the ultimate mix tape

So naturally, I had gotten "Rattle and Hum" when it came out. After all, I'd been at the concert the night after the fountain-spraying incident at Justin Herman Plaza. (And there are a few memories associated with that, too... but I digress.) And then I went off to college, broke up with the high school girlfriend (well, okay, she dumped me), got through the 1989 earthquake, and obtained a new girlfriend in early 1990. Then in early '91 I flunked out of college and went back home to live with my parents. Very patient girlfriend waited for me to get my act together and come back - of course by then she was a year ahead of me academically. In the summer of '92 we moved to an old Victorian just outside downtown Santa Cruz, on River Street (hence "The Floodplain") with a mutual friend. Now, all during the long distance relationship, I'd spent any spare time I could garner making mix tapes of various levels of sappiness to send her. One thing always stayed the same - the last song I'd put on there would be "All I Want Is You."

So, winter '92. I've got a tape in the stereo, ready to go. She's home early from school for some reason - I didn't have any classes that day so I'd been futzing around the kitchen all afternoon. She's looking at some soap opera where there's an elaborate plot being hatched to get someone to marry someone else, and says "Whatever happened to simple, down-on-one-knee proposals?"

What can you do when presented with an opportunity like that? So I grab the jeweler's box off the top of the refrigerator where I'd stashed it, walk into the living room, get down on my knee, open the box and say "since you asked... will you marry me?"

And while she's trying on the ring (which didn't fit, but more on that later) I put on the tape - "All I Want Is You."

We had to get the ring resized and the "official" proposal was made in the middle of our house Christmas party that weekend. But that one, perfect moment... We've now been married 13 years and it just keeps getting better.