Although Rob and I had been in a long distance relationship for the past couple of years, we have not been apart for more than two and a half weeks at a time. This makes me going to Hawaii for five weeks with minimal opportunities to video chat a little distressing from what we're used to. I think it finally hit Rob yesterday that I'll be gone for so long. I can't argue that it wouldn't make it that much sweeter when he flies in and we reunite!

The past week has been a fun and busy week for both of us. We had our engagement pictures taken on Wednesday, which brought out the chic models that were inside us all along. We chose Hakone Gardens as our first location. It was quite a different experience having the whole place to ourselves and having the ability to be a little more adventurous than usual. Our second location was a little bit away in Moss Beach, CA. The beach we chose is actually a wildlife refuge that I've visited occasionally since I was a kid. You're not supposed to take things you find there home with you because it creates an inbalance in the ecosystem if enough people do it. We just so happened to get there when the seals were resting on one side of the beach. They looked like long logs of driftwood at first, but as Rob and our photographer agreed "logs don't move by themselves". Haha. There were little baby seals that wiggled towards the water; they were getting ready to plunge in in case we approached them. Soo cute! We had such a great time doing our engagement session and we highly recommend it to anyone with the means to get them done. It's as if you and your significant other are in your own cocoon of love while someone you trust captures those moments for you. Rarely do you get to be as playful and adventurous in other types of professional pictures. I intend to dedicate an entire post on our photographer when our proofs come out. I can't wait to see them!

Sit down guys. I have a confession to make....I knew a proposal was coming. I didn't know exactly when or where it was going to be, but I knew it was going to happen within these few months. How can I possibly know, you ask? As Rob mentioned in his recent post the combination of us being in the right place in our relationship to take this next step and me being very particular about jewelry has generated a more practical approach to our engagement: us picking out The Ring together. Logically it made sense. If you're going to throw that much dough into something to symbolize your love and commitment, why not be absolutely sure that the person that's actually going to wear it for the rest of her life loves it in every way possible?

Note: I wrote this post almost to it's entirety last week, but because of the inconsistent wireless internet access at my school...it somehow got deleted. I was so frustrated about rewriting the whole thing again that I put it off until now. I apologize for those who were looking forward to reading it (although most of you had already called me to ask for details). As they say, the show must go on and the story must be written...

This is the end of the first week of classes and I am already overwhelmed by the amount of work I have to do to stay on top of it all. I took the liberty to calculate the total minimum amount of hours of class preparation time required and it turned out to be over 50 hours a week, including studying, reading, preparing presentations, and writing papers. If I also include into this total minimum amount of preparation hours the amount of class time, it increases to about 70 hours a week. Oh and my commute plus time walking to/from class equals about 8 hours a week. I had hoped to work/intern this quarter or at least have some semblance of a social life, but those are out the window now.

In celebration of Rob's 26th birthday, I planned two main events for him this weekend. On Friday night we attended a birthday dinner that Mike and I planned for him at Trader Vic's in Palo Alto. Ten of his friends showed up and we had a blast chatting and eating Polynesian-style cuisine. I had planned something for us to do on Saturday morning and into the afternoon but Rob really wanted to go to Maker Faire in San Mateo so we went there instead. I was glad we got to go because I've never been to anything like it, although the Craft section reminded me a little of Comicon. Pretty much anyone who works with their hands and makes things was there. There were tons of creative and innovative projects that people were working on or have already built. I even helped build a Ybox with a group of four other people (including Rob). We got to take home kits so we can build our own from scratch. I've never soldered anything but jewelry before so it was fun trying something new. After Maker Faire, we went home and got ready for dinner. I made a reservation at Manresa about a month in advance and I had high expectations for it since it was the only restaurant in the state (or country?) that earned two Michelin stars. The only other restaurant in the state that earned more was French Laundry with three stars.

Sophia and Rob's adventures in Seattle.

There seems to be an abnormal amount of break-ups recently. I know five different relationships that have ended within the last month and two of them involved my closest friends. I'm so sad to see my friends and acquaintances have to go through that shit. I know how it feels x10 and I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy.

Some pictures of the one year anniversary of our first date. Moss Beach 1/20/07: