But I felt like it was only appropriate that we post and let you all know that we’re engaged!

Our Propsal

I am not the biggest fan of my birthday.. it’s in the summer, and usually plans fall through, or people can’t make it.. it is always a big let down.  So this past birthday, Alex promised to make it as easy as possible.. we were going to go camping.  So we packed up his car, and went up into The Sequoia National Forest with Alex’s brother Adam, his best friend Kenny, my brother Josh, his girlfriend Tammy and her best friend Jacquie.  We stayed at this gorgeous campsite called Belknap, which was tucked away up in the mountains.

On the day of my birthday, everyone tok their time waking up and getting ready because we had all stayed up late the night before.  Around noon we hit the road toward Crystal Cave in the national park.  It was around 1:30ish by the time we got to the visitor’s center to buy the tickets.

As soon as we walked into the visitor’s center, the first thing I saw was a sign saying all the tours for Crystal Cave were sold out for the day.  You can imagine how much everyone was bummed, seeing as how we just drove for over an hour to get there. Distressed, Alex went out to his car to look at the map and figure out an alternative plan.  As I followed Alex out of the visitor’s Center, the rest of our group explained the situation to the guy working there, and he was able to pull some strings and get us two tickets to the candle light tour of the caves.

So, at 6:00 Alex and I started our tour of Crystal Cave using only the light from these really neat candle lanters. About 20 minutes into the tour, our guide, Myles, took us into a room called The Dome Room.  In there he started explaining to us about the stalagmites and stalactites, and how they start forming in caves as separate identities, and eventually, through time, the meet and join and become one.  Through all of this, Alex had been standing behind me, and had quietly gotten down on one knee.  As soon as Myles had finished his story, I heard the lady behind Alex gasop, so I turned around to find Alex down on one knee.. and he said “Megan, Will you marry me?”. Of course I cried, and said yes, and everyone clapped, and the lady behind Alex cried. It was very romantic, very special.. and just.. perfect.

If you want to keep up with any of our wedding plans, I’ve started a separate blog dedicated to only that: HITCHED!

1. Where were you when 2010 began?

2. What did you do in 2010 that you’d never done before?

3. Did you keep your new years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

4. Go to any concerts this year?

5. Will you be looking for a new job in 2011?

Those of you who know me, know the answer to this question. I totally love my job.

6. Did you drink a lot of alcohol in 2010?

Yes. But that sort of thing happens when you move out of the house, your brother turns 21 and your parents are ninjas

7. Did you go on any vacations? If so, where?

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

9. If you could go back in time to any moment of 2010 and change something, what would it be?

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

11. What was the best thing you bought?

12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?

13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?

14. Where did most of your money go?

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?

16. What song will always remind you of 2010?

17. Compared to this time last year, are you happier or sadder?

ii. thinner or fatter?
Fatter.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?

20. How did you spend Christmas?

22. Did you fall in love in 2010?

23. What was the biggest change for you in 2010?

24. What were your favourite TV programmes?

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?

26. What was the best book you read?

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?

28. What did you want and get?

29. What did you want and not get?

30. What was your favourite film of this year?

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2010?

34. What kept you sane?

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

36. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.

37. Who did you miss?

38. Who was the best new person you met?

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2010.

40. What are your plans for 2011?

This year Alex and I went as Shaun of the Dead and a Zombie. Alex’s costume was way more fun to put together than mine – for me, I just painted my face white and sprayed fake blood on some clothes I got from the thrift store.

The Shaun of the Dead costume was quite easy, the hardest part, believe it or not, was finding the shirt!

The first piece we got was the cricket bat. Online they range in price from $17 to $70, and come in an annoying variety of sizes and colors.  I found Alex’s bat on ebay, it was less than $30 when you included shipping.

Next we bought the tie.  I know Shaun’s tie was striped 2 shades of red, but the best we could find was a solid red color.  That came to less than $15 at the Nordstrom Rack.

Then came the chucks.  We couldn’t figure out which shoes Simon Pegg wore in the movie, but we guessed he wore chucks just because.. well.. I think Alex mainly just wanted a new pair of ol’ school black chucks. Turns out Simon just wears a pair of brown work shoes.

After the chucks, we got a pair of black dickies from OSH (a hardware store).. they were about $20.

And lastly… the shirt. I looked EVERYWHERE for a shirt and could not, for the life of me find one! I searched JC Penny, Macys, Ross, TJ Maxx, The Nordstrom Rack and a handfull of thrift stores. Finally, the day before Halloween we passed by a cheap-o store that specialized in selling just shirts. We were SO CLOSE to leaving there having not found one when I picked up a package that had a short sleeved collard white shirt.

