"hip", dumpster diving, strikethroughs, OH MY GOODNESS

the tie favorite birthday from 11 questions is now going to be further explained here!

This time 6 years ago Tay and I were both home from college in his parent's kitchen. For Valentine's Day I unwrapped a Fromer's Guide to Los Angeles and 2 tickets to LAX for March 8th, 2006  . . . a few days before my birthday.  My cousins, Alla, Lizzie and Bishop lived out there at the time and we would be going to visit/stay with them during our spring break! Neither Tay nor I have ever been to CA, so, excited to say the least! And, to get to hang with my cousins and Aunt and Uncle was such a treat!

The weekend before we leave I get a surprise visit at Carolina from Handley and Aubs. On Saturday we decide to go shopping in 5 points because I may or may not mention that I'm slightly suspicious I will be getting engaged on the trip they are two of the hippest dressers I know and I'd love to have them help me pick out something cute and California-ish to wear just in case I am possibly proposed to and have pictures taken of the monumental occasion.
We buy a super cute brown dress and match it with some new gold flats and some jewelry and I am ready to go!

So, Tay and I land in LA late March 8th and my Uncle picks us up from the airport. The next morning we walk my cousins to school (they lived in Manhattan Beach just a block from their schools, so fun!) and then borrow my Uncle's convertible for the rest of the day! We basically make our way down the coast - Hermosa Beach for breakfast, Redondo Beach for a coffee stop, Palos Verdes for an afternoon lunch . . .simply dreamy and sunny, and so California-ish! We head back to their house to shower and put on my new hip dress, shoes, sunglasses and jewelry change clothes for our dinner reservations in Malibu.

We stop and walk on the Santa Monica Pier where the temperatures drop ridiculously lower and the wind picks up ridiculously fiercer. We take fun pictures and I have to hold my dress down so it doesn't fly up in the wind look so hip.
We drive on to Malibu and stop at some earthy store to get some goodies and kill some time.
We park at the cliffs of Point Dume and the weather has now reached a painful chill. So, we open the trunk of my Uncle's car to search for any type of blanket or layer I could begrudgingly put on and cover up my hip outfit gratefully add for warmth. We find a navy, oversized, golf wind breaker and some black pants - now hip has gone to bulky and dark and something a man would wear on the golf course - nice.

As we head for the climb up the cliff, I notice Tay carefully holding one side of his blazer close to his body to make sure the potential place I've detected as where the ring is stowed away doesn't blow out of his pocket  he keeps warm in these hurricane degree winds.
When we get to the top and find a good spot to sit and watch the sunset I try and keep the conversation going because Tay has turned very quiet. (In another post I will explain some of our relationship dynamics. Short synopsis: most of the time he talks and I listen/laugh).
(I hold in my giddiness not wanting to ruin anything that he may have planned, but I am so onto his scheme.)

As the sun is lowering, out of nowhere two heads pop up over the edge of the cliff and stare us in the face.
Rock climbers.
Tay cusses under his breath cordially says hello as they bring their ropes and gear practically to our feet and talk about how great this view is. I chuckle as they make their way to the next assent and leave us to our own. But, right as they are out of sight two huge labs come running up to greet us. Barking and licking us as any disruption to a perfectly planned private proposal friendly dog does! Their owners, an older man and woman, yell after them and come join them frolicking around and talking about how georgous the sunset is going to be on an evening like this "when the sky is no longer pure blue, but has clouds to provide casting for shadows and colors." Taylor cusses again and this times lets out an audible, "Are you kidding me?!" smiles and nods and then turns to me and says, "We've got to find a quiet spot before this sun goes down!"

He pulls my hand, drags me up the cliff while I'm tripping over my cute shoes trying to keep up and carefully leads me to a new, further-from-other-people-spot.
When we arrive, I turn back to the ocean to take a picture of the sun finally setting and when I turn back around, he is on one knee holding out an open box with a ring inside of it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He says,
"I've been waiting my whole life to do this, Sal.
Will you marry me?
Will you be my wife?"

And I jump up and down and I say, "YES!" and "OH MY GOODNESS!" and get him up off his knee and hug him and kiss him and squeal "OH MY GOODNESS" about 8,459 more times and "Tell me everything!" and "Did you ask my Dad?" and "How long have you been planning?!?" and then "IT'S FREAKING FREEZING! Can we go back to the car, now?!"

We make our way back down to the car as I'm now tripping in my cute shoes not because he's dragging me but because I'm entranced by this ring on my finger and I'm distracted by shrieking "OH MY GOODNESS! OH MY GOODNESS! OH MY GOODNESS!" and then I try and pull back the image of him on his knee and I am mad that I got him up so quickly because that was such a romantic position, "rats!", I think.
We get in the car and I say, "OH MY GOODNESS! Should we call my parents?!"
We call my parents (who have flown out to CA and are currently at my cousin's house) and go crazy and they beg us to come back to the house so they can see the ring.

We forgo our dinner reservations and head back to Manhattan Beach which is about 45 minutes away. This ends up being so great because we can make phone calls to his parents, our siblings, and our friends to scream in the phone, "OH MY GOODNESS OH MY GOODNESS!!!!" and have Tay smile at how loud my voice can get as I respond to each person's excitement, "Oh my GOODness!"
:)

When we get back to the house there is a banner and party hats and my sister and her future fiance and champagne and a delicious meal and hugs and "Taylor you did SOOOO GOOD on this ring!" and "Tell us the story!" and "Why are you wearing that large pullover?" and high fives and pictures being taken and my cousins saying "I had no idea!" and my aunt saying "I had so much fun helping Tay figure out details for this!" and more phone calls.

One phone call is to Handley (the one from above who led me to my hip outfit). As I'm explaining all the details of the story a knock on the front door happens and she is walking in with Land (her bro, my cuz), Aunt Peggy and Uncle Scot! They have flown out to CA for this celebration!!!! AAAAAAHHHHHH enter 7 million more "OH MY GOODNESSes!" here! :)
So fun!

So, we celebrate into the night and dream and giggle and squeal and talk about MARRIAGE and how this was absolutely one of the most romantic times of my life EVER!
After the family has gone to sleep I sit with Tay on the couch and ask him to tell me more and more about this master plan. Like, how did he afford a trip to CA and a ring?
Your typical answer: He dove in dumpsters!
In 2005/2006, Wendy's and Air Tran were running that deal of if you got enough blue Wendy's cups you could trade them in for a free round trip domestic flight on Air Tran? Well, Tay couldn't drink thousands of CocaColas from Wendy's so, he and a buddy, located all of the Wendy's in Athens and proceeded to follow their trash cycles and dive into the Dumpsters at the appropriate time to retrieve as many blue cups as possible. DIS.GUS.TING. (but wildly romantic, too, right?!) One time the cops caught them and when Tay further explained that he was trying to accumulate enough cups to fly his girlfriend out to CA to propose to her, the officer let him off the hook and wished him as many cups for which he could dive!

That boy was IN LOVE!

There are many more details but I'm sure some have stopped reading by now and the nugget is waking up from her nap and I'm losing my steam for coming up with more things to strikethrough and make myself laugh at what I'm thinking is really funny but then thinking, "Others probably don't think it's as funny" and then reminding myself, "its my outlet, strange as it may be" :)