Brandy and I met on Friday, January 21, 2011 (one day after her 21st birthday) and I remember it like it was yesterday. I was living on Sutter St at the time and my roommate Nickon and I were getting ready for the night when we received a call. The call was from our friend Holt and he told us he was in the Mission District with a friend from college and her two friends and me and Nickon should meet up with them. We finished up our 90s rap playlist and jumped in a cab down to the Mission. From the first time Brandy and I met there was an instant connection. Although there were six of us together that night, it seemed like it was just her and I. We hopped from bar to bar and we didn’t stop talking and getting closer throughout the night. Although the night didn’t end with a good night kiss, I made sure to get her number and knew we would meet again soon. Soon happened to only be a few nights later at Trivia Night at the Bus Stop Bar on Union Street. Neither of us were too interested in the current events and music questions being asked over the speaker system so we decided to play pool in the back room and were joined by two of our friends for a game of 2 on 2 pool. My friend tried to claim Brandy as his partner, but of course I wasn’t going to let that happen and grabbed Brandy as my partner. Little did I know she would be my game partner for the rest of my life! Our first official date was the next weekend when I took her to the Park Chalet and we continued our courtship over dinners at Tortilla Heights, Little Star Pizza and our other favorite restaurants in the city and at the dunes of Ocean Beach where I would meet her during her study sessions when I was on my lunch breaks. We continued to see each other and talk/text as much as possible to get to know each other better over the next couple of months and finally made it official as boyfriend/girlfriend in April of that same year.

We had plans to spend a night away in Mendocino on Saturday 3/14 and I knew I wanted to propose before our getaway. Luckily, the ring was ready for pick up on 13th, which was all the time I needed. I asked Brandy’s parents for their blessing the day before, both gave me an emphatic “yes” (and a “what took you so long?!”) so now all I had to do was make it a surprise...so I knew I couldn’t tell my mom until the last minute. I told Brandy earlier in the week that my Mom wanted to treat us to dinner at Luna Blue that Friday night to eat out on the deck, all the while I knew there was no dinner at Luna Blue and I would use that as an excuse to take her into Tiburon that night to propose. Once I had the ring I called my mom and told her today was the day! I filled her in on the plan that we were coming into Tiburon for dinner, but I was actually going to take her to Sugarloaf Dr. and hike out to the end of the trail we had gone to dozens of times before and propose out by the rock overlooking the bay, city, and Golden Gate Bridge, and then take her out for dinner to celebrate at Vasco’s, one of our favorite restaurants in Marin. Now all I had to do was get Brandy out on a hike when she thought we were going to a nice dinner, easier said than done. When we got to the house, I told Brandy my mom had to work late (my mom went out for a drive). I told her I wanted to take Zinny out and motioned her to come with us outside, but dark clouds were coming in and the storm was on it’s way so she declined and said she’d sit this one out. It’s hard to propose when your soon to be fiancé isn’t present. I took Zinny out and walked down to the carport to come up with a new plan. I walked back inside only a few minutes later and told her I really wanted her to come with us and we could drive to the trail so it would be quicker. Reluctantly, she agreed, but she was wearing boots so she quickly put on my mom’s tennis shoes and we got in the car.

As we got to the trail off Sugarloaf, the wind was blowing and clouds got even darker so I knew I had to make it quick, but it’s over a mile to the rock so we decided to take the lower trail which I thought was shorter. This was a bad idea. The lower, less traveled trail turns out to be a lot of steep inclines and declines and half a mile into the journey, my mom’s shoes which were a half size too big were falling off Brandy’s feet and the weather wasn't getting any better. The rock is in sight, but Brandy’s patience is fading and she tells me she wants to turn around a few times, but I manage to get her to continue even though I know she's done. At about the ¾ mark (just to the rock) she says “Okay, I’m turning around, you can keep going if you want” and I reply “Are you sure?”, which she confirms and I know this is it. She turns around to start walking back and I ask “are you sure?” one last time. She turns around to see me down on one knee with the ring box open as I propose to the love of my life. Needless to say, the proposal turned her spirits around and once I told her the plan was to propose out at the rock, she insisted we continue our hike and walk the rest of the way to the rock (shoes falling off and all) where we took an endless number of selfies to document the occasion. After our adventure we had to drop Zinny off and were greeted by my mom and champagne. After our glass, Brandy asked if we were going to be late for our dinner at Luna Blue and I had to tell her there was one last surprise and we were actually having dinner in Mill Valley, just the two of us.