Bruce was ready to dedicate his life to me, to propose, very early on while we were dating. Even a month after we started dating, he was telling people that I might be The One. I was completely flattered, but didn't want to rush into things without being 100% sure. I felt bad having to say that, but we'd been dating a very short time!

About three months into the time we were dating, we both felt strongly for each other and wanted to take our commitment farther. But hadn't I just criticised a few other sets of friends for getting engaged and married "too soon" after they'd met? Wasn't the pot now calling the kettle black? I kept telling Bruce that it was "too soon" for us to get engaged...

A few months after my mom met Bruce, on May 15, 1999, she and I were out on a very long marathon training run. At about Mile 16, we were ready to throw in the towel. It was about this time that my mom said something in the neighborhood of "so when are you and Bruce getting married?" Hehehe! It was then that I realized that I'd been saying we were getting engaged "too soon" for no other reason than... none that I could think of! So I think I sent him an email that very same night (when he'd get home at 3am) to tell him...

I told him that I was ready to be engaged. I was hoping, then, that there would be some sort of romantic proposal, flowers, nice dinner, him on one knee? Nope. I think he sent an email back saying "OK" or something to that effect. Silly.

The following Wednesday, May 19, we chose as our engagement date. This same day was Bruce's one-year anniversary working at Yahoo, and the first quarter of his stock options became available to him! I remember that evening, eating dinner with him at Uno's Pizzeria in Fremont (CA), and we decided that we were engaged that day. I was so happy! We stopped by my mom's house after that, and immediately asked... "do you know any good RING stores?" Just like my mom, she bounced up and down on her tiptoes several times, looking back and forth between the two of us, and shrieking "Really??" while grinning. I'd guess she was happy for us.

That coming weekend, we'd already made plans to drive down to San Diego. I had run a marathon there in June 1998, and I met a bunch of other runners while there. Though I didn't run the marathon in 1999, much of the same bunch of us met up for a weekend of hanging out. Bruce tagged along, and we made it an engagement celebration, as well. While down there, we had the chance to go to Fashion Island a time or two, where we worked with some jewelers to create a custom engagement ring. We ordered the ring that weekend, but it wouldn't be done for another 2-3 weeks after that. So, Monday the 24th, we visited Disneyland (Bruce's first time in 20+ years!!) and found a "placeholder" $6 cubic zirconium ring, that I wore on my left ring finger until the real thing came in. To this day, I wear that ring on my right ring finger, as a memory of that wonderful weekend.