Big News

So, it has been forever since I wrote on here. But, I just had a big enough change in my life that I could not refrain from posting something for my non-existant readership.

I am engaged! The most wonderful girl in the world has agreed to marry me and put up with me for the rest of her life. I'm not sure why she has agreed to such a thing, but it has made me more happy than I could ever consider being. Katie Fisher is my fiancee.

How did it happen, you ask? Well, here is the story in all of it's gory detail. Read at your own risk... ;-)

At 11:30, Saturday, November 20th, I whent to her apartment, and we went out for lunch to Benihana. That is one of those Japanese restaurants that cooks at your table and is very entertaining in their cooking. I was able to pass off such a meal because we were celebrating our first year anniversary (actually a little early... we starting dating on 11-25). That was enjoyable and fun. After that we went to a park. Over the course of our relationship we have been to litterally a couple dozen of different parks, enjoying nature and the various styles of different parks. This park was a beautiful one next to UCI. It took us a while to find it (I always seem to get lost when taking Katie new places ;-), but we finally found it. We walked over bridges, and through a dry creek bed, and then settled by the lake to read the last of "The Voyage of the Dawn Tredder".
Now here is where things started to go a little awry. The weather was not behaving as it was supposed too. I knew I should not have trusted weather.com! It was significantly overcast, fairly windy, and getting colder rapidly. Katie was already borrowing my jacket, and I was wondering if she was even going to enjoy my future plans for the day. See, I had planned to go to the beach, which was about 10 minutes away, to watch the sunset. But, if there was no sunset, and if it was too cold to enjoy it, then how was I suppose to get us to the beach??? On top of that, the book was taking longer than I had anticipated. I was starting to worry if we were going to be able to finish it after all. It is a beautiful ending, and I Really wanted to get to the end, but at what expense? So, I kept checking my watch, counting pages, and reading faster...This was Katie's first major clue. ;-P We finished about 10 minutes later than I had wanted, but still in time, and I hurriedly suggested that since we didn't have a good view of the sunset here, we should go to the beach. This seemed plausible and reasonable "spontaneus" thing to do, and since it had stopped getting colder, she agreed to go.
We reached the beach quickly thanks to good lights and traffic, and we walked down to a beautiful spot at little Corona Del Mar. Katie had grown up on that beach, we had shared some special time there ourselves, and it is a beautiful spot to watch the sunset. Phil, Jon and Libby had gone ahead of time and set up a picnic dinner. The idea was a romantic, bountiful, candle lite picnic set out on glass platters, with Martinelli in a champaign bucket, 52 roses (it is our 52nd week of dating), rose petals, and Chopin's nocturns playing in the background. Well, the wind kept the candles from lighting, and the seagulls made them put a crate over the food, but other than that it was perfect. They had even written "Amo Te" in the sand near by. Katie had not even connected the setup with us until I stopped next to it and told her happy first year anniversary. ;-) We then "saw" a bottle "washed up" on shore with a message in it. The message was a sonnet I had written for her. This was a surprise, because I had told her never to expect a poem from me since the last sonnet I had written was on campaign finance reform...
After reading that to her, I then read 1 Corinthians 13. Then, as the sun was setting, at 4:45, I asked her to marry me. It is a moment that I will cherish forever. I thank God for how amazingly He has blessed me. If you think of it, please pray for us as we begin a new, exciting period of our lives.

I love you, Katie.

That is all.