A Decade Together

Yesterday marked Jojo’s and my 10th year as a couple. It’s hard to imagine how fast 10 years just seems to have flown right by. We have been through so many things together and have grown so much from when it all began.

We met in January 1999 through my younger sister. Jojo and Joy met in an on-line chat room. Joy accidentally clicked on Jojo’s name and slapped him with a trout (I’m still not 100% clear on what that means). They started chatting and when I found out about it, I thought it sounded kind of strange. After all, he was a 31-year old man and my sister was a 16-year old girl. I strongly suggested to Joy to end their online friendship. Joy suggested instead that it would probably be more appropriate if Jojo and I became friends (since he and I were much closer in age).

Back then, I was working for a fine jewelry company and was managing all the local showrooms. I had gotten a letter from our site managers stating our shops located in hotel premises were required to have working fire extinguishers. It was at that time Jojo gave me a call to introduce himself. It turns out his family was a distributor of fire extinguishers. (Tell me that’s not fate!). We arranged for him to give us an estimate.

We decided to meet at a local coffee shop. I didn’t want him to know where I worked in case he turned out to be a psycho. I brought two of my co-workers with me just to make sure. Jojo arrived right on time and as he was walking towards us the first thing that popped in my mind was “Hmm, he sort of looks like my dad when my dad was younger”. (By the way, everyone says that about him now). In the end, we did not order fire extinguishers from him since we got a better deal elsewhere. But I did think he was really nice and I thought to myself he would be perfect for another good friend of mine.

So we started going out as a group - Jojo, my friend (the one I was fixing him up with), me, and a bunch of other people. My girlfriends and I would go out every Saturday after work and Jojo would join us on a pretty regular basis. A couple of months later, my girlfriends planned a weekend trip to Tagaytay. We were taking our boss’ nephew who was visiting from France. We needed another guy to room with the French nephew and since Jojo was already considered a regular in our group, we invited him to come along. He did and it was on that trip we realized we liked each other. Good thing my friend (the one I tried to set Jojo up with, started dating someone else). So 8 months after we met, we became a couple on August 18, 1999.

In 2001, I moved to Berkeley to attend an international marketing program. Jojo followed a few months later but he moved to Los Angeles to visit his sisters. We met only a handful of times that year but burned the phone lines almost every night. In 2002, I moved to L.A. to attend graduate school and by some stroke of luck Jojo found a job also in L.A. We started seeing each other more regularly. Then on Christmas Eve 2003, after dating for over 4 years, Jojo proposed to me, after asking my mom and dad’s permission via a long distance phone call.

We were engaged for a year, planned our wedding ourselves, and finally got married on December 18, 2004 in Long Beach. It was a small and intimate affair but it was a very special wedding and I loved every part of it. We honeymooned in a Palm Springs resort with my entire family, plus extended family, and my good friends. Our 5th year wedding anniversary is coming up in 4 months.

It’s been a decade since we became a couple and even after ten years together, I can still say that I am so blessed to be with a truly wonderful person, a loving partner, and my best friend.

I love you, Ni.