The proposal: part 2

(For part 1, scroll down or click here.)

You might be wondering why I flew our friend Matt from D.C. to the Phoenix airport for the stunt. Well, it was an homage to my favorite Sharon & Greg moment:

Flash back to 2008. Sharon was working at The Arizona Republic and I was at The Washington Post. We lived together all through college but got jobs in different parts of the country.

One April day, I was on a last-minute flight from D.C. to San Diego (my home town) to attend my grandpa's funeral. That same day, Sharon was flying from Phoenix to Nashville for a journalism workshop.

Here's the crazy thing: We were both connecting in Dallas.

We discovered this the night before. I think my first plane landed about 30 minutes before Sharon's second plane departed. Once I landed, I took the Dallas Skylink halfway across the airport to get to Sharon's gate. Sharon told the workers at her gate that she's waiting for someone, while the rest of the plane boarded. I came running up, and we were able to talk for all of a minute or two, before Sharon had to scurry off to get to her plane. She was the last one on.

Okay, so fast-forward to October 2009, when Sharon has been living with me in D.C. for almost a year. I get a thought while reading on the Metro out to Fairfax for class: What if Matt "runs into" us at the airport? We were visiting my aunt and uncle in Baja California and coming back in early January. Sharon has always told me that she wanted a photographer to be there when I popped the question, so I arranged for one, in a way that was special for us. And there's a little bit of the whole Friends "I got off the plane!" thing going on there, too.

Here's the crazy thing (again): Even though Sharon bought the tickets long before I thought of this, our connecting flight back home happened to be in ... Phoenix.

Even better! I thought that we could met her Arizona pals, go out, see the town (I'd never been, and I have to recommend Julioberto's Mexican food in Phoenix—mmmm ... carne asada fries), and fly out the next day (I even gave Sharon's boss a heads-up that she'd be unexpectedly missing a day). I heard Sharon talk a lot about her gals Patricia and Astrid, so I got in contact with Patricia about picking us up from the airport and scouting out Phoenix restaurants.

Back to the airport: While Sharon was all flustered, Matt slyly handed me the ring (I didn't want to bring it through customs), and then I made my proposal. We had a celebratory beer. I think it's funny that no one in the airport seemed to care what was going on. A few people looked up from their laptops, and one waitress said "congratulations" on her way back to the kitchen.

Patricia and Astrid picked us up. We went out for a while and then went to dinner at Olive & Ivy in Scottsdale. Sharon gave my name, and they said "reservations for seven people?" Sharon was about to correct them that we only had five, when her parents came to the door. I let Sharon's mom in on the plan. Her and I both thought it would be neat for her to be there, so they drove down from San Francisco. Sharon said she couldn't handle any more surprises after that, and luckily, that was the last one.

For plan-related stuff, I had been using my lame Yahoo! account (gbfgbfgbf123@yahoo.com) that I made in sixth grade so that Sharon wouldn't accidentally see my scheming in my Gmail when we were at home.

Here's a few photos from Patricia, a photographer in her own right.

Us at Four Peaks.

Patricia's Facebook caption: "Sharon's parents randomly showed up at Olive & Ivy in Scottsdale. That was super weird, because they live in San Francisco."

The whole restaurant gang. Left to right: Astrid, Matt, Sharon's mom (Cindy), Sharon's dad (Doug), Sharon, Greg, and Patricia.

Next: Part 3, we hit the bars, and the day after (by Sharon).