Friday, June 10, 2011: Good Morning Beautiful. Tomorrow is almost here. I cannot wait to see you! I had to go to Tijuana again today. It was a sign in day today with the court. 10-months later and I am still coming down here to deal with Adriana Coronel Tenorio’s (AKA Adriana Howitt Coronel, Ari Coronel, Ari Coronel Tenorio, Ari Howitt, Ari Howitt Coronel) bullshit. I have these days where I still can’t believe your abduction and all the struggles that have gone with it has actually happened, let alone the events of last August. I see your pictures around my house and remember all those good times. Then driving to the court to sign in, I am reminded of how evil Adriana and her family are. Seriously, its evil or very stupid, or both. Either one is bad. The court building is adjacent to LaMesa Prison. When I close my eyes, I can see all the faces of the people I was in there with. I can still smell that place too. Seeing it as often as I do certainly does not help erase these memories. Of course I come home and turn on the TV and the Mel Gibson movie “Ransom” is on. The movie is about 10-years old and is a pretty good movie. I have not seen it since your abduction. It did not take long for me to start flashing back to the night of November 10, 2008, which was by far the worst day of my life.
There is nothing I can do to get the time I missed with you back Sam. I wish there was. All I can do is continue to fight for you and realize someday this will end. My saving grace has been my Jiu Jitsu training. It has really helped me displace these feelings of frustration. And just when I’m not sure if this is the ultimate mid-life crisis or not, my main training partner is a guy who is 10-years older than me and is a multiple World Champion and PanAm Champion. Life is what we make of it right? The people I train with are very cool. It gets compared to the surfing community all the time. We all come from different backgrounds, different upbringings and yet the we all share the love of this sport. While our merits are based on what we do in training individually, we do rely on the rest of the team to take our games to the next level. The ancillary benefits have been amazing. I am definitely in better shape than I have been in a long time. More importantly, the road in Jiu Jitsu from white belt to black belt is a long journey. It’s not like the other martial arts because unlike those other arts, Jiu Jitsu is constantly changing. Everyone’s journey in Jiu Jitsu is different. It’s no different in life, everyone’s journey is different. It’s our ability to adapt and overcome that makes the difference. I wish I would have been exposed to the sport 20-years ago. I absolutely love it!
So, while the journey to bring this horrible situation to a peaceful conclusion has been agonizing, frustrating and makes you second guess everything we all know to be right & wrong, I have so much to be thankful for. I am blessed to have you as my daughter Sam. Nothing will ever change that. While I share with you the daily journey here and all the ups and downs, the bond we have as father-daughter is there and it will not be broken. So we continue on and fight another day. KISSES MY PRINCESS! DADDY LOVES YOU! I CAN’T WAIT TO SEE YOU!
