That's right! I'm trading my hard-to-spell, hard-to-pronounce
last name to be a "Lin". (can't believe it!). Now it's
goodbye to blissful freedom of singlehood and hello
to the extremes of joy and tears in marriage.
Well, maybe I'm being overdramatic. What do I know about marriage
anyway? But I do know that whatever marriage holds; I'm excited,
hopeful, and very happy at the prospect of marrying Brian. I
just hope I'm ready too.
How it happened (the very long version)
Well, you should know that Brian and I have been talking and praying
and reading books about engagement for several months now. So,
I've been expecting an engagement for a little while now. Gosh,
it was so hard to keep the secret from my family and friends. I
was just bursting with excitement and anticipation and so I'm sure I
positively radiated waves of "i'm going to get engaged!".
As soon as Brian and I determined that we were ready to take this
step together, I began to wait. And that was hard! I
was constantly reading into every little thing that Brian said or did
to see how far he'd gotten in the engagement planning process.
Poor Brian. He was not used to lying to me and had a really tough
time of it every time I bullied and cajoled him for
status. He was like a leaky faucet of information, always
dropping valuable hints despite his best efforts to the contrary.
So I think it's fair to say that I saw it coming. Not the
exact time or date, but I knew it was going to be any day now. It
was so odd waking up and thinking to myself, maybe today.
The thought was always somewhat frightening and exciting at the same
time. It gave my days a special kind of
exhilaration. I had to stay busy to keep
myself sane from all the anticipation, so I occupied myself
by organizing and scheduling. Just try to sit still when
you've got a major life-changing event looming over your head! It
was impossible for me.
Needless to say, I was on the lookout for any special circumstances
that may lead to a surprise proposal. I knew that Brian was
aiming for surprise, despite the fact that I was onto the
general idea.
So when my roommate Kim asked me if I wanted to go to a fancy
little french restaurant with her to help spend a gift certificate that
she earned from work, I was a little suspicious. But of course, I
went along with it - AS IF I could resist free food!
I shot back an email within a few seconds with a resounding
yes! Okay, yes - it was a little weird that she wasn't
taking her boyfriend instead of me. I mean, if I had a gift
certificate to a nice romantic little restaurant, wouldn't I take Brian
instead? I conveyed this thought to Brian in passing,
who was conveniently driving and couldn't look me in the
eye as he agreed that it was weird. Yeah, it was
suspicious.
But my suspicions resided by Sunday. It did not seem so
uncommon that Kim gets some perks from her workplace. As for why
she was taking me instead of her bf - she told me that her boyfriend
didn't like the place and anyway was going to be out of town that
day. It all seemed reasonable, so I told myself that I was
probably getting a bit out of hand with all of the conspiracy theories
and resolved to just enjoy myself and not think to much on
seemingly innocent events.
Kim called me to make sure that I was still on for dinner and told
me to get ready by 4pm. Okay, that's a little early, but who was I to
complain since she was taking me out for free? So, I was showered
by 4pm and was looking for a dress to wear when Kim came home.
Her first question to me was what I was wearing. I remember
noting that she seemed a lot more interested in my attire
than usual. But oh well, supposedly it was a really nice
restaurant. I put on a black dress for the occasion. When
Kim saw me, she said, "It's nice! but.. do you have anything
else?" Well... I did have a ballgown that I wore to the Theta
formal on my first date with Brian. After I told Kim about it,
she tried hard to get me to put it on. "But - for dinner??"
I protested. The sequins and ultra low back would have attracted
stares in a restaurant. She relented after a while, and after
doing our makeup (dude, how fancy is this restaurant? I wondered), we
took off.
Kim had a favor to ask - that we stop by her friend's place to pick
up skis for a ski trip she was planning the following week.
Hmm... but she'd just busted her ankle on her ski trip the weekend
prior. I gave her a stern warning about doing activities on an
ankle not yet healed, and told her a scary story about this guy who
started walking on an ankle not fully healed and ended up with a
crooked ankle that had to be rebroken and healed all over again.
But Kim was insistent about the skis, so I reluctantly consented to go
to her friend's place to pick it up.
