My Side of the Story

As most of you know, I recently became engaged to Hannah. If you didn’t know, then I suggest you go read Hannah’s blog, then come back to mine.

http://thisresplendentlife.blogspot.com/2011/04/if-shoe-fits.html
The reason I pass you onto hers before letting you read my own, is because her post is a romanticized version of my marriage proposal. It fluffs up the good stuff and is blithely ignorant of all the things that were running through my head as it occurred. So, to be fair, I’m going to offer my side of the story in order to help you better understand the entire experience.

As Hannah mentioned, I planned a pretty exciting weekend, the details of which I was not willing to share with her. I did this because Hannah LOVES to know everything before it happens. She’s worse than I am when it comes to figuring out what she’s getting for Christmas, her birthday, etc. So when it came to my plans for Saturday, I guarded them like an angry mother moose would guard its calf.

Despite the buildup, the schedule was going to be fairly simple: Buy Vibrams for Hannah. Go free climbing with Hannah and Baldr in Tulsa. Go home. Sleep or watch movies for the rest of the day. The reason I wanted to buy the Vibrams was that Hannah had wanted a pair for a long time, but was never able to purchase them. In addition, I really wanted another pair as well. So Friday, I stopped by Summit to check on the goods and make sure they’d be open on Saturday, which they were. Banking on the weather being lovely, my plan solidified. Hannah gets there Friday night and we do our thing.

Then Saturday morning comes and Hannah wasn’t feeling very well, so I had intended to nix the outing and just let her sleep. However, after her prodding and promises of being “fine,” I took her to Braum’s to get some food and then to the outdoorsy store, Summit.

We spent the next hour or so trying on various Vibrams and waiting for the girl working to help us. Aside for the really poor service, and a few off-color comments about it (on my part) we got our shoes and went back to my apartment to pick up the little beast, Baldr. Then it was off to Chandler Park.

The drive was going fairly well for the most part. It was nice weather, windows were rolled down as we flew down the highway, and I was listing to my iPod. Hannah wasn’t acting like she felt very well, or was a bit unhappy, so about 30-40 minutes out from our destination, I rolled up the windows to talk to her about it…
Just as a bit of background: Baldr is like me when I was younger. He gets carsick worse than anyone/thing else I know. I mean I could have fed him hours ago, or even not at all, and he still sprays vomit all over the inside of my car like a mentally challenged fire hydrant. However, I found that this can be circumvented if the windows are down, similar to how I was/still am.

Back to the story. I rolled up the windows to talk to Hannah. The conversation wasn’t getting anywhere, so my frustration level had increased a bit. Then, Baldr started moving in a very familiar manner. About the time I realized what was going to happen, it was too late.

I have never seen him puke that much.

I was furious. By “furious,” I actually mean borderline homicidal. Had Hannah not been there and if I loved my dog even slightly less, there would have been a bloody puppy mess spread for half a mile down Highway 51, and I’d have ended up in that special hell where only murderers, gossipers, pedophiles and puppy killers go. Thankfully, Hannah was indeed there, trying to calm me down as I raged.

At this point, I’m sure you can imagine proposing was about the furthest thing from my mind. Especially when you realize I legitimately had no intention of doing so that Saturday, or even several Saturdays afterward, despite the fact we'd talked about it before and knew it would eventually happen. Anyway, we stopped at the next town and cleaned the rest of my car (I’d done a fair amount of cleaning while still on the side of the road. That included, but was not limited to, scooping handfuls of his sick out of the car with my bare hands and cursing with only the most debauched and inappropriate swears).

Once things were mostly cleared out, we continued to our destination. Eventually, we arrived at Chandler Park and I was pleased to see it wasn’t completely packed, at least not in the climbing area. An hour or so passed while we were outside, climbing and walking around. Finally I opted to go to a less used area to climb. Little did I know that I was essentially walking into a divinely staged environment, nearly perfect for what was about to happen. I do a bit more random climbing until we (all three of us) made our way to the top of a fairly secluded rock formation.

It was about that time the wheels in my head started turning in ways I had hoped they wouldn’t. They kept recounting a conversation Hannah and I had earlier that day about how due to the cost and total awesomeness of the shoes I’d purchased for us, Hannah would be just as happy using it in place of a ring. My response had been less than favorable. You must understand, I love Hannah very much and because of that, I wanted to purchase a fancy ring and do things the 'correct' way. I believe I even mentioned that I wasn’t sure I wanted to get married yet and how the whole concept scared the crap out of me. (P.S. The only difference now is that I know I want to get married. I’m still scared crapless)

So again, I had no intentions of proposing. There we were, atop this large rock, lost in the trees and grass. We talk for a bit but my mind started getting this white fog and I began getting remarkably nervous. I thought to myself “Oh dang it. Am I really doing what I think I’m doing?” I drop down on the rock below Hannah and take off her left shoe (The fact it was the left one was entirely unintentional, but worked out brilliantly), then I started talking about our relationship. We frequently talk about our relationship, but as you can imagine, it was a bit different that go around.

Then, before I know it, I slide the shoe back on and ask her if she'd be willing to marry me. Sure, with Vibrams they don’t exactly 'slide on,' but you get the point. Turns out she smiled and said ‘yes,’ after ensuring I was actually asking her to marry me (I had to ask twice. The first time I only asked if she'd be "willing" to marry me...but didn't ask her to do so). I’m still fairly confident I was possessed by some divine entity for a brief moment, because I easily pulled off the smoothest, spur of the moment, fairy-tale (with a modern twist) proposal in pretty much ever. I'm also fairly confident it was God doing me a favor, because I most likely wouldn't have ever grown the pair of balls needed to ask the question for real.

So yeah. I’m engaged and I didn’t expect it any more than my lovely fiancée did. It's crazy how these things work out, but I'm glad they do. I honestly never really expected I'd end up here and now that I am, I couldn't imagine being happier anywhere else, with anyone else.