After getting the shirt we went home where I cut and bleached Alex’s hair (we went all out) and sprayed fake blood on his bat, shirt and a bit on his face.

Originally Alex totally did not care for the idea of this costume, but in the end he LOVED it.

It’s NOT lame!  Okay, it is a bit, but I’m not giving Alex an option on the one.

We are having some trouble deciding what to be. Care to help?

I had been bugging Alex for weeks about figuring out what we were going to do, and then the weekend before Valentines Day, I stumbled across this:

The Gold Class Cinemas are these super fancy, totally classy movie cinemas, and we’re lucky enough to have one right by us in Pasadena. Being that we both love movies, this was a perfect way to spend Valentines Day. I sent the link to Alex, and he called right away and made reservations for us to see The Wolfman at 10:15. Perfect.

On Saturday night we had Pimms and Lemonade and played Apples to Apples with the roommates. Woke up Sunday morning and amused myself playing with my DS, reading Bruce Campbell’s Autobiography and then when it got to be noon, I turned on Jurassic Park so Alex would wake up (which he did – he heard 10 seconds of the movie and asked “Did you go downstairs and get my copy of Jurassic Park?” – so cute). After getting up and dressed we set off for lunch and to find something to do.

Since we were going to be having a fancy dinner, and we are tight on money, we were okay with being a bit cheep with our lunch. We got drive thru from our favorite fast food joint and drove up the hill to Huntington Library – a beautiful park/art library that is quickly becoming one of our favorite spots. There we grabbed the Pirates of the Caribbean blanket out of my car, 2 books (mine – Soulless by Gail Carriger and Alex – Dean Koontz’s Frankenstein: Prodigal Son) and our lunches and picniced and read until it got dark.

After stopping by my place so I could change and get ready, and stopping by Alex’s place so he could do the same, we took off for Old Town Pasadena for our date.

We got there about an hour early, which left us just enough time to browse the nearest Barnes and Noble (one of our favorite places). At 9:45 we checked in at the cinema where they seated us outside the theater and served us drinks while we waited to enter. The Valentines Day package came with 3 drinks each, so we started off with our first, a Stella, while we waited. At about 10:00 a waitress (in a very tiny dress) came and picked up our drinks and showed us to our seats. The best way to describe the seats in the theater is comparing flying first class to flying coach. If typical theater seating is like coach, Gold Class is like first class.
Basically… describing the seats wont do justice, see for yourself:

Yeah, nice, right? The seats recline so far that you’re almost flat, there’s leg rests, a table between the two seats and a little button on the table for you to call your waiter (should you need a pillow, blanket or refill on your drinks). Because it was Valentines Day there was a rose and a box of chocolates on the table, waiting for me, I felt so special.

After everyone was seated, the trailers started, we got a refill on our drinks and as the opening credits for The Wolfman began, they brought out the first course of our meal. I was a bit afraid that being served food while trying to watch a movie might be a bit distracting, but it wasn’t that way at all. The servers were quiet and did not distract from the experience. A half hour after the first course, we got our main course and then a half hour after that we were served dessert. How was the food? It was fancy. For most people, that’s perfect, but I’m a meat and potatoes kind of girl, I’m the pickiest eater I’ve ever met. So every plate that appeared before us, I’d let Alex take a bite, and then I’d ask him what it was, and he’d tell me if I’d like it or not. I ate about 1/3 of everything we got served.

After a fancy three course meal and three rather large glasses of beer, the end credits for Wolfman we rolling and it was time to leave. The movie was awesome, both Alex and I loved it quite a bit – but I believe Alex is writing a review for it, so I’ll let him tell you more about what we thought.

All in all, it was the perfect Valentines Day.

So what have we been up to?
Here’s a quick update: Went to Disneyland to celebrate 2 months, Mass Effect 2 has taken over Alex’s mind, Johnny and Megan (1.0) moved, we went to the anti-mall with Josh and Tammy, I became a ginger, Alex inherited an iMac g4, I installed airport in his g4, the “bomb” (Alex’s car) still wont start, I got the steampunk Mickey vinyl at Disneyland, Alex joined a D&D campaign (making me miss D&D tons), we finished Series 1 of Doctor Who, we traded in Alex’s room mate Eon and got Mike, Justin and George in exchange (a billion times better), Alex got me to read (and actually like) a Marvel comic book, Henry learned to crawl, I have spent a collective 4 hours trying to get first place on the Westcliff shooting range on Fable 2, Alex and I love Brand Library/Park, we saw The Wolfman last night for Valentines Day at the Gold Class Cinemas (fancy) and this weekend we’re going Big Bear.

That’s about the gist of it all right there, I’m sure I’m forgetting some stuff.

Anyway, I promise it wont be another 3 weeks until our next post.