November 22, 2008. This day will forever be a favorite in my memory tank. It will remind me of the beauty of the world around me. It will ignite a joy and a passion for the one person I love the most.
This is the day I stopped having a boyfriend and started having a fiance (omg...freaking out inside just writing that out for the first time). Yes, fellow blog readers, Micah and I are engaged! I guess I'll just launch into the story, since who doesn't want all the juicy details?
As much as I love my job, I many times unwantingly give up gorgeous san francisco saturdays to work. I of course do not like this aspect of my job, but I understand the necessity and therefore roll with the life I've chosen. So this past saturday (november 22) I hopped into a cab because I was running late and dashed to work. I met with two clients. My last client I thought was not going to be an interview, but it was and therefore pushed my work load over an hour longer than it usually is. Moving along...
The plan: Micah was supposed to pick me up from work and we scheduled to drive north to Marin to meet up with our friend Sarah for a nice hike along the ocean. My work delayed us by an hour, but around 3pm we were off. Micah had bought be a sandwich and an almond croissant from La Boulange (of which he had eaten half of both), and I gobbled them up.
Going over the Golden Gate bridge to Marin
When we made it to our destination, Rodeo Beach, Sarah was nowhere to be found. At this very moment, I began feeling a peculiar sensation. My thought process: Micah has quite a large backpack for such a small hike, Sarah is nowhere to be seen, and we have been talking about marriage for some time now. Ok, ok, basically I let my imagination side get the hold of my brain and it ran wild. I slowly convinced myself, through the butterflies swarming in my stomach and creeping up my throat, that this might be the day Micah was going to propose.
Fast forward 15 minutes and guess who shows up...Sarah. (Sarah, if you're reading this, I do love you. I promise the fact that my spirts plummeted were simply connected to my proposal bubble being burst, not that I was sad to see you). So we embarked on our adventure. I admit I was what my friend Emily explicitly pinpointed a "Debbie Downer." I wanted to forget about my expectations. I wanted to center myself on the beauty that surrounded me. I was just miles from the city, yet I felt worlds away. There was the ocean before me in all its glory. There were deers grazing and birds fluttering. It was beautiful. I tried, honestly I did, I tried to focus on this beauty and not Micah's frustrating lack of commitment. In fact, at one point my non-confrontational side even laid down for me to tell Micah I was sad because I thought maybe something else was going to happen (i.e. get proposed to). I wanted to move on from this false expectation and enjoy the afternoon.
We hiked. We hiked about 40 minutes up to the top of a ridge. Micah declared, "It's a one of a kind day" (Yes, he is usually that over the top, so I did not suspect much). Even though less than a minute later, Sarah announced, "I have to pee, I'm going to find a bush, you guys go ahead," I still did not suspect anything. We walked over a few feet to a breath-taking outlook. Micah asked me to take a picture. I told him no, I did not feel like it. Micah said, "Come on, take a picture with me." I again told him no, but eventually conceded to take a picture of just him. (I know I'm a horrible person.)
the view
the picture
At which time, Micah tells me I'm making this difficult for him. He gets down on one knee. He tells me, among other things, that he loves me and respects me. Many people say they don't remember what was said during the proposal and for me it is sadly no different. I was taken off guard. I kept asking Micah what he was doing instead of listeing intently to what he was saying. Finally "the question" came: "Will you marry me?" He fumbled around in his pocket and brought out the ring. We were almost interrupted by some small children, but I think their parents shuffled them away. Oh, did I mention I said YES, because I did.
Next came my first suspicion fulfilled. The backpack. Micah brought out a blanket, a bottle of wine, cheese and crackers, and chocolate! We sat down and watched the sunset. Here's the series of photos that followed:
Oh, and our view of Rodeo Beach at sunset:
After 20 minutes of hands down the most enjoyous sunset I've experienced, the fog rolled in. It encompassed us. It clothed the ocean and the beach. It was mysterious. We hiked down and met back up with Sarah in the parking lot. We hugged and jumped up and down and I'm so excited she was their to share in our moment. I'm was even more happy to find out she had hid behind us and taken great photos of the proposal.
As Micah and I drove back to our beloved city in our borrowed City Car Share, I called my parents and my bevy of girlfriends. It was much fun to replay the memory of the hour before. I think the best thing of repeating our engagement story to the masses is the way it cements into my mind each time I tell it.
The dinner:
Micah took me to Ana Mandara. It is owned by Don Johnson of Miami Vice. The story behind dinner is that Micah had told me we were going out to dinner with his boss and his boss' husband. Rewind back to the parking lot jumping up and down with Sarah, and she blurts "You know you're going to dinner just the two of you." Well, I do now! Anyway, the resturant was spectacular. The name Ana Mandara translates as "Beautiful Refuge." It is named after a ancient Vietnamese love story between a Princess and an Army General. In a Romeo and Juliet esque setting, the princess was married to a nearby king despite her love for the general. The king's first wife plotted against her and to save the princess her family sends in the general. He wisked her away to an "Ana Mandara" where they live together happily for a year. The great love story ends in tragedy when the two decide to return home (knowing that it would not be easy). The young general was executed and the princess lived the rest of her life in a convent, forever separated from her greatest love. But the princess never forgot her "Ana Mandara."
The story is sad, but our dinner experience was everything but that.
We started the evening in the lounge, sipping some cocktails and listening to the live band. Afterwards, we moved downstairs to the main floor where we were seated at a table overlooking the restaurant. Micah had delivered flowers early in the day and there they sat in all their autumn glory on our table.
The inside of Ana Mandara is very hollywood. It looks like you're on a set. As you can maybe see in the picture above, there are building facades inside. The lights on the ceiling look like set lights.
Our meal was fantastic. We got a bottle of riesling and spring rolls to start. Moving to the entrees, Micah got lobster (from Maine) and I got the fish of the day which was Halibut. It was a spectacular firework display of flavors in my mouth. Then our waiter came out and gave us our bottle of champagne compliments of Gil (Micah's boss). I suppose here is where I should give Gil a shout-out since he played an integral part in the planning. He was so excited when Micah told him he was going to propose. He gave him ideas for a resturant and then when Micah picked Ana Mandara, Gil took Micah and the rest of his team there for lunch so Micah could take it for a test drive. They sat at different tables to pick the right one. Thank you Gil for all your planning and excitement over our engagement day.
Dessert deserves a mini-paragraph all to it's own. Here's what we got.
Mine: a chocolate molten lava cake with raspberry sauce and vanilla ice cream
Micah's: chocolate mousse and strawberries
DELICIOUS!
Recap: After 5 hours of work, 45 minutes of hiking, 20 minutes of admiring the sunset, and over 3 hours of relishing our dinner..Micah and I are engaged.
And we will remain engaged until sometime Summer '09. Stay tuned for updates!
