The Proposal

On Saturday, the 8th of November, Juan was supposed to pick me up from work at 6pm so that we could take off to the LA Coliseum to watch The Classic. We were cutting it close, but we would make it. I took my change of clothes to work, and managed to get off work a little early so by the time it was 5:45, I was already ready to go. Juan was still on the road when I called him, said he was experiencing unexplainable traffic on the way down. *sigh* Oh well. Meanwhile I hung out by the entrance/exit and watched people set up for the Mayor’s daughter’s wedding that they were having at the aquarium that night. The aquarium is such a lovely place to have weddings, and the set-up was coming along nicely. Well, by this time, I wanted some fresh air and even moreso, I wanted to take a seat, so I went to the fountain (not the dolphin one) and took a seat. I called him up again and told him where I was, “I’m up front, so you can pick me up at that curb, don’t go to the side of the building (the staff entrance), because I am already out here”. And so I wait. . . and wait. . . and wait. . . (ok, so I am a little unpatient… lol, but we are already running really late and I found out that the game had already started.

I pick up the phone and hope that he is close by. Give him a call and look up and see his van passing by – to the staff entrance!!

“Juan! Babe! What are you doing? I told you, I am out front. I am over here waiting for you….”
“Aw man, I forgot.”
“OK, well, I’ll walk up to the curb and wait for you, k’ babe?”
“OK”
“Love you, laters”
“Love you, laters”

I walk up and wait. And wait. And wait some more!! I start getting worried because dude, he just needs to go to the end of the block, go around a little turnabout and come back down, 2 minutes is too long, and by this time (I look down at my phone), It’s been 12 minutes! So yes, I give him another call, the phone is answered, but all I hear is muffled ruffling, and now my imagination is doing all sorts of things to me. I start thinking that he encountered someone at the end of the street, someone is beating him up, someone stole his phone, what?! What is going on?! So I hang up and call again, and the same thing. Dude, I am getting really weirded out and worried so I slowly start walking in the direction of the van. Then, I hear Juan calling me – from behind. I turn around and he is walking towards me!

“Juan! What are you doing? Where’s the van?”
[big cheesy smile that I love so much] “I just thought we could take a nice walk along the docks”
[well, it is a lovely night, and we already missed some of the game, so I go along with it] “OK”

Then I see the tripod set up in the middle of the fountain, with a video camera. Imagine this fountain, shaped like a “C” with the open part pointed to the docks. Now, you can walk all around and into that open part of the “C”. All along it, water comes up splashing, and at night, the lights are on and shine from underneath, so it really highlights the water. He takes my hand and leads my up the couple of steps and he sets my up in front of the camera and my heart is beating like crazy. Then he proceeds to tell me how we have gone through so many emotions, good and bad, and how he cherishes everyone of them, and how he can’t imagine not having me in his life. And he gets down on one knee, takes out the ring, and says those magical words, “Will you marry me?”.

[big cheesy smile] “Of course babe! Of course I’ll marry you!”

And we kiss and hug and hug and kiss while the lights are shimmering and the boats on the dock drift idly in the harbor, us in our own little world. Then we kinda snap back to reality and Juan tells me “People are looking at us”. I am always the self conscious one, and this time, I didn’t care. There were folks dressed in their best, tuxes and shimmery dresses, either going to the “Grand Romance” river boat, or to the mayor’s daughter’s wedding.

November 8th. He picked it down to the day. He wanted the 8th because, even though it’s in November, our anniversary is July 8th.

This was my point of view of that night, and let me tell you, there are tons more stories floating around, like Juan’s of course, and then there’s the AoP staff. But that will have to wait for another entry.

I love you mi babe! Juan, my fiancé. =D