What has it got in its pocketses, eh Precious?

This is the story of how Boyfriend Fiancé and I got engaged!

When I woke up on Friday, November 30th, I had no idea that I would be engaged by that night.  I had taken the day off work because Boyfriend and I had plans to stay at the Asilomar Conference Grounds in Pacific Grove.  But before any of that, I had to brave the storm that was hitting the Bay Area and go to the dentist and the bank, and generally boring things you do when you don't think anything special is going on.

That afternoon, when we finally got to Monterey, the storm had settled down, and we spent a few hours walking around the Aquarium.  According to the guides there, we lucked out – the week after Thanksgiving is always slow.  We saw every exhibit, and had a front row spot for the penguin feeding (where the power went out due to the storms)!  And since it was so empty, I later learned that Boyfriend almost proposed at the Aquarium at that window tunnel where the tide falls over you... We had, after all, spent our very first anniversary at the Aquarium and that would have been very fitting.

When we finally checked into our room at Asilomar we were a little shocked.  Back when I booked the room they asked if I wanted a "modern" room or a "rustic" room, and I had assumed "rustic" meant rustic like the inn in Pennsylvania where I stayed for my Cousin's wedding: old but updated, with a fireplace, and a bathtub, and such.  But, no.  This was a cabin that had not been updated since around 1946, with just a bed, a desk, and a bathroom, and with a ceiling so low, I could reach it with my feet when I was laying on bed.  I kept apologizing to Boyfriend for not booking a more romantic room when we first saw it; I apologized even more last after he proposed! 

We decided to go to dinner at once of my favourite restaurants ever: Peppers in Pacific Grove – they have an amazing Mexican jambalaya and blood orange margaritas to die for.  After dinner, Boyfriend suggested that we walk down to Lover's Point, which is only about 3 blocks from Peppers.  We grabbed an umbrella, and as it started to rain we headed down toward the beach.

It was about 9-9:30ish at night, so there wasn't anyone around.  As we walked down the path that leads to the water we spotted a giant black dog on the beach (I think it was a Hellound; my mom later said it was probably Sirius Black) and Boyfriend thought he people below us chatting, so he stopped me halfway up the path.  We could still see across the bay and the lights on the rest of the coast, and it was beautiful.

Then he turned to me and said something like, "Sooo, I have a question..."

Now, don't judge me here, but I still wasn't expecting anything, and it wasn't like he got down on one knee (not really our style).  In hindsight it's all so obvious – even my best friend J convinced me to get a manicure earlier that week – which I almost never do!  But at that moment, I was expecting Boyfriend to say something like "Soooo, if Nic Cage was on a battleship and there was a giant squid attacking, and all he had was his shoes and some floss..." because we always start conversations like that.  But he didn't ask me about Nic Cage or anyone else.

Boyfriend pulled out a ring and I cried and jumped on his face and said "yes, yes, yes!"  And then we had to walk back to the car because though I could see the ring in the moon light, I couldn't really see the ring.  When we got back to the car, he had to drive because I while I was beyond happy, I was also something of an emotional wreck (and too distracted by the ring to drive).

So, it turns out that Boyfriend had been holding the ring in his pocket the whole day, and not even in the box, just in the 5th pocket of his jeans.  Which is hilarious when I thought back to that morning:

As we were leaving, Boyfriend got in the car and his pant's pocket seemed extra bulky.

"Are you bringing your GameBoy on our weekend away," I asked.

"No!  It's my wallet."  And he showed me his wallet.

"Are you sure you don't have anything else in there?  It's really big today."

"Nope, just my wallet," he insisted.

And then I said, "What has it got in its pocketses, eh Precious?" and I start banging on about how Bilbo had The Ring in his pocket the whole time and Gollum had no idea...  And all the while Boyfriend had a ring in his pocket, and I was just as clueless!

I think my love of The Lord of The Rings is pretty well documented, and only I could inadvertently turn my engagement into a reference from The Hobbit.  But hey, that's what makes us so awesome.