Carol and I met like most couples did back in the days, at church. It was a beautiful day at Most Holy Trinity’s annual parish festival in September of 2010. I was running the tri tip BBQ booth with the help from Lerma, Efrain, Dren, my brothers, and my Mom. Carol was assisting her friend at the school parents both selling hot dogs-I think I noticed Carol walking around checking out the different booths to see what they were serving. Attempting to be super smooth, I asked Carol if she wanted to try my meat ( we were giving sample bites ). She rolled her eyes and I quickly ask if she wanted a beer. In typical Chris fashion, I had a keg of beer behind the BBQ booth. In typical Carol fashion, she wanted a beer and obliged my request. She met a few of the guys, had her beer and then said she needed to go but she will be back.

I didn’t stop her nor ask for her number. Mom asked who she was because Mom knew everyone there but had never seen her before. I replied that I didn’t know but I’m gonna find out later! Details are a bit fuzzy but later finally came around. I noticed Carol and told one of the guys “that coffee girl in the black cut off dickies and white shirt is back!” Then I pretended that I didn’t notice her. I acted busy at the grill. She came up to me and asked if I wanted to trade a tri tip sandwich for a hot dog. I said that wasn’t worth the trade but of course you can have one. Carol came back with me and had a few more beers in front of Mom and drunk Joshua. I’m sure it was past 11pm or so. Carol had to leave but we couldn’t find Josh. He was passed out in the lawn chair but walked away. We ended up finding Josh so Mom was happy and crisis averted. I walked Carol to her car and then got her number to hang out another time. We spent most of the next month watching every SF Giants playoff game and the first ever SF World Series win! I had the time because I was recently laid off from the fire department. Carol, beer, and baseball (sports in general). See what’s happens when you go to church!

Christopher and I were volunteering at Holy Most Trinity in August or September 2010. He happened to be in the booth next to me. He kept staring at me but didn’t say anything. I noticed he had a keg; I had the shots. I walked two steps and asked him if he wanted to take shots in exchange for beer. We drank and bullshitted for a while until I had to leave to go to a day pool party. I returned the next day hung over as all hell… As I was outside the booth trying to get people to buy our food, he stepped out of his booth and said, “Hey you, wanna try my meat?” he thought he was so funny. I replied “duh” and ate his delicious meat. As things started to wind down and the event was over, I decided to stay and help clean up. The only people that were left were a couple of his friends (The two I remember right now: Adrian Gardner and David Lerma), and his little brother Joshua…. We picked up tables, chairs and other crap while finishing off the keg. An hour later we noticed his little brother was missing. I hopped in Chris’ truck and we drove around the field looking for him and, in the distance, I see someone kicking open the porta-potty restroom door and there Joshua was… stumbling out! After we found him, we all started to say our Goodbyes, but not before Christopher asked for my number. I pulled out my Blackberry and it was dead; his phone was too. He told me “just tell me your number and I will remember”. Welp—t the next day he texted me! Christopher and I started off as friends and enjoyed watching the Giants journey to win their first World Series in SAN FRANCISCO, but since he was a super broke laid-off Firefighter, he decided that he needed to focus on himself and we stopped talking. We ran into each other a few months later downtown at a Jo Koy comedy show and his table was right next to mine, crazy right?! After the show we talk briefly but I was with my friends and he was with his.

Nothing came of it until… on Sunday, February 19th, 2012 Kenarre and I decided to drink two bottles of Hennessy, we killed it. I stopped by 7-11 behind my house because I knew if I didn’t get my two for $5 Redbull's I was not going to make it to work the next day. I walked out of 7-11 and BAM he was right there parked next to my car! He was at 7-11 getting cash for work the next day. We chatted for a while and we both decided to continue drinking and headed to Evergreen Pub! We shut down the bar that night after 3-4 pitchers of Bluemoon! We were un-separable since then, well except for when we would break up, which was about….. once a month! Lol Anyways… we had our ups and downs, but we always found our way back to each other…. If it wasn’t for beer and sports, I’m not sure whether we would have made it.… 😉 BUT we did and that’s all that counts. In 2020, right when Coronavirus hit, the world and everything came to a stop, but we did buy our first home in Gilroy right before everything shut down. We were force to stay home and do projects together, don’t even get me started on that subject. We made it through the hardest year of not only our life but everyone else’s too. It made us strong and more loving of each other and everyone else around us.

Let me get back on track... On April 15th, 2021 – Christopher stopped me from everything I was trying to do that day and opened a great bottle of wine and asked me to relax. As I was sitting down, he started to read me the poem that was on the back of the wine bottle. “Dude that was lame” I said to him and he looked at me all disappointed and said, “oh I thought it was sweet and romantic” … “uuumm no super lame”. He then asked me “Do you know what today is?” I quickly responded “Yep, TAX DAY”! I only knew this because a few days before he was telling me all about April 15 and Tax Day bullshit. I did NOT care about ANY OF IT! LOL. “Yes, it is Tax Day, but it is also our 1 year since we bought the house” I was like “No shit, it sure is!” and BOOOOM he popped the question, I was actually surprised and turned beet red… I said “maybe” looked at the ring and said “YEEEEESSS” and “You’re Welcome”!