The Proposal

It was 8 am November 18.  I was lying in bed just playing around on my phone.  It kept freezing up on me so I turned it off and decided to go back to sleep.  Sleeping was impossible because the house phone kept ringing.  So I finally get up and I walk up stairs to get breakfast and I hear someone pounding on the front door.  I walk over to the door and look through the peep hole.  Andrew was standing on the porch.  I answer it and let him in.  I ask him what he's doing here so early.  He said he wasn't going to work until later and wanted to hang out this morning and that he'd been trying to call my cell phone but it was turned off and so he tried calling the house phone too.  Oh so you're the one who interrupted my sleep??  So we go down to my room and he tells me that he has plans for us and that I have 30 min to get ready.  30 minutes for me to get ready is nearly impossible.  What can I say I like to take my time!  But he said it was very important that we left my house in thirty minutes and that I would want to make sure I look extra cute today.  Ok not a problem at all. While I was in the bathroom getting ready he was in my room grabbing everything I would need for the day and stuffing it in my little travel backpack I always took on vacations.  By this time I am really confused, but he wasn't caving on giving any hints.
We leave my house and he takes me to Macys and says that we should go get a quick breakfast.  So we run in and grab some bagels and juice and then we speed off to his house where he says we need to get in the car with his step dad.  Ok so we have a cheuffeur for the day??
I get in the back seat and I am texting and not paying any attention to the road.  When I finally look up I see that we are taking the exit that will lead us straight to the airport.  I chuckled to myself thinking that we probably took the wrong exit, unless his step dad was going somewhere and we were dropping him off.  We come to a stop at the drop off zone and Andrew gets out of the car, comes around to my door, opens it and says, "ok get out its time to go."
We're going somewhere?? Did you tell my mom?
He assured me that he had told my mom and even called my work and told them I wouldn't be coming in. He wouldn't tell me where we were going until we got our boarding passes and I see that we are going to Long Beach, CA. My mind is racing with a thousand questions!  Andrew is always very surpriseful so I thought that  maybe it was just a spontaneous day trip.
As we get on the plane the thought keeps coming to me that maybe he's going to propose on the beach or something.  Nah he's so not proposing.
We get to Long Beach and flag down a taxi.  Andrew gives him directions to a beach on Ocean Avenue.  Ok the whole proposing on the beach thing is starting to seem real now.
We get to the beach and we start walking along the water and finding sea shells.  Finally we set out a blanket and sit and take in the scene.  I told him thanks for bringing me here because I love California and I love the beach!! I'm just not sure why we're here.  He said we had a fun activity a little bit later so we're just killing time.  So we laid down to take a nap and soak up the sun.  I kept waiting for him to sneak off when he thought I was asleep and then set up his romantic beach proposal, but he never moved!
Finally our activity time had come.  We packed up our things and he said that we needed to head across the street. Across the street was a small harbor with a lot of sail boats.  So naturally I thought we were going on a sail boat ride.  I was excited because I had never been on one but I am extremely afraid of water so I was starting to get nervous.  He leads me down this dock and tells me to sit down on the bench while he went and talked to these people in this little hut.  He finally comes out with this guy dressed in an outfit that a gondolier would wear.  The man looks at me introduces himself as Ignacio and asks me if I'm ready for my gondola ride?  A gondola ride?? Wow Andrew has really out done himself on this date. I can't even believe we're doing this!  A gondola ride has always been on my list of life goals.
We hop in and he leads us in to this canal that is surrounded by three islands.  The islands were full of huge houses and everyone had little boats and water toys tied up along the canal.  It was very picturesque. Every once in while we would see a fish jump out of the water and we even saw a seal!  By this time Andrew is so quiet and just staring straight forward.  I am having the time of my life and just praying that nothing attacks us and makes us sink.
Ignacio informs us that there are four bridges that we will pass under and each time we go under a bridge you have to kiss for good luck.  I am trying to talk to Andrew but he seems very distracted.  Suddenly we stop under the fourth bridge and Ignacio says that this is the spot he always likes to take a break and sing a nice song in Italian.  How romantic!! This has got to be a dream.  Ignacio starts singing and suddenly there is a big splash of water right next to me.  I sort of jump into Andrew and I'm like, what was that??  He tells me to look over the edge and see what landed in the water. I inform him that I am not looking over the edge because some crazy sea creature is probably waiting to attack me.  He kind of nudges me and says, no really please look fast!  I look over and I see a green bottle floating next to me.  I say, oh false alarm don't worry someone just littered.  how rude!  Andrew laughs and he's like no one littered pick it up.  I pick up the glass bottle and I see a paper inside that has my name on it!  What the freak is going on?  I open the bottle and pull out the paper.  I unfold it once and I see that Andrew had written a note.  Basically telling me how much he loves me and wants to spend the rest of his life with me. Awww!  I immediately start tearing up and I unfold the letter once more and there are the words WILL YOU MARRY ME? I look over at Andrew and he is holding the box with the ring inside.  As I'm crying I say YES!!!! I am so shocked and incredibly happy!  He was so relieved.  He was finally breathing again.  He puts the ring on and Ignacio congratulates us, takes some pictures and leads us back to our starting point.  I could not believe how perfect that was!  I swear it could be a movie.
We left the dock and started walking along Ocean Avenue and Andrew is telling me how nervous he was and that he was so afraid he would never get me awake since my phone was off.  And he got even more nervous when I wasn't answering the house phone because we had a plane to catch.  That would explain the numerous amount of calls that annoyed me enough to get out of bed.
His original plan was to go have a nice fancy dinner on the Queen Mary after the gondola ride,  But we got a little lost.  So I informed him that I would be happy with anything for dinner, you know how much I love cheap mexican food like taco bell and del taco!  So straight ahead we found a perfect place called Chronic Tacos.  We sat and ate and announced the news to our family and friends.  I was still in a state of shock.
On the way home Andrew immediately fell asleep on the plane.  Poor guy had been a nervous wreck all day.  And I immediately started watching Say Yes to The Dress and any type of wedding show I could find on my TV.
All in all it was the most romantic perfect proposal ever!!!!  Andrew was already sick of hearing the story after I was on the phone and had told it seven times in a row before we got on the plane, but hey that right there is every girls dream!  He is going to be hearing this story being told for the rest of his life.  I will never forget that amazing day and how I am the luckiest girl in the world to have a guy like Andrew.  And so the count down to our wedding date February 24 had begun!

And here is a slideshow of our wedding day!