proposal

so yesterday, as with many other days, branson called me at work and said he wanted to go to dinner. i thought it sounded like a good idea, so we ironed out the details and decided to go to the jasmine (after going through a few other options). but it sounded really good, so after work and piano lessons, he met me at my house. we went over to the restaurant, and i was not expecting anything.

to backtrack: on wednesday night, we went to go pick up my ring. its a tension setting, so resizing it takes a long time because the band is custom fit to the diamond... so we had to go in and make sure it fit before he just gave it to me. lame. so we went in, tried it on - it fit perfectly! i didn't want to take it off! but he made me. and told me i could have it next week. after monday.

needless to say, i was pretty sure he would keep it all weekend just to spite me.

so we ate dinner, had an excellent time and then the waitress brought out the check with two fortune cookies. see, i don't really like fortune cookies, and i never eat the whole cookie. i take out the fortune and give the other half to branson. and that's precisely what i did. but before i got a chance to do that, he stole the one i had out of my hands! "i want that fortune!" he said. "you always take the good fortune away from me! if i get a bad fortune, you're in so much trouble!" was my reply.

i broke the cookie in half, set the other half on branson's plate, and started to unfold me fortune, when something caught my eye. there was something in the other half of the cookie! (i'm mildly embarrased to admit that i had no idea what it was. seriously! my first thought was that is was some pebble or something - who knows what they really put in fortune cookies? good luck pebbles from china? you don't know! its possible!) anyway, i grabbed at the cookie, desperate to find out what it was. (i'm sure branson was just laughing at me the whole time... but he saved face. i was impressed)

i broke the cookie open to find my ring! hooray! i couldn't help but nod my head... YES! i was so excited! i looked up at branson and he said, "shan, read your fortune..." so i unfolded the tiny piece of paper to find these words:

Shan, will you marry me?

i just giggled and looked at him, nodding and saying yes - i was so thrilled! i really had no idea! it was fantastic! it wasn't a big scene, although there were lots of people around. but we were sitting in a booth kindof separate from the others. it was absolutely perfect! i loved every moment!

we kissed and laughed and talked and waited for the waitress to come pick up the check. she smiled as she walked over to us, saying "congratulations" when she got to the table. i was amazed how he did it! in a fortune cookie! how rad is that!

i asked him how he did it - how he got it in the fortune cookie and arranged the whole thing. he told me he had called our friend chelsy (who works at the jasmine) the night before and said, chels this is my idea, can you help me do it? so chelsy talked to her boss and they arranged the whole thing and it was smooth sailing after that. it truly was perfect! i couldn't believe it!
i was... still am so impressed!

during dinner we decided we would maybe go see a movie (part of his plan to throw me off... which worked very well, btw.) but he was very non-committal about the movie, saying we didn't have to see it that night. i didn't understand why until after. but, smart man that he is, he knew i would want to go show my mom immediately. i wasn't the only one being tortured those two weeks. ha ha. so we went and showed my family, called his mom and then went to the xi cottage (branson's house). josh and jason were there hanging out and they wanted to see, so we talked to them for a little while, chelsy came over shortly after and told me all about how they made it work. she was so cute! she was so worried someone was going to ruin it and say something to me. but they didn't and it couldn't have been better.

after we talked to everyone (nick and kadee came home, and later mike face and stu came over as well), branson and i made our way downstairs for a little alone time. he was so sweet the whole night - not like sicky-i'm-up-to-something sweet, but genuinely sweet because he loves me. we talked and kissed for a while and then he said that he knew it was official before, but the ring sealed the deal. it filled whatever was missing before. things were different now. there was now proof of the commitment. it was sweet. i love him.

anyway, so that's my story. i liked it.
and i'm so excited to marry branson!
only 75 days, 23 hours and 30 minutes until i can!

hooray!