Originally posted on DeviantArt.
Written March 8, 2006
Aloha,
So, I’m down in Maryland now!
I’m working at National Fatherhood Initiative Head Quarters in Gaithersburg, MD.
And I’ll tell you right now, it was not easy getting here.
In a snowstorm in Harrisburg, I was driving home from Tamika’s house, I slid off the road and smacked into a telephone pole.
It turns out that I damaged my frame in the crash. The telephone pole connected right with the left corner of my Volkswagen Passat. There are two bars that hold on the bumper on the car, and when I the pole, it was practically crushed.
They’re telling me that it’s going to cost about 2,000$ to fix!
It turns out it may be cheaper, though, the mechanic actually owns the same model of Passat and he’s going to sell me the parts of it.
This was all about a week and a half before I was set to start my new job at Fatherhood!
The car is still in the shop, so Tamika let me borrow her car for a week. Her friends at her job were very generous, and offered her rides.
But after the week was over she needed her car back, because she was quitting her job as well! She’s been substitute teaching off and on for a while, and decided to quit working at Home Depot to work full time teaching.
My motorcycle mysteriously started working again 2 days after the snowstorm; after 2 or 3 months of silence. I had drove it to a Chinese restaurant to have dinner with Tamika, and when we had come back out, it wouldn’t start. No idea why. I poured a little gasoline into the cylinder chamber, and it started right up. I had checked the spark plugs, the wiring, everything imaginable. And suddenly, right when I need it, it starts right up.
The chain had been in bad need of replacement for quite some time (I don’t think it’s EVER been replaced) and so Greg Thompson and I worked on it and got it replaced. The joiner in the chain broke the first time we put it on, but after fishing through the garbage and pulling out the old joiner from the old chain, it worked!
So, after visiting Tamika after my first week at work, I loaded up my motorcycle and thundered down Rt. 15 (a 2 hour ride). Boy, was it COLD. I nearly froze my fingers off. My only saving grace was a Hummer that was lumbering down the same direction. I scooted in behind it and was able to stay warm in the pocket of air behind it.
Written March 29, 2006
Aloha!
Living down here has been nice.
I’ve been staying in the basement of a man named Steve Hane. Steve used to work for National Fatherhood Initiative, but now runs his own Aerial Photography Business metroairphoto.com/
He’s a really nice guy, and has been very generous to me. He agreed to let me stay until Tamika and I are married (which we’re planning in September).
We got “officially” engaged March 11th. We drove to Perkasie, and I got the chance to ask her father personally for her hand in marriage (something I wanted to do from the beginning).
It’s been a little weird, though, because we’ve known we’ve wanted to get married since we started dating. We’d been through bad relationships, and knew that the next person we dated we’d be marrying. It’s not a jump-right-into-it kind of thing, but we knew we’d be very careful about the person we dated.
So now to tell everyone we’re engaged is a little weird, because in our minds we’ve been that for a long time!
We officially announced our engagement in church that Sunday in church, which was cool. It’s nice to be able to solidify some plans too. After church that day, Minister Ronette motioned me over, and told us to follow her to her house.
Once we got there, she sat us down in her livingroom, and asked Tamika if I had gotten her a ring. Tamika said no, and she told us to wait and ran upstairs.
Tamika and I looked at each other wide-eyed.
She returned a few minutes toting a small white gift bag, and a video camera.
“Here’s a ring. Now you can officially propose!”
I was stunned.
So I did!
The ring was HUGE! Apparently Minister Ronette had had an engagement that hadn’t worked out, and didn’t know what to do with the ring. She felt moved by God to give it to us after our announcement (even though we hadn’t said anything about the status of our ring).
She gave us the tape of the proposal, and sent us on our way.
I found out later that it would practically be impossible to get it be resized (it was so big) so we’re going to use it to create our wedding bands. I can’t say here what is going on with Tamika’s engagement ring (because she may be reading this!) but I can say it’s going very very well. ☺
Tamika’s car began pouring out oil last week for some mysterious reason. The thing was, though, the day previous I had called Farr Family Tire (the mechanic I had sent my car to) and they told me it was done and ready to be picked up (a week and a half sooner than they had quoted!)
Tamika slowly drove her car over to the shop, and asked John, the mechanic if she could take my car and pay him for it (I had called ahead and told him she was coming). He refused. He told her to just take the car, and to worry about the payment later!! She was essentially trading a perfectly good Passat for a Jetta with a whole lot of problems! Her brakes were going on her, along with a couple other things. He said he trusted us, and told her to just go.
Which is amazing.
Fast foreward to today.
She called them to check on her car, and found out they’re done with her car too! Not only that, but the cost of getting hers fixed, brakes, struts, tie-rod ends, everything, was 1000$ cheaper than the quote we got from Firestone!
So, this weekend we should be able to get both of our cars back. I’m working out some way to get to Harrisburg without my motorcycle, because I’d like to leave it here, but I’m sure that it will work out.
Well, my brain is empty, so that’s all for now!
~Orion
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