It was the beginning of an unusually hot summer. The baseline data collecting for the new marine protected areas was in full swing. I was working in Humboldt Bay as part of the estuary field team. My advisor Tim Mulligan finds me in my wetsuit covered head to toe in sticky, stinky, anoxic mud, lugging equipment from the trucks down to the site, sweating like a cow, and tells me we have a new volunteer for the project. He said he'd recently transferred and seemed like he had "a good head on his shoulders". He asked me if I would take the new guy around and show him how things ran. Inwardly I was already overwhelmed with the heat and the amount of work I had to do, but I could never say no to Dr. Mulligan. I agree and quickly get back to pulling boxes and backpacks from the trucks. As I'm racing around the front end of one of the vehicles, I nearly plow straight into the handsomest man I have ever seen in all my 23 years of life. He says hello and introduces himself and asks if I'm the person Tim told him to find, and I've forgotten how to speak. Somehow I got through that day without making too much of a spectacle of myself, and lived to go on to stare at this man I shared classes with for the next year of school. We eventually became more than friends, and the rest is history!

I knew Chad was planning to propose for a while, so every date we went on for about 2 months was self-inflicted agony for me. Completely unbeknownst to him, I would wonder if today was the day it happened. When we went to the pumpkin patch I imagined him finding the perfect pumpkin and calling me over, only for me to discover a ring around the vine. When we went out to dinner I spent hours on my makeup and hair, sure that this was definitely it and I needed to look my best. I had an endless supply of daydreams about how he might pop the question and each time I came home without a ring, I was disappointed. So his birthday arrives and he wants to go for a hike, and I have resolved not to drive myself crazy again with the hopes of an engagement. I was determined to just enjoy the day. "He wouldn't propose to me on his birthday, right?" My suspicions were slightly aroused when he combed his hair and wore his dress flannel for a walk in the woods, but I was determined not to let it affect my mood. I threw on some lipstick though, just in case. We come to our favorite spot on the riverbank under the big leaf maple and there is a cloth laid out and some wine. Not wanting to disturb someone's picnic, I tell Chad we can just stop here on our way back. He assures me it's fine but I can see someone is clearly using the space! Firmly, I restate that someone is down there and we can just circle back later. He sighs and says, "Let's just go check it out anyway". My eyes must have widened to dinner plates as I realize the bottle of champagne on the white linen cloth is for us. The photographer hiding in the damp bushes is for us. This is all for us, because Chad is PROPOSING. I'm laughing and crying before he can even get down on one knee, the dogs are running wild all around us, we're so lucky to have had our friend there documenting it because it all went by so fast in one big happy blur.