How was your Valentine's Day, my loves?  I hope you had an awesome quality time with your significant other/s.  As for me, well.. our little family had a scrumptious Italian dinner at Al Gusto Restaurant in Etihad Towers (Yup, that building where they shot Vin Diesel's famous double skyscraper jump for Fast and Furious 7!) after which, we grabbed some mocha chillers from Gloria Jeans Coffee and scouted Marina Mall for a perfect gift to give our hard-working daddy Ronnie. 

Actually, my husband's been eyeing a home recording studio from guitar center denver.  It's his ultimate wish to have one, but since we don't have our own space just yet (you know, UAE's not known to provide citizenship among expats), we decided to delay its purchase until such time we are able to settle in a home we can call our own.  So, for the meantime, I opted to get him something more useful -- a medium size sling bag made of pure leather. He's pretty happy with his gift and I'm happy to see him happy like that!

Anyway, since it's love month, I thought it might be a good idea to share my and my husband's love story with you.  I know I've already written about it here and here, but those didn't seem to satisfy the curiosity of the people from some years ago.  Hence, allow me to talk about it in a little more detail through this blog post.

As I have mentioned before, Ron and I were merely acquaintances during our younger years as OFWs in Abu Dhabi. Unfortunately, I had to leave the UAE because of my soon-to-expire visa.  I missed the Philippines very badly, so I chose to come home for a vacation while waiting for my new employer to process all the necessary paper works needed for my employment.  However, since I wasn't able to meet the necessary experience required by the Health Authority, I was denied a license to practice.

I was young and thought I still have the time to work on my professional career, but I can't apply for work locally because I left all my credentials in the UAE (my application for a license was ongoing when I left), including my PRC ID.  I asked my sister to have it shipped but she handed it to Ronnie, instead, who was leaving for Manila that night (just in the nick of time!) to attend the Despedida party of his sister who will be immigrating to the US.  

Upon arriving, Ron sent me a message via FB informing me about the ID and that he also got me, as well as our friends, a souvenir from Singapore (his connecting flight).  I was pleased, I ended up putting a "thank you" status message on my wall and tagged him in it.  The next day, he called me questioning about the post I made and told me he doesn't want to be involved with me in any way which can cause an issue with my boyfriend.  He was mean and I felt totally offended!  In my defense, I told him I don't have a boyfriend anymore (it ended several weeks before Ronnie even came into the picture).

We eventually met so I could claim my PRC ID from him and since then, he would ping me every time I went online.  On one occasion, I mentioned that I was thinking of entering the convent to fulfill a childhood dream.  Then he asked, what if someone comes up to oppose the thought?  I was puzzled and before I knew it, he was already confessing his feelings for me in the hope that it would change my mind about the "nun" thing.  I was surprised!  How was that even possible?!?  I actually thought he's gay!  I mean, he's not had a girlfriend in his entire lifetime and our friends kept on teasing him to not just one, but three pretty single ladies in our group, but he never showed interest in any of them.  How can he be straight?  I was confused.  Lol!

You know, people always say "timing is everything" and I couldn't agree more.  It is for this reason that I had to discourage Ronnie from getting close, for he came at the most unfavorable time -- I was consumed, numb, and incapable of feeling any emotion.  But then again, time heals all wounds.  Four months later, I eventually decided to give my stubborn, persistent, and crazy admirer -- who gave up his career in Abu Dhabi and traveled 4000 miles just to be with me -- a chance at love and here we are, rockin' the married life! And it's all because of my PRC ID and his stupid hypothetical lines (his words, not mine)!