Lesson Learned

Chancho had a training class today. While in class he was busy on the phone with me. We were trying to sort out a couple of things with the house. Because he was focused on his phone he missed a crucial lesson on how to evacuate a room. During the drill they were shot at. Chancho didn't know the correct way to evacuate.
He got shot.

 

Quote of the Day: "Those who know do not talk and talkers do not know" ~ Issac Newton

Listening to: "The Lazy Song" by Bruno Mars 

Yeehawww

My cousin got married this past weekend. I am very happy for her and wish her the best of luck in her marriage. Love is a beautiful thing and it should be celebrated. However, the way they celebrated, it was um, not the way I would celebrate. First let me say that I do like things that would be classified as "country" and I do listen to Country music. My father is a huge fan of Country music and he brought me up listening to it in his pick up truck. Lord, I sound like we don't live in the city at all! BUT, I am definitely a city girl. I in no way classify myself as anything else. Now, allow me to describe how this went down.
It was 3 hours away in a place called Dance Ranch located in Massachusetts. Dance Ranch is a line dancing bar. Yep, a western themed saloon. It had a huge dance floor to allow for any type of country dancing. There were rules posted on the wall to make sure that you were in the correct location for the type of dance you were supposed to be doing.
Chancho and I, as was everyone else in my family, were out of our element. We walked in and just stood there. I bet the looks on our faces were priceless. The bar was open to the public so we weren't sure who was family and who were just townies in for their daily juice. We sauntered on over to the bar to find out it was a cash bar. This was not looking any better. Chancho checked his wallet and found $5. This really wasn't looking good. Surprisingly, we were able to get one beer for $3.25. A beer in NY by us is $4 so that was a plus. The group of us, my sister, BIL, brother, Chancho and I stuck together like glue. We stationed ourselves up along a wall and watched as they played Country song after Country song. There wasn't any other genre being played.
Once we were summoned for food, it was a BBQ buffet, we grabbed the paper plate and plastic utensils and filled it with BBQ chicken, mac & cheese and potato salad. There weren't any seats available because there weren't any assigned seats so people just left their purses/jackets on chairs and walked away. Plus there were only 5 tables in the whole place. We wound up eating at the bar. The food wasn't even that great. I threw out most of it.
My poor German grandmother was having a fit. She couldn't understand the concept of a wedding in a bar, let alone with people wearing jeans to a wedding. I thought she was going to have a heart attack. She was plopped down at a table that was set up near the DJ and sat by herself for most of the day probably judging everyone that walked by.
They had the speeches, which would have been nice, but they had too many inside jokes, so many that we didn't get anything that was being said. Something about exit signs and wales? It was also announced that the bride once dated the best man. That was mentioned several times. The matron of honor also let everyone know how many times the bride and groom broke up and got back together, which was 4 times, before finally deciding to get married.
We left as soon as they cut the cake. First stop was the convenient store across the street to buy a 30 pack and then to Wendys for some dinner. Then back to the hotel room to party the way New Yorkers party. 
The morning after didn't get any better. The groom didn't even come down to thank his guests, but instead had his wife of a few hours bring him breakfast in bed. To top the whole weekend off, Chancho was helping my cousin out to her car with some gifts when she said to him "I hope you have your wedding in CT because if you have it in NY or NJ it will be too far for us so we won't come." When he told me that, I was fuming. We had just traveled 3 hours to her wedding and now she's saying she can't return the favor?? My response would have been, "Oh well you didn't make the A list. You're on the C list so if someone says you can't come we'll let you know."

Here's what Chancho thought about the night. He tweeted this the next morning:

• Just attended the worst wedding ever in Massachusetts, complete waste of time and need to air a few things out
• Don't invite me to a wedding if it's not gonna be open bar, and if its going to be a cash bar, tell me so I don't waste my time going
• If you just want a wedding gift just tell me, ill mail to you. But don't plan a half ass "wedding reception" cause after a while its obvious
• Just because you love country music doesn't mean your dj cant play other music, we are not all red necks
• The groom better wake his ass up the next morning for breakfast to greet his guests even if he's not a "breakfast" person
• It's an insult to all the guests and family cause its like you're ignoring everyone. Sending your wife for bfast after hours of being Married is not a great start
• I want my gift back
• You know its a bad weeding when you have to go to Wendys and get beer after the wedding
• You probably shouldn't be invited to our wedding. Sadly that's out of my hands

 Yep, that sums it all up.


