Day 25 in my Month Of Love is for Jose Valenzuela. Jose and I met the same year Dave and I met, in 1996. He had moved to San Francisco from his home in Goleta, CA to spread his wings and see what this awesome world had to offer. He came into the employment agency I was running and I put him right to work. Like Alice, he would come in on Fridays to get his paycheck and we would chat. It didn’t take long for us to realize that we were both new to the city and we had some things in common. I can’t recall the exact thing that brought us together outside of our working relationship but whatever it was, I’m sure glad it happened!
Through the years we’ve been friends, we’ve had some crazy fun times. We bowled in a league together, he’s a WAY better bowler than anyone in that league was, I think it was sponsored by a country radio station so it was really an excuse to get together, drink beer, and “bowl.” LOL! We were a team of four, Dave bowled with us with his then-girlfriend Mary. Jose came to Poobahs, we went to country concerts, and enjoyed many nights out in San Francisco. For as much fun as we were having as singles in the city, we talked about dating and we shared one kiss at which point it was very clear that we were meant to be just friends and nothing more. It’s funny, those experiences in life when you, “check,” you know, just to see and it becomes very clear that it’s not that. I can hear Hotty Roddy now, “No, no, not that, this!” Jose knows exactly what I am talking about! These were a series of years in my life that could have been right out of Seinfeld.
Jose and I went to Las Vegas together and though there was not a bowling tournament, he took his bowling balls to take me to some grand bowling alley where the big tournaments happen, is it called Showboat? That turned into a total fiasco when we left his bowling balls (yes, I have to keep saying BOWLING balls) in the taxi we were in and thought they may be gone forever! How the hell do you identify the cab you were just in Las Vegas? It was a challenge but when we got home I was able to track it down and learned that if you leave something in the backseat of a cab, it’s on your dime to get sent back to you, but if you have something in the trunk and forget it, it’s on them. We got them back, on their dime! Then there was the time we went on a hike. LOL! Henry Coe State Park in San Jose. He told me there was a lake he wanted to fish. We hiked for HOURS that day until we finally came upon a puddle, seriously, it was a flipp’n dip in the earth with some water in it. To make matters worse, it was hot that day and with all of the stuff Jose had in his backpack, water was not one of the items, but I think he did pack a diet coke.
Jose and I have had some super great times from skiing Sugarbowl to camping, white water rafting, fishing with Mason at a Poobah, he’s been my date for many a fancy-dress-up party, to concerts with a cool-sit-down guy. Oh, and our mutual love of MUTTS. We’ve planned and plotted for better jobs and I asked him to trust me and walk out on the interview of his life, it wasn’t but he thought it was at the time. He got home to a message on his answering machine offering him the job at the pay he wanted, not the pay they originally offered. I love this guy more than words could ever express. Jose is as genuine as a human being comes, he has so much good in him, from the way he loves his parents to how he is there for his friends and all of that communicates in his relationships across the board. Oh, and I can’t write this post without this one last favorite Jose-ism of mine. He and I have shared many a deep conversation and at one point he said to me, “Kathy, I’m sure what you have to say about this is really good, but I need to let you know, I have a shelf in my head and it only holds three things. Is this replace-one-of-my-already-important-things important?” LOL! How the heck do I know? What are the other three things? To this day when I’m overwhelming my guys with my profound bouts of wisdom (aka droning on way too long!), I can hear Jose reminding me of the shelf and its capacity to only hold three things. Love you Pepe, forever you will be part of the fabric of my awesome life. #MonthOfLove
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