Over the last two months, both Adelle and I have been making our rounds on the phone or meeting our friends and family in person, telling them the good news! If you haven't found out already, YES...WE ARE ENGAGED!!! The actual date was June 26th, 2009. We have yet to update our facebook profile statuses due to our own stubbornness to announce it there so in the meantime, we're just in a relationship!!! I'm going to start this off by telling you MY story.

Back in Spring 2000, at a Memorial Day BBQ that a mutual friend had invited me to, we crossed paths at the potluck table. I asked her what her name was, we exchanged brief hellos, and when I mean brief, it's the shortest of conversations. It went something like this:

Elijah: Hello! I'm Elijah. I go to Revelle. How about you? Strange girl across the table picking up chips: I'm Adelle. I go to Marshall. Bye!

-- and she walks off because she has to go sit down next to her friend on the grass on her little towel. Granted, I weigh about a 140 at 5'11", am wearing khaki short and a Structure Polo with some Dr. Marten Sandals. I guess you could have just imagined a tool or a dork, or both combined, but she basically gave me the straight hate!

The night continued without any further contact which then transitioned into what ended up being a bonfire. As the ocean air began to chill, another mutual friend from Atlantis Hall, which happened to also be my dormitory, wanted to head home. She said that she needed a ride, and being my awesome nice self, I obliged. Little did I know that her "friend" wanted a ride too. I thought, "What the heck?" (I actually didn't think that because I am a nice guy.) Good thing though, because it just so happened that her friend was Adelle. We got into my 1985 Turbo Diesel 300D Mercedes, cranked up some surfer-punk music and drove up the hill back to campus. I was into the punk music contrary to popular belief that I would have been all into hip-hop / rap, etc I too also liked alternative, punk, and metal. I dropped off Adelle first at her place and then Alice and I walked back to our hall. That was that...

let’s go fly! Palomar Airport (KCRQ) @ Pinnacle Academy DA40

Fast forward 3 years later, July of 2003, I turn 21. I'm living it up the leftover high that was my birthday party, heading out every weekend, hitting up all the bars between Downtown San Diego and LA -- it was just crazy fun and definitely costly, but I always refer the 6 months that ensued to as "dirty 21 fun!" Turning 21 helped me grow a pair and I started to ask a few people out. To my surprise, some said yes and I thought to myself why didn't I ever talk to girls earlier? You see, I didn't really "talk" to girls. I mean, I talked every now and then, perhaps a peep would leave my mouth, but I was always too shy to take it any further than a simple, "Hello. How are ya?" I promise when I have a son, he is going to grow some balls and not miss out on his high school dances like I did the first year or so.

Well, it just so happened that I had a friend who convinced me to take "Human Sexuality" with her during the 2002 Fall Quarter. I signed up, got into the class but was confronted with a slight disappointment that she didn't make it in. Do I just drop it or stick it out even though she isn't here? She was a junior and I had a lot of credits already, so it wasn't like I needed to crash the course. I didn't even need it as I was Management Science major. I also happened to run into a bunch of old friends from freshman year and while I got distracted with them, my other friend never made it into the class. Good thing I guess because we probably might have continued our random get-togethers. It's not like that at all either...really. Shopping, the occaisional dinner. Just keeping it kosher at all times. But onto the climax!

A few weeks pass and I finally had my chance to talk her. I definitely recognized her and thought that she was cute for sure, but at the time, I wasn't looking for anything more than a study buddy. Seriously! So, with that, I finally was able to reintroduce myself, but I made a big error. I went like this:

Friend: Adelle, this is Elijah, Elijah, Adelle. Adelle: I think we've met before at a picnic. Nice to meet you again. Elijah: Oh yeah, we met your freshman year?! Adelle with a confused look: What year are you? Elijah: I'm a 4th Adelle: so am I!? (weirdo)

Well, I follow her onto the UCSD shuttle bus that takes us to our respective automobile location, sit near her and just start chatting it up. We have a final coming up, so I pull out the study card! I got the digits easily without a hitch and filed it away in my pocket.

I didn't call her either till about 2 weeks later the night of Halloween in Downtown San Diego. I had to really convince her over the phone to that she should be coming out being that it was our first year as 21 year olds celebrating what usually becomes a night of drunken celebration. She met up with us and that was that. We continued hanging out and one day, we realized that we were dating. The rest is history.

I proposed in Atlanta after she had rode the aircraft that I was flying back from Toronto. I landed and did the announcements. It was just all put well together. I even had the flight attendants have her wait behind and then told the captain that I wanted to get a shot of us in the cockpit. While he was taking the 2nd photo, that's when I popped the question. Happy engagement babe!

truly surprised her since she just woke up from a 2 hour flight

she says yes & my Captain can barely click the camera fast enough