I Finally Did It

So today I got the audio portion of the translation so everything is set. I’ll have to listen and read as much as possible since my Spanish is non-existent.

I think that I realized that lying is exhausting. While few people know I have the ring and one person knows when I am going to propose I have been lying to so many people for weeks. It’s so hard keeping this a secret and lying about the proposal. Someone please remind me that telling the truth may hurt, but lying takes a ton of energy when I want to do something crazy like this again.

Yes! Today I got the translation back from my girl Jessica T. I am so excited. I’m thinking I will have the audio version of it tomorrow. We’ll see.

So I got confirmation that the translation was a go, yes! Other than that, it’s pretty slow on the planning front.

Today was a slow day in proposalville. I’m working on getting my proposal translated into Spanish. It looks like it’s a go, but I will keep you updated. Basically, I am going to have the words I plan to say translated so I can propose in Spanish. Nice, huh?

So later in the day I was looking at a charge on my credit charge and I asked Rachel why the hell she was spending so much on Christmas stuff—LOL. I completely forgot that her engagement ring would be on the same page. I’m sure she didn’t see if, but man that was close.

Today a major part of my plan was completed. I talked to Rachel’s boss, Sharon W., and got her to give Rachel the days off. At first she made it seem like it wasn’t going to happen and I nearly peed myself. I was already nervous and she was like well she’ll have to ask me for the days off herself. I’m like no ma’am that will ruin the surprise. We worked it out and all is well. I was a bit embarrassed on the phone because I was clearly nervous and she thought the whole scenario was sooooo cute. HAHA. For her kindness I ordered her and the rest of the employees there an edible flower arrangement.

My good god! I already feel like crap because I have waited this long to ask Rachel to marry me, but these commercials are killing me. “Every kiss begins with Kay.” You can’t be serious. Stop it! Stop it now. She sees them and I see her seeing them, and it’s awkward. Most of you know I don’t curse out loud, but I am so curing on the inside!

So wow, it’s Thanksgiving and I’m home alone. This is a perfect opportunity for me to get some more planning done. So here are the basics of the plan. I will secretly get Rachel two days off. During those two days we will be driven to the airport for a flight to Atlanta, Georgia. We’ll pick up the SUV that I rented for us and check into a four-star hotel. We’ll have lunch and partake in a few activities. At exactly 6:15 p.m., her birth time, I will propose to her in Spanish. We’ll eat a lovely dinner and go back to the hotel where I will send out an announcement to the world. Nice!

So I called up my buddy Jon S. and told him it was time for me to go looking for a ring. He said sure. I love this guy. I came to his house and he had the diamond sized, estimated and detailed before I even got there. If you hadn’t realized, Jon is the super gemologist.

So we made a stop at his super diamond connect and I told the guy I needed a heart-shaped diamond. He said huh? I don’t know if I have any of those. People don’t buy those much—PERFECT! If you know me at all you know I’m not commercial and I hate fads and trends. When I saw the heart-shaped diamond months ago I knew it was it. I talked to my best friend Amber M. and she said go for it. His guy called his brother and he bought over one diamond. It was a nice quality and it was just under a carat. We liked it, but he came back with another one and it was the bomb! Just over a carat and it was huge. Perfect color, nice clarity, GIA certified and all that jazz. We got the price and we walked out to think it over.

We stopped in the mall to return a few items and laugh at the crap they were selling in the mall. NEVER, I REPEAT NEVER buy a diamond at one of those stores like Kays or Zales. The nonsense they showed us was horrible. After we laughed at that crap, we went to one more store. Their prices were ok, but most people don’t keep hearts in stock. I wanted to think about the diamond and come back in a day or two, but Jon did a great job of convincing me otherwise.

We went back, picked out a nice setting that added another quarter caret plus and worked on the price. Once that was done, it was set and we were gone! I love that ring! I post pictures after I propose.

So today I started to put the plan down on paper or an excel spreadsheet to be exact. I’m a spreadsheet freak. I got the idea for the blog and I picked the name. I think the second runner up was meetmrsjoseph.com I like this one better. What do you think?

Well that’s the update for today.

So it’s that time. I finally did it is the perfect name for the site. I am about to orchestrate one of the biggest events of my life. I recently stopped myself and said I had to propose to Rachel R., my girlfriend, and soon. Today, I’m taking the idea and putting it into action.

Ok, so now you know what the site’s about; here’s how we got here. I have been dating my girlfriend for about four years and it’s been great since day one. We meet while we were at Rutgers University. We worked together and we had classes together. What’s funny about our story is the two different perspectives. She’ll tell you that when she started working at the Student Center I ignored her, but I’ll tell you that she kind of imagined that. People who don’t know me often have the wrong idea about me after our first encounter(s). But that’s here nor there.

Over the summer, we become friends and I knew there was something there. By the fall I knew I had to have her. Unfortunately, for me and my other colleague, she had some dam thing about dating people she worked with. Great rule, but I didn’t want to hear that. I was going to graduate in May and I had every intention of spending the next six or seven months trying to change her mind. Turns out it only took a few months and that was fine by me.

We spent so much time together over those few months it was almost comical. I actually asked her to marry me a million times during the early times of our relationship. She never accepted because she didn’t believe that phone proposals were appropriate. By May I had graduated and accepted an internship at Tyco International. That’s where the madness began. As people got to know me, they got to know me they got to know her.

As quick as they got to know her is as quick as the questions began. When are you getting married? When are you going to ask her? Are you engaged yet? What are you waiting for? When it first began, I couldn’t go a week without the question.

At its peak, I couldn’t go a day without the question. I kid you not. Rachel can attest to it. I would tell her about it all the time. It was so bad that people who didn’t even know her would ask me. I found myself amazed. The interesting thing was that I wasn’t stalling or unsure. She wasn’t done with school and I really didn’t think it was right to ask her because I wanted to give her a chance to live her life a bit since I did.

So that’s the long story short. Next post we talk the plan.