Ok, folks, the story you’ve all been waiting for in her own words…

Well, I’m engaged. I promised that I would blog for eternity the story of how it happened…or at least my version. So I will take you back to last thursday. It started out as a really good day. I finally got all of my school stuff setteled, finally. It had been stressful getting into all my classes, but I was finally registered for classes. I went to the bookstore to purchase the rest of my books, I went to the grocery store to stock up with groceries for Justin’s visit, and picked up my house. I talked to my friend Heather Nice, and somewhere in the conversation expressed that I wouldn’t be getting married for a while, so not to worry. Then I went to the church in Hollywood, because I wanted to get some last minute work done.

I was going to a meeting that evening with some corporate people from the Gap who wanted a pitch on our homeless ministry, because they were looking to donate money. Tera, one of the girls out here, works for the Gap, and had some connections and somehow arranged this dinner meeting. I interviewed Scotty and Lloyd, two of the guys who are the most intimately involved with the homeless ministry, for about 40 minutes. I was supposed to meet another girl, Annalee, at James and Ruth’s house at 7:30, and then go the meeting. Annalee was going to drive. I was supposed to pick Justin up at the airport at 11:06, and he had sent me his Yahoo travel arrangements so I knew whent to go get him.

I left the church and went to Ruth’s and I called her to see if I could change at her house. She said I could let myself in because she was busy back in the bathroom. When I got there, Nicole was on the couch watching the presidential debates, and I went and changed. I tried to wear something nice and trendy, but good for dinner and drinks. Ruth came out of her room and offered to fix my hair and makeup, so I let her. I thought, what the heck…why not? She did me up in makeup like only Ruth can do, and I looked all sexy. Annalee got there, and after a round of pictures, we left. Annalee and I headed off to the resturaunt.

We were going to a place in Santa Monica called Shutters. It was a hotel on the beach. We valeted the car when we got there and went inside. We told the hostess what party we were looking for, and she started to lead us to the table. Suddenly, Annalee remembered she had left something in her car, so she told me to go ahead.

I followed the hostess and I was looking around for Tera, as she led me to a dark corner of the resuraunt. All of a sudden I saw a guy that looked like Justin sitting at a table. And then I realized it WAS Justin. I almost fainted straight away. It was all a set up. And there he was. I was shaking, I couldn’t believe it. I was all ready for a meeting, and he was there. I hugged and kissed him, and we sat down. I kept reaching across the table because I could hardly believe it…I hadn’t seen him for a month.

It took me 15 minutes to stop shaking, and also to get over how bad I had been suckered. It all began to make sense, and I realized how many people had been in on it all. I had had no idea. We talked for 30 minutes before we got around to ordering. I thought to myself, oh my gosh, is he going to propose tonight. But the love of my life, the pain in my butt, is a sneaky sneaky boy. He had figured that I would think something like that, so he began to throw me off the scent.

We talked about our friends who were getting married. He asked if I would like to go look at rings this weekend, because scott had told him about a good place to look. He told me that the next time he surprised me that no one would know. He had told me a long time ago that when he proposed, no one would know. So I thought, maybe this is just a nice surprise. I also looked for places that he might be hiding a ring, but he definitely didn’t have it in his pants, and he offered me his jacket, so I knew it wasn’t in there. So I thought, no, he’s probably not going to propose.

We had a lovely dinner. I had lamb and grilled vegetables, and he had kobe beef. We had a drink after dinner, and then we decided to go walking on the beach. We left the returaunt, and went down to the beach. I made a pit stop at the bathrooms, and then we took off our shoes and walked towards the ocean. It was so romantic. We were holding hands and the air was cool and the night was beautiful.

We got down to the beach and Santa Monica Pier was to our right. The ferris wheel was lit up, and everything was beautiful. I was standing, looking out at the water, and said something about how wonderful everthing was, and Justin said, ”That’s why I wanted to ask you…” and I turned towards him,” Will you marry me?” He was on one knee with an open ring box. I said, ”Oh my gosh!!! Oh my gosh!!!” And he cleared his throat as if to ask, well? And I said, ” Of course I’ll marry you. And I jumped in his arms, and we hugged, and then he put the beautiful ring on my finger, which was tied to the ringbox so we didn’t accidentally drop it in the sand. Then we began to call people along the beach.

It was perfect, romantic, wonderful. Everything I could have dreamed or imagined and more. Anyways, that’s enought for now. More about me, later.