Cathy's Story

Okay, I like to claim I'm a "planner" and sudden surprises or unplanned activities make me anxious... fun and spontaneous?  I am so not!!  No big surprise that I once mentioned to Caleb, maybe we should just get engaged a year from when we started dating!  Let’s be honest, all the anniversary counting, flowers, along with the majority of the notable romantic “events” stem from yours truly, Caleb.  Based on what people say about finding a good balance in everything, Caleb and I have it worked out in being romantic.  Well, I can be romantic too in my own non-verbal and subtle ways, when I step away from my usual keep-your-feelings-suppressed-inside mentality.  I really thought we’ll probably get engaged on 1/29/11, exactly a year from 1/29/10.  Do the math, numbers make sense and we’ll be good to go…

From the beginning…  I move to California in May of 2009.  I was ready for a change, and the final push came from when my mother told me I’m going to meet my future husband in California.  She had sound reasoning of course, which was based on a dream I had in earlier months of 2009.  In this dream, I was standing by huge bodies of clear blue water and saw countless fish just swimming around.  All of a sudden, a massive fish jumped out of the water and landed right next to my feet.  Well, if this dream didn’t get a Korean woman going on interpreting the significance of it all, filled with good fortune (which is clearly a suitable man to a single 30 year old girl), I don’t know what would.  But come on, I didn’t simply move from Missouri to California based on a dream, but if we were waiting for that final nudge to spark the process, my fish dream did it.  We're Asian and it's in our blood...

October 2009, my good friend, Cindy emailed me saying there’s a guy she knew from college moving to California from Illinois.  He’s a good guy and it would be good for you to meet people, she said.  I thought, oh goodness, is he the fish?  No, I’m totally joking…

We met at the end of October at Ichiban in Pacific Beach.  We ordered our food, and he offered I should sample his plate.  Knowing Caleb now, it was a remarkable gesture of giving and kindness.  We ate, and he bought me a vanilla cone from McD’s to take on our walk along the beach.  Now that I think about it, it sounds a lot like a date but then again, walks along the beach is so accessible in the state of California.  It was comfortable and we shared a lot of personal information.

And last Thursday, December 30, 2010 (11 months +1 day of dating)…  Since I had Friday, New Year’s Eve off, I had casual Friday on Thursday instead.  I had jeans on with my IU shirt, sneakers and hair in ponytail.  Does that image bring romantic proposal to mind?  Failed again, and I was just being myself.  I went to work and when Caleb came to pick me up, he said he needed to stop by his place to grab some stuff for the weekend.  When we arrived at his place, he told me to take my time in the bathroom because it was too messy upstairs.  I guess most girls would be paranoid when your boyfriend tells you to take your time in the bathroom, but I simply thought he needed some time to clean the mess upstairs.  So I did, and when I walked out, I saw a trail of rose petals.  To be utterly honest, my first thought was… did he hear me pee?  I chuckled and followed the trail thinking we’re now celebrating 11 months which we didn’t get to celebrate the night before due to Caleb not feeling well.  Shortly after, I saw candles and then saw pictures of us framed in chronological order.  Dang, he’s going all out for this anniversary and shame on me again, I don’t have anything!  When I walked a few more steps, he was down on one knee with a small box in one hand and a candle in the other.  I don’t recall the exact words, but something about how I make him happy and he asked me to make him happy for the rest of his life by marrying him.  At that moment, I said what any girl would say, “what are you doing?”  I must have really been surprised to utter such words, and when it finally dawned on me what was going on, my heart started pounding and I eventually came to my senses to say yes.  We then celebrated, toasting with Almond champagne.  Soon after, when I gently brushed my hand against his chest, it must have tickled him because he then proceeded to spit out the champagne all over himself, mostly, and was kind enough to spread some to me.  We laughed, because it was funny romantic and that’s the kind I like most.  He then told me to go change, in which earlier that day he met up with my mom to give her the scoop and to pick up presentable clothes to wear to our engagement dinner.   Dinner was delicious at Jake’s and their complimentary dessert for the newly engaged couple, the hula pie, was delightful.  It was simple and sweet =)