I really have no words. I...well, last night was one of the most amazing nights. In fact, just yesterday was an amazing day.
Rachael had the day off, so we stayed in bed until noon. We got up, got dressed, played around on the Wii for a bit when she decided she wanted to take me on a date. She'd just checked her bank account and found she actually had quite a bit more money than she had originally thought.
We walked up to Willow Creek and took the MAX. We both realized we hadn't eaten, so she took me to Marinepolis. I talked to the manager there, since they've been hiring servers there and I'd turned in an application a while ago. The manager said he'd remembered my application and was actually planning on calling me sometime this week. Good news there!
After that, we walked to Uwajimaya. We picked up a book I had ordered there (Koji Suzuki's Loop in Japanese) and she bought me a Keroro Gunsou pencil case, since she just fell in love with the series and we've been watching it a lot lately. We bought a manga magazine, and afterwards, we ran into Nicole and Julie. It was really nice talking to them, since I hadn't been able to get in contact with them for so long. On the way out, we ran into Desi and Nate as well.
We kept on walking and decided to stop by Bubble Tea. While we were on the way there, I saw Holly and Micah and called for them, but I don't think they saw me. Totally okay though, since traffic was really loud. We got to Bubble Tea and I translated some of Loop to her. She told me to start reading in Japanese because she said she loved to hear me speak it, even if she didn't understand it.
When we called the bus on the way home, it wasn't gonna be there for another 40 minutes, so we decided to walk down to Goodwill. We didn't really want to buy anything, but we figured we could look around and see if we could find anything for my birthday party. In the end, she ended up buying a tie because it had the words 'Coffee Break!' all over it and a big coffee cup at the bottom.
We rode the bus home, and played with the Wii for a bit more. I browsed a bit of Something Awful and found a few videos on the Youtube thread that hit a little close to home. So I'd sat there crying for a bit. Rachael knew I really don't like it when people see me cry, so she left the room to go take a bath. It took a while for me to explain why they'd hit kind of close to home, but she understood entirely and we made plans to take care of that kind of personal business on Thursday.
After she got out of the bath, she got dressed in her black suit, blue dress shirt and black slacks with her favorite black dress shoes. She went digging for something in her personal files, claiming she had wanted to grab something for work so that she wouldn't forget. In the process, I found where she had hidden my birthday present so I laughed at her about it. She told me to hide it again, so I put a bag in front of it. She said she had wanted to show me something earlier that day that she'd found on the balcony. She said it was like a puzzle she thinks an earlier tenant may have left behind. I thought at the time, "Oh cool, that would be really cool for my birthday party!"
We walked out to the balcony and she leaned down in the corner to dig around. I commented on how there were hardly any clouds at all that day as I waited for Rachael to find whatever it was she was looking for. The stars were all out so bright. Rachael turned back around and said, "I thought it was out here but -- Oh...well, fuck it," she pulled out a box and opened it, revealing a pure silver ring with a small diamond in the center. "Sasha, will you marry me?"
I swore to myself that the day this happened, I wasn't going to do what all those girls do in the movies, where they put their hands to their mouths and gasped and started crying...but I ended up doing it. Once I'd started crying, I couldn't even stop, and I pulled her into the tightest hug I could muster up. Once I was even the slightest bit comprehensible, I told her that marrying her would make me the happiest woman alive.
We stayed out there for so long, just holding each other and crying. I don't even remember when we decided we wanted to go inside. On the way back in, she saw a glimmer in the corner of her eye and found a nickel sticking out of the cracks. We both had a good laugh at that one. It was stupid, but that character was how we both met, as dorky as that may be.
When we went inside, I kissed her and hugged her again. I just couldn't stop kissing her. It felt like if I stopped kissing her, my heart would stop beating. I told her she wasn't allowed to cry, because if she started crying again, I'd start crying again, and we'd never stop crying.
Finally, I went downstairs and announced the good news to Dad. Dad smiled and stood up and gave both of us a big hug and congratulated us. He asked us when the wedding was going to be, but at the time, we still didn't know. Rachael said we'll both know once we can figure out where we're going to have it and how much it will cost.
That night, we stayed up until 4. We watched the romantic tale of The Shining and ate the romantic dinner of frozen combination pizza. After the movie, we fell asleep holding each other. It was a hot night, but somehow, her warmth didn't contribute to that. It was comforting and secure.
It feels amazing to have this amount of certainty in my life. I'm still figuring out my major, where I'm going to go in life, what kind of job I'm going to have, but I at least know that no matter what I do while I'm there, she'll be there supporting me the whole time. I can't explain this level of emotion, no matter how hard I try. I know that I love her. That's really all that matters.