And Marriage Proposals

With the state of things going on in the United States did I possibly ruin my chances for that coveted visa access?

While it wasn't my first passenger proposal, it was my first foreign one. This weekend was a hilarious whirlwind of great and bad experiences (stay tuned for more blogs coming). Saturday was a particularly funny night as Friday was terrible to cute and by the next night I was a little wondering what the roulette game was going to be with passengers.

When I arrived to Aoiki on the west side, he didn't have his destination entered yet. This is not entirely uncommon either. In fact, it was even less surprising when he explained that he had come here from Japan and was still trying to figure things out around here.

"Do you know of any good bars around here?"

Now, in full disclosure, or, mostly, I know quite a bit about this town and about these kinds of locales. I'm a craft beer lover and a former whiskey snob. I've had my share of classy cocktails to cheap dive bar thrills to cozy and exquisite sips of foreign gold alcoholic libation.  

Maybe someday I'll tell you more about some of those Once Loved stories on another day and another blog.

"Well what exactly are you looking for? Do you want beer or something else? Do you want a dive? Do you want something fancy? What's your mood and drink of choice?"

This was seemed to shock Aoki in a good way. His eyes popped wide. He held onto his black hat and the pitch in his voice moved higher.

"Wow. Um. I like whiskey."

"American whiskey or Japanese whiskey?"

"What's the difference?"

"Well... I used to drink whiskey and I know a few things about whiskey. I had a friend who was another whiskey drinker as well however that had a big preference."

"What did he like?"

"Well he wouldn't drink Japanese whiskeys because he complained that they cost more. As a note, this a person I know that also spent twenty-five grand on a bottle that's not Japanese that sits on his shelf."

Aoiki and his fellow passenger laughed.

"Will you marry me?"

I laughed.

"What?" I asked to double check if I'd heard him correctly.

"When I saw your face... You're the most beautiful driver ever. You should marry me."

I tried bringing the conversation back down to level.

"I'm a single mom. I have a lot of stuff going on. You might not actually want to marry me."

He repeated himself.

"I like kids a lot."

"Well I already have a couple of Japanese children. My daughter is named Sakura."

"That's beautiful. Do you know what it means?"

"Of course. It means cherry blossom. They bloom the time of year she was born. I picked it."

"I want a daughter named Sakura."

"Oh you do eh? What do you know... I already have one."

"Exactly so you should marry me."

This conversation continued the whole trip. He asked me to go to get drinks with him as well. At the end of the trip he asked me twice for my number but I declined.

A whiskey bar recommendation garnered a marriage proposal. With the climate of things I did pause to consider it. Did I do the right thing with turning him down? I think so. It's still not a bad story though. More stories are on the way. 

For more city rideshare stories, you can follow along here. New rideshare stories are posted at least once a week. What will your story be like? Stay tuned and have a safe journey... whether it takes you onto the marriage route or not. See you on the road.