Planes, Trains & Automobiles

Oh, how life changes! It’s been another nine months of “life as normal” here in the Bay Area but it’s been anything but normal. Since our last note, there have been lots going on here… my business partner and I in MotorsportReg.com began work last year on a grueling update that was supposed to go live February 1 but launched May 3rd. I went from hiking the Inca trail to working 7 days a week for five months straight in an office without a window. It sucked. The good news is that although we released three months late, the new version is up and our customers are pretty excited about it. And I have my weekends back for the most part. In fact, I even sneaked away on a few weekdays to go drive my shifter kart.

Jennifer has been plugging away at her job; the commute has been getting to her though. Although her office is just 13 miles away, it takes her as long as 45 minutes each way due to traffic. The Bay Area giveth (great things) and the Bay Area taketh (sanity) away. It’s summer time now so with school out, her commute is shorter and she is working one day a week from home now which is great.

I surprised Jennifer for Christmas with a short getaway to Vancouver. Neither of us had been to Canada before and we spent the weekend before New Year’s Eve checking out the restaurants, aquarium and park and visiting Whistler. It snowed most of the day we were there and we took a snowmobiling trip in the beautiful backcountry – awesome! It was, however, really really cold. And kind of rainy. Still, we had a great time and enjoyed some of the best hot chocolates ever!

And then, the big day came just a couple of weeks later. On January 12th in the Rose Gardens of Santa Clara, I proposed to Jennifer and she said… she said… well, she actually didn’t say anything for about a minute or two! Then I asked, “Hey, are you just going to stare at ring or tell me you’ll marry me?” Amid the tears, her answer was yes!

Because of my crazy work schedule, I had told Jennifer we would take a picnic lunch on Saturday so we could spend some time together. That morning I ran some “errands” and drove by the Rose Gardens to check them out – not exactly prime rose season but there were still lots of flowers and it was a clear day. Fast forward about three hours later and we stop by Zannoto’s deli down the street for some food and pop over to the Rose Gardens. Imagine the disbelief and emotional control it required when I see that in the last three hours, every rose bush has been trimmed to the ground by a volunteer group! I’m totally speechless, trying to come up with a good story and game face. We meandered through the chopped plants and put down a blanket for our lunch. I gave Jennifer her birthday present and started telling her some mushy things and at a point in the conversation she said, “… it’s not all about me” and looked away. I pulled the box from my pocket, popped it open and said, “No, it is all about you”. She looked back, looked down and was totally shocked.

I asked her to be my wife forever, put the ring on her finger and that’s when the silence ensued. It was a total shock to her as she had been patiently waiting for me to pop the question but she didn’t think it was going to happen that day and I got the surprise. We’re now planning our wedding and our apartment is littered with InStyle and other Bridal magazines. I’m working towards the bachelor party.

Since I had been working so many hours, we decided a short vacation was in order to celebrate my software launch and we booked an all-inclusive trip to Mexico. We spent 5 days in Puerto Vallarta at the Riu Vallarta sitting on the beach, reading books and drinking fruity drinks. We didn’t leave the hotel for maximum relaxing and it was exactly what the doctor ordered.

We have a busy summer ahead of us. Exciting news for me is for three weeks starting tomorrow July 6th, I’m traveling to Moscow, Russia and Ulaanbataar, Mongolia to cover the Porsche factory team in the TransSyberia Rally. They are racing specially prepared Porsche Cayennes over 4500 miles of remote terrain. I have about a week and a half between the start and finish to visit my cousin Patrick in Rome and hopefully my former business partner Rob in Munich. Fingers crossed, I’ll make my second Formula 1 race at Hockenheim in Germany before I fly out to Mongolia from Frankfurt. I’m really excited about the opportunity and my coverage will be posted on SPEEDtv.com. I’ll post some notes and pictures here as I go along.

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 5th, 2008 at 8:14 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
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