As I slipped the one-carat princess-cut diamond, set in white gold, on my finger, I knew we were meant to be.

The ring and I, that is.

Sure, my boyfriend was there, but he wasn't exactly presenting me with the ring. That job was left to Heidi, the saleswoman who was listing the qualities of the ring while I took care not to slide it all the way down my finger.

That, I thought would be bad luck. As if taking your boyfriend into a jewelry store to look at engagement rings when there has been no official proposal is good luck.

I hate girls who do this. Even as I was trying on rings, I was cringing at the girl next to me who was putting on ring after ring, telling the salesman she had to "instruct" her boyfriend what to buy.

I reassured myself that my situation was different. My boyfriend and I were on the topic all weekend and I only had the guts to suggest a trip to the jewelry store, thanks to the two cocktails I had with lunch.

See, we started talking marriage a while ago and since then I began subtly dropping hints about what type of ring I'd like if he ever decided to make it official.

Let me add here — so people don't think I'm a greedy, ungrateful girlfriend — that I would love anything my boyfriend gives me, but if there's going to be a ring, I want it to be a RING.

In all honesty though, looking at rings had less to do with the rings and more to do with the actual engagement thing.

As much as I want to be surprised when the proposal happens, I have to be realistic about the real me.

The real me is a control freak.

Looking at rings is the only control I have over a situation that I find pretty hard to handle.

If you're close enough to someone to marry him, you don't have secrets, you know everything about each other and you typically know what the other person is doing all the time.

Then all of a sudden, when it comes to this huge commitment — not to mention investment — things get all secretive.

My boyfriend, his parents and mine will know when I'm getting engaged before I do. That drives me crazy.

My boyfriend knows this and enjoys it because the real him is a romantic who can't wait to surprise me.

Turns out I love that even more than I love being in control.

So for now, my inner control freak is taking a much-needed vacation. The ring and I have an understanding: I see it on weekends until the time is right because, the truth is, I already have who I'm really meant to be with.