I was driving, on account of Kim's ankle, and she was giving me
directions. I have the poorest directional sense, so I relied
wholly on her to tell me where to go. All I knew is that we were
going to Palo Alto... I let her tell me the rest. I was
concentrating really hard on the road because the weather was really
foul and the rain made it really hard to see. Kim asked me a
bunch of spiritual questions as well, so I was really busy trying to
work out my answers to some tough questions. After a while, it
seemed like we were kinda lost as well, because Kim seemed really
intent on the road and looked a little nervous.
She finally told me to turn into an empty parking lot next to what I
recognized as Sharon Park, the place where Brian and I had picnicked to
celebrate our 3 year anniversary last June. Out in the distance,
I saw a man standing under the tent in the freezing rain. Crazy
fellow, I thought. Who would be out in a park today of all days?
Kim told me that her friend was waiting out here somewhere. In the rain and with skis?? I thought. But before I could ask any questions, she told me to go with her and abruptly got out of the car. But why do I have to go?
I wondered. But beggars can't be choosers and she was, after all,
giving me free dinner! So, I grudgingly got out of my car and
walked quickly through the rain, trying to catch up to Kim, who
was walking amazingly fast for a girl who had just
busted her ankle the weekend before.
At some point, Kim slowed down and I looked up to see where her
crazy friend was. It turned out to be the same guy that had been
out there in the rain I'd seen when I turned in. The guy was
actually dressed in a tux, standing under a gazebo that was bedecked
with lights. A bench nearby was surrounded by unlit candles and
roses, and covered by a tent top. After a second of shock and
surprise, I walked over to give him a hug. Then I knew that this
was the day. And the first thing out of my mouth was to tell him
that he sure picked a rainy day to do it.
Brian proposed to me outside, at the bench under the gazebo,
despite the howling winds that kept putting the candles out and the
freezing cold rain that warranted the extra protection of the tent
top. The idea was to propose in a place that we
could always come back to, to remember the moment that we decided
to spend the rest of our lives together.
He was supposed to propose at sunset, but the sun never came
out. The storm was unfortunate, of course, but it does make the
story a lot more memorable. When asked why he did not simply
do it another day, he explaind that to change the plans last minute
because of the weather would have caused too much suspicion. He
was hoping instead for a clear day despite the dire warnings of
the weather reports. I'm told that he checked the weather
multiple times a day before the actual proposal. As for me, I am
actually really pleased with the way things turned out, storm and
all. It makes it all the more romantic.
I honestly couldn't absorb half of the things Brian said to me
in the park that day. I was in too much shock over the whole
thing. But even if I did, I wouldn't blab it to the world on my
blog! When he finally asked me to marry him, I had enough sense
to pause for a bit to make him sweat (and he didn't - in fact, he
anticipated that I would put him through this kind
of torture). And then, not knowing what else to do,
I said yes. We were engaged on February 26.
With the engagement, Brian gave me a handmade rose that took him 8
hours to make and which took me only a minute to crush when I threw my
arms around him to hug him after we got engaged. The rose luckily
survived the whole ordeal; good thing too, as it is supposed to
symbolize a love that will never die. When Brian and I first met
in college, I remarked once in passing on how sad it is that the
flower symbolizing love dies so quickly. He remembered that
comment ever after. When he asked me to be his girlfriend, he
presented me with a dozen paper origami roses in the hopes that our
relationship, like the paper roses, would not die.
When he proposed, he offered me an even more beautiful
and delicate origami rose to symbolize love everlasting. Brian
can be such a romantic.
After we got engaged, we drove down to tell my parents (who were not
surprised since they'd given their consent to this whole thing two
weeks prior). And then we left for dinner at Man Resa and had the
most elegant and fancy meal that I've ever had in my life. I
spent the whole evening trying to comprehend that it had actually
happened and trying not to start thinking about the wedding planning
just yet. I'm still trying to get used to it!
Anyway, that's the whole long story from my perspective.
Brian's got a whole lot more to say about this, being the mastermind of
the whole engagement process. But for me, suffices to say
that I'm happy! And very excited at the prospect of becoming
Mrs. S. Lin.
Wanna see pictures??
| 
). 
So, watch out talented peoples~! 'cuz if you offer (or even if
you don't), you can probably expect that I'll come get you!Even my own
parents cannot escape - I've put them hard at work, looking for
reception sites and bartering down the prices. 
