For some reason, perhaps its proximity to Christmas, Steve has always had little interested in celebrating his birthday, which is January 10th. A few months after we started dating, however, I learned that he does enjoy celebrating his “half birthday” on July 10th. It wasn’t hard to figure out. As the date approached, his big grin and repeated comments to the effect of “you can buy me that brand new Hummer for my half birthday,” and “don’t forget to lavish me with gifts on my half-birthday,” made it pretty clear.

So that first year, I did indeed buy him a few gifts and took him to dinner for his half-birthday. But, not being an idiot, I insisted on equal time. So on July 31st, he gave me some gifts for my half-birthday and took me out for dinner.

All of this goes to explain why it did not seem strange to me this year when Steve announced that he would take me out to celebrate my half-birthday on July 30th, since we had another event planned for the 31st. It also explains why it did not seem odd when he presented me with a few small gifts before we left for dinner. As he had planned, Steve took me to one of my favorite restaurants, Il Fornaio on Coronado Island, which has a fabulous view of the bay and downtown San Diego at night. We had a water-view with our pasta and then adjourned to the famous old Hotel Del Coronado for drinks.

Once at Hotel Del, we walked along the beach pathway, people watching and listening to the waves crash on the beach. I started to get cold, but Steve said he wanted to walk a bit more. It struck me as odd because normally he would have agreed at once to go inside. But instead, he led me to a path that had a better view of the water just as the sun was setting. He put his arms around me and kissed me, only to break off when some harried father stomped past us, then stooped over to noisily wash out some kid’s buckets. We waited while the father scrubbed and scrubbed.

Finally he left. Steve smiled, told me he loved me and that he had another little something else for me. He pulled out a little blue box from his inner jacket pocket. My heart jumped into my throat and for a second I couldn’t say anything. My fingers a little shaky, I unwrapped the box and slipped on the ring, a beautiful round solitaire diamond. I guess it says something about our relationship that it wasn’t until we were walking back to Hotel Del for a drink to celebrate that it occurred to me he hadn’t officially asked me to marry him. When I pointed this out, he obligingly asked and we made it official over a glass of champagne.