The Hotel Del Coronado

He is a big fat liar and he is now my fiancé. :D
December 20th is Joe’s team’s Christmas party day! He has forwarded me the email at the beginning of December and seemed to be excited about that.

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Karen,
Here's the team party I mentioned before. It's in SAN DEIGO! Whoppee! And Matt (or Saddleback, at least) is paying for a nice restaurant. We only have to bring a gift if you want to participate in the gift exchange. I'll probably just bring one, and you can use it to do the exchange. Are we good on the 20th?

Maybe we can go down early and enjoy the day. ;)
Joe
P.S. Oh, and do you have a nice formal dress to wear? I have no idea what to wear. I may borrow something from
Joe. haha.
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From: Lisa Crockett
Sent: Tuesday, December 8, 2008 3:34:27 PM
To: Arthur Ochoa; Stephen Anslow; Joe Chancellor
Cc: Janet Turner
Subject: RSVP for Christmas Party
Auto forwarded by a Rule

Since there's no formal, Saddleback Christmas party this year, we're dressing up by ourselves! Please let me know soon if you will be coming and how many of you will be coming. My aunt's excited to host us and the view from her place is incredible!

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“It looks fun!” I was really excited as well. Since we both like to go to San Diego, his suggestion of driving down early and having fun looks like a great idea to me. We had emails back and forth discussing how formal we need to dress up on that day. I suggest wearing a cute skirt should be enough, but he insist Lisa has said it needs to be really formal. About one week ahead of the time, he took me shopping for dress because of the event. Though it felt a bit weird that he happily took me shopping (he really doesn’t like shopping), I just figured he was trying his best to keep me accompany and do something that I like. Joe said he would just borrow suit from his roommate. “Of course”, I think. It makes sense to me. However, couple days later, he said he is thinking about getting a suite. Since he will need it in couple months for the PhD interview as well. He should just get one now. “Sure,” I think. Only till later I was told that he dressed up super nice all for this special purpose.

Saturday turned out to be a good day, especially it has been raining for days earlier that week. (Now it all comes back to me why he was so excited and commented it’s nice that the weather was good.) I had stayed up late for days trying to get our personalized Christmas gifts done for the office staff. (yep, he felt super bad after learning this.) After he picked me up, we went to a nice breakfast place in Pasadena. It all felt like fun. Then we headed south to his place to finish gift-wrapping and for him to dress up.

On the way down to San Diego, I got my first gift- a CD that we just talked about the day before. “Um…”, I felt pretty odd to get this CD as a gift. However, nice little gift seems pretty good to me on a nice date. During the driving, it’s me sleeping, we listening to the CD, and chitchatting the whole time. As we drove on the San Diego-Coronado Bridge, the pretty view in front of me totally makes me awake. San Diego is such a pretty place! But, where are we going? Joe said, “It’s a secret.”

“This is a famous couple hundred years old hotel,” Joe said as he pulled into the parking lot. We came to a pretty hotel with huge red crown shape on the top of the building. Hotel Del Coronado is the name. Before we got off the car, he brought out another gift to me. “Wow,” I thought, “this date seems pretty nice”.

The hotel has a nice beach at the back. As we walking on the path, there is a huge ring skating right in front of me. I was telling Joe we had one in Pittsburgh but I never get to try it. He held my hands and told me today may be my lucky day. “What?” His response totally confused me. After some thoughts, I said I want to pick cool 4 people bike ride instead of falling on the ice ring stake with nice dress on.

The hotel is actually 200 years old. It has its little museum telling its history. There are also a hallway of cool shops, antique stuff, and a huge Christmas tree in the old style wood lobby. We had chocolate mousse berry cup, coffee, and lots of pictures. And we joked around two weird people dress up like in the old days. “They must be hotel staffs,” I said. “Yep? I thought they are just customers,” Joe said.

After the sunset, we pretty much visit every part of the hotel and ran out of first camera battery as well. I start asking where is the house that we are going to? Is it far away from here? When should we leave? Will we be late? Joe said Lisa just called and said people are stuck in the traffic, so we can stay here longer. Ok. We kept browsing all the stores, gardens, and finally both had sore legs resting in the lobby comfy couch.

“There will be a show tonight at the end of the hallway. I think most people who dress up nice are for that.” Joe told me. “Oh, yeah?” I went there peaking outside of the ballroom. “An American Christmas”, the huge poster outside of the ballroom said. “Looks neat,” I think, without any idea that this is the next surprise Joe is about to show me.

