Cinco de Mayo

I love this joke, but I have a confession. No, I do love tequilla, that's not it. I did not know what Cinco de Mayo meant. My Spanish knowledge knew it was May 5, but I didn't know anything about it until I was in my early 30s.

I have a beloved boss from back in the day. Still keep in touch with her, hired her son to work for me, and like that. She's now a grandmother.

This was also the place I worked when I first heard the expression "the war of Northern aggression." There were many people from Virginia working there and obviously my education was lacking on the history front. I was not married at this time.

My boss was originally from El Paso, Texas, and back then she was a single mom working for the gas utility company. She was an accountant and one of the hardest working people I've ever met, ever. She carried the work load of her peers and was either admired or resented. Jealousy is a terrible vice.

To her Cinco de Mayo was a huge event because of the Mexican influence in her home town. It also was the day she met her husband. The way she related it to me it was a romantic fairytale.

That year Cinco de Mayo fell on a Friday. Her friends wanted to go to a party and wanted her to join them. It was a Friday and she was tired. She put a lot of energy into her job and she was a single mother. Friday night was usually spent on the couch, winding down with her young son, maybe watch a movie or play a board game. Mom and son time.

Her friends were relentless. One had a daughter that would babysit, plus her parents lived close-by. Let's go, it will do you go, please, please, please.

She relented and went, but by now it was late. Her son was already in bed and she wasn't yet ready. Do we have to go? YES!

So they went, and she says she didn't even get past the kitchen. Her future husband was leaning against the counter, turned to see who had come in the door and WHAM!! Love at first sight. They spent the remainder of the evening talking; she was an Army brat, divorced from a Marine, with a son they had adopted in California, he was currently in the Army, originally from Philadelphia. There was unmistakeable chemistry.

The rest is history.