November is always my heaviest, most introspective month, so to break it up a little, here's a beautiful story that makes me cry happy tears.

My friend, Amber, is a beautiful spirit. She's just the sweetest, most caring soul you could ever meet. And she's funny as hell. We all heard about how she had met this great guy randomly buying concert tickets through the internet, but who knew how magical this meeting would turn out to be. I finally got a chance to meet Jason a few months ago when they came down to visit us in LA, and he is a truly wonderful human being. To see that they found each other has been inspirational.

My brother is a great meter for kindness and people who are "true nice" as he calls it (he's also like me...really sensitive to what's real and what's fake). My brother adores Amber and Jason and when he came back from the drive up to Seattle, my parents said one of the things he kept talking about were his friends, Amber and Jason. They're each amazing individuals, and together, they're an example of what's right in this world.

A few weekends ago, Amber ran a half marathon and Jason was there to meet her at the finish line to propose to her. If you've ever needed a little faith in believing in true love, here's a truckful:

Greetings to our Loved Ones:

As most of you know by now, we took a VERY EXCITING step in our journey together this past Sunday – Jason asked me to marry him! Well, he didn’t exactly “ask” per se. It was more of a demand, complete with an exclamation point, “MARRY ME AMBER FERRIS!”

At 5:30 AM Sunday morning (as I frantically got together my running gear in preparation for the Half Marathon I was to run in 2 hours), unbeknownst to me Jason called my best friend, Terri Taylor, to awake her with the day’s plan. By a wonderful coincidence, it also happened that our great friend Cookie! was visiting from Taiwan, so Jason was certain to include him in the upcoming festivities as well. Not only did we get to share this joyful event with them, they took beautiful pictures and footage of the surprise unfolding. Terri put together the following video for us and you to enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/user/TheTerrimt#p/a/u/0/25tQnWVz-BU

We thought it would be fun to share our respective thoughts & perspectives on our meeting and the proposal. For those of you prone to gagging at the mushy stuff, you might not want to read beyond this point. (I'm looking at you Tim & Shannon).

Hers:

I never imagined that I would meet somebody that I felt so completely and totally in love with. Never. Ever. After years of dating not-so-perfect boys, I began to let the idea of being in love, getting married, and picking out paint colors for our picket fence drift further and further away. Little did I know that a wonderful twist of fate would bring into my life the most incredible human that I have ever known. And that he would feel about me the way I felt about him.

As many of you have heard, Jason and my fateful meeting was through the classifieds website Craigslist. Jason was selling tickets to a Feist show (hence Terri selecting a Feist song as the backdrop to the engagement video), and l was in search of tickets. After responding to his ad, we met on a public street (Because my mom taught me well! Thanks Mom! I don’t meet strangers in dark alleys! Good advice!). After making the exchange, we were immediately engaged in conversation that soon led to a first date that two years later led to where we are today. Happy, in love, and building a life together. The Universe is Magic! Thank you Universe!

Sunday was one of the most emotional, exhausting, and magical days of my life. My running partner Alicia and I had been preparing for this run for many months, running up and down NW Thurman (a notoriously steep street in Portland) to get ready for a race course filled with miles of ups and downs. I was SO ready for this day…so I thought. The race was great, I beat my goal by 2 minutes, but I had no idea what was waiting for me at the finish line. NO IDEA. My clever boyfriend (NOW FIANCE!) was standing there, at the finish line, on his tippy toes looking for me to cross the finish line. Because he was looking for me in a white shirt (I was actually wearing green), he missed me crossing the line, and so I saw him first and shouted “Jason”?!? I was very surprised, because he was not expected to be there at all as he generally has to work on Sundays and told me he could not attend (sneaky!). It all happened very quickly, and I was overcome with emotion, so I’m very thankful to have this video to experience the moment all over again. Many thanks to Terri and Cookie!

A few notes from me on the video...

If you don’t mind, I’d like to pretend that I didn’t lick my finger to get the ring to slide on (I was a little swollen from the 13.1 mile run). If we could all agree to divert our eyes when that part of the video plays. Yuck!

It also makes me smile (and I know his family can appreciate this) when he 1. Forgets to give me the ring at first, until Terri reminds him by shouting “Jason, the ring!”, and 2. When he does finally get the ring out of his pocket he hands me the box! Not the ring, the box! To both of our benefits, Jason is not experienced in the Art of Proposing. But his amateur attempt made it so much more special and unique and authentic to us. It was simply perfect.

The word grateful feels like a huge understatement, but I am tremendously grateful for the treasures in my life. For Jason, for each of you, and for the beauty of love. I am a better person for knowing you all, and am thankful for the embrace of your friendship and support.

His:

When I met Amber out on the street that night, I was just looking to sell some tickets. Relatively content and comfortable in my bachelorhood, I lived with my friend and housemate Cookie right around the corner from the Craigslist exchange site which was located in front of a tiny bar on Alberta Street called Bink's. I planned on getting the money in hand and scurrying back home to, as was the norm at the time, revel in my unattached freedom by participating with Cookie in another one of our nightly bacchanalian "sessions" consisting mostly of cooked food, a fair bit of wine and the serious listening of music. Instead, I spent the rest of the evening thinking of my rendezvous with Amber and the subsequent conversation that we had and ideas that I could come up with to tactfully text her with so soon after meeting. Well...I came up with a textworthy topic (a song suggestion for the slow dance revival that we had talked of plotting) and, before I knew it, we were spending virtually every evening together (sorry Cookie!), which led to talk of moving in together, the evolution of buying a house together and, most recently, becoming engaged!

I have absolutely loved every second that Amber and I have spent together since that first, fated meeting. In these last two years, we have gotten to know each other, grown together, learned from each other, changed each other, and become practically inseparable! She has been the most amazing partner, best-friend, cooking-mate, co-conspirator and just all-round beautiful person that I could ever imagine being in love and spending the rest of my life with.

Amber has already done such a good job at describing the marriage proposal that I don't feel like I need to add any more details (especially since it is all on video and in pictures for you to see). I will just say that it couldn't have gone any more perfectly - there was no rain, friends were around, Amber was thoroughly surprised, and the manner in which she was finally able to get the ring on was finger lickin' good! Not to mention the fact that I only felt a tiny bit awkward and self-conscious during my "amateur attempt"!

Let's just say that I Got-er-done!

With all our Love,

Amber & Jason

PS For those of you curious about The Ring, I have attached to this email a picture of the breathtaking ring that Jason gave to me to represent our commitment to one another. It is a handcrafted, one-of-a-kind design by a wonderful designer out of California, L. Frank (http://www.lfrankjewelry.com/). The stones are rose cut opaque diamonds set in gold. It is truly something special.