Once upon a time...in 1995 actually....

Once upon a time... about 13 years ago, I met Chris through the ex. Everyone raced so we seemed to hang out alot and actually then it was a pretty good size group of guys that raced so there were lots of great times. Chris' girlfriend at the time was a hairdresser so the many perms or cuts I went through, she did. Chris and another friend, MG actually lived in a duplex beside us when Lauren was born in 1998. But anyways..... in 1995 Chris had a minor mis-hap at Road Atlanta and he had to drive back to Atlanta to drop his bike off in order for it to be repaired and then drive back and go back later to pick it up. No one else could get off work so I volunteered to ride with him. We got down there too late to drop the bike off so Chris was going to get up early to take it the next morning. We stayed in a hotel and after he dropped the bike off the next morning, we slept for awhile before heading back to Raleigh. I think that was around August-September.

So low and behold October roles around and we all headed to Daytona International Speedway for the final races of the year. I remember being soooo tired all the time and wanting to sleep. Little did I know until after we returned that I was pregnant with Allison.

So the running joke for years was 'Uncle Rod' because the timing was around the trip to Atlanta, even though we all know the truth. It sure is funny now that 13 years later Chris and I are together.

I had asked Rod to help me put the FZR 400 for months if not years. Actually the more I think about it, it probably was years. The last thing I heard from Rod was that after his race at VIR in June 2007, he would put it back together. Now remember, all you people reading this, this was at the time that he was with Christine and I got told I couldn't go to VIR after he had told me the month before that I could go, because Christine said she could go if I couldn't. Anyway, needless to say that after he got back, again the 400 sat and a few weeks later he moved out. He had actually, at one point, years ago when he lived in Clayton said he would put it back together if I would let him ride it. My response was 'no' because I didn't trust him. I told him that. I didn't trust him not to do something to the bike so that I wouldn't be able to ride it. Can we say...WHATEVER!

So I guess I came to the realization that I had had all along.... do it myself. So I did. I put the bike back together, replacing fuses, getting on online forums and printing out the ENTIRE service manual. So I came to a standstill in July/August 2007, I think. So I thought about calling Chris to ask his opinion on what else could be wrong. I had already ordered a new battery and replaced fuses....Chris came over and put the little fine tuning that I couldn't and what do you know....the bike actually turned over. WOW! I actually did that myself. Well, for the most part.

Chris and I ended up catching up about what we had been doing and he didn't even know Rod had left again, so of course I updated him as to the current situation. I called him, again, to ask a question and forgot he was going on vacation with the family and he was in Key West. I really did hate him at that moment. Anyways, no big deal.

Chris called me after he had returned to see how the bike was doing. I kept hounding him about taking me for a ride. On September 28th, I headed to a co-workers baby shower off of 10-10 in Garner and had texted him throughout the night. Chris went to a bar to watch a friend play in a band and he ended up picking me up and we went to Char-grill and caught up, we came back to the house and talked for hours, it ended up being about 230am. Either the night before or the next night we headed to Raleigh Bike Fest. We laughed about how long it was going to take before someone saw us that was a 'mutual' friend. It took less than 1 block. Patrick Burman, Brock's dad saw us. He kind of glanced at Chris, then at me, made a gesture with his finger, pointing to both of us while knodding his head. We both just laughed.

Later that night, we ended up again talking until late and then he had to go. We headed outside and even with me standing on the porch, he was even eye-level. He is much taller than I am, if you haven't noticed. But I did notice that sometimes there are 2 rings around the moon if you look hard enough. That is pretty much where this relationship started a year ago.

I don't think anyone has made me happier than Chris makes me. I think alot about my friends telling me to look at internet dating and how much I was against it d/t not really knowing that person. And what if you got into a relationship and spent a year or 6 mos or any length of time, only to figure out it wasn't going to work. I didn't want to waste my time. I guess I never looked at finding someone I already knew. But, what a difference it makes.