The Main Characters
Hello – My name is Zila Welsh and it’s a pleasure to be here with you today and this is my husband, Jim, unless he’s in trouble then he’s James.
And, this is how we met…
So a few months after I graduated from college, I moved to Lawrence, Kansas to start a job. The day after I moved in to my house, I had asked my landlord how to get to the courthouse as I was going to go get my license plate renewed, and my driver’s license updated with my new information. He told me that if I just followed this one particular street into downtown I would run right into the location I needed. So off I went.
As I was approaching Memorial Stadium, home of the KU football team, I noticed through my rear view mirror that a cop car did a u-turn in the middle of the road behind me. I kept my eye on him so that I could do what any reasonable citizen would do, and that would be to get out of his way. However, I noticed that as I began to slow down and pull to the side so he could move past me, that he didn’t. Hmmmm? Well, that only meant one thing; yes he was pulling me over. Why, you wonder, yeah me too!
Ok let me set the setting for you. It was summer, it was hot, I was young and I was looking good, especially since I was on my way to get my picture taken for my DL. So as this tall, blonde haired police officer, sporting these cool looking Oakley sunglasses, approached my car, I was like “Oh, I totally got this”, right, because ladies, you all know that the first thing you think is a man in a uniform can’t resist a cute-post college girl, and if I just play innocent, I can totally get out of this. BUT WAIT, why would I play innocent! What was I trying to get out of, I didn’t do anything, so I was innocent. Right, so about that.
“Good afternoon, Ma’am, license and registration please”…ok now wait a minute, “Ma’am”, I had a cute outfit on, my hair was done, I was NOT looking like a Ma’am. Miss would have been just fine, but now you have a strike against you Mr. Officer. Anyway, back to my story…so I obliged, and kindly gave him what he asked for, then kindly asked him why he had pulled me over. So get this…he then says, well you we’re speeding, ran a stop sign, and almost hit my police car….WHOA WHOA WHOA, wait a minute…so you know that sweet, little innocent act, yeah that quickly went out the window. I looked at him and said, “I’m sorry, but at no time in the last 30 minutes of my life did I feel like my life was in danger, so clearly I didn’t almost hit your cop car, and speeding, what do you mean speeding, I’m not even sure where I’m going so how can I be speeding, and a stop sign, what stop sign?” He ignored my rant, went to his car, ran everything and processed this clean, very crisp piece of paper which cited my traffic violations. As I tried to plead my case with him, he ignored me and said that I could discuss it with the Judge and told me to sign on the line. Ugh, you better believe that I was going to plead my case to the Judge. So I signed, and off we went. But what he didn’t realize was just exactly who he was messing with. I then went back to my house, skipping the whole trip to the courthouse, because I was going to grab my 35mm camera (you know the kind with film, yes this was the pre-whip out the phone from your back pocket era) and retrace my drive, taking pictures of the “non-existent” tree, and the lack of speed limit signs.
So now with my camera in tow, I re-create my drive. As I approach the corner where said stop sign was to exist, I get out of my car to find it, and low and behold there it was…RIGHT UNDER A GINORMOUS WEEPING WILLOW TREE. No one and I mean no one would have a clue that was even there except for the owners of that property and this one insanely accurate police officer, who probably memorized every stop sign location in the city. And those home owners, they should have paid for my ticket because seriously, their lack of maintenance to that tree, obscured my vision of that stop sign thus, bringing harm to drivers. Anyway, moving on.
So I clearly got back in my car and decided that I’d just go to court on the date listed on my ticket, but then when I noticed what date that was, I had no choice but to pay extra for a diversion because the date Mr. Police Officer gave me was the same date as I was to start my new job. So I did just that and carried on with my life. Until…
It was a chilly night in February 2004. I was an assistant cheer coach and after one of the basketball games, a group of coaches and teachers as well as one of the school resource officers got together for a bite after the game. While hanging out, the school resource officer, asked if I and some others wanted to go to a place called the Ranch. The Ranch was a bar, that on Saturday nights played country music all night, but at the top of every hour, for 15 minutes, played hip-hop, the top 20 on the billboard charts, and other top hits from the 80’s and 90’s. I mean could it get any better than that, nope. So I said yes and off we went, because if you know me, you know I love music and I LOVE LOVE LOVE dancing.
As soon as I walked in, my favorite country song was playing. I looked to my friend, the school resource officer and said “Hey, come dance with me” and he said, “I’m not dancing tonight, but take him”, and I was like who is that, he said “oh this is my friend Jim.” Being his friend, was all I needed to hear, to make it ok, so I drug this random guy out to the dance floor to dance to Dixie Land Delight, by Alabama. *Warning* Brace yourselves for the cheesiest real moment ever.
