It was a dark and stormy night…. Uh, wait a minute, that was a different story. It was early in '95 and we had been dating for about a year and had been definitely heading towards the altar but without any discussion about it. I remember that we had gotten into some kind of disagreement (which conveniently escapes my memory right now) and she said, "Well, maybe we shouldn't even get married then", although we had never even discussed it. So, I had her thinking that it wasn't going to happen for at least a while.

Her birthday was coming up soon (April 20^th) and I was starting to plan what to do for her big day. The idea for a big surprise party came to mind and the wheels began to turn. I was becoming fairly close to most of Grace's friends and started making a few phone calls to them to get the party going. Somewhere along the way during the planning, I got to realize the reason I was putting so much effort into this party was because she was the ONE for me. I decided that this was going to be the party to end all parties and would be the day I jumped into the commitment wagon head first. So, in addition to getting everything organized and not letting on about the surprise birthday party, I was also planning on how I would ask her to marry me. Talk about STRESS! There were several times when the party secret almost got blown. One time her mom just about spilled the beans when she asked me about some specifics of the party when Grace was half dozing off next to me in the car.

Well, about 2/3rds of the way through the voyage I figured that this was the time to do it. My heart was beating very hard when I reached into my backpack again for a little wrapped box and said, "Here's part 3 of your birthday gift". She slowly started to tear the wrapping paper off of the box and saw just a portion of the printing on the side. She had a hunch that it might be some computer software since she had recently gotten hooked on a couple of games on my computer. Grace saw the letters "…edding" and at first thought it said "Editing software" and gave me a rather curious look. Well, she continued to tear off the paper and realized that it said "The Wedding Organizer software" and she exclaimed to me "Huhhhh?" as she finished tearing off the paper. Then she saw the note taped on the front of the box that said, "Will You Marry Me?". OK, so I never really asked her with my own voice, but she suddenly was overcome when she realized what had just happened and gave me a very teary eyed "Yes" as we hugged. Whew, it was a good thing that she said yes, because we were out in the middle of the river at the time and I didn't have any chance to make an escape!

At this point we were floating on air and nothing else in the world mattered (although I was still thinking about what had to happen next). The ride didn't take as long as I had thought so when we were done I suggested that we walk along the beach and talk and enjoy the moment. While it was the perfect time for a nice walk, I also needed to stall a bit, knowing that the surprise party wasn't ready yet. We walked about as far as we could along the beach. I said that I needed a drink, so as we drove back we stopped at a local Jack-in-the-Box for a soda to stall just a little bit more, since we weren't supposed to be at her condo for another 15 minutes or so. But of course, she didn't know this and I just told her that we had plenty of time before our restaurant reservation. OK, so I stalled enough for us to be on time to the party and we headed back to her place. As we drove in, we saw her brother's car in the parking lot and Grace said, "Hey, what's Joe's car doing here?". I had to think fast and, knowing that he would occasionally stay in the loft at Grace & Joan's place whenever he was in town, and said, "Oh, he's probably here for the computer show in town this week." She bought it. Whew, another close call!