Quote of the Day: "Love is true when you can't always see eye to eye, but you always walk hand in hand. "

Quick Recap

I've been starring at the bookmark tab on my computer for way too long now. I finally clicked it and here I am again. I'm guessing bullet points will probably be the best way to explain the past couple of months.
May went a little like this:

• After a handful of dresses, I found a wedding dress that I absolutely LOVE, but it was beyond my price range.
• Notification of the Sergeants exam came out. 
• My grandmother became extremely ill.
• We found another house that we want to buy. 
• Chancho has lost over 20lbs! 
• I've started running over 5 miles

June hasn't been less hectic:

• Tried on my dream dress again, negotiated a price I could afford. 
• I ordered it, but it came in damaged (ripped, beads missing etc.)
• I reordered it, and am picking it up today.

• Chancho has been studying like a crazy man for the Sergeants exam, which is in October.
• My job accepted an idea that, if it all goes according to my plan, will be instated company wide!
• My grandmother has semi recovered, she was diagnosed with Cancer and will be returning home this week to be more comfortable.
• Chancho and I began looking at reception halls. 
• We attended my cousins country themed wedding. 
• The house we want is all set to go, minus the mortgage. 

And here I am today chugging along. Feeling a little overwhelmed with things as I've been trying to work as much as I can to show the bank that we have enough money for this house. I finally caved in and gave myself two days off. I need to do laundry as it's taken over my entire room. I have to get my life back under control before I can tackle the rest of summer. I've already gotten sun poisoning.  So here is to some R&R.

Quote of the Day: "Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase" ~ Martin Luther King
Listening to: "Give Me Everything" by Pitbull Ne-Yo Afrojack & Nayer

I'm Wondering

I'm guessing that this is probably holiday number ... after being together for 3 years and there being roughly 12 holidays that family usually gathers for, it comes to about 36...okay now that the math is out of the way, you would think that family would understand the concept of a police officers work. That someone needs to be out protecting the streets, EVEN, during a holiday. So why do I still get that question of "Really? On insert holiday name he's working??" I hate having to smile back and say, "Yes, even on insert said holiday, he is working." I really want to respond with a punch to the face and "Yes, you idiot, nothing has changed. And yes, it does suck that he's not here, so stop asking."
So I ponder, when do you think it will sink in with the family that Chancho will most likely be absent from holiday gatherings 95% of the time? And dare I ask when they'll stop with the dumb question?
I am grateful that my immediate family understands and assume he won't be joining us, but ask if there's any way to accommodate his schedule with making a to-go plate or save dessert for him.

P.S. Chancho has lost a total of 13 pounds!

In Need of Power

Saturday we had a big thunderstorm pass through. I was over at Chancho's place getting ready to fall asleep when this huge ka-boom went off. I never heard anything as loud as that before in my life. The power went out. It fried his tv. He still doesn't have one. I'm not sure how he's surviving. I get back to my place the next day after work and not having charged my phone I went to use the house phone. Womp womp...it doesn't work. I try and get on the internet, that doesn't work either. And neither does the tv. The Verizon guy came today and fixed it. The box got fried. I guess lightening hit it.
My power cord to my computer doesn't work anymore either, but that was on it's last leg to begin with. Thank goodness for my smartphone!
This morning at work, I was put on the team to work in the stockroom with the guys. It usually is heavy metal that needs to be put away, hence why guys usually are on the team, but on occassion a select few girls are out back there. Me being one of them. I don't mind because it gives me a work out. However, today I wound up dropping a package of about 20, 4ft long closet rods on my head. My head is a bit sore. No concussion, just bruised, along with my ego, as I had to be pulled out off the stockroom team to go ice my head. I couldn't keep up with the guys. Oh well.

Quote of the Day: "None of us would have anything to live for if we didn't have something worth dying for" ~ Anthony Giddens

He loses, I gain

Literally. We've been doing weight watchers for about 3 weeks now? He has lost 5+ lbs!!!! :) and I have gained 1.8 lbs. Not sure how that is happening, but I'm actually alright with it. You ask why?? Well my pants are not fitting me, they are in fact too big! I think I'm gaining muscle weight because I've been running/biking like crazy. I do about 5 miles every other day or so and when we bike we do no less than 10 miles in one day. My thighs hate me. I had punch another hole in my belt because it didn't fit me anymore. I would like to think of it as a sign of me losing weight, but the scale does not seem to agree. I have been following exactly what weight watchers is telling me to do so I'm not sure what is going on. I am thrilled that I can notice that Chancho has lost 5 lbs. I can see it in his face. It looks a little slimmer. Yay!!

