We’re getting married!

Funny story is that on this day in 2014, a 5.1 magnitude earthquake struck La Habra that sent a wave of moving earth through Orange County. Chris was working at Nordstrom Rack and Alyssa was getting ready to head over to Chris' apartment with the understanding that this would be their first meeting. Chris was very anxious to meet Alyssa and was counting down the seconds to when he would be off. When the earthquake hit, he was in the middle of helping a customer when his most basic instinct kicked in, fight or flight. Chris ran out of the store as fast as he could and abandoned his customer without even so much as a "Bye!" So why is this important? Well when Chris got home from work, he finally met Alyssa and she asked, "How was work?" He then went on to tell his funny story about ditching his customer mid-sentence to run outside during the earthquake. It was the first time he made her laugh. From that point on, it was nothing but texting, talking on the phone, and "coincidental" run-ins at the gym (but the reality is that Chris was stalking Alyssa because he wanted to hang out with her). After one month of getting to know each other, Chris finally asked Alyssa on a date where he took her to Orange Hill. There they ate, drank, laughed, and ended the night with their first kiss. The rest is history. I guess earthquakes don't just build mountains...<3

Man what anxiety! I always thought when I finally decided to do this, I would be totally fine but man was I wrong. But first, lets back it up for a second. I bought the ring right after I graduated. I always told myself that once I start working and could help provide for Alyssa, that I would be ready to ask her to be my wife. Well after 3 months, I finally got my job and knew right away that it was time. Oh and if you're wondering, yes, Alyssa knew I had the ring and, yes, my mom is the one that ruined it lol. Anyway, I booked a weekend trip to San Diego and told Alyssa the day before that we would be going out of town when she got off work. On Saturday morning, I took her to Torrey Pines State Park. She knew something was up because I was openly willing to pay 20 bucks for parking, which if you know me, I would walk 10 miles barefoot in hot sand before paying 20 bucks for parking (unless it's for the Lakers). Alyssa and I came here once before and had a really good time so it felt like the right place to pop the question. There was a specific look-out where we took a picture a few years back that I wanted to return to because it was such a nice view. On the way, I was walking super slow and constantly sipping on my water while we hiked around the park to calm my nerves. When we finally got to the look out, I started observing the people coming and going because I was looking for someone that I felt would be nice enough to capture this historic moment for us. Finally, a husband with his family approached me and asked if we wanted our picture taken. I casually gave the man my phone and whispered to him, "take a video instead." He nodded in agreement and I walked over to Alyssa to pose for our "picture." I then faced her towards me, unloaded my heart for 1 minute, slammed one knee down on the ground and pulled out the ring. As you know, she said yes.