A new beginning

Geoff and I have some important news! So much to tell, but I'll try to keep it short and sweet. Geoff proposed last night on Oct. 31, our 1 year anniversary. I, of course, said "yes"!

OK, that's the condensed version. Here's the whole sappy story:

Geoff drove up to Edmonton for the weekend to celebrate our 1 year anniversary. He was super busy the whole week running around with work, teaching dance class, etc. He sounded stressed out on the phone which I thought was due to his crazy busy schedule. Little did I know that he was stressed out buying me a ring and making my anniversary present. I was totally oblivious to all this!

The whole weekend was pretty routine and normal. He drove up on Friday night and picked me up from the lab. We went and had sushi for the first time since I got back from Ghana. On Saturday, we went to the lab so we could do work - he had data entry and I had lab work to do. The machine broke down as usual so I got a record low of 2 samples done in a couple hours of fighting with the machine. I gave up and we went to the UofA Ballroom Club's Halloween dance instead. Bumped into my friend Matthew who's president of the SBS Ballroom Club in Calgary that I TA at and Geoff teaches at. Also bumped into an old acquaintance from UofC Bio Joni.

On Sunday we went shopping for all the groceries we would need for our anniversary dinner. Geoff insisted on cooking for me for our anniversary because it's what we did on our first date exactly a year ago. He was going to cook his specialty meatballs for me and truffles for dessert! Since I'm a horrible cook, I was in charge of pouring soup into the pot and heating it, making a salad, and de-tailing shrimp. I was basically Geoff's sous-chef, I was there to help and to clean the dishes! Now that's stuff I'm good at!

Our anniversary was on Monday Halloween Day. We did normal touristy stuff in the morning like shopping at West Edmonton Mall. Came back early to start cooking. Poor Geoff was cooking all afternoon but it was worth it. Dinner was awesome! My brother came home around 9:30ish, just in time for the gift exchange. Geoff was adamant that Jonathan had to leave the condo. This was my first hint that something was going on. He went into Jon's room to talk and then 10 mins later, Jon rushed out of the condo to go back to school. Hmmmm... never saw anyone clear out that quickly before! Something was definitely going on!

Geoff insisted that he give his present last. We had agreed on getting each other something small (little did I know!) for our anniversary. I got him a magnetic poetry set so that when we get an apt in Dec he could write cute little notes to me with fridge magnets. He gave me a book he made with cute animal pictures. On the last page he wrote, "I have a big question to ask you". I started to cry and he pulled out the ring and asked me to marry him! I said "yes" and then both of us were crying and laughing at the same time!

Geoff was so calm the whole weekend I didn't know that he was planning to propose. I wasn't expecting it because we had decided it would be best to live together before getting married. But this is the perfect time for us to get engaged and make the commitment official. Nothing's really changed since we have basically been committed since Day 1. Found out after that he pulled this off in less than 2 weeks from picking out the ring, ordering it, and asking my parents for their blessing.

I'm still in shock today! It's all so surreal! So strange to be calling Geoff my fiancee instead of my boyfriend. In less than a year, I'll be a Tanaka rather than a Tan. Good thing I only have to add 3 letters to my name! So strange to think that me, of all people, will be getting married soon!