Lisa & Pete

CHAPTER 1:        Pete and I first met while working at Lakewood High School.  I remember meeting Pete for the first time towards the end of summer  2005, while setting up my classroom, and asking him if he would mind rinsing off my classroom windows to knock off the spider webs that seemed to be everywhere.  Pete said, in his usual style, “No problem,” and bravely knocked away those awful spider webs.  While I remember thanking him for helping out this damsel in distress, Pete doesn’t remember things going quite as I do, in fact, he thought I was pretty snobby for not taking the time to thank him.  Despite that initial meeting, throughout the following school year, Pete would stop by my classroom and say, “Hi,” and we’d talk about our weekends, and I’d “regale” him with updates of my ill-fated “attempt” at adult softball and other such “stuff.”  I always thought that Pete was a “nice guy with a cute smile” and I enjoyed talking with him when we’d see each other around campus, but I never thought our paths would cross beyond work.  Little did I know what the future had in store for us…

CHAPTER 2:        Two years later, Pete was told by the school district that he would be returning to the district’s operations branch in October and he seemed genuinely happy to be returning to the “yard.”  On his last day at Lakewood, Pete stopped by my office gave me two tickets to the Aquarium of the Pacific, along with his phone number and told me to call him whenever I wanted to use the tickets.  I thanked him and promptly put the tickets in my top desk drawer where they sat for the remainder of the school year.  Months passed and I’d see Pete occasionally on campus and we’d briefly chat and then go about our business.  Towards the end of May 2008, Pete stopped by Lakewood to get his son, Zach, an early out from school.  As Pete walked by my office, I called out his name and asked to talk to him.  He says that I “frantically” called out his name, I remember just saying, “Pete, Pete,” and motioning him into my office…either way, he back tracked and walked into my office where I was sitting with our then school resource officer, Deputy Cocova.  Before Pete came into my office, I had been talking with Deputy Cocova about what a nice guy Pete was and that I was thinking about asking him to hang out sometime.  Deputy Cocova thought this was a great idea and gave me the encouragement I needed to ask Pete out.  When Pete finally entered my office, I, in a roundabout way, got up the courage to ask Pete if he wanted to go out sometime.   According to Pete, I said something to the effect that I was single again and could finally hang out with him…I’ll let you folks decide which was the more likely scenario!  Pete said, “Sure, you have my phone number from when I gave you those tickets to the aquarium, right?” and I said, “Yes, I still have your number.  I’ll call you on Saturday.”  Pete then asked what I ever did with those tickets; I had to sheepishly explain that I had forgotten about them and that they had expired back in January.  To this day, whenever there is a commercial for the Aquarium of the Pacific, Pete reminds me of those tickets he gave to me that I let expire!  Someday, I will surprise him with a trip to the aquarium to make up for my faux pas, but that will be in another chapter of our story…

CHAPTER 3:        The first Saturday in June arrived and I nervously called Pete and of course, got his voicemail.  I left him a message about getting together that night like we discussed and then spent the next few hours wondering whether or not he’d return my call.  True to his word, Pete called me back that afternoon and we made plans for that night.  We went to dinner at Bubba Gump’s and then for drinks at the Mai Thai Bar at the Pike in Long Beach (a special thanks to Anthony Rocha for the directions to the Pike!  Pete called you from the car as we were trying to make our way from Bellflower Blvd. to down town Long Beach).    We finished our night at Tracy’s, a local bar in Long Beach and one that we’d visit a couple of times a year after that first night together.  The next day, I got a text message at 5:45am from Pete that said, “Wake up, you’re burning daylight.”  I remember reading that text message, shaking my head, laughing, and thinking, “He’s crazy!”  I called him later that morning and we made plans to hang out later that day.  On Friday the next week, Pete took me over to his friend, Jerry’s house, after work to hang out with some of their work friends.  It was at Jerry’s house, when Pete got a wild hair and asked if I wanted to go to Laughlin, NV for the weekend.  Being a planner by nature, I told I’d go, but only if he got us a room-I certainly wasn’t going to drive to Laughlin and “wing it” like Pete would.  Sure enough, within an hour, he got us a room at the “classiest” hotel in Laughlin, The Edgewater, where we spent a whirlwind weekend and I got a glimpse into the funny and impulsive side of Pete.  I still tease him about the six pairs of socks he packed for a 2 day trip, in June, to Laughlin!  After that trip, we had a rocky summer…ping ponging between being together and breaking up…at that time, I sure didn’t see where the next chapter of our story would take us...

CHAPTER 4:        By the end of the summer, Pete came to his senses and decided that he wanted to work things out between us.  While things were not exactly smooth sailing as we began seeing each other again, with time, things between us started to click.  Pete would say that after I returned from seeing Michelle and Roman Cornell in Florida that August, that I spent the night with him my first night back and that I never left.  Of course, I have a slightly different version of this homecoming, but in a sense, Pete’s right…once I came back to him, I never left.  In time, Pete began spending time with my family and friends and they began to see the side of Pete that I was falling in love with-his kindness, his generous spirit, his easy laugh, his mischievous smile, the little kid twinkle in his eyes and his well-guarded big heart.  In Pete, I found my more spontaneous side, someone who takes life as it comes and lets the negative roll off of him, and someone who wants to both feed you and make you laugh at the same time.  Pete also taught me to appreciate the kindness of others, to believe in karma, to be better about recycling, to try sushi (guess what, I wound up loving it!), and to try to learn to go with the flow (this part is still a work in progress!).  In me, Pete found stability and family, things he had been searching for, for a long time.   Together, we truly are each other’s yin and yang-we balance out each other’s strengths and weaknesses and somehow, it works.  

CHAPTER 5:        On May 27, 2013, 4 years and 360 days from our first date, I will marry my best friend.  We eagerly await celebrating our wedding with our friends and family and beginning our lives together as Pete and Lisa Perez.  Here’s to the next chapter in our story!        

CHAPTER 6:        May 28, 2013…to be continued…