So if you know the song, you know it’s meant to be a two-stepping, swinging good time. Well, that’s what I was expecting at least, but instead as this Jim guy and I got into position to dance, I looked up at his face and in an instant, my brown eyes made contact with his blue eyes and I was locked in. I was so mesmerized by his eyes, and how good looking he was that I just forgot everything else around me. No for real…FORGOT. EVERYTHING. ELSE. AROUND. ME. So you know those cheesy moments in movies where a boy and a girl stand under a mirror ball and everything around them becomes a blur, time stands still, they sway back and forth, and as they gaze into each other’s eyes, they fall madly in love and kiss passionately, until they are interrupted by real life…yeah, that really happens in real life. That was us, minus the kissing part, because really, what good Kansas girl kisses a random guy before getting a steak dinner out of him, HA! So I believe in that very moment, I fell in love with this Jim guy. P.S. I also know this happened because when real life interrupted that moment, everyone around us was finishing the song and they were having a two-stepping, swinging good time. Us, we chose to slow dance to that song.
So then what… well, the bar closed for the night and he proceeded to walk me out to my car, and as he did, he said, “so do you think I can get your number” and I said “Uhm, well I typically don’t give guys I meet at a bar, my phone number” and he quickly replied, “But I’m a friend of Sean’s, and I’m a police officer” and so I chuckled and gave in. Then we went our separate ways. I knew I’d hear back from him, but he made me wait 3 whole days. So you know how it goes, he calls, we talk for 2 hours on the phone, no joke 2 hours, then he finally asks me out before hanging up, we go on our first date, and then another and another. Things are fantastic, we become boyfriend and girlfriend, and the rest is history, right…wrong.
There’s one more thing I must share with you…the icing on the cake, or more like the cherry on top of the sundae.
So 5 months into dating, my boyfriend and I are at dinner. And it’s there that I bring up in conversation that I’ve officially lived in Lawrence for a full year. Then I proceed to tell him that a year ago from tomorrow, I got my first speeding ticket from some jerk cop here in Lawrence and that he said I almost hit his cop car. He then says, “well when I go to work tonight I’m going to see who it was”. Then I said that it would be really funny if it was one his friends. So we both laughed and finished dinner. Now at this stage in our relationship, this police officer boyfriend of mine was working midnights. And being still somewhat new to the Law Enforcement world, when your phone rings at 1:30 in the morning, you know it’s not good. So I answered and my boyfriend’s voice was on the other end. He says, and I quote “Zila, it’s Jim.” “Yes, are you ok, where are you?” I asked. “I’m at work and yes, I’m fine, but you may not be” So I’m thinking, ok so he’s alive, but he now only has one arm, or one leg, maybe an ear has been shot off, but ok, I can live with this…but wait he said he was fine and is at work, ok, now I’m awake from my deep sleep. “So if you’re fine, why are you calling at 1:30 in the morning?” I said. “Well because I thought I should let you know that I did it.” “You did what?” I questioned. “I gave you your first speeding ticket.” “Wait, what?” Awkwardly laughing he said “yeah, it was me” Then me, not awkwardly laughing, exclaimed “I want me $92” followed by slamming the phone down and hanging up. The $92.00 was the amount of extra money I had to pay to keep these citations off of my record. And the slamming of the phone, yeah that was just me making him sweat, HA! I didn’t talk to him for a whole 24 hours, he thought we broke up, LOL, but not at all. He showed up on my doorstep with flowers and offered to take me out for a steak dinner, so I forgave him. And now, the rest is history and we truly have lived happily ever after.
A few tidbits though…I like to say that God never wanted me to meet my husband in a bar so that I didn’t have to explain that to my grandma. She would have lost her ever loving mind if I told her I met him in a bar. So instead, I got to tell her that I met him by speeding, then I fell in love in a bar.
Oh and about falling in love. So you know that cheesy part of my story about falling in love under the mirror ball, gazing into his eyes, while time stood still…yeah, this is how I truly know that happened. You see, I’m a dancer, and a good one. I can find a beat to anything and put together a dance routine on the spot. So one would think that I’d notice if someone around me couldn’t dance. Well let’s just say I was too busy falling in love that night because it wasn’t until a year after we started dating that I realized he can’t dance. STRAIGHT. UP. CAN’T. DANCE. I mean, Elaine off of Seinfeld can dance better. Anyway, this is his one and only downfall, so I decided to keep him around. But prior to the dance floor mirror ball moment, if a guy tried to dance with me that couldn’t dance, peace out dude. LOL, yes, shallow I know, but that was my clue that we weren’t meant to be, until that night when I knew it was meant to be.
Oh and another tidbit. Every 3 years the records clerk purges the hard copies of the tickets and other documents. At the time we were engaged, and Jim got a call to come to the clerk’s office. As she was purging records, she came across a unique name, only to be mine, and asked Jim if he’d like to have this momentum of such an occasion. So we have framed in our home the very ticket he wrote me; the original that has our very own signatures dated with the exact time we met.
And you may be wondering, how did we date 5 months before realizing I was dating the man who wrote me my first ticket. Well, as I mentioned, it was Summer and he was wearing these big Oakley sunglasses, so I never saw his eyes, thus not truly making a facial connection for future recognition. All I know is that if he could remember that darn stop sign was behind a weeping willow tree, how could he not remember a girl by the name of Zila…anyway, that’s water under the bridge. Ha.