Running Late

So there is a lot that didn't get done, mainly because my little sister took so long to get me her lap top. It is 8:30am, 9:00am is the absolute latest we can leave for all of this to work. My sisters laptop is a mess by the way. As predicted the reason why we are going up there is the first thing on the chopping block. Perhaps that was the biggest flaw of my plan. Little does Jen know that the one thing that she thinks that we can not do is the only thing that really matters. Ode to the irony, in an Alanyss Morsette kind of way.

It Begins

I first would like to state that I spent 30 minutes on how to get that title there and finally found it and have no clue how it got turned off.

So it begins. I will mark the official beginning of this adventure with the asking of the blessing from Jens' Mother and Brother. I will do my best to document the engagement as best I can. I will be researching and developing tools to make an incredible web documentary on Jen's engagement. I say Jen's engagement because after the point in which I ask her to marry me, it is all about her, never about me. That is exactly the way it should be without a doubt.

I am doing my best to keep this a surprise. My story has gotten long, complicated, and elaborate, well to anyone else's standards. See when people think that I am making it more complicated than it needs to be they forget the principles evolved.

The obvious: Everyone knows that I am going to marry Jen. Everyone has been hounding me on to when I am going to get the ring. I have been saving and planing for this for over six months now. Jen's Mom has already preannounce the engagement to her family. My mother is offering to help me buy the ring. How can I possibly make this a surprise to Jen, my immediate family especially my mother, and to my extended family. I wanted to surprise my sister Marin, but things have been going so poorly I am going to have to tell her before hand so she can see the ring. I just hope that she can keep from making a remark, or in a fit of emotion let the cat out of the bag to my little sister or mother. Naturally, this makes me very nervous.

Jen: She plans, plans, and plans. For instance, my sister and brother in law have change plans, 6 times since I offered to pick her up. The latest we are going to dinner in Pasadena. Jen wants to know where. Why, I don't know, I just read the email. We will figure it out there. That is my attitude. Her's it is much different. "Link to example story soon" Everything I do needs a reason, and right now there is no logical reason to why we week after the passing of my aunt, critical work to do at my job, sister is in town, should I be going to the bay, however too much is in motion right now to turn back. I need a damn good reason to do what I am doing, or Jen will never buy it. With Jen, this is as close to a random spur of the moment trip as I could swing. People simply do not understand how difficult this is.

My Mother: I love my mom as much as I could love anything in the world. She means so much to me and I want nothing more in life to make her happy, but sometimes, she can be difficult. My Mother could not keep a secrete if her life depended up on it. She is the weakest link in this whole plan. If I were to mention this to her half of the state of California will know before we make it to SF. That is reason one for keeping her in the dark. Reason two, I want to show her pictures from the spot when I tell her, I want it to be a big surprise when she least expects it or least needs it. Right now, it would cheer her up, only to get bummed by the funeral. To make herself feel better now she will tell everyone, and to make them feel better as well. This will be my Mom's way of justifying telling the free world what I am planning. Too much at stake, I love you mom, but sorry. Plus, if I pull this off it will be super cool.

The only whole in my plans was neglegting to beta test Jen's family first. I am going with my gut on that I can trust them, but I simply have no choice. The original version of this I would have asked and Jen would not have had the opritunity to see her family again before we left. All bases need to be covered. Everyone here has a big mouth and asks too many questions. How can I possibly keep this a secreate from Jen?

So that is it. A lot of work needs to be done between now and Saturday.

The stage is set, though there was a wrinkle in the plan. After setting the weekend of the 24th, my Great Aunt passed away. My great aunt adored Jen, which made me making this even more special more important. My sister Marin will be in town the week prior to the 24th, I am trying to get her to stay until Tuesday, Monday and the latest. It just occurred to me that the 25th, the day I need the family, is her birthday. I am sure she will understand everything when she knows what is going on, however until then I look like a selfish little brother. I hope that she is still up when we get back so she can see the ring. We will see. I might have her stay an extra day for nothing. If I concentrate I can make the trip in 6 hours. So if I leave no later than 1 from San Jose, then I will be able to make it into Simi for a late dinner. My sisters and mom will be very excited. I hope to capture this with my camera and video camera. The only thing that sucks is that I am having a hard time finding a charger for my slr. So I am working on that and a tripod this week.

I have set up hotel reservations for a room as high as possible for the San Francisco. It is the Premium Deluxe City View, which I know is the one thing that is really important to Jen. Jen didn't want to stay in SF because of parking. The hotel has parking, and that shouldn't be a concern. She wants to say at this Holiday Inn in Emeryville for the view of the bay, which would have been much cheaper, but this will be so much of a better experience. I am going to take many pictures and video to capture this moment in time the best that I can. I am still working on the organization. I made reservations for a restaurant at the Marriott.

