Who would have thought that my billiard skills would be the reason I would find my person? I for sure never could have imagined striking up a conversation over a dating app over my lack of pool skills would lead to three years later planning a wedding with my best friend. I am so glad I braved a rotated kneecap to meet some random person from the internet at Bear Republic... then Scandia... then Graton... easily the longest first date either of us has ever been on. Rachel was brave enough to meet the soccer crew and I put on my big girl pants to impress her family. Rachel was so very lucky to have met my amazing, larger than life mom. She was there through the good and unfortunately the not so awesome. Now here we are three years later and there is no one I would rather do life with!

Let's start off by saying Rachel is basically impossible to surprise. I saw my opportunity when she left for a ten day cruise (without me) to set my sneaky plans in motion. I started with the simplest task first, talking to Sarah. She was my in to say the least. Then we got to planning a lunch date with Vicki and Mark at Mi Pueblo, obviously. While this was going on, I was continuing to juggle the planning of actually MAKING her ring (thank you Carla) and a vacation to go pick up said ring. Fast forward to August, we are sitting in a hotel in Cancun and somehow I have to sneakily have a ring delivered while Rachel is with me and not make it seem at all suspicious. Thank goodness my aunts are the queens of asking for random things and Rachel didn't seem to bat an eye when I said my cousin Marco was bringing something for my aunt Isabel. Mission accomplished, ring secured and surprise intact! For months after I had picked up the ring I joked about proposing and Rachel would always respond "Do you have a ring? Nope! Guess you're not proposing!" The joking continued all the way through the new year with many, many possible slip ups on my end. Someone may or may not have sent a photo of said ring to a phone that was right next to Rachel... Not sure who that someone is... As a shocker to no one I could only keep a secret for so long. By the beginning of January I was about to explode, so I planned the big day. I asked Rachel if she wanted to drive out to the beach. The fact that it was raining and I was so adamant about driving made Rachel immediately think something horrible had happened. We made our way all the way out to Bodega and pulled off on an overlook in the pitch black pouring rain. Of course to set the mood, Rachel "had to go pee" but that gave me a perfect opportunity to get us both out of the car. I started playing a song and asked Rachel to dance. Under the rain, I got down on one knee and got dirt all over my new pants! I managed to ask her to marry me and her first reaction was to turn around and say "Oh my god!" which I am really hoping means yes... or maybe we should take down this website? But after the initial shock, I asked "So is that a yes!!" Thankfully she allowed me to get off the ground and said a solid " YES."