Wandering Aimlessly

Early April 2009

The phone rings. Elaina. "Do you want a date?" she asked.
"...to what?"
"Just a date. To go on a date," she said. " All my friends have gotten girlfriends except for my friend Steve, and now he's at the point where he's willing to endure more of a commute for a girlfriend. Will you go on a date with him?"
"Um, sure?" I mean, what harm would it do?
"Okay, I'm going to bring him to Paley. If you like him, you guys can go out."

Now, I'd been set up before, and it hadn't worked out well. I tend to be awkward and nervous when I know I'm being set up, and not myself at all. In fact, I'd specifically told my friends that, if they were going to set me up with someone, to not tell me. I'd rather either find out later when he ended up asking me out, or not find out at all. Anyway, I figured I'd now endure one more awkward evening, or not, and it would be fine.

April 14, 2009

Elaina, Danny, Steve and I went to the Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog panel at the Paley Festival. I knew I was supposed to be checking Steve out, but he didn't. He knew something was up, though, because not only did Elaina make Steve dress up, but she made Danny dress up, too.

April 15, 2009

I had two missed calls on my phone from a number I did not recognize. From an area code I did not recognize. And they didn't leave a message. Then I got a call from Elaina. She said Steve had been trying to call me (from his Fresno-area code cell phone), and that she'd told him not to leave a message, but could I please call him back? I did. And we set a date for Friday.

April 17, 2009

I met Steve at Cafe Firenze in Moorpark. We were both early. We had a delicious dinner and fabulous conversation. We played pool after, and made arrangements to get together that Sunday.

[Lots of awesome stuff happened. And I fell in love.]

Winter, 2009

The second set of Steve's friends had just gotten engaged, making almost everyone in the group of friends married or engaged.

Steve: "Do you feel left out that we're not engaged?"
Kate: "No. It'll happen when it's meant to. Besides, I think it's reasonable to have been dating at least a year before we get engaged, don't you?"

April 17, 2010 - Our One-Year Anniversary

We went back to Cafe Firenze, which we hadn't been back to since our first date. We ordered almost exactly the same meal, and we even had much the same conversation by remembering what we'd talked about a year ago.

After dinner, we went to Stargazer Park, which we'd driven by once on an attempt to take the back roads to my house. We strolled through, looked at stars and the crescent moon, and talked about how, a year ago, we never saw ourselves here.

Then Steve tripped. And fell flat out on the ground, getting grass-burn on his arm.

"What did you even trip on?" I asked, looking at the perfectly level grass. When I looked back down at him, he was on one knee, holding a box. Which he couldn't open. He turned it over and around several times before he could reveal the beautiful diamond ring inside. I don't even remember what he said at this point, but I said "Of course I'll marry you!"

And I forgot to put the ring on. And then I remembered, and I haven't stopped grinning since.

I told him to wait a year, and he did. One year to the day.

It's so much sparklier in person! Pictures don't do it justice.

No, we don't know when the wedding will be. No, we don't know where. No, we don't have a wedding party picked out or colors decided on. But we will. Soon. :)