Meet us in Jamaica!!

Please refer to travel page.

Carmen's Perspective: It was the beginning of 2021, the pandemic was still raging but I was ready to give online dating another try. After several less than stellar first dates...I was about to give up again...then I came across Tito's profile. I remember exactly the moment, I was randomly swiping at work and his picture caught my attention...he was wearing a head scarf and holding a falcon in Dubai. How did I know it was Dubai? because I had the exact same picture on my profile! In that instant I knew we both shared a love for travel and had great taste in tours LOL. So I swiped right. Luckily he felt the same. From our first convo, we had that banter that is hard to achieve virtually. We quickly moved off the app and started texting and eventually talking on the phone. It wasn't long before our first date, although I call it a "meeting." (Tito is still salty about this lol ) He showed up with a dozen roses and we talked for hours over pizza and beer. I didn't know at the time what we would become, but I knew there was something special about him that I wanted to keep getting to know. Fast forward through several great dates, trips, and family meetings and here we are. A little over two years later and I couldn't imagine doing life with anyone else. You know the saying, "when you know, you know." Well, from the first moment I met Tito I always felt a sense of peace around him...he always felt like home. That's how I knew he was my person. Tito's Perspective: Dating in a time of Covid. It was definitely challenging, trying to social distance from everyone else, but still go out on dates. She made me quarantine when I flew back from Puerto Rico, before we could go out our second date, which was mini-golf and tacos. However, our third date was the best. I wanted to go to the movies, but close space with a lot of strangers, no bueno. I did some googling and found the drive-in theater in Lakeland, and I did some pinterest searches for truck picnic ideas, and decided that I would take all the cushion off my couch and put them in the bed of my truck, with blankets, and snacks and take her to a drive in for our third date. I figured, this is where I would make my move to see if this is just a friendship or more. We sit in the back of the truck bed facing the screen. After a while I kind of put my arm over hers, to get more contact, to eventually lean in for a kiss. After a few seconds, she readjusted, and my brain yelled "abort abort abort." For the intermission, I stepped off the back of the truck and turned back to help her down, but she said, "I got this," at this point first kiss is off the table for me. We finish the night I drive her to her car, and bid her farewell. On our fourth date, we planned to go a bar, but all the out of staters had packed every single bar and restaurant in the area, so we headed to my place for wine and cupcakes. At that end of the night, around 3am on the couch chatting about life, listening to Christmas music in March, I walked her to her car and said goodnight. Finally the fifth date, similar to the fourth, instead, I walked her to her car at 4am, and finally kissed her and pushed her into her car and said goodnight.

The Ring - She never told me her ring size, the three times that I asked a whole year before, yes, I had a feeling. So I thought of different ways, and decided that I would just share my outrage that I lost my class ring and that I had to order a ring gauge to measure my finger for the new class ring. I would leave that ring gauge lying around, and within the first day, she took the bait. She started to fiddle with it, and I got her size. After figuring out her size, I continued conversation with my dear friend and TDC brother, Vikas (primo). I showed him what she had mentioned she liked in the past, and the ring size, and her preferences, and the waiting began. After a UPS shipping debacle, the precious was finally in my hand. Now, I had to hold onto this thing and resist every urge to just pop the question. There were times, that just seemed perfect, or her smile just made me want to do it then and there. And there were times where she asked the most annoying question "Do you still love me?", and I had to fight every urge to just get the ring, and say here. I'm glad I didn't. The Proposal: Paris, a city notorious for love, on our favorite day of the year, Christmas Day. I set up a time with a photographer to hide by the river at the Eiffel Tower to capture the moment. I saw that it was to rain until 2pm, so I figured we'd nap and then head out, but when we landed and arrived at the hotel, the room was not ready. We freshened up in one of the tiniest bathrooms ever, I snuck the ring out of my bag and into my pocket. After she looked for a café nearby, she realized all the cafes in the burbs were closed due to Christmas. So I looked for a café in the touristy area near the proposal spot, and it was amazing! We scored seats outside, facing the Eiffel Tower. We enjoyed the cappuccinos and view, as my anxiety and nervousness grew. I sent updates to the photographer via Whatsapp as Carmen snapped pics for the gram. As we got ready to leave, I thought we would have time for a slow stroll, but Carmen had other plans. Being that it was Christmas, she wanted to facetime her family. I was freaking out and text them on the side, to make the conversation quick! Then she wanted to call my family, but I shut that down. We finally started walking and she wanted to stop everywhere to take pics, I almost lost my cool while trying to take that silly pic of her holding the Eiffel Tower by the tip. We walked, and crossed the street, to walk down the steps to the river. As we turn to the steps, someone left a bunch of balloons and proposal letters at the bottom, I panicked for a second, and then said, "Omg who the hell does a proposal down here, so lame." We walked, I saw the photographer, I walked Carmen to the photo spot, we stop, we look at the Eiffel Tower, I hug and kiss her. She said something that gave me my opening, and I said, "Speaking of, are you ready to start the rest of our lives together?" She said, without thinking anything of it, "uhuh," and I said, "No, I mean, are you ready to spend the rest of our lives together?" As I pulled the box out and got down on one knee, my voice cracked, the pollen in the air in December made our eyes a bit watery, we embraced, and then we said hi to the photographer that had been snapping pictures the whole time. We finished taking our pictures, Carmen made a million phone calls, we went for celebratory drinks. We ended the night at a pizza place, having our favorite meal on our favorite day, Christmas.