judyonthenet

For the, what, four people that read this blog, you may recall that I complained a little bit about how unromantic my Valentine’s Day was. Last Tuesday was our make-up romantic date, according to Kelvin, to make up for the lacking Valentine’s Day. The location he chose was Alexander’s Steakhouse, an upscale steak restaurant that opened by Vallco within the last couple years. I was excited about his choice because 1) I had heard good things about it from coworkers, 2) I think this was the fanciest restaurant I’d been to since Le Papillon during junior prom, and 3) I love steak.

I left work early with Kelvin (he was on Spring Break last week, so we’d been carpooling) to get ready for my fancy shmancy date. Kelvin spent most of this time buying a lint brush he didn’t need and getting his suit all nice and spiffy for dinner. Unfortunately, I spent most of the weekend before watching films and hanging out with Rodney, so I hadn’t really thought through my wardrobe. I found my old shoes from MIT senior ball (which I still love), and I just used the purse and jacket I wear regularly because I couldn’t find my senior ball purse, and the really nice coat my father gave me a few years back somehow managed to disappear in the last couple years (I really loved that coat :( ). For makeup, I just used a little bit from my old makeup kit (barely looked like I had makeup on… didn’t try too hard because I’m incompetent at makeup and didn’t want to look like a clown). For my dress, I used an old cocktail dress that I had sitting in my closet.

A sidenote about this cocktail dress: During my freshmen or sophomore year, Kelvin was doing his Marine Corps boot camp/training thing, so he wasn’t around much. For my birthday present, Kelvin had his sister (Kimi) take me shopping for a nice dress that he’d cover the cost for. I remember going ALL AROUND VALLEY FAIR trying on dresses and not liking any of them, because I’m ridiculously picky. I felt really bad for Kimi, because she was following me all over the mall because of my pickiness, and she doesn’t really get anything out of this (other than kudos for being a good sister). But she seemed pretty determined to get me a dress, so she was really patient and stuck with it. Eventually, we went to bebe, which I had originally skipped because when I think of bebe I think of “Asian ho”. Of course, I ended up finding a nice, simple dress that I loved there. The purpose of this dress was so I’d have something to wear whenever Kelvin took me to a fancy restaurant when he got back from boot camp. Six years later, it still had its tag on it :P Luckily, I haven’t gained too much weight since college, so it still fit pretty decent.

Once we were ready, my mother helped us take a couple pictures looking somewhat dressed up, and then we left for our 7:30PM dinner reservations. The parking lot by the restaurant was full, so we had to park closer to mall, which was unfortunate because it was freaking cold and windy. Getting into the restaurant, I was impressed with the large, delicious chunks of meat on display by the lobby. We waited for our reserved table by having some drinks. I had some sort of candy apple drink that was very sweet (how I like my alcoholic beverages), and Kelvin had some Grey Goose & tonic. I called him a high roller, and he said he was already putting in a lot for tonight so might as well go all out. Someone came and showed us to our table. The restaurant was full of people, which surprised me for a Tuesday night.

We got a table in the corner, very off to the side, with “the special setting” (black-colored setting with unnecessary chopsticks). There were already printed menus on top of the plates with our names on them, as Kelvin had arranged a set menu with the restaurant beforehand. Too bad Kelvin sat at the wrong setting (the one with my name at it), slightly ruining that small effort and causing the waiter to chuckle at us. Still, I was impressed with the effort so far, so I asked Kelvin how he did all this or how he came up with this, but he didn’t say much in response. (The day before, I was at one of his group meetings with classmates for a group project. Instead of actually doing any work, he had his laptop camera on to check the state of his hair. I noticed this and looked over to his laptop, and then I caught a glimpse of an email saying something about printing our names on something. For some reason, even though Kelvin saw me staring at his laptop, it took him a bit to finally close his email program and yap at me for being nosy.)

We got a very nice waiter named Luis, and he said since it was our first visit here, he was giving us a treat from the kitchen. So the first thing we ate was an amuse-bouche (for those that don’t eat at fancy restaurants much [me] or those that don’t watch Top Chef [not me], amuse-bouche is like an appetizer for appetizers… a small tasty morsel before eating anything substantial to excite you for what’s coming up next) that was… I don’t know what it was. Some cheese gnocchi thing (I’d only even heard of the word “gnocchi” from Top Chef, btw), but it was hella good. My mouth was definitely amused. He also served us some bottled water called Voss, which was bottled in a very pretty bottle.

