Would You Like to Hear How I Proposed to Her?

I'm sure most of you read the news yesterday... I got engaged!

Now here's the inside story.

First of all, not wanting my little lady to ever run into anyone with the same ring, I had a ring custom made for her. The creator made it a size 6, but to find out for sure what size she wears I took her to a different jewelry store to get her rings cleaned. While they were cleaning I asked her if she wanted to look at wedding rings. This didn't raise any flags because I have been teasing her that way for two years now. Anyway, while we're looking she said, "When it's time to get engaged I want ANYTHING BUT yellow gold."

Damn. The ring I had created for her was yellow gold. Why didn't I already know this fact? Dumb ass Donny.

SO... that changed my plans a little. I had to find the right ring in white gold or platinum. I finally found it.

I wanted to ask her to marry me in a way she'd remember forever. I wanted to do it in San Francisco at the Golden Gate Bridge, and then spend the night at the Westin St. Francis, which is the hotel where we spent our first night together more than 3 years ago.

But how do I get her to San Francisco without having her wonder WHY we're going??

Ah, I know how to do it! I called a friend from this business who lives in Florida. I told him "Call Belinda and tell her that you flew into San Francisco last minute to sign that deal you were working on with so-and-so! Tell her it was a last minute thing and that you'd like us to meet you for dinner if we can. Oh, and tell her you're staying at the Westin St. Francis".

So he called her. 5 minutes later she calls me and says "----- is in San Francisco and wants us to meet him. Do you want to go?" I pretended to think about it for a minute and then said, "yeah, let's do it!"

So we're driving to SF. I pick up the phone when we cross the Bay Bridge to tell ----- that we're almost there. He's still in Florida, of course, and it's late. He's probably asleep. So I hit the "end" button instead of the "send" button and have a conversation with nobody. I pause when he should be talking, laugh at jokes he isn't telling, and then I say:

"You're crazy, man. No way! It's too cold and we didn't bring a sweater!"

Belinda asks "what is he wanting?"

I answer: "He said he was bored waiting for us to get here and that he's at the Golden Gate Bridge and wants us to walk out and meet him in the middle".

She has me tell the person that is NOT on the phone with me that he must be smoking something.

Then I pretend to relent: "Okay, man. I still think you're crazy. But we'll be there in 5 minutes... and then we ALL need to go to dinner!".

Belinda rolls her eyes at me because it's 59 degrees outside and we didn't bring sweaters (it was 100 degrees when we left Chico and I didn't think it would be 40 degrees cooler in SF).

So we park in the parking lot by the Golden Gate Bridge. We're walking along looking for ----- and she's asking "Where IS he?" I pretend to keep looking for him too.

Finally I said, "I have something to tell you. ----- isn't here."

She thinks I'm just fucking with her and says "Yeah, okay. Whatever".

I said, "No, really. He's not. He's sleeping in Florida right now."

Then I start telling her a bunch of mushy, lovey dovey things, drop to one knee, and ask her to marry me.

She cried. She loved it. Finally she said "Of course I will!".

And then she threatened to kick -----'s ass.

The smile is still on her face. Life is good.