By this time, it was pretty much inevitable that I’d pop the question to Sachi. We’ve both been waiting for it for a while; I’ve been waiting for the right opportunity, and Sachi has been waiting for me to get around to it.

Actually, I have been planning this for a little while now, trying to get things set up–getting the ring selection lined up and doing my research in that area, getting the timing right so the event would be special, that kind of thing. I wanted to do it at Christmas, but Sachi’s work kept her from joining us for Christmas by a day, and because she would be too jet-lagged the first night, we arranged for a special family Christmas dinner on the 27th.

Certain coincidences have been happening lately as well. When Sachi’s flight was an hour from taking off from Narita, I wondered if maybe she had her cell phone with her, and decided to call her. When I started looking for for her cell number on my computer, just at that moment an email came in from her via her cell–she was asking what my family’s address in the U.S. was, as she had to put it on some form for the flight. The timing was within seconds.

When her plane arrived, I picked her up at the airport. Doing this is always a difficult affair–since parking both costs money but more importantly, represents a long walk with luggage, my family always tries to time the pickup at the arrivals lobby. But the timing is difficult–you never know how long immigration, baggage unloading, and customs checks will take. The person picking up always gets there x number of minutes early or late, and somebody has to wait. Usually we do it so the arriving person calls the driver from a public phone; if the person picking up gets there early, they loop around the airport until the call comes.

So I monitored her flight (three hours late! Poor Sachi!), and just after it arrived, I took off for the airport. Just as I pulled up to the arrivals lobby door, my cell phone rang–it was Sachi, and she had just come out to the lobby that moment. Again, spooky timing.

Then, the day I planned to propose to her, we were up in San Francisco doing some shopping. We visited several herbal shops (Sachi is into herbs now, and we got a ton for good prices here), and at one that had a new-age theme, Sachi found some tarot-like decks. One was called “Messages from Your Angels,” and Sachi shuffled the deck and pulled one card out at random. It read: “Daniel: I am the angel of Marriage, and I am assisting you right now.” She showed it to me, in our usual, “Hey, when are you gonna pop the question?” joshing manner. I thought, “Dangit, Daniel, you’re spoiling the surprise!” Of course, it didn’t spoil anything, but wrapped up a rather interesting string of timing coincidences.

So we came back from the city and picked up the presents we’d collected, went to the place where we’re staying (a family friend who very kindly allows us to stay in her home while she visits family for the holidays) and wrapped the presents, then returned to my folks’ home for Sachi’s Christmas dinner (goose with stuffing and various fixings–really good). After that, we exchanged gifts (I got Sachi a MacBook, natch), and then things settled down so it was just Sachi and I and my parents. I made an excuse via noting the songs I should put on Sachi’s new computer to start playing our favorite song (When You Taught Me How to Dance, from the Miss Potter soundtrack), and then I took the ring in its case out of hiding, and proposed.

When I asked Sachi if she would marry me, her response was priceless: as she cried and reached out to hug me, she said, “Why not?” We all loved that line—to me, it sounded like a line from a movie–but it was not exactly what she meant to say. She wanted to say, “Why would I not want to marry you?” as she later explained.

The ring I gave her, however, was not the actual engagement ring, as I explained as I gave it to her. In order to both have the ring be a surprise and to allow her to pick out her own, my sister kindly lent us her own engagement ring to use as a stand-in. Before Sachi came, I did some research with the help of a family friend who is also a gemologist to pick out a number of possible ring mountings and diamonds to go with it. We then went through the assortment, and Sachi chose the one that she liked best. We probably won’t be able to have it finished before we leave–New Year’s coming and all–but we’ll get it soon enough after we get back.