Hi Everyone,

I had originally posted this on the Letterboxing-SOcal Yahoo group
message board, and upon Don's recommendation, I am posting it again
here...

Allow me to tell you about my love for letterboxing or in this
case,
letterboxing for my love (this sounds so cryptic, but it will all
become very clear to you by the end of this story).

Last Friday, 2/11, I got a message through the LbNA website from a
new letterboxer named "StevieFranklin2005" in regards to my
Wooly's
LB. The message was as follows:

"If I find your Wooly Letterbox on Saturday (2/12/2005), I will
place
a hitchhiker stamp in it! I hope I understand your clues. PLEASE look
for my stamp on Sunday; I am quite proud of it."

I haven't been doing this LB'ing thing for very long, but the
email
did seem to be a little outside of conventional LB'ing protocol.
I've
always viewed HH's as little surprises, and here this guy was,
declaring to me that upon the discovery of one of my boxes, he was
going to triumphantly plant a HH there to show his conquest. I was a
little amused by the fact that this person was so enthusiastic about
planting a HH, he absolutely HAD to tell me about it and ruin the
surprise. I attributed this behavior to the possibility that he was
so new at this that he didn't know any better.

Anyhow, I emailed him back and told him that I was sure it looked
very nice and that I looked forward to seeing it.

I told my boyfriend about it that night, and we both chuckled. My
boyfriend is not as interested in LB'ing as I am. He doesn't
care
much for carving stamps and hiding them, but he does enjoy finding
the stamps with me, as well as the places it takes us to. He
suggested that we should check it out when we had a chance. Seeing
that he actually was up for some minor letterboxing, how could I
refuse?

So Sunday, 2/13 rolled around. Since it was Valentine's Day
weekend,
he had made dinner reservations for us at a nice local restaurant for
7:30. We had spent that morning running a 5K in Chinatown, and then
afterward stayed there for the Chinese New Year festivities. By the
time we got home in the afternoon, we were bushed, so we took a nap,
and he woke us up at around 6PM and said we should get ready to go
out. Now, my boyfriend is typically not a very punctual person, so I
was impressed that he wanted to get up a little earlier so we would
have some time to go look for the HH and still make it to the
restaurant in time. I figured he thought I would enjoy stamping the
HH in my logbook.

It was pretty much dark when we got to Wooly's hiding spot.
I'd never
really been there at night, and was surprised to find that the
location is pretty well lit, with a warm yellowish light emanating
from the streetlight. We retrieved the box and I sat on a bench and
opened it. I saw the HH wrapped in a napkin sitting in a little
baggie. The first thing I noticed was that the HH didn't have its
own
logbook. I looked in my Wooly's logbook and saw that C-Bear and
Koko
had been there that day and stamped in, but no HH imprint!! I
couldn't help but think that StevieFranklin2005 definitely was
new at
this, and that he should have at least looked up how to create a HH
somewhere online. "Well, I'll just look at the stamp itself,
then," I
thought to myself. I took it out of the bag and unwrapped it. It
wasn't as impressive as StevieFranklin2005 had described it to
be. It
only had a few words and some hearts carved into it. I kind of
figured out what the words said and found that it was a
Valentine's
Day themed HH!! I was beginning to think what an interesting idea it
was to place a themed HH in my box, when I heard my boyfriend ask
me, "So what does it say?" I looked up and saw him busily
kneeling
down tying his shoe.

"It's funny," I said, "It says `Will You Marry
Me?'"

"Well, will you?"

I looked up at him again, somewhat confused. There he was, kneeling
in front of me, with a little box in his hands. I was totally
floored!!! The ring was beautiful! And OF COURSE I SAID YES!!!

The funny thing is, as my mind was swimming around in all the
excitement, I was still confused, and wondered where
StevieFranklin2005's HH was. In case you hadn't figured it
out by now
(like me), it turned out my boyfriend, now "fiance," had
made it all
up!! I had no idea he could be so creative.

Today I got an email from C-Bear and Koko telling me they had found
my box and that there was a personal stamp in there for me. I found
that hilarious! Thanks to the two of you for not having mistaken the
stamp for a real HH, and for contributing to the best moment of my
life!!!

I have always been appreciative of the places that LB'ing has
taken
me to, but never did I imagine that it would take me here!!!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY EVERYONE!!!!!