Excerpt from “She Said Yes”

Started the day with an intimate catamaran trip with 60 other gringos fighting for a good seat. A little snorkeling followed off the boat in a 10 knot current. Kind of funny because we all were holding on to a rope as not to float away under the 4 other catamarans each carrying 60 snorkeling gringos.

After lunch we went swimming with the dolphins. When I read the advertisement I pictured me standing behind a cardboard cutout of 2 people with dolphins with the heads cut out for photos... I was in for a surprise. No cardboard cutouts at all. We have a picture of Sarah holding on to 2 dolphins dorsal fins as they race towards the dock and Sarah trying to smile while her bikini bottoms were being pulled off by the speed. I should have taken a picture of me laughing. Great day and I was ready with my ring for dinner. Planning is everything. We had reservations at this restaurant right beside the ocean with the waves rolling in and crashing beside us. A guy playing sax on our other side creating the mood. "Perfect" I thought, "now what". Sarah was talking and I was answering in one word grunts as I scrambled to come up with the perfect words that she couldn't turn down. Practicing in my head "Wanna get hitched?, Want to be my ball and chain? We might get a better cell phone plan if we are married...what do you think?". Nothing seemed right until a little mosquito (as you know Sarah's affinity for bugs) bit her on her finger.

"My fingers swelling up, I have to move my ring to my other hand." she says.

Defensively I pipe in, "Whoah whoah whoah, what are you doing there, if you put the ring on that finger doens't that imply something else."

"No", she says, "No it doesn't mean anything, its just my finger gets lonely on this hand" hinting oh so subtly as usual.

"Give me that thing", and I snatched the ring and oh so sneakily swapped them with out her noticing. "All right then, try this one" as I magically turned her old ring into an engagement ring. Well she said yes, and I was relieved and actually felt a bit relaxed...until the next morning when I was informed that we were late with the invitations and needed a guest list done right away. Engaged less then 12 hours, and I was already 8 months late on the organizing of the wedding.