… hello to all of our friends, family, casual passerby’s, background lurkers and anyone else who may be reading this blog. i am very happeh’ and pleased to announce the engagement of Brian & Lisa. I’ve spent the last couple of weeks deciding on what to do about this, not knowing what has been stopping me from just doing it, doubting my own happiness and basically doing stoopid mindgames and all, when i finally realized that i’m an idiot. i’ve found love again. i am happeh. i feel good. Lisa makes me feel good. i want a life with her that’s better than even what we already have.

so… i did it… and here’s how:

most of you who know me, also know that i’ve been around this block before. yup, i’m one of the 68% of Americans that have been divorced. my ex and i are actually friends again. she’s still a wonderful woman and i’m happy that we’re able to remain friends. soooo, with that being said, you’d think i’d be able to pull from my memories of how things work and get all of this to go smoothly? right? WRONG.

when you buy a ring, it doesn’t magically come SET with the diamond. while i had picked the diamond already, i had put 20% down the previous week and whistled off into the wilderness simply thinking I’d come back the following week, pick it up and VOILA! yeah… NO. I paid it off on Monday and was promptly told that it would be ready within 6-8 business days. the lady actually HEARD my heart “fwunk” on the floor… i told her that this wasn’t going to be possible, since i was planning on proposing to Lisa this Saturday. She agreed with me immediately that this wasn’t possible, and that i should plan on changing that date.

after some negotiating, open weeping and i think a bribe or two, i was instructed to come back to the store on Friday night by 5:30 for the completed ring. no biggie.. right? well, NO. Lisa had friday off from her work, and i had no way to get her out of the house so i could sneak over to the jeweler and get the ring. i had to get her best friend to call and beg her to come over and help her with some fabric/sewing pattern issues to secure my “window of opportunity” to get the ring. just prior to Lisa leaving and my sneaking, the migraine hit. oh.. gawd… shoot… me now.

got the ring, drama was over! Lisa wasn’t aware of any plotting or deviousness on my part. Sunday we traveled to the Deception Pass State Park in the Port Orchard area. (or Mt Vernon, or Whidbey Island, or Anacortes, depending on which damned map you look at) There’s a sprawling bridge that spans the land masses that’s quite the site to see. I had planned on asking her ON the bridge. did that work? NO. while the weather behaved and gave us sun and scattered clouds, it’s also winter and we were hit with incredible winds that were bitter cold. (i imagined the ring being sucked out of my hand and flying over the bridge into the water, 300+ feet down) so, under the guise of a photoshoot for us, we happily snapped photos everywhere and walked across the bridge. on the other side, as she focused through her lens at yet another pic, i knelt to one knee and kinda “pulled on her sleeve.”

she looked down at me,  not seeing the tiny box and asked, “oh sweetie.. too cold? are you huddling?”

god i love her. once she realized what was happening, BRING ON THE TEARS! We both did, it was wonderful, the wind forever burned the tears into our faces and created too shiny red faces you see below. and her answer?, you wonder?

YES.

So, excuse the length of this entry. now please enjoy some video of our day. 3 parts, (one with my idiot self covering the mic and half the lens for a quarter of it, tho still cute…) and then a picture of my bride to be. OMGYEAH!!!!!

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