Every Thug Needs a Lady

Edited To Add- I forgot the funniest part of the proposal story...see further down in bold

Mine, Mine, Mine courtesy of MOTH Dude

I realize I still need to write about a million things that happened in Kauai, but I finally took a picture of my new engagement ring to send to one of MOTH's cousins (they asked to see it, I wasn't showing off like I am on here) so I thought I'd share it with you guys and tell you how it is that I came to be in possession of this new e-ring.

So on a perfectly ordinary Friday night in Santa Cruz, MOTH and I made plans to head to one of our favorite restaurants ever, Saturn Cafe, in downtown Santa Cruz. We had an amazing, but simple, dinner there as always and then we headed out to watch the sunset so that MOTH could get some photos.

I had forgotten that with the shape of the bay, nowhere in Santa Cruz proper has a good view of the sunset on the water, so we drove as far north on West Cliff as we could until we hit the parking lot of Natural Bridges State Beach. We still weren't going to be able to see the sun sinking in to the ocean but it was pretty and the lighting was still nice. I had forgotten my jacket and it ended up being FREEZING outside even with a beanie in scarf so I hopped out of the car for only a few minutes and then left MOTH on his own to take pictures.

When he got back in the car we decided we would head to the wharf so that we could see the sea lions- a tradition any time we head downtown. As we are driving back along West Cliff, we get to Steamers Lane and the Lighthouse and MOTH says, "Let's pull over here and go for a quick walk, I want to take pictures of the Lighthouse at night" or something so I say, "Sure." We walk along and check out the waves and water, I run ahead when I spot a sea otter in the kelp and leave MOTH behind to take pictures. He finally catches up and I say, "Alright, I'm freezing, let's head back to the car." He says, "Fine, but let's walk back along the water" so we start to and then I say, "Let's take funny pictures together!" So we do that, too, and I'm ready to go and give MOTH Dude a hug and he says, "What's this in my pocket?" or something like that and I look at it in the fading light and think, "Why did he bring his camera charger with him?" but then I see it's not a camera charger at all and he says, "So do you still want to marry me?" And I say, "Yes, awesome, is that for me? Can I open it?" And rather than give him a kiss or be romantic, what do I do? I high-5 him! (which is dorky and not very romantic, but totally us so it was still perfect, I guess) He says of course I can so I open it and immediately start spazzing out: "Oh my Gawd! Holy Smokes! Oh wow! That's really for me? I get to keep it? Oh my Gawd! Oh my Gawd! Holy Shit" and have a mini freak out for a good 3-4 minutes and he's just laughing and loving it the whole time.

I put the sparkler on and can't get over how big it is. I still can't! We marvel at it all the time. And I'm no girly girl either so it sticks out on me since I don't wear much other jewellery ever.

After we went and checked out the sea lions, MOTH proceeds to tell me how he and my Dad had spent out two days in San Francisco looking at loose diamonds, finding the perfect one, and then finding the perfect setting for it to go on. They had made up some bogus story about my Dad losing his hat at the movies on Monday to get away from the condo on Tuesday to buy the ring that they had contemplated on Monday. I thought it was pretty rad that MOTH and my Dad did it together.

When we got home, I ran up to my parents' room and showed them and they were all excited (even though they both had seen the ring before then and knew the re-proposal was going down that night). Mom couldn't get over the size of it and said that MOTH must really like me and she also said how good he is to me, which I agree (obviously above and beyond the things he buys me).

It was a really, really special night. I didn't get the whole "surprise!" with our first proposal/engagement ring and this was the perfect do over. I liked that we went out to a simple dinner and were just doing things that we'd normally do in Santa Cruz . I also like that we'll always have the memory of getting engaged at Steamers Lane since it's one of our favorite places in the world.

Since my old e-ring is a simple band with some small diamonds on it and actually looks more like a wedding band, I suggested that he give it back to me on our 5 year wedding anniversary, if he still loves me. I think then it becomes an "eternity ring"? All of our friends here seem to get them after they've been married for a year or two. I told MOTH if I don't get it back, then I'll take that as a sign, haha, but I have a feeling in 2017, it'll be back to sitting on my finger.