Wedstock 2018

Skyler and I met when I was 13 and he was 14 at Marian Catholic High School in Imperial Beach. We had Honors English class with Mrs. Gormley together. On the first day of school, Skyler showed me a magic trick. I talked about joining steel drum band. Even when we were kids, we were already a magician and a musician! Skyler eventually took that magic skill to ask me to Homecoming that freshman year. I remember he came to my house with his parents. Amy, my baby sister and maid of honor, was scared of him and hid behind the banister, but he eventually won her over with some tricks too! Ronda, Skyler’s mom, made my corsage and his boutineer. I still have the corsage to this day, hanging on a wall in my parents’ home in Chula Vista. My mom drove us to Homecoming that night at a hotel downtown by the ocean. It would become a hotel we would come back to several times over the years- during Mardi Gras fundraisers where Skyler would do magic and I’d play steel drums, during one of my visits back to San Diego when I was in graduate school. Now, Skyler is 29 and I am 28. I have known him for the majority of my life. I have never felt as loved and supported as I do with him. He is constantly magical, never failing to surprise me or make me laugh. I can’t wait to spend the rest of our lives together!

January 20th, 2017 was opening night of a play that I was an assistant director on at the Old Globe in Balboa Park in San Diego. Balboa Park is a special place to both of us, for a few reasons. I’m a theatre lover and maker. I have been going to the Old Globe for many years both for performing and working! Skyler’s great-grandfather helped build the streets in Balboa Park, and his parents got married there. Skyler is a magician! He performs in restaurants and has performed at parties for Google and Yelp, but he absolutely loves busking and street performance- this means that he has an interesting set of friends! I thought I had planned our whole day, we were going to go early so that Skyler could street perform magic while I sat to knit, play music, and write. Then, we would get dressed to go to the opening night gala, watch the show, and then go to the post-show reception. I had it all planned out! I was knitting and watching Skyler street perform from across the way. He was building awesome crowds of people up and wowing them with his magic. He got tired after about three hours, so we went to put away our stuff and take a walk. I hadn’t met his friend, Ralph, who is a living statue known as the Man in White at Balboa Park. I’d heard of him a lot over the years but had never found the time to meet him. We decided to walk over where he was performing.

Skyler gave me a dollar, and I dropped it into Ralph’s box. Ralph started moving and making the sounds that a record player makes when you are beginning to play a record. He then pulled a rose off of his microphone and gestured for me to take it. I’ve known enough street performers now to be a little skeptical. I thought that by reaching for it, he was going to jump up and scare me, so I was so scared to take it! I hesitantly took the rose, and when nothing happened, I turned around to say, “Hey look! Ralph gave me a rose!” Instead, I turned around and Skyler wasn’t there at eye-level. I looked down and he was on one knee with a ring in a box in his hand. He told me I was his best friend and he asked me to be his wife. I then noticed Annie Laurie, my former students’ mother (and incredible photographer) snapping photos while Skyler’s brother and wife were headed toward us with a bottle of champagne! As we walked down Balboa Park’s main road, all of the street performers knew what had just happened because Skyler had told them all about the proposal! The caricature artists smiled gleefully, the break-dancer statue started a dance where he had his heart throbbing. It felt like I was walking down Sesame Street, but with street performers instead of talking puppets! My parents, his parents, my sister and her boyfriend were at Panama 66 waiting for us to celebrate. We ate dinner and then went to the opening night of the show I assistant directed. It was truly an Opening Night to remember, and also the Opening Night of the rest of our lives!

When I met the amazing Carol Cabrera, we were both freshman at a new school we both needed to explore. I happened to find myself in the Asian Pacific Islander Club, which is where I first laid eyes on the love of my life. Although our time together was short, inside I felt like I would someday be her best friend. After a few short years, we graduated high school and we remained friends as we took our lives in different directions. I found myself in Flagstaff, Arizona studying Sociology and learning all there is to know about our environment. Carol stayed in San Diego and learned everything there is to know about teaching. Through these times, we somehow always made sure to check in on one another. The friendship we had from high school had carried over into our college years, despite the distance. After a few more years Carol would live and teach in Mississippi and Arkansas while I would alternate between working on a farm in Colorado and performing magic in San Diego. It was at this point and time that our paths truly united once again.

If you know Carol then you know that her planner is literally scribbled full of tasks, projects, and events that she loves to do. It’s hard for her to even find the relaxing time she needs to recharge. As fate would have it, I happened to be in San Diego when she was home from teaching. I had recently returned from Colorado with my new puppy, Houdini, and I had a week long road trip planned for just my dog and I to drive to Sedona and Flagstaff. After meeting for a drink with Carol the night before we left I mentioned that she should come. Well I expected the usual list of things she already had planned, but for some strange reason, she was completely free! Hearing this made me smile as I invited her along for the journey. It was this road trip that showed me how the girl of my dreams was right in front of my eyes all of these years. We literally did every activity I had planned and more, all while catching up on all the years we spent apart. When Houdini started to like Carol more and more, I too realized that maybe I should take this friendship to the next level. After returning from our trip, I brought my idea to Carol’s attention to see what she thought about us dating again. Well I was disheartened when she proceeded to deny my offer because she was leaving for New York in the next months and will be living there for a year! This was a shock to me. However, I knew deep inside that even though we were literally going to be on opposite corners of the country, nothing would stop me from giving her my love. So I patiently waited for her approval before committing to a distance relationship. I knew that if our loved survived this, it was meant to last forever. After many travels and adventures since, here we are, over 3 years together. The magic that started our lovely life together continues to grow stronger every day. I could never have imagined finding love as pure as I do with you Carol.