a day to never forget
February 19th, 2007 -- Posted in >8], ;P | 25 Comments »There are moments in your life that you know, at that immediate moment, you will never forget. On Valentine’s Day, I had one of these moments.
For those of you that don’t know this already, I proposed to Emily. And she said,”Yes!” (!!!!) We’ve been on cloud 9 for the past several days telling first our family and then all of our friends.
(That was the abridged version. Read below only if you have an interest in long, drawn out stories.)
I’ve been planning on doing this for several months and from the moment I decided to do this, I was very excited. It’s so so hard to sit on such news without telling anyone. The only person who had a clue from me was a friend who mentioned that he had looked at rings recently with his girlfriend and was thinking about proposing soon. I hinted that I was on a similar route.
Finding the ring was a challenge within itself. Luckily, Em and I talked briefly about rings several months ago (after I had decided) and she sent me some pictures of rings she thought were nice. So that was a good starting point.
I searched long and hard. Tiffany’s, Cartier and several other stores had me running for the door. hahaha kidding. I actually didn’t find much that caught my eye until I came across this other store that had a large variety. I ended up going to a jeweler that came recommended from a friend who proposed to his fiancee several months ago.
From the moment I got the ring, I kept telling myself, ‘DON’T LOSE THE RING!!’ I wasn’t concerned so much about the monetary value but somehow showing up on Valentine’s searching my pockets for the ring. I picked it up before work one day and all I could think about was the ring in my backpack, sitting there in the corner of my cube. ‘DON’T GET MUGGED!’ I murmured to myself.
Next was the card. I got the card. I drafted what I wanted to say. It didn’t have to be perfect but it had to be from the heart. How can one profess their innermost feelings with ink and paper? A truly difficult task, I say.
On Valentine’s day, I picked up a dozen roses. I’ve always resisted a dozen roses. I don’t know why. Perhaps because it felt like such a societal norm. I always get something that strikes me as nice. White flowers, orchids, lillies, but never a dozen red roses. Today felt special and a dozen roses felt right. It was a first for many things.
That day I had the ring with me. DON’T LOSE IT! I was excited all day. I couldn’t wait.
She has no idea what’s in store for tonight.
I went up to her place in Oakland and we were getting ready to go out. She knew I was taking her out but to where she did not know. While she was in the bathroom, I was on her computer looking up directions to the restaurant. The thing with Emily’s computer is that her IM clients are persistently open. Her friend IMed to her and the window automatically popped up:
“Call me immediately if anything special happens!” she wrote.
Drats! Am I really that unoriginal? hahhahahaha.
I responded with a simple, “ok.” I pondered also writing, “btw this is peter” but I didn’t. I laughed out loud at the thought. Emily asked through the bathroom door what was so funny. “Nothing,” I replied. 
Before I continue I should mention where I planned on taking her. There’s this charming italian place in North Beach (San Francisco’s Italian district) that we went to on Valentine’s day of 2001. I still remember that day. At the time we were really good friends. I asked her out to Valentine’s as friends since we were both valentineless but were very close. We always consider it our first Valentine’s and in many ways our first date.
So back to the story. We’re driving to the city. I can feel a large lump in my chest — it’s the ring in my inner jacket pocket, of course. I’m driving towards the restaurant and find parking.
As we’re walking away from the car towards North Beach, Emily says,
“Hey this is near that restaurant we went for our first Valentine’s.”
“Really?” I faked. I nearly chuckled.
“You don’t remember?!” she said, shocked.
“Oh yeah! That one place.. I think it was italian.” I really deserve an Oscar or Emmy.
“Yeah! Remember?” she continued.
We continued to talk and I could hardly contain the smile on my face. When we were 20 feet away I admitted, “Actually that’s where we’re going.” “Oh how nice!!” she said.
When we reached the front, I stopped her. People were walking by at certain moments. I told her I had a card for her. Usually, I get her a card and I ask her to read it when I’m not there. I always feel cheesy having her read my cards in front of her. But today I told her I would read the card to her.
Now about the card. The previous night I was sitting there, having finished the card. It was signed Happy Valentine’s Day. I pondered whether to write “Will you marry me?” on it, at the end. In the hope that this card would be with us for a long time, I wrote it for the memories.
So I’m there, reading her this card. With each line that passes, I feel a nervous excitement grow within me. I feel like a kid who’s being strapped into a rollercoaster. The anticipation and excitement grew with each passing moment. At the end, I took a half breath and said, “Happy Valentine’s Day!”
Emily says that she suspected that I was going to propose when I was reading her the card. When I seemed to finish with “Happy Valentine’s Day” she thought she was wrong and it was simply me reading a card.
The next moment is blurry, but I think I was reading for my inner pocket, having trouble getting the ring out. She took the card from me to read it and sees the bottom where it says, “Will you marry me!” and gasps with excitement. I said, “Oh wait a sec!!” as I pulled out the ring, got down on my knee and proposed. “Yes!!” she gasped/exclaimed/breathed. My heart was beating through my chest like it does in cartoons.
Let me bribe you into marrying me by giving you this very expensive item.
OK!!!
After several moments of kissing, hugging and celebration, she just kept looking at the ring, staring like a kid at the candy store.
“You have to put it on my finger!” she said.
In our excitement, we missed this formality. So I did it. We took pictures. Someone in a passing car yelled something random.
Yay, she said yes!
Eventually we went in and had dinner. We couldn’t wait to tell the world but we saved that moment for us.
Em’s absorbed in the card checking for any grammatical and spelling mistakes.
That night we spread the news with our families and the next day our friends. If you’re finding out now, it’s due to my laziness. 
I’ve been telling people as I’ve talked to them, throughout the week.
So, to answer some of your questions:
When are you getting married? Don’t know.
Lastly, we’re moving in together and we found a place in the city. Woohoo! We’ll be living there starting next month. We hope you all will visit.