My uncle and cousin are assembling the family in the bay to meet Jen, they are the only other relatives that know what I am doing. I decided to get the premium car, which really wasn't that much more expensive, but she should like that and it is a much nicer ride. The ring guy says that he can as with certainty that the ring will be ready that Wednesday. Now the only open question is when do I find the time to talk with her mother and brother? I am sure I can figure that out.

Jen thinks that we are going to the bay area for my cousins graduation. I was going to keep this trip under wraps from my family since they knew that this was how I was planning to propose and would know in a heartbeat why I was so determined to make this trip. If they knew my cover story they would have sort to verify it, can't let that happen. So I told Jen that there was a falling out between my mom and aunt and I don't want to let her know why I am going up there. I told Jen that I told my mom that this was unique career opportunity for me to meet this principle engineer that I was working with on this key project. I figure if someone really thought about this they would wonder why would I be meeting with someone in the bay on a Saturday. Simple, he will be down he for some other business and he is really eccentric, which he is, and this all just seemed to work. My mom said called it a working weekend and wants to know if I get paid for this and time off during the week. That is my litmus test in knowing how much she suspects. I told Jen that the story was not entirely untrue, that the engineer might be there and we might have dinner with him that Saturday. Due to Jen's punk ass nature this will make the timing very critical. She will freak out if she doesn't have enough time to get married so a side trip to the spot of the proposal will seem a little out of the way and normally will be the first thing to go, little does Jen know that it is the most important place to go and everything else can and will wait. The cover story of the engineer which will be confirmed tomorrow will account for why we are being put up in such a nice room so she will not wonder why I went for the more expensive room in the city. Room service will have flowers and Champaign there waiting when we return. My cousin Clark is the one that put all the cool romantic touches on this experience. He is good like that, it is little wonder to why he will be my best man.

So all I have to do this week is not to slip, keep the story consistent, and keep Jen on time. The whole Jen being on time is the biggest X-Factor in this whole thing. I guess if I am making everything up then I can make up my own sense of time.

Jen is playing the music load, singing loudly to an Angels of Airway song that gets stuck in my head for days. The song has become a weekend favorite of Jen. I love her so much. I want this all to be so special to her, all of it. I wonder if she knows what I am really working on. The week I am going to look really bad, but I am sure they will get it when it is over.

The Ring

Today I put the down payment on Jen's engangement ring. I have constructed the whole formula, and I am damn proud of myself. Once I get it totally hashed out, I will share it with you. We are going to San Fransisco for my cousin Toddy's graduation (there is no graduation by the way).

So there is a really cool story about the ring, of course if she doesn't like the ring and keeps it to herself until we are seventy and then when I crok she tells our kid that she never really liked the ring, but really, I don't care, she will love it, because it is from me, and I think I know her. This is the ultimate test. Do I know what she wants? So a couple of weeks ago my sister was in town. We made up some story about where we were going. I told Jen that I had to go to see my sister's friend at Caltech who was having problems with their website and PHP. Mind you, I am good at this. Php and making shit up. So we go to 60 something (can't remember the name) first. I know what Jen wants. 3 stones, two accenting a third round dimond. Somthing simple, I have all that, but what I don't have is the style. So going into the store I see a 3 ring, all round cut, less than a karet, simple band, but the mount. I forgot to ask the mount. This one, which I really liked, was organic, artsy, not contemperary, but unuseal, but in a simple way. This was the ring. But is this not simple enough? Is this what she would want? I loved it, but this was her ring. I didn't know, I looked and compared, and came to the only logical solution. My sisters were coming over for dinner the next day, Saturday, they will take Jen down to old town. My sisters will take her into the store to see what she likes, think about it, my sisters are giddy and love to embarass me. So what would be more embarassing, my sisters with my girlfriend in a jewlery story. She would not suspect a thing. Yea, from this lense it is obvious, to Jen, or anyone in her posistion wouldn't suspect a thing. This is something that my sisters would do. I would get mad, and Jen would feel bad for me, and most importantly, I will know what ring she wants. Genius! However dinner was postponed due to some family issues until the next day, Sunday, the store was closed, shit. Now at this time I have Jen wanting to go to the Jewlery mart, that is bs, why would I go there? But I she wants to look at rings. Hmm, I have to go to the Apple store to get a case for my IPOD because it is scratching. The 60 store is conviently close to the Apple store. So lets just go in there and look somewhere. She is telling me what her mom's friend's co-worker's daughter's husband got her ring. "Ok we will check that out, but lets see what you want." I was thinking about how I would "point out this ring to her." While thinking about it she says, "O-I like that one." It was the one that I wanted her to look at. She looked at other rings, but kept going back to this one. I told her that my sister though she would like a more traditional mounting, but I thought she would like the organic artistic one. She says, "I like the... your sister thinks I am strait lace? what?" "The ring jen, we are talking about the ring." shit she is here.