She said yes!

Those of you who follow my Twitter account (or know me in person) probably know that I proposed to Michelle on Saturday. The good news is that she said yes!

But for those wanting more details, here they are.

Michelle’s birthday was Saturday. For her birthday, her friend Christina bought tickets for us (Michelle and I) and for her and her boyfriend, Nick, to ride the Flightline, a zip-line ride at the San Diego Wild Animal Park. We all had wanted to go, and the weather was beautiful.

All the while, I had planned on proposing that day. I’d gone shopping for rings, and was able to pick it up the Friday before — with not a moment to spare. What I’d thought, though, was that I’d wait until we got to the bottom of the zip line, and with our hearts racing propose right then and there.

The Flightline is actually two zip-lines: A short, practice zip-line in the middle of the park, and a long, 3500-foot zipline that shoots you over the area where the tram takes you, above the rhinos, springbok, African cattle, and zebras. What I didn’t know (or couldn’t tell from the previous times I’d seen it from far away) was that the platform for the long zipline was 900 feet in the air.

So we’re at the top of this platform, along with a dozen or so other people, and the weather is so nice, and we’re milling about waiting for the rigging to be set up. I decide over the course of about five seconds that I’m doing it now, because it’s beautiful and quiet.

I said to the other three in our little group, “guys, if you have two minutes I have to do something.” I said “Michelle,” and wasn’t even able to get another word out before Michelle sensed what was happening and turned around, embarrassed. So I gently turned her around, and said (and I’m paraphrasing here: It’s surprising hard to remember exactly what I said) that she made me the happiest man alive, and that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her, and hoped that she wanted to spend the rest of her life with me.

I should probably mention at this point that the platform that we’re standing on is a metal grating, with large, one-inch diameter holes. There are smaller holes with lips that bend up, for shoe traction.

As I prepared to get down on one knee, I was suddenly terrified of dropping the ring I had in my pocket. I very carefully took it out, and undid it from a cotton ball I had it around (so it wouldn’t fall out of my pocket on the zip-line).

I got down on one knee — which was very painful because of those traction things — and asked “Michelle, will you marry me?”

She said yes, and I got up, and we hugged, and everyone clapped. And it was the nicest I’ve ever felt.

(Afterward, one of the other couples in our zip-line group said that he got photos of the event itself, and that he’s planning on emailing them to me. I’ll post them when I have them.)

We went down the zip-line, had a nice time at the park, and then went to lunch at the Stone Brewery. The day couldn’t have been better.

Photos of the day (with more to come) are available on Flickr.