Lightsabers and Lollipops

today is the anniversary of the day that i asked my wife to marry me.
she said yes by the way.
yesterday was the 10th anniversary of the closing of disc-go-round. dan, tall steve and i went to fuddruckers, it was dee-licious.
but i'll go on with the story of the engagement. it's kinda cute, so this one's for "the ladies."
it's also kinda long, so if you feel the need to get a snack or something, now's the time.

way back when this girl, let's call her"ellie", and i were dating we were seriously talking about about "someday" we were gonna get married and stuff. but i was just a po' boy. (not the tasty sandwich often served at popeye's and known throughout louisiana, but a boy with just a wee bit of income) i was a college age suburbanite. so credit card companies kept throwing cards at me. long story short, i'm still paying off those cards. credit is bad, bad, bad, bad. ...bad.
well, one day, it was thursday i believe, i got a letter from sears stating that they had raised my spending limit by 2000 dollas. in about 2 minutes i came to the conclusion that SEARS HAS A JEWELRY DEPARTMENT! i actually yelled this out loud in my room and jumped up and down at least twice. so, off i went to sears. plastic in hand.
when i got to the jewelry counter i found the wedding rings pretty quick. i was a man on a mission. i was kinda sad and mad cuz there was a nother couple there picking out a ring for themselves. i was thinking, man, what's the surprise in that!? "will you marry me, let's go pick out a ring..."
this was one instance where i wanted it to be a complete surprise. anyway, as i saw an opportunity, i snaked my way in to gaze upon the rings. when the couple tried to look around me, i didn't move. i was there to buy. not be pushed around. short story long, with help from the old lady clerk i found the ring which i thought was perfect. it was many sizes to big. but we could size it later. once again, man on a mission.
so the following day, friday, i went down to ellie's college and told her we were goin on a real date to a nice place. that everything tonight was gonna be a surprise. she never expected the engagement cuz she knew i didn't have that kind of money.
i consulted her friend tatiana on where the best place to go would be. she was a great help, i couldn't have done this without her. she was the only one i let in on my plans. she even got ellie all excited and dressed up without letting her know a thing. tat let me know a good place to go would be a place called jumer's. they have a castle like setting. tat suggested there because they had booths that were very private like. and then i could make my move.
so we go there, i got the ring in the back, under the seat.
when they seat us, they sit us not at a booth, but right in the stinkin middle of the restaurant! i was kinda ticked about that, but too nervous and jittery to make any kind of changes. i couldn't figure out how to get the ring in without being noticed so i told her i was going to the bathroom and instead went out to the car to hide the ring on my person. i wanted to keep the box so she could open it but i didn't want this protrusion from my pocket. so i kind of placed inside my shirt. it was a button down so it was tucked in. it was kind of concealed by the puffy part at my waist. so i come back from "the restroom" and pretty much sweat through the whole meal. i just could not seem to find an opening to "pop" the question. i'm not a big fan of people watching me. so there.
meals over. jumers was also attached to a nice looking hotel. so we went in the lobby.
it had like a sunken fireplace area that just screamed out to be the place to make things happen. i told her to sit down and close her eyes. (all day long i had been telling her to close her eyes and placing something silly and inconsequential in her hands, like a happy meal toy or a dollar bill. this actually worked cuz she had no idea that this was a serious thing i was about to do) i kneeled down in front of her, wrestled the ring out from my shirt, opened the box and told her to open her eyes.
i asked the question, "someday, will you be my wife?"
she was actually speechless. started doing the whole uncontrolled crying thing. somehow got out a yes. and the rest pretty much writes out itself.
she later told me that her first thought was, "where on earth did he get the money to buy a ring?"
it was a good time to be had by all. if there's anything i got wrong about the story, i'm sure my wife can correct it in the comments. should be interesting.
the only thing i did wrong was i didn't ask her dad first. i'm not old fashioned. it really didn't even cross my mind. to me that would seem like giving away the surprise. the only people who knew were tatiana, the lady at the jewelry counter and ben crouse, cuz there's just no fooling him. plus he's one of the funniest guys i know. and that's about it for that story.
um, go sox?