This has been an INCREDIBLE experience for me! Meeting penguins, getting engaged, showing him Disneyland... yay!
So I'll start off piece by piece and talk about everything separately, in non-chronological order.
Bruce and I decided early on that we were The Ones for each other. Friends of ours who saw us interact were in full agreement; we were worried that it was just early infatuation, but those of you who saw us at RNR would clearly note that we are The Couple. I'd invited him on the Sandy Eggo weekend: drive down Friday, hang with penguins Sat, marathon Sunday, Disneyland Monday, and drive back Tuesday (today). This was the first time we'd spent a full 5 days together all the time; and while we didn't think there would be any problems, this would be a real test of our compatibility.
He had told me about a month or so ago that he was ready for engagement, any time. I was worried that it was still too early, but had no real support behind that notion other than to say it was early. The magic is/was clearly there.
I finally told him that I was ready last week. (and he has some funny anecdotes to share about that... but hey, he's not a member of the list and can't post them, so nyah nyah. :) We decided last Wed, 5/19, that we'd start looking for a ring (which was, coincidentally, the same day as his 1 year employee anniversary at Yahoo, with the commensurate stock option vesting). When we told my mom, she was ecstatic. But I still didn't want to make it official, until we'd spent the weekend with each other and had survived each other's company! :)
After having talked with and met some penguins that told us that we "had something" (right, Kellee?) that many couples don't have -- that special joint wavelength -- we KNEW that this was the right decision. Got some ring advice from Mindy... and spent our free sat evening looking at rings in the Fashion Valley Mall.
We slept on it, and headed back to the same mall after supporting the marathon (more to come later). We then spent several hours making the purchase... we decided on a custom job which would not be ready right away, but I was able to take the box back with all the specs. Mindy approved... :) We were happy that we got a good deal.
It was official. We helped out with the party by making a post marathon beer run at the store, and happened also to pick up a cake and pink decorating icing... we wrote "ENGAGED!!" with a happy face underneath on the cake. I think Lizzy took a picture of that one...
In Disneyland the following day, which was a BLAST for me (haven't been in 3 years) and for Bruce (hadn't been in 22 years) -- yes, we walked through their costume jewelry stores. We found a small cubic zirconium ring, just $6, which now resides on my left ring finger holding the place for the real one, which should be delivered soon. YAY!
This is still unbelieveable for both of us. We spent the whole day driving back up here with my having to remind myself over and over... "I have a ring... I'm engaged..." !!!!
Wedding plans? Planning on a long engagement, not only for planning purposes, but also to try to get his family out here from Long Island and Hawaii. And our own June Mirassou has reassured us that yes, the Ivan Tamas winery DOES do weddings! So at some point in the near future, I will become Mrs. Bruce Caruthers... !!!
So it's official! And thanks to all of the
penguins
that helped make this the most incredible weekend
for
me.