Another ten minutes passed by. He said, ok, we should go now. I put my coat on, scarf on, ready to go into the coldness outside. He then brought me to the door of the ballroom, said, “Um…Lisa doesn’t have an aunt living in San Diego.” “What?” “Yep…..” “what about the party?” “There is no party. Just two of us.” “What?” “Yep. We are actually going to this show.” He then pulled out the tickets from his pocket. I was surprised but thinking this is so cool. My cute bf starts to know how to surprise me and give me a really nice evening. Wow. But why? Nah. Not important. We joked that he actually lied to me, which is so against to his standard of being someone who I can trust every single word he said.

As the door opened, we were greeted by LOTS of actors and actresses who dressed up like people in 1900s. “Oh! You already knew those two people are from this show.” Joe smiled and nodded while I protested. The evening started with free appetizers and drinks. Waiters walking around the room serve us. It came out to be that we are in a big show, pretending we are the guests of this Marshall’s family. When the event starts, I was led to the first table in the center, right in front of the stage!

I was so excited with this cool dinner event. I love musical (and great food of course). The whole show I probably ended up feeling awestruck and have mouth wide open. All the singings, dancing, piano playing, jokes, water-glass song, acting, and even interaction with guests make me super busy the whole night. I probably just smiled like a fool when I looked at Joe. What a great night, and I even didn’t finish my dessert.

Ok. The show ends. Since we are not hurry, we took time chilled; taking pictures in the coolest crown room I’ve ever seen. Now we should go! We walked out this time with coat and scarf on again for real. But he took me back to the beach again instead of going directly to the parking lot. “um..I guess he wants to take the garden path again, maybe.” We sat down on the beach; he gave me my last gift for the day. “Be careful, it’s fragile.” I carefully unpack my gift. It’s a special candleholder with texts on the wall! We popped the candle light on, put it inside, now the reading time!

“YOU ARE MY PRINCESS (aw…that’s sweet)
MY CONFIDANT (what does this mean? *English class time*)
MY INSPIRATION
MY TREASURE (I like this)
MY CHEERLEADER
MY ENCOURAGER
MY HOPE
MY SWEETHEART
MY FRIEND
MY FELLOW DREAMER (This is a little special…)
MY MINISTRY PARTNER (Wait! Am I getting a personalized gift?)
MY LOVER (wow. is this for me?)
MY MONKI (Aaaahhhh! It’s a gift just for me!)
WILL ….. (*we are having hard time recognizing this word…Is it WII? Or…WII wish you a merry
Xmas? Haha. Too funny, can’t be the case…ohoh, I got it it’s WILL!)
YOU… (…….)
.............”

Right after I cheerfully recognize the word “WILL”, as I turn the holder around, I read “WILL YOU…” and then stopped. “WILL YOU MARRY ME” popped out in front of me. Joe reached his pocket and brought out a ring. Knees down, he started talking to me while I am in huge huge huge huge shock! He poured out his heart to me, however I need to confess that I got words coming into my ears but soon disappeared in my head. I remembered he asked me how long we’ve been dating, and how much he liked me and enjoyed us. I must look like someone who just got struck by the lightning or something. Mumbling my yes out, and he put the ring on my finger.

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Later he told me the whole stories and funny little details.

1. He ordered this cool thing from Netherlands! Couple days ago he even got an email from the company said they are so excited about this order after they saw this thing came out from the machine. They emailed him asking how things going and wanted him to tell them how it goes after proposal!

2. Joe’s family kept calling him throughout the day wanting to know if everything turns out well. He actually went to restroom to call them back, warning them do not call again. He will not answer phones afterwards!

3. Joe’s roommate already knew this is a proposal event! He acted so normal while chatting with me asking me what’s the plan for the day. I was excited telling him we were going to the IT team party and I am busy wrapping gift! Now in retrospect, he was so calm and even wished me have a great time in the party!
4. The office already knew about this proposal. Everything is a lie! Invitation, party idea, aunt story…they are all Joe’s idea and his great work.

5. When he told me he needs to check the car, he actually went in to pick up ring and gift. During dinner, while I held his hands and touch his thigh, he was super nervous wondering was I checking if there’s a box with my ring! (Babe, you worry too much! I am honestly completely clueless)

So, this is the proposal surprise story. Joe has really given me a great romantic surprise. He is a great liar throughout this whole month. And we will need to have a talk about honesty and transparency as we start our new relationship. Haha!

More pictures :

The Hotel Del Coronado-Proposal Surprise