I'm Engaged!!

On August 27th 2011 I became engaged to the Love of my life Yajaira Garza. It’s kind of a long story but I will share it anyway. In case you don’t want to read my big story, then this is the gist of it all… I’m engaged!!

The story begins when we were still friends back in 2003. I remember being on the phone with her and she mentioned that one day when she found “the one” she wanted to be proposed to under a pink sky. I didn’t know back when she was telling me this wish that I would one day become a part of it. I didn’t know that I would one day be hunting down a California pink sky and much less how difficult it would be to get one.
Last year we had a conversation about pink skies. I told her how rare they are in Northern California. We talked of how they come at random times and how you could never pinpoint an exact date where you could be sure to find one. I had many plans of how I wanted to propose to my lady, but she was still stuck on the idea of a pink sky. She told me that she preferred a pink sky over anything romantic I could possibly think of. In fact, she told me that she preferred a pink sky in front of some random place, like a target store, over anything else I could think of. And later she added another stipulation; she also wanted a video of the whole event and pictures! So I needed a pink sky, pics and video. I needed some place romantic to do it because obviously I couldn’t just do it in front of some crappy place like a target parking lot! Lol
She arrived on the evening of August 25th. In fact she came right around sundown and the sunset that day was orange, blue and a little bit of pink. As I drove her home from the airport I looked at the sunset and noticed the orange, but the pink hadn’t developed yet. She told me she needed to go to the store and so I took her to target. As we parked the car, the bit of pink appeared and she mentioned that she loved that sky. I told her it wasn’t even pink and she said that she liked it anyway. So there I was… with a ring in my pocket… in front of a TARGET! NO! haha no way I could do that!
My plan was simple. Aside from the first night which was a failure, I needed to take the two nights I was with her, take her somewhere beautiful and hope to God there was a pink sky. Keep in mind pink skies are rare here, and we had already had a pinkish/orangeish sky that I missed out on. I needed a miracle and I’m not lying when I say that I had my church smallgroup and friends helping me pray for a pinksky on the days she was in town. If this was gonna happen, it was going to have to be an act of God.
So Friday August 26th I decide that I’m going to take her to Monterey/carmel. It was sunny up until we got into Monterey then it was cloudy! So we sat there at the beach in Carmel, with a ring in my pocket, two cameras and no pink sky. Day two was a failure.
Saturday August 27th was her last night in town. I was praying so hard for a pink sky that day, since this was her last night. If I didn’t get one I would have to take the game into overtime and head out to Washington to try all over again.
So I took her out to the Napa valley. We went to Castillo Di Amorosa Winery In Calistoga which I highly recommend to anyone visiting napa! The whole tour was about two hours and if we continued to explore we could have easily explored a bit more and hopefully made it to the riverwalk at about sundown to hopefully propose to her. We went to the castle, and when we got there, she decided that she didn’t want to take the tour. I agreed, and we took a self-directed tour without a guide. Only problem with that is that they also close down certain parts of the castle when you take a self guided tour. So we took the tour and we were out of there in about 45 minutes! Lol It was way too early to propose and on top of that it was hot so she was in a bad mood. She told me she wanted to leave Napa. The problem was that I had a ring in my pocket so I went on to plan B: San Francisco.
I checked the weather report and it said that it was partly cloudy in the City so we started driving. When we arrived in the city, it was sunny. I was happy because I figured we could hit a beach, watch the sunset and hope for a pink sky. We drove along and as we headed for the beach, I saw it! It was like a line was drawn in the sky. It went from Light to darkness! It was cloudy, sprinkling, foggy, overall terrible. On top of that I got lost when I was trying to go to the beach and accidently jumped on HWY 101 which led me out of the city! I had to pay 6 bucks to get back into the city even though i had just paid 5! lol I was so mad! At that point I gave up on proposing. My second plan had failed.
I decided I was going to take her to check out the palace of fine arts and I got lost again. My navigator wasn’t working, my maps were down and It was winter in San Francisco! On top of that I took the wrong street and somehow ended up back on 101, headed out of the city so I decided we were leaving! I was so mad! I was even mad at God for not giving me a pink sky. I was acting like a spoiled brat! My girlfriend didn’t try to talk to me; she knew that it was pointless. We listened to music and left San Francisco Northbound on 101, a road that I never take while going home but somehow ended up on that day.
Once again we passed he line in the sky and we left the opaque weather and entered a brighter day just as the sun began setting. It was then that I spotted a little bit of pink in the sky. It clearly wasn’t enough to propose, but I kept my eye on it. As we drove along the sky became more pink and more pink until finally it caught her eye. She stared at it quietly and although we hadn’t been speaking, I knew that this was the moment that I had prayed and waited for. God had provided a pink sky!
At this point I knew what I had to do. I didn’t know where I was but I jumped off of the freeway under the excuse that I had to use the restroom. I pointed out the pink sky and told my girlfriend we should take a picture with it. She agreed and then I was on a mission to find a romantic setting in a random bay city that I didn’t know. I drove along and ended up stumbling upon this park in San Rafael, CA (found out it was San Rafael afterwards). In actuality it was a sign with a park name and a dirt path leading into the unknown. As we walked along I noticed 2 things: 1. There was nobody on the path (for the pics/video) 2. There were houses to the left of the path and some marsh land to the right (not the most romantic scenery but better than a target store, lol). I dragged her along the path hoping to find somebody before the pink sky faded away since there was only pink out to the east and none on the west. We ended up finding two guys who seemed a bit shady but I tried not to judge and asked them to take the pictures. They replied no and went on their way. I was surprised but didn’t have time to waste so we continued walking. Just then the path opened up to an amazing area with a great view. It was a beachy area with a view of the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge. Just then a couple came out from a side path and we asked them to take a picture of us to which they agreed. All the pieces were finally set: I had the pink sky, the romantic location, the great view, the camera for pictures, the video camera, people to take the pictures and the ring in my pocket. It was BEYOND perfect.

I pulled the people aside and they agreed to take the picture of us. After the first couple of pictures I knew it was time. I grabbed both of her hands and looked her in the eyes. I was nervous and I flat out couldn’t believe that God had pulled all of the pieces together for this proposal to happen. So I Told her that I loved her, I got down on one knee and with the video camera rolling and the camera shooting pics I proposed marriage to which she replied yes! And if that weren’t enough of a great thing, the sky was dark on the east but turned bright pink on the west, perfect for some post engagement pictures.
So ladies and gentleman THAT is the story. I really thank God that everything worked out. I honestly could not have planned anything better than this proposal. God played a huge part in setting this whole thing up and allowed me to give my lady her dream proposal!