Proposal at Freda's--Reliving our first date

This post has been so overdue! What can I say? It has been crazy busy! But before all the business. My now fiance, had to propose. We had talked about getting married for a while--but when the time actually comes, it was a surprise! Sure, Rafa had overdressed for the occasion, but I had seen him fancy before! October 5th, 2015 had been a crazy day for me already. Bad crazy. Emotionally drowning crazy. My car's battery had died that morning and I had called Rafa to help me out. That morning I also found out that we would not have a host home for our Brazil trip. I was preoccupied. We didn't know Portuguese and had to now plan a whole trip.  I cried in the car. Rafa was busy with the proposal final details and he still came. I had a shoulder to cry on. He knew that I needed him at that moment. He was there for me as he always is when these types of things happen. I got my car fixed and came home for the afternoon. We were going to celebrate our 22nd month's together! Rafa had chosen Freda's. This was the place where we had our first real date. I was hungry. Rafa had gotten the restaurant to have some beautiful roses. Picture the romantic scene: roses on the table, dim light, and candlelight! I was already feeling better.

 The romantic food would be spaghetti, but this was not the case, I was hungry! We ordered calamari, fish, and coconut shrimp. Rafa says he was a bit nervous, but I didn't get that vibe. Rafa took out a notebook and started evaluating our relationship. We do this on a quarterly basis. We talk about what we did (accomplishments, places visited, awards), positive things, and things to improve on. I was a bit surprised, because I'm usually the one who has everything written down. This time I did not. I was just listening to him and thinking about our past 3 months. I was having a good time-- "remember when we..." and he just took me back to re-live our past!

After dinner, I had to step out to the restroom. Rafa knew this of course. He knows me. When I came back. I saw him sitting on the table. Sometimes when I see him like that. I think about how lucky I am to have him be mine. I decided to play the restaurant's owner daughter. I approached him, introduced myself and asked him how the food was. He looked a bit taken aback, but played along. Said the food was great and service amazing. Then he said as he stood up: "I know that I just met you, but I have this feeling, I know I want to marry you." Then he kneeled and asked "Will you marry me?"

He proposed! 

 Now I was the one taken aback! I couldn't really speak. It all was happening so fast! I started to cry a bit as this moment was too emotional "Yes!" I replied back. One of Rafa's friends was taking pictures of us, families around us were clapping. 

It was too sweet. We walked out and his friend said we had to re-do the kneeling as his previous pictures had been blurred. We stepped outside and took a few more pictures.

Rafa kneels again and smiles as he knows what the answer will be again! I'm still in shock!

Let me show you my ring! I had to throw a punch at the camera guy!

Then his friend left and we had a driver take us back home. At home, we walked around my neighborhood, taking it all in. Thanking God for being so so good to us. I called my family to share the good news! And after that peaceful afternoon of October 5th, all the crazy would come! Don't take me wrong, the good type of crazy, the best type of crazy! The type of crazy that I wouldn't want to share with anyone else, but Rafa!

Blame the People

CNN, The Economist and other news have had several shows featuring all the presidential candidates. Frankly, I had never followed the debates too much as I couldn’t vote. Last year, I became a citizen of the United States, just in time to participate on the 2016 presidential elections. However, I am filled with disappointment after seeing the candidates’ debate. A debate is supposed to show different perspectives on an issue. Having different opinions is not bad—on the contrary, it shows that there are different points of view for the current and past problems that we face today. What saddened me, was witnessing how disrespectful and untactful, candidates were towards one another. I observed presidential candidate Donald Trump yelling and screaming about his plans to fix America. Another candidate, Marco Rubio, lowered himself to Trumps level by yelling back and insulting back. 

Republican Candidates speaking at the same time and not putting enough time to listen to one another.

 The whole ordeal reminded me of a 5^th graders yelling match. Is this what America wants? Is this what we want for our future? Who is it to blame? Though we can’t control what the candidates will say, or how loud they will scream, we are to blame for allowing this to happen. Political debates this year are just a comedy show--these debates have lost substance. Politicians used to be prepared with ideas, data, and plans to execute their ideas. Candidate’s weapons now seem to be gossip and insults. Whether or not candidates will follow through their promises is another matter. The time that candidates spend on the podium should be informative, encourage new ideas, and respect different set of values and opinions. The candidates on our shows have the light spot, but we control the lights. We are the reporters, we are the viewers, we are the majority and we must set high standards on what we accept to be shown on presidential debates.

Democratic side of the table. All candidates seem to be worried about themselves and not really attentive to paying attention to the others' ideas.

As an American, we could accept the blame for the quality of current debates. However, we could also accept responsibility and take part in making our debates better. Three basic strategies are proposed. The first is to set up basic rules of respect while the candidates are in a debate. If someone is talking, the other candidate must listen. Listening to one another does not mean agreeing. Respectfully disagreeing is an option. Secondly, yelling is not allowed. Being passionate is encouraged, but yelling and pointing fingers is not. Thirdly, the candidates must speak about ideas. New ideas are encouraged. Each candidate has an allotted time to discuss their ideas. These rules may be obvious, but overlooked and thus must be communicated for us to set expectations and allowing the candidates to meet those. If candidates decided to ignore these rules then they could be “disqualified” and be escorted out of the event, muted on tv, or “x’ed” out.

Candidates that don't follow the rules set forward are "x'ed" out.

In November 2016, when we go out and vote, let’s be proud to know that we are to blame for demanding respect, let us be blamed for demanding debates with substance and thought provoking ideas. Let’s be proud to know that we made our choice based on who gained our trust and portrayed the best path for America. Knowing whether the chosen candidate will follow through is out of our hands—but voting, and making the best educated decision based on respectful debates is up to us. Take a stand for respect. We deserve better than violence, ridicule and a comedy show to decide our future. Let us be the ones blamed for working hard and for setting high expectations on who represents us and leads our country to success.

Choosing respect above all else.