ENGAGED!

With SPRING comes a new beginning: On March 21 I got engaged to my soul mate, Ben.

!!!!!!!!!

I still can't believe what happened to me this morning. Care to take a trip back in time with me? The day started out not all that unusual: the alarm went off at 2:10 am. I rolled over and had my usual bout of "I hate this...I'm so tired...I just want to sleeeeeeeeeeeeep" and convinced myself that it was Friday after all, and that it would be okay, with the weekend just a hop, skip & a jump away. Under the bright flashlight in the sky (the full WORM moon -- eeeeewwwwww!), my Pryus sparkled in the moonlight on my trip into Broadcast House. Little did I know that at this early hour, Ben was still my boyfriend -- FIANCE had not entered this meteorologist's lexicon quite yet.

Our shows moved along as usual, but we were missing Mike terribly (please see his blog about his mom and his family's circumstances). Andrea, Angie & I delivered your news, traffic and weather. I got a bit distracted later in the morning, during the Early Show, by poor Angie's unfortunate bridesmaids dresses fiasco. (2 weeks until her big day and the dresses she ordered for them looked nothing like the picture - stay tuned to Angie's blog about *that*.) I was helping her rework an email to the boutique which gladly took her money, but offered her little in customer service.

Before I knew it, the 9am show was in action. Two forecasts, a travel weather segment, and a cooking segment later, I found myself over with Angie and Andrea at the cooking set wrapping up the show. I hadn't noticed the time. If I had, then I might have suspected something was up as we had waaaaaay too many minutes to go and not much to fill those minutes. Meanwhile, hiding in a corner cubicle across the building, Ben was emerging from his "safe place" and making his way towards the studio.

The director and camera operator cleverly had the robotic cameras clumped more together than usual, effectively creating a visual wall to the studio entrance. It wasn't until Ben appeared from around the side of camera 3 that I saw him -- tall and handsome in his TUXEDO and heading towards the cooking set !?! What on earth was Big Ben doing here? Then it all unfolded - he got down on bent knee and expressed his love and a marriage proposal was happening before my eyes.

I couldn't believe it. I wanted to cry. I wanted to scream. But it was so strange because while "inner Kim" was going haywire, "TV Kim" was vaguely kicking into autopilot, knowing that I was still "working" and subdued my emotions. I guess when you work in TV, you get used to things breaking in at the last minute and you are trained to emote calm (as best you can) for impromptu situations or what-have-you.

My true love proposed to me today. I said yes. I got to share that special moment with a lot of special people. My family (all located in other states), through the magic of technology, all got to share in the joy that same day -- Imagine the scene: my sister takes her lunch break and meets my parents at Panera Bread where my mom pops open her laptop. Within minutes they click on the video of the proposal at WUSA9.com. I think my Mom is still at Panera Bread, watching the video over and over. In fact, that's why the video is ranked currently as "most popular" on our website...

Did I mention my TRUE LOVE proposed to me today? Pinch me. I said yes.