Next was our caesar salad called “Hail Caesar!”, which was when all our pretty settings were taken away. (Probably would have been more useful if we had gotten an appetizer instead of a salad.) You’d think caesar salad is… caesar salad, but they also did the salad really well. Amount of dressing was just right and well distributed, and the cheese they used was delicious. However, the salad was a somewhat high-maintenance salad: whole, uncut leaves of lettuce was used, so we had to cut it up ourselves. I didn’t finish my salad (it was pretty big) to save room for the main course, which made me a little sad because I really liked the salad. I snacked on a little bread until the main course arrived.

Luis arrived with a giant plate of meat, which apparently was the 28 oz. aged Porterhouse steak we were getting. Between me and Kelvin, this one steak made sense, but I wonder if people really order this for themselves. One giant steak for yourself can’t be that healthy for your insides… but maybe it can’t be that bad, because the two men at the table next to us each got a steak that was only a bit smaller than ours. Kelvin cut the meat off the bone in the middle and served. It was… heavenly. I’ve never had aged meat before, but it’s very mild and… dull? (but in a good way) I’m not sure how to describe it. The steak had a Tabasco sauce (didn’t really taste the Tabasco) and bleu cheese, which I’m not a fan off but it really brought out that aged flavor. For sides, we got haricots verts (which is apparently some fancy-shmancy French green beans) with smoked bacon and mac ‘n’ cheese with white truffle oil. Love the green beans (I must be getting old, because I seem to like veggies a lot more now than when I was kid)… HATED the mac ‘n’ cheese. Don’t get me wrong; I love mac ‘n’ cheese in general. And on an episode of Top Chef, one of the most praised dishes in one episode was a mac ‘n’ cheese dish where the mac ‘n’ cheese was cooked above a truffle, so I was kind of excited for that reason as well. But the problem was that I had never tasted a truffle before, and apparently it’s not a flavor I like. In fact, it somewhat nauseated me. It was like the mushroom flavor I hate x100. I had always imagined a truffle would taste much different from your standard fungi (and it did) and be unimaginably heavenly, but apparently my taste was not so refined. Strangely enough, Kelvin (a fellow mushroom hater) actually liked the flavor and dealt with most of the mac ‘n’ cheese.

Some random guy who wasn’t Luis came with the desserts, which was called “10 Degrees of Chocolate”. He gave us a mini-lecture about the “10 Degrees of Chocolate” and I almost immediately forgot everything he said. Luis came by with some sort of super-fancy green tea. Everything was, of course, absolutely decadent, and I loved the tea. (I have to find out where I can find this mystical green tea that was picked and processed by some lone Japanese old man. Apparently anything tastes better when it’s made by Japanese old people.)

Around dessert time, Kelvin asked me how come I hadn’t asked about his present yet. (There was this wrapped, medium sized box that he told me earlier was the gift he had especially made.) I said we haven’t even had dessert yet, and he seemed surprised that I wasn’t curious. I guess I was more excited about the meal than the actual present. He also asked me where he saw our relationship going in 5 years. I don’t really remember what I said, but I remember the way the conversation was going was leading me to be somewhat suspicious and anxious. I asked several times if he got me anything “serious”.

Me: You didn’t get me anything “serious”, did you?
Kelvin: What do you mean by “serious”?
Me: I mean “serious”, like a big deal. I mean, I don’t want anything “serious”. you know that, right?
Kelvin: Of course not. Nothing serious.

He repeatedly denied that it’s anything serious, so I started interrogating about the present.

Me: Is it the size of the box?
Kelvin: No.
Me: Is it electronic? Is it expensive? Is it fragile?
Kelvin: Uh…
Me: Did I specifically ask for one?
Kelvin: No.
Me: Will I like it?
Kelvin: I really hope so.

I don’t remember all the stuff I asked him, but after a while, I was somewhat convinced and a little relieved that it wasn’t something serious. By something serious I, of course, meant an engagement ring. I know some people might find it strange that it’s not something I wanted, considering Kelvin and I have been dating for almost seven years. But doesn’t the idea of marriage scare people, regardless of whether or not you’re in a long-term monogamous relationship already? I mean, it’s like the next step of your entire life, one more thing to check off the To-Do List of Life before you die. I feel like something that big means you have to… grow up a little. I’m not sure if I was ready for that… I’m still not sure if I’m ready for that. I have every intention of being with Kelvin forever and ever, but marriage? Now? But whatever, Kelvin wasn’t giving me something silly like that, right? Besides, I’d always told him that he has to finish school before anything can happen. (Yep, degree required to be my husband.)

After finishing all ten degrees of chocolate and some cotton candy (what’s with this place and cotton candy?), it’s time to open my present. Before Kelvin handed me the box, he said, “Before I give this to you, I want to know what you want of me.” I forgot my answer, but once again, alarms were going off in my head. I asked again if this present is something serious, and I think he blew me off, because I don’t remember what he said. As I tried to open the box, I noticed Kelvin was getting more and more fidgety. He kept scooting an inch or two away from me as I worked on the box. After some trouble with the wrapping, I eventually opened the box and found a card inside. The card has a picture of a little girl bride kissing a little boy groom.