My family received bad news a few days ago about my grandmother. She has been sickly for a while now, but living with my aunt and chugging along. However, the other night she was rushed to the hospital for extreme pain in her leg. She couldn't walk. After numerous tests being done they still haven't figured out what is causing the pain, but instead found that she has an aggressive form of cancer. Yes, that ugly C word. She will be starting her radiation treatments this Monday for 2 weeks and that will hopefully reduce the spread of it and allow her to live a "normal" life. If that doesn't work they may have to operate to remove it. She's 85 years old and doesn't really want to have any surgery. She feels she has lived her life and is amazed that she made it this far. She says that as long as she is not in pain, she would like to just be at home and comfortable. I'm not really sure how I feel about this, it's all still new and for now, I guess I respect her wishes. I don't know what the best option is for her, but as long as she is happy that is all I can ask for.
When Chancho and I went to see her yesterday she was so upset that her hair wasn't done for us. That was her biggest upset of the day. She was proud to share with all the nurses and doctors that her granddaughter was engaged. She had me show pictures and my ring to anyone that walked in the room.

I got the pictures of the engagement so for your enjoyment here they are:

The proposal up on the big screen for the entire stadium to see!

After the game

The RING

Quote of the Day: "We should all start to live before we get too old. Fear is stupid. So are regrets." - Marilyn Monroe
Listening to: "Forever" by Chris Brown

Bling Bling

Yesterday was Yankees opening day. Chancho and our closest group of friends left at around 9:30am to head into the Bronx to start celebrating the beginning of baseball season. Our trunk had a cooler that was filled to capacity of bud light and an Italian wedge waiting for us once we parked in the garage. We got there at about 10:30am and began celebrating. We had the music playing and Chancho had a fellow co-worker join in. Well about half way through, the music stopped playing. Chancho's car died. Ha. Oops. So our music stopped but our partying didn't. The gates opened at 11am so we quickly finished our drinks and headed in to Yankee stadium. Chancho was wearing his Yankee poncho that he bought when we were in Mexico so he was definitely an attraction for some people as we were walking through the stadium to our seats. We stopped to get a foot long, a sausage, more beer and popcorn.
We're sitting in our seats (Grandstand, third baseline) and it's freezing. I felt like it should have been October rather than March. I was bundled up, but my hands were still freezing so I kept trying to shove my hand in Chancho's pocket, but he kept refusing to let my hand in. I was getting a bit annoyed by it, as he knows that this is what I usually do, but he promised that he would let me in his pockets after the next inning. In my mind, I'm thinking why the hell can't I just warm up my hand for a few seconds this inning??
The 5th inning arrives and there are usally a bunch of messages on the big screen, varying from welcome's, brithday's, anniversaries and lastly marriage proposals.....
Chancho is telling me to look at the screen because there are a bunch of people from his precinct at the game so I'm like "uh huh, okay" still looking around the stadium doing whatever and he's like "No, you gotta watch, it'll be cool." So after about the 3rd time of him telling me to look, I do and good thing because the 2nd announcement was a marriage proposal from Chancho!!!!
He stood up and showed everyone in our section the ring as they're all cheering him on. He gets down on one knee and asks me to marry him. I was in such shock that I almost forgot to say yes. Thankfully, our friends got it all on camera. They took pictures and video! I can't wait to see that.
Needless to say, I can't really recall anything that happened for the rest of the game other than the fact that they won. After the game, we headed back to my house and as we were gathering up everyone's cars getting ready to head out to a restaurant, Chancho's best friend smacked him in the face with a whipped cream pie! It's a tradition of the Yankees to celebrate a walk-off game by doing that to the guy who homered so it was only appropriate for them to do that to Chancho.
We had a nice dinner with our friends and my parents joined us. My dad told Chancho that he no longer had to call him Mr. M, but could call him by his first name or even Dad. My mom still wants to be called Mrs M though. She's the tougher of the two to please.
We haven't really discussed any details as to a date, or place yet. I think I'm still trying to grasp my head around the fact that he actually proposed and that he proposed at Yankee Stadium. I think we'll just enjoy it for a while before jumping right into the craziness of planning a wedding.

Quote of the Day: "No one can tell you what love is, you will simply know it when you feel nothing else."


Listening to: "Tangled Up In You" by Staind