Can you believe we met during Mardi Gras!? I know it sounds crazy but let us walk you through exactly how it happened. It wasn’t on Bourbon Street like you may think. To give you a little context, my best friend & I love to travel. We love to explore new places and experience the touristy things there are to do in each place. We planned a trip to New Orleans in February 2018. We scheduled a swamp tour, a tour of the city, and we had some famous food places on our list of things to do. The first night in New Orleans, I felt like I was back in a basketball gym. It was so much fun jumping up and catching all the stuff the floats were throwing at us. After our first experience, we called it a night and were ready for day 2.
Fast forward to the evening of day 2; the floats were coming and throwing stuff at us again. However, it was not as exciting as the first day. After about 30 minutes, Salina was over it and was typical Salina. She told me that she was going to get a foot massage, and I said, “have fun.” I continued to put my basketball skills to the test, and at this point, I was standing by myself while Salina was just a few feet behind me.
While I was standing by myself, waiting for hopefully some real excitement with the floats, I felt someone bump into me. Of course, I looked at this guy with a slight attitude and an eye roll, waiting for an apology. All he said was, “Hey, you’re beautiful,” and he kept walking his merry self along. A few seconds later, he came back and introduced himself as Martinez. He made me laugh because he clearly was enjoying himself, and then he asked for my number. I thought about it, and I said, “well . . . let me get yours”. I mean, after he asked what my friend and I were doing that night, I thought twice about it as I knew we were going to sleep to get ready for our swamp tour the next morning. He gave me his number and then went back on his way. After he left, I walked back to Salina and told her that I met this guy named Martinez. Then I went back to my post to catch items from the float. He must have hung around the area because about 10 minutes later, once Salina was done with her foot massage, I heard her say, “Hey, I think you just met my friend Patricia” and as I look back and start walking towards them, he does this funny little head dance, darts away and vanishes…. surprise surprise…
That night, I kept thinking about this guy named Martinez, he was already unique, but there was something different about him that I couldn’t put my finger on. Everyone knows I love challenges, and I had to figure it out. So, a few hours later, although he says it was an eternity, I texted him, and we decided to meet up the next evening. That evening, Salina and I decided to go to a jazz strip where we bar-hopped and enjoyed listening to old school R & B and Hip-Hop music. Martinez had been telling me all night that he and his boys were going to meet us in that area… he and his friends were on Bourbon Street, and he kept saying he was trying to sway the group to meet us up. Well, they took too long if they even planned on coming because once Salina & I were ready to go, we went back to the hotel to call it a night. I tried, right? Well,
luckily, he insisted on coming to meet me at the hotel. He was true to his word and left his friends on Bourbon Street and walked by himself to meet me. So, we went on a walk. We walked around the city, and he told me he was in law school. Of course, I didn’t share that I was a lawyer. I just told him I worked with kids, which was true, LOL. I was interested in really finding out who this guy was. He had so much ambition and determination. He told me that his dream was to be the president of the United States. I was like, wow, I knew instantly that we shared a lot of resilience. There aren’t many people who can keep my attention for 30 seconds, let alone 3 hours! He also got me with his accent. I thought it was so tantalizing. But for a Mississippi guy to get himself into a law school, I knew that was why he had a chip on his shoulder, and I definitely was attracted to it. LOL!
The next day was both of our last days in New Orleans. Martinez and his friends were driving back to Mississippi and Salina’s, and my flight was later that evening. Salina and I were excited to try this breakfast place called Rusty’s Scupper. That candied bacon was what we call “life-changing.” So, Martinez came back that morning, and we got some coffee, then we went on another walk in the city. We were out for maybe an hour or two, and I told him I had to get back for breakfast. For some reason, he thought he was going to breakfast with us, and I broke the news and told him, yea, my friend doesn’t roll like that lololol. So he hugged me goodbye, and I was curious to see where this went. I knew he lived in Mississippi, a place I had never been to nor had a desire to visit, but I could see us remaining in contact for the short term.
