Our engagement story

We haven't really spread the news like wild fire about our engagement, most of the announcements have been made out of necessity or force by our parents. We're kinda private about our relationship and I know what it feels like to have to hear someone rub all their personal love life info in your face all the time so I try to avoid doing that. I hate those people.

Things pretty much have gone like this convo the boy had with one if his very good friends the other night...
Friend: "If wedding bells are sometime in your future then..."

Boy: "Oh, yeah, I guess I didn't mention it...we're engaged..."

Friend: "Oh, wow, you guys are doing things super low key. I had no idea, I like your style."

Boy: "yep."
But I wanted to share the engagement story because it's exactly what I would want, private, quiet and just the two of us.

I have never wanted some huge over the top proposal, I would just die, plaster my face on the videotron at the basketball game and I'll leave you, cause you don't know me at all. I would be so embarrassed having tons of people watch me try to make a decision that's going to affect me for the rest of my life, not to mention the pressure to say yes...sigh. There are a million videos online of public marriage proposals gone right and wrong, and even in front of family members I would have been mortified. For me it would take away from the moment and I would be more embarrassed than excited, though I admire the girls that can go with the flow in such a situation, I'm not sure it would be me.
I drove to Long Beach from Carmel on Wednesday and it took me 7 hours to get here. I hate long drives alone, I get bored too easily and fidgety and with no one to talk to I start to lose it. For me long drives alone are the driving equivalent of water boarding, I just can't take it. Two of those hours were spent on the 101 South and the 405 in direct sunlight, never going over 20 mph...so by the time I finally arrived I was sun burnt, had a migraine, starving, sweaty and irritated. I knew we were going to a nice restaurant for dinner to celebrate my belated birthday so I took a nap to chill out before we went out to eat.

When the boy got home from work he suggested we take the dog on a bike ride through town, something he and I enjoy doing together and do quite often, so I agreed and off we went. When we moved all of our stuff down here he had had to take his bike apart to fit in his car and put it all back together again when he got here, so while on the ride he started complaining about the chain and said something must be broken; but it was ok cause he had brought some tools with him just in case.
So we stopped and he handed me the dogs leash and got off his bike so he "could fix it." While he was rooting around in his pocket he casually asked me what I planned to wear to dinner ( I should have known something was up then, cause I could wear sweatpants to dinner and he couldn't care less...) I mentioned some ideas and he says, "Well I think you should wear this..." he gets on one knee and pulls out the ring and asks me to marry him, right there, on the street, just the two of us. Of course my reaction is to ask, "Why are you doing this right here?!" and then I proceed to burst into tears and say yes.
While he's on one knee putting the ring on my finger a big black SUV full of girls drives by with the windows down and starts cheering, and clapping, and "awe-ing" down the street. He got back on his bike and away we went. It turns out our dinner was a birthday/engagement celebration and there was champagne for toasting when we sat down to eat.

I think he did a pretty good job.