There's a special lady in my life. Her name is Liza. Some of you may have read my griping when she studied overseas for a semester (Help! My girlfriend is moving to France for four months!). As luck would have it, I made the effort and got the chance to travel to France to visit during her studies abroad. I was originally scheduled to stay for two weeks. When I got there, things just seemed so perfect and so beautiful that I simply couldn't leave. I just couldn't. So I ended up staying for an entire month.

We went on day trips to the ocean at Biarritz, to the grotto at Lourdes, to the Basque Country, to San Sebastian, Spain for a night of dancing. We went on over night trips to Toulouse and Carcassonne. We spent a weekend in London. And we lived day-to-day in a small down in the South of France. It was the single best month of my entire life. And it wasn't just because I was momentarily living in Europe. It was because I was with Liza.

We learned during that month that we can really coexist... more importantly to cohabitate. We were serious before she left. We talked of marriage. In fact, amongst her friends in France, she referred to me as her fiance all the time. While I was there, it was explained that we weren't actually engaged, but we would be.

I had a big ol' plan. I am an actor and a musician, so it was going to be big and it was going to be theatrical and musical and so creative. I was going to lure her into the theatre at the university where I was to have an entire one-man-show set up to run for her when she arrived. It would tell the story of us, accompanied by the many songs I've written that have been inspired by her. I had a stage crew lined up, lighting designer, stage manager, usher. I had it all in the works. I just needed more time to coordinate without her knowing. -AND- I needed the building. I had been planning this amazing proposal for months.

This past weekend Liza and I were in Minneapolis. We went to a wedding of two of her friends. The groom was from the midwest and the bride was from Japan. It was very small, quaint - but beautiful. As the bride's father walked her down the aisle the butterflies in my stomach started fluttering madly. I pictured Liza and her father. I whispered to her, "I want to do this." She smiled ear to ear and said, "I do too."

Later that night at the reception, we had consumed a couple glasses of champagne and we were loosened up a bit. We had an amazing time dancing like crazy people. Everyone seemed so low-key. Even the bartender told us we seemed to be the "only people having fun here." We were having a blast. It was so fun. Throughout the night, our topic of conversation constantly drifted back to marriage (we were at a wedding after all...). In the midst of our dance, Liza said into my ear, "You know, if you asked me I'd say 'yes'." Well, the problem was that I was planning all this big stuff and the ring was at home, five hours away. I couldn't ask right then! So I chuckled and told her that I didn't have the ring. She said, "It doesn't matter. If it's you asking me, it'll be perfect." The butterflies fluttered madly again. I asked, "Are you serious?" She said, "I am SO serious."

I put my lips to her ear and said, "You make me happier than I ever thought I could be. And if you let me, I want to spend the rest of my life trying to make you feel the same way." She burst into tears. I said, "Be my wife, Liza. Will you marry me?" She shouted "YES" repeatedly and threw her arms around me and squeezed my neck.

The next day, on the ride home we kept referring to one another as "fiance(e)" and she bought her first bridal magazine. After our five-hour drive back home, I pulled out my guitar and played a song for her that I had written especially for our proposal. I had intended to play it at the end of the big presentation... but since that didn't happen, I did it in the quiet calm of home. The last line of the song is, "Will you make me the happiest man in the world?" When the song was finished, I put the guitar aside and grabbed the ring. I got down on one knee. She kissed my forehead. I took her hand and asked her, "Will you make me the happiest man in the world?" She said yes. I held the ring at the end of her finger and I said, "I'm going to love you forever," and I placed her ring.

Later, I was reluctant, but I explained the original plan to her. She thought it sounded magnificent, but she absolutely adored how it happened. So spontaneous, so "heat of the moment", so much like US. One thing she told me before was that amongst girls, an important story to tell is the proposal. The first question is always, "How did he propose?" So I was scared that I gave her a lame story. But she told me that the fact that I had planned something so huge, but loved her so much that I just COULDN'T wait another day makes a much better story. And hey... she got TWO proposals from me in two days!

So, Twiney's engaged. It's official. It's real. I'm going to get married to the most amazing woman in the world.

Rawk on,
...twineball...