Salina was flying out Delta, and I was American. Everyone knows that I am a Delta girl and always have issues with American. While we were still out and about, Salina got a text on her phone that her flight was delayed 3 hours. My flight was still scheduled to leave on time. We got to the airport in the early evening, and Salina’s flight left at the new scheduled time. My flight, however, was delayed when I got to the airport. Once it got to 10:00 p.m., American just canceled the flight… surprise, surprise. I told Martinez what was going on, and he kept checking on me to see what was going on, at least that was his excuse. . . I stayed another night in New Orleans and was able to fly out the next morning. Once I got back to DC, I got a call that evening from Martinez. I looked at my phone like, “why is this guy calling me.” He claims he was just checking on me and wanted to make sure I got home safe. We talked daily, every day after that.
Apparently, on the drive back for the guys, Martinez kept telling his boys that I was “special” and that there was something special about me. They clearly were tired of hearing it. LOL. His friends had a contest of how many numbers they could get, and they got a good amount and didn’t keep in contact with any of the girls after they got back. Martinez claims I am the only number he got…. And I guess it’s the only one that mattered.
As I mentioned above, we talked daily after the first phone call. His birthday is at the end of March, so we talked about me going down to visit Mississippi for his birthday. I had never been to Mississippi, and it was never on my bucket list. I didn’t know if they had malls, restaurants, or what was down there. Ignorantly, I was expecting farms and animals. Anyhow, I visited about six weeks or so after we initially met, and it was a great weekend. I brought him a Lakers cake in his favorite flavor. I met his family and his friends, and apparently, from that point on, he knew I was the one.
A couple of months later, in May, he came to visit DC. He had been once before on a school field trip, but I showed him around a bit. He was flying out of DC to study abroad in China. I took him to a mentorship program called “Law Camp,” founded by the Honorable Robert Rigsby. He is like family to us, and Judge Rigsby was fond of him from the very beginning. It seemed like all the puzzle pieces were adding up. Before he left for China, we solidified our relationship. We established our “Us Against the World Mentality” and kept letting the magic happen.
In August, he came again to visit for my birthday, and it was an amazing birthday. I could tell that he would do whatever he could to put a smile on my face, and he would give me the world if he could. In October of that year, he told me that I was going to be his wife….
Things had been going well for us in a short amount of time, but we still lived millions of miles away. Although we made the long-distance work for us, it was not ideal long-term. He secured an internship in DC for the Spring of 2019. It was his first time working in a big city, and he loved it. Thank you to the Honorable Judge Errol Arthur for giving him a chance. When he drove here, he drove 15 hours straight. He was supposed to split his trip into two days, but he said he couldn’t wait to see me. Apparently, after he lived here for a couple of months, he knew he wasn’t going back to Mississippi. He had the opportunity to go home for his birthday in March and was just in love with this area or maybe just in love with me!
We started early on, saying that we would always figure everything out together. Even though we didn’t have all the answers of where he would take the bar, where he would work, live, etc. we would figure it out . . . and we sure did. We have always looked at ourselves as the “best team,” and we weren’t worried about how it would all play out as long as we were together.
He experienced his first real snow here, and we continued to go out on dates and just enjoy each other. My family welcomed him with open arms, as did my friends. I think one of the most memorable things he did was take me to a concert with all my favorite college artists, “The Millennium Tour,” right before everything got shut down with the Pandemic. He said he wanted
to create experiences for me so that when I got mad at him, I would remember those experiences… smart, right? Well, it’s worked so far! I still think about that concert like it was yesterday and how we were all the way in the front!
A couple of weeks leading up to the proposal, Martinez was a little excited. I didn’t think anything of it because it was typical Martinez when he gets excited about sports or anything, really. He bought us matching jackets for us to wear for the weekend. Everyone knows that my first love will always be basketball. He got us matching shirts and jackets that he wanted us to wear that correlated to my favorite movie.
Since we met in New Orleans, it was fitting that he had a New Orleans-themed proposal. He decided to propose on Halloween. It worked out because the proposal started with me finding a New Orleans-themed mask, and then he asked me what the mask reminded me of. I told him, New Orleans. Shortly after that, he had a flash mob start dancing to one of my favorite love songs. He also had my sister Phylicia and one of my bridesmaids, Melissa, join them!
I was caught off guard with the masks, but it was nothing short of perfect. I told him before that he didn’t have to do anything big since he already said he wanted me to be his wife. However, he told me that he always wanted to give me the proposal I deserved. It was nice to be surrounded by my loved ones as they witnessed this magic come true.
