How We Met
Spam Musubi + Gangnam style = LOVE
I had first encountered Josh at a church retreat. I had just moved to the bay area and was looking for ways to make friends. When my cousin had informed me of an upcoming church retreat, I was eager to join because it seemed liked a perfect opportunity to meet new people. Little did I know then that this was where I would meet my future husband.
Growing up in Hawaii, the comfort food of my home was a delicious Spam musubi. My mom perfected our secret family recipe and had recently passed it onto me so that I could eat it whenever I missed home. On the morning of the retreat, I had decided to make some of these yummy treats so that I could share it with my cousins that were also planning on being there. However, when I had arrived at the retreat site, I found out that my cousins weren’t going to make it until the next day. I was stuck with 8 deliciously packed Spam musubis with no one to give it to. So I decided that I’d just share it with the first random people that I come across at the retreat. Luckily, one of those people happened to be Josh. He claims still to this day, that the moment he took that first bite, he saw hearts and knew he had to marry this girl. That’s the power of my mom’s Spam musubi people! He attempted to stir up some conversation with me a few times during the retreat, but I wasn’t very interested because I found him to be a bit socially awkward. He later told me that this was because he was really nervous but I beg to differ.
Then fate had us meet again and this time, it was through one of the most embarrassing moments of my life. A friend I had met at the retreat had somehow convinced me into taking part in a Gangnam style flash mob. I don’t know what I was thinking when I had said yes but since then, we practiced very hard to make sure that the galloping horse dance was perfect to the tee. When it came time for us to find out who our partner was, low and behold there was Josh standing confidently ready to gallop away with me. As we practiced the dance together, sparks started flying and we became more and more interested. (so cheesy huh?) The eagerly awaited flash mob day had finally come and we were well prepared to execute this dance with what was supposed to be at least 30 other people. But when we arrived at the site, we counted a total of 8 other people besides us. It wasn’t a flash “mob” it was more like a flash “family.” My previous plan of hiding right in the middle of the mob during our performance was no longer achievable and I was ready to run. This was about to become the most embarrassing moment of my life. But we somehow ended up performing it and with the help of my lovely partner, I bravely managed to finish the dance even with a bright beet red face. Josh and I parted ways after the dance was over but that same night, he had built up the courage to ask me out on our very first date…and the rest, is history.
So there you have it…our deliciously embarrassing story of how our love story started. <3
how they asked
My proposal day was one of the most crazy and eventful days of my life. I had gone through an extreme roller coaster of emotions that day that I was just a mess when I finally found out what was actually going on. What started out as an ordinary day, unexpectedly took its turn for the worst, and eventually for the best.
Here is my story:
It was just another ordinary Sunday afternoon. My boyfriend then, Josh, had made reservations to a nice Japanese restaurant to celebrate my recent successful school semester. He picked me up exactly on time and we were soon on our way to eat some delicious Japanese Tapas. As we were pulling up to the restaurant, Josh’s phone started to ring. Since it was connected to his car Bluetooth, I could see who was calling on his main audio screen. I saw the name Denise appear on the screen and immediately thought it was really strange because Denise was a close church friend of mine and she had no reason to call Josh. But I figured maybe my phone wasn’t working and she was trying to reach me through him. Then I saw the weird panicked look on Josh’s face and knew something wasn’t right. I could see him frantically fiddling with his phone to reject the call, but his finger slipped and accidentally pressed the accept button instead. Her voice came through the car speakers. “Hello? Josh? Hello?” Then Josh blurted out, “I AM WITH JINA RIGHT NOW! Uh…what’s up?” Then silence…..both of them were panicking. Denise then played it off as if she was calling to talk about the recent Giant’s game but I wasn’t buying it. I didn’t know what to think of the call so I just disregarded it at the moment and we walked into the restaurant.
After we sat down, I took some time to process the call. Until this moment, I had never ever questioned Josh’s actions. He was the most honest, caring and transparent person I knew. But I knew there was something that they were both hiding and my negative thoughts started to kick in. I finally built up the courage to ask him the question regarding their relationship and how long they had been talking. Now one thing to keep in mind through all of this is that Josh is THE worst liar that I know. He hates lying and just doesn’t know how. So imagine him trying to cover up this unexpected mess by making up a lie on the spot. He literally found the worst way to respond to my question. He responded, “The truth is, Denise and I have become really really close recently because we love talking about the Giants games. We talk on the phone at least once a week and it’s been going on for about a month.” Once a week?? For a month?? Oh, I was absolutely furious! It wasn’t that I thought he was cheating on me, I still trusted him. But the fact that he didn’t trust me enough to tell me that he and Denise had become such great friends and that they had to hide it behind my back for so long was what really upset me. The entire dinner was ruined and so I grabbed my bag and asked Josh to take me home.
But Josh was really desperate to bring me to his house. I remember him driving extremely slow and begging me to come over. He tried to come up with every possible reason for me to come over to his place but I would not budge. I just wanted to go home. It was not until he finally remembered that I had my laundry at his house (Thank GOD!) that I finally was convinced that I need to at least stop by.
As soon as we parked at his driveway and walked through his front door, I immediately saw candles everywhere. I was extremely confused. It was not until I walked further in and saw the beautiful set up in the backyard that I finally realized what was going on…He was about to propose!!! I still get goosebumps thinking about that very moment because I had absolutely NO IDEA what was going on all day. He held my hand and led me to a chair sitting right in the middle of the backyard. Immediately after I sat down, the floodgates opened and I couldn’t stop crying. He got his guitar and started singing (or at least attempted to) the song “Marry Me” by Train. Josh also got extremely emotional and ended up singing out of key while playing all the wrong chords. It wasn’t his best performance but it was still the most beautiful performance I had ever seen. I remember thinking to myself, it would be so awesome if my family and friends were here to witness all of this with me, and at that exact moment, I saw them come out from behind the house, one by one, with a sign that read “say YES!” Then I thought, man wouldn’t it be awesome if my parents got to see this! and then that’s when I saw my parents on the laptop that my friend was holding, witnessing every minute of this beautiful event through skype. It was just perfect. I cried a river that night. It was one of the most beautiful events of my life and I was just so grateful for Josh as well as all my friends and family that had helped to make that night so perfect.
Oh and as for Denise…I later found out that she didn’t receive the memo about Josh taking me to dinner that night, and was calling to ask a question about the proposal. She almost blew the entire proposal but instead made our proposal story that more fun and memorable.
And that my friends, is how I said “YES” to the man of my dreams. :)
