Time to update …

The last time I wrote on this here blog, I was just a dating man. Now I’m an engaged man. My fiancée, Chelsea, is a very talented and gifted reporter for The Arizona Republic. She covers mostly Chandler, Tempe and Kyrene schools, but also dabbles in religion reporting. (She’s quickly becoming the resident expert on the Mormon religion among many other religions.) We started dating January 2008, and on December 4, I proposed to her. We decided to take a trip to San Diego. I had the ring hidden in a pair of socks among a side pocket of my bag. Come to find out later, she went through my bags, but couldn’t find it. I’ve always been good at hiding things. Some times, I can’t even find them after hiding them. Well, we went to the Hotel del Coronado the night before the big day, where we took a long stroll on the beach at night. The lights covering the red-roofed inn allowed for good lighting on the beach. She turned to me, and asked if I had something to say. I grabbed her and held her close and said no. “What are you expecting?”
She said, “This is an awful amount of money to spend for just a trip.” (Not a direct quote. It went something like that.) I just told her to enjoy being away from the desert and enjoy the breeze from the ocean.
Well, the next morning, I work up before she did, which never happens. I got all dressed up, put on my big boy cap, and was ready. We went to a glorious breakfast place called Marvelous Muffins. Sat for a little, enjoyed a warm blueberry muffin and got ready. We left, took the short drive up to Cabrillo National Monument.
We arrived at the gate to find out National Parks don’t accept credit cards everywhere for a form of payment. So we had to turn around, hit up the ATM to pay the $5 entrance fee to the park. By this time, my hands were sweaty and my heart was pounding. I wasn’t that nervous, but just a little. Once we had cash in hand, we made our way back to the park. We paid the fee, drove up to the parking lot and got out to walk to the top of the hill.
I convinced Chelsea that we were going to Cabrillo to film a Christmas video postcard to send to our friends and family. (Sorry, none of you got it.) So trekking up the hill with camera in hand, Chels wanted to stop halfway up. With the lighthouse in my sights, I kept pushing to get up to the top. We finally got there after a few stops, and set up the camera.
Then the rest is history … Haha. Kidding. I’ll tell you the rest.
We started filming, the usual “Merry Christmas! and Happy New Year!” thing. At that point, I turned to her, got down on one knee, and proposed with a gorgeous ring. She said yes, surprisingly.
Now, after being engaged for only four months, we’ve pretty much got the entire event planned. We’re getting married Jan. 30, 2010. We’re going to have the ceremony and reception in San Diego. We found the locations actually last week: wedding next to the ocean at the height of whale watching season in La Jolla at “The Wedding Bowl” aka Cuvier Park; reception at the Darlington House, owned and operated by the Social Service League of La Jolla.
It’s going to be awesome.
All right, thanks for reading.