“Some moments we never forget, because our lives have been forever changed by them.”- A. Danielson

HOW HE POPPED THE QUESTION
The Saturday after Thanksgiving 2006, Tiffany and her sisters had plans to work on Christmas crafts at Thao’s apartment. Unbeknownst to Tiffany, Rolando had made plans of his own. He told Tiffany that he and Jeff, her brother-in-law were going gun shopping. A totally plausible story since Jeff was going through an I-need-a-weapon-to-protect-me-from-weirdoes-while-camping phase. In actuality, Jeff dropped Rolando off at her parents’ house so he could ask for her hand in marriage!

The next day on their way back to LA, Rolando asked Tiffany if she wanted to have dinner at Blowfish the following Saturday because he was craving sushi. She immediately agreed since it’s one of her favorite restaurants. A day or so later, Rolando remarked that the Grove shopping area (near Beverly Hills) must be nicely decorated with holiday lights by this time. He said, “Maybe we should go there after dinner on Saturday.” This set off a little bell in Tiffany’s head since the restaurant and the Grove were both part of their first official date. But she didn’t think too much of it and just went along with the plans.

Later that week, Tiffany was out and about when Rolando called to tell her the restaurant contacted him because they had accidentally double booked for Saturday and asked them to change their reservation to Friday. Tiffany and Rolando had planned to go to a friend’s birthday happy hour, but Rolando was insistent that they go to dinner that night instead. (Tiffany would later find out the real reason the plans were changed: Rolando had called Tiffany’s dad to let him know he was going to propose on Saturday. Tiffany’s dad had checked the lunar calendar and reported that Saturday, December 2nd was not a lucky day. Friday or Sunday that week was good. So Rolando, respecting their traditions and preferences, changed his plans.)

That Friday, Rolando was rather quiet at work. At lunch, they met up with Tiffany’s friend, Suzanne, who noticed that Rolando looked “a little green.” When she asked him if he was ok, Rolando replied that he was feeling a little queasy, but that it was probably something he’d had for breakfast.

Dinner at Blowfish that night was simply delicious. Afterwards, they went to the Grove and arrived right in the middle of the Snow Show. Hundreds of tiny bubble clusters floated through the air and kids were running around trying to catch them. Tiffany and Rolando walked around for a bit and then Rolando suggested that they go on the bridge which crosses a small manmade pond (and was the site of their first kiss). He wrapped her in his arms looked into her eyes and began to tell her how much he loved her, how happy he was and how he had a question to ask her. With that, he pulled a box from the inner pocket of his jacket, got down on one knee in the middle of the rather crowded bridge, and asked, “Will you marry me?”  As the realization of the moment set in, all Tiffany could manage for a while was, “Oh my God...Oh my God...” Then becoming conscious that Rolando was still on one knee looking up at her, she answered with a resounding, “Yes!”