Okay, couldn’t he have picked a better card? Something a little less obvious and maybe a bit more appropriate? He later said he got this card because it was the only one without writing inside. I told him this is like a card you give to somebody at their wedding.

Anyways, due to the obviousness of the card, my head was in full red-alert mode. I looked over to Kelvin again, who was still inching away at me and telling me to read the card. I opened the card, and all I saw as “Dearest Judy” and a paragraph of scribbling underneath it that wasn’t really registering because my mind was all messed up with the situation. I looked back at Kelvin, who finally succeeded in getting out of the seat and was now on one knee with a ring box in his hand. He opened the ring box to expose a very, very lovely engagement ring and said, “Judy, I want you to marry me.”

Now, if you think about it, technically he wasn’t really asking me anything. He was just stating a desire that doesn’t require a response. So, did he technically propose? I don’t know. I’m assuming the fact that he was on one knee and showing me a pretty ring with the intent of a proposal is enough to make it a proposal. Plus I responded, even though he didn’t ask me anything. But is it technically a proposal?

So, it was actually happening. My original plan, if this ever happened, was to say “no” (for reasons mentioned previously). But three things made this very difficult: 1) I was in a public setting (well, not that public… it was already 9PM and the restaurant had mostly cleared out, but still), 2) I was staring at very, very lovely ring, and 3) I was totally overcome with emotion. I can’t remember if I said “Oh my god” or “Oh shit” or anything, but I know I was thinking it, and I know I started crying. Which seemed like an excessively girly thing to do, and I’d never thought I would do such a thing in this situation, since I don’t consider myself a girly girl. But I did, and I was crying a lot and shaking a bit. Eventually, I managed to say, “Sure, okay.” (Or was it “Okay, sure”?) ["It was the latter." - Kelvin] I grabbed his head and kissed him, and I hugged him while he was still on his knee.

He got back to his seat and helped me put the ring on, which of course fit perfectly. I really love this ring. So simple and elegant. He asked if I liked the ring, and through my shaking, “oh my god”s, and tears I managed to communicate that I did. He said he was incredibly relieved because he had to have it custom made, and all the whole ordering and waiting process for the ring had stressed him out the last couple months. He had decided to do this in November and had been working out ring stuff most of the time. He told me about the setting, which is called a tension setting, and how only a couple manufacturers do this kind of setting. I didn’t even notice the setting until he pointed out how my ring looks from the side (I just thought it looked great from the top), and I was further wowed. Even the technical aspect of the ring was pretty cool. (So nerdy, huh?) I was really impressed with his ring selection; he had zero input from me, and he pretty much managed to find the perfect ring for me. (For all those wondering, ring size is not tricky at all for him to figure out. Every time I shower, I take my brass rat off, and 50% of the time I forget to put it back on. It was easy for him to steal my ring and find out my ring size.) He said he looked at the ring many times up close, but he didn’t expect it to look so beautiful on my hand. *gush*

As I was trying to regain my composure (crying in public was totally embarrassing for me, regardless of how many people were there), Luis showed up, grinning, asking if I was excited. He explained that the restaurant was in on the whole thing, and they were just waiting for him to do his thing. He took a picture for us, congratulated us, and told us to come back for our first anniversary (or earlier) :) The general manager, JC Chen (his bio is on the website somewhere), also came out to congratulate us and to tell me the same thing: Kelvin had worked with the restaurant to plan everything out. After an excellent dining experience and crazy life experience… and after calming down a bit (the excitement and anxiety didn’t go well with the overeating and the smell of truffles), we left Alexander’s a newly engaged couple.

Yeah, so I guess I’m engaged now. I’m sure that was a ridiculously long read that could have been much more succinctly said, but oh well. It’s my blog, and I can ramble if I want to. I’ve pretty much told all my good friends, and I’ve been warned by Kai and Lillian to get ready for questions, so I think I’m going to post a FAQ soon. I was pretty freaked out when this first happened, but Kelvin has made it clear that there is no rush. Even if I’m scared for any reason, he said he’ll always be there for me no matter what. Almost a week has passed now, and I think the hype has settled, and I’m getting more used to the idea of this whole thing. And like Mike said very accurately the day after my date, “Nothing has changed since yesterday. It’s just now you’ve got a pretty ring.”

New thing I learned today: Fiancé means a man engaged to be married. Fiancée means a woman engaged to be married. I never knew there was a gender difference.

Related posts:

1. Save the date! November 1st, 2008 at Hakone Gardens
2. Judy and Kelvin’s Engagement FAQ