We met through a former friend setting us up. Mario wanted to be set up, I did not. It took many days of convincing to get me to agree. We had never seen each other, nor did we know anything about one another. One night after the kid's fall festival we go over to Mario's house, just to hang out. We sit on the porch for an hour or so and end up making plans to all hang out again the next day. The next day was Halloween. After taking the kids trick or treating, we all head over to Mario's. He had a fire going. We sat around the fire talking. We start talking about the abandoned, haunted railroads in San Antonio. The next thing you know we're all headed to San Antonio. We drive five hours and get to the railroad tracks. We sit there for a minute, nothing happens. If you don't know the legend, you're supposed to put your car in neutral and the spirits will push you off the tracks to safety. Anyways nothing happened. Something irrelevant happened to scare us so we ended up leaving. But we had just driven five hours at ten p.m. for this letdown. So we decided to not let that be the end. We ended up going to the river walk at three a.m. Walking the river walk mario asks me “have you ever been kissed in San Antonio” I say no. He stops, leans down and kisses me. We continue walking till were over it and went to go get some breakfast, then head home. I slept the majority of the way back, snores and all. If that didn't scare him off I don't know what will. That night we exchange numbers and the rest is history.

For our first official date, we went to the gun range. I had always wanted to go to the range. As everyone knows, Mario loves his guns. We drive out to the gun range. This range was out in the middle of nowhere. I remember thinking "where the hell is he taking me". We arrive at the range. It was an outdoor range. I only knew of indoor ranges. He gives me eyes and ears. I'm dumbfounded, "what are eyes and ears?" He explains to me, "eyes" were glasses for eye protection. "Ears" were for hearing protection. He goes inside, pays, and gets our targets then we head to the actual range. He explains to me what it means when they say the range is hot, and when the range is cold. We wait for the range to go cold, he goes and hangs up our targets. Then he lays out all the guns and the ammo that belongs to each gun. He first shows me how to properly load the gun and take it off safety. He then shows me how to properly hold the gun. He tells me to always keep the barrel downrange, never should it point any other direction. He positions me on how to place my arms and how to stand. Finally, it's time to shoot. He first gives me the 9mm. I shoot, then he shoots. We go down the line of guns. First the 9mm then the 40mm finally the 45mm. I liked the 45 best. Now that I have a feel for the gun he teaches me how to aim and we continue. Next, we go down to the shotgun range. I did not have the courage for the shotgun so I just watched, until next time. Once he's done we pack up and head back to his house. A few minutes pass he gets quiet and I say "are we lost". He says "no this is a short cut" and continues to drive. A few minutes pass and he admits okay, were lost. I thought I could find my way out but were not getting anywhere. We put it in the phone and head the right way. We grab food on our way home and go back to his house to eat. We watch “The Beach” and fall asleep. I wake up around eleven. I wake him up to let him know im going home. He walks me out ans kisses me goodbye.

We were on a group vacation in Jamaica. On one of the days, I had planned to have an alone dinner just Mario and me. Most of our meals were with the group and I wanted one dinner for just me and him. That afternoon I go to take a nap. Mario decides he does not want a nap and was going to go back down to the pool. I tell him, make sure you tell the group we are having dinner alone tonight. He says okay and leaves me to sleep. Little did I know he was off making plans of his own. I tried to take a nap, but our room faced the pool and the DJ was loud. Our friend Jacky was helping him make a plan. She came up to make sure my sister knew what was going on but she knocked on my door on accident, waking me up. I remember her face opening the door, she was in complete shock thinking crap what do I say. I was not the happiest camper, I had just fallen asleep. I go back to sleep to be woken up by Mario telling me I have to get up everyone's ready for dinner. Me upset, because I specifically told him to tell everyone we were having dinner alone. I tell him to go down and tell him to go ahead and eat because I wasn't even close to being ready. We were going to a nice dinner that night. He tells me the restaurant closes at eight. So I rush to get ready (you can only imagine the mood). I get dressed and throw my heels on and as we're walking out the door Mario says " this is going to be a great night". I take his comment sarcastically. I turn around, walking back into the room saying "I'm going back to sleep"

Mario follows me back into the room and says what just happened, let's go to dinner. I don't remember my exact response. He told me he really meant it was going to be a great dinner. He wasn't being sarcastic. (He knew the plans, I did not). I still think he was being sarcastic! We go down to dinner and he's trying to make jokes to lighten the mood, it's working. We're sitting at the window of the restaurant in the resort. Across the way, I can see our group just standing around the pool, seeming like they were waiting on something. I ask, "why are they just standing over there randomly?" He answers "I don't know." He's shaking his leg and sweating, just acting weird. That's when it crosses my mind. Is he going to propose? We continue with dinner, no proposal. I let the idea go. We leave dinner and meet up with the group. We walk down to the beach and I have my sister take a picture of us. That's when he gets down on one knee! The best possible place it could be. On the beach under the moonlight. We ended the night going to Margaritaville to celebrate. Margaritaville was jammed packed. While the group enjoyed themselves on the dance floor, Mario and I snuck off to the 24/hr arcade across the street. We played games, then sat and listened to a Jamaican band play covers to multiple songs. Most memorable, a reggae version of Adele's Hello.