So, since my last blog, Del and I celebrated our 14 year anniversary. And, just as we do every year, we spent it in Phoenix at Firebird Raceway! 1999 seemed to be a popular year for a group of us to get married. Here’s a little bit of useless trivia...within a six week span, Larry and Ali Dixon, Robert & Adria Hight, Tony & Cara Schumacher and Del and I all tied the knot!
I get asked all the time how I met Del and if I knew anything about drag racing when I met him. So this is how the story goes;
Once upon a time, what feels like a long, long, time ago, I was living in Santa Monica, but thinking about moving to Orange County for a change. I was spending a lot of time at my friend Jennifer’s place in Costa Mesa while I was searching out an new place. Jen had two room mates, a very lovely girl named Susan and Susan’s brother, a guy named Del who was never, ever home. All I thought was I had to find myself a room mate like him. He paid his portion of the rent, they collected his mail, but he had never even bothered to unpack most of his stuff since he spent most of his time on the road.
New Year’s Eve 1997: The girls and I had made plans to go out, when Susan asked if it would be ok if her brother Del came along. I had just come out of a relationship and was looking forward to some girl time, so I can’t say I was all that excited, but nevertheless, he joined us. There weren’t any fireworks, it wasn’t love at first sight, and actually I think he was interested in our friend Amy, too. We had a few drinks, shared a few laughs (mostly me, about his dancing) and that was the beginning of our story.
I didn’t have any idea what he did, other than he was gone a lot. I honestly thought they were a bunch of guys racing on a dirt road for a trophy and thought he better get his act together and get a real job soon! Little did I know...
He brought me out to my very first race, the 1998 Winternationals. I was in absolute awe. I was hooked, but I had no idea what I was getting into. Back then, Del drove his own transporter from race to race. He flew home whenever he could, or I’d save up my vacation time to meet him wherever he was racing. We sometimes went weeks at a time without seeing each other. It was tough. I can’t say that I didn’t almost call it quits a couple of times, but I’m glad we somehow stuck it out.
We were engaged by Christmas, and quickly set a date for the following February. As any racing wife can attest to, you plan your life around the racing schedule. Weddings, Birthday Parties, Showers, they are all planned according to where our men are. I figured out early on that, as Del likes to say, I picked a bad time to be born, if I didn’t want to spend every birthday in Houston!
Since I had no control over my birth, I could have made a better choice in when it came to where we would be spending every anniversary. Somewhere warm and tropical on a beautiful sandy beach would have been perfect.
Damn, I really should have thought that one through!
