The day I was going to drive up to San Jose to meet Myz was quickly coming up. I had gotten all of my affairs in order in the event that I never returned.
Then a new situation arose just a couple of days before our date: Myz informed me that her younger brother (the one NOT in a Vietnamese gang) had moved into the cousins' house and was sleeping in the living room. That meant that I wouldn't have a place to sleep. This put me in a real bad place. I mean, I had enough money to pay for stuff like gas, food and other activities. But I sure didn't have enough for a motel room.
I brought up the possibility that I may have to sleep in my car somewhere up there. But she said, "No, you can just sleep in the bed with me." WHAT?
At this point, I felt like it was REALLY too good to be true. I mean, this NEVER happens to me. We had spent a lot of time talking on the phone and she knew a lot about me. While I felt I knew enough about her, it kept seeming more and more like I was being set up. But if the worst that happened to me was getting beaten up and having my car stolen, then I would have learned something and never made this mistake again.
Finally, the day arrived. Even though I was nervous about what was going to happen, I was still able to get a good night's sleep. I wasn't going to leave San Diego until 12pm. This would be a good time to drive up as I would have an easy go in traffic through Los Angeles.
I don't recall anything eventful taking place along the way. I stopped to fill up with gas in a small town called Buttonwillow. I came up with a good joke to remember the town. "Check out the Butt on Willow!" (I was a big "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" fan at the time.)
The entire way up, I was excited and nervous. I kept thinking that if I didn't get killed, the second worst thing would have been for her not to like me and just abandon me on the date. I knew that this was far more likely to happen.
I stopped at a restaurant called Apricot Tree in Firebaugh. This was a small town that was basically just a rest stop off the highway. There were several restaurants and gas stations in this one small area. I ate a meal of biscuits and gravy. I was expecting that I would get something to eat with Myz later, so I just wanted something light. At this point, I was still 100 miles from San Jose, but four hours away from the time we were expecting to meet. That meant I was going to have to kill some time once I got there. Still, it was going to be best to arrive early in case any obstacles got in my way up there. (As smooth as driving through LA was, I just KNEW there was going to be some major accident clogging up I-5 on the way up!)
I got more excited as I got closer to San Jose. I drove through the town of Gilroy. I'd known about Gilroy, because when I worked at the Hillcrest Cinemas, we were always shipping films to a warehouse there. I was not aware of the Gilroy Garlic Festival at the time, but boy, could I smell garlic all over the place!
Coming into San Jose on Highway 101, I saw an exit that led to Hellyer Avenue. I thought about Myz' celebrity crush on Stone Cold Steve Austin and thought, "Hell Yeah Avenue!" Very soon, I came up on Tully Road around 7:30pm. Since I was still a couple of hours early, I decided to park and scope out the area. I drove into the Chuck E. Cheese parking lot.
I called and left a message for Myz to let her know I was in town. I was kind of hoping maybe she didn't go to class and would just come meet me right away. After a few minutes, she didn't return my call. I decided to go exploring. I noticed there was a Denny's nearby. I figured that was where we would go get something to eat. (At this point, I had heard about the reputation of Chuck E. Cheese pizza. I commonly referred to it as UpChuck E. Cheese. I was NOT planning on eating there.)
I drove down Tully Road to see what else was there. I remember going to a Blockbuster video and checking out the titles they had. One of the surprising things they had was the original DVD version of "Tron." I had the newest edition that had come out. I was surprised to see how barebones the packaging was.
I kept driving down Tully until I got to Eastridge Mall. I noticed it was a large open area with a parking lot. I didn't go into the mall because it apparently close to closing time. I decided to go to McDonald's and get a soda. While I was drinking out in the parking lot, Myz called. She was still in class, but was about to leave. She knew I had left a message and she couldn't wait for class to end so she could call me. She would be at Chuck E. Cheese in about 30 minutes. I started driving back.
I parked again in the lot and started walking around. I noticed there were a couple of guys hanging around across the street. They were just loitering. I felt like they were getting ready for something to go down. But if they were going to do something to me, it wouldn't make sense for them to wait for Myz to arrive. But I really had no idea how these things worked. I did notice that Chuck E. Cheese closed at 9pm. Maybe they were waiting for that, so I wouldn't have a safe place to run to.
Eventually, I saw a car drive into the lot. It was just as she described, but the license wasn't personalized. What I did see was a decorative license plate in her windshield that said "Austin 3:16." If I was going to get attacked, that information wouldn't have provided any guidance for the investigators.
Myz got out of her car and was very excited to see me. She came up and gave me a hug. While we were embracing, I was looking over my shoulder to see if anyone was coming up from behind. Nope, all clear!
"And that, Boyd, is the true story of how Mommy and I got together."
"Great, Dad. Are we done?"
"Oh, we're not even close!"
"..."
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