with, but I found it to be an excellent gift. The gesture told me “I want you to think of me, I want you to remember me”. And I do just that, as I get to see her smiling face on the corner of my work desk, every day from Monday to Friday, from 8am to 5pm.

 Less than a month after our first date, I realized I was madly in love. Luckily, I found out the feeling was mutual. Despite such a short time of actually dating, we talked about how it felt as if we’d been together for much longer. I guess being good friends before moving forward has worked pretty well for us.

Kelly is a teacher, a traveler, a peace lover, a dreamer. She’s just awesome, and there are no words in any language to fairly describe the things about her that lead me to being so twitterpated. Just take my word for it.

A few weeks ago, she went back and read through my blog, from the beginning in 2005 to today. In case you didn’t know, there’s a lot of history here! I posted while I was married, I posted while I was going through a divorce, while I dated other people and anywhere in between. And Kelly didn’t take it negatively. She’s not jealous of my past. She sees it the way I see it: Such was the bumpy path that took me to where I am now. These were the experiences that shaped me into who and what I am. There is no shame in admitting one’s mistakes, or finding out about someone else’s path.
Likewise, I am not jealous of her past, or online writings. Her blog has a lot of history, stories of being happy with someone else, and then broken hearted. Stories of being loved, and of lonely.
I enjoy reading her blog posts, always have. Her few latest posts made me feel like I needed to start explaining what’s going on with me and her, before it’s too late and I have a long story to explain (several paragraphs later, I feel like it’s indeed to late, and this is becoming a novel).

There are so many good things about Kelly, that this post would never end if I were to list what they are. So, instead, I’ll take a more pragmatic approach. If I explain what I don’t like, and make a list, then you can safely assume that anything that is not listed, I like. Simple logic, it would seem.
So here it goes: 

There’s only one thing I don’t like about Kelly. What is that thing, you ask? I’ll show you a picture, and explain: 

The first time I had to make some toilet bowl stew at Kelly’s house, I found myself looking at the toilet paper. My first reaction was to take it out, and place it the way I like it – with the paper rolling out from the top.
But then, I thought to myself “this is it!” This was the first thing that I didn’t like about Kelly. And I smiled to myself, with my pants around my ankles, and gave in to her bizarre ways of buttock hygiene.

She will probably find out about this shortly after I hit the “publish” button, and tell me that I’m a huge dork. And then give me a kiss. And tell me that she loves me. Because that’s what she does. And guess what I’ll do?

That’s right. I’ll tell her that I love her too, as I return the kiss.