Friday, April 7, 2017

Ten Years Ago, We Got Engaged

Written 4/11/2007

What I'm sure you are all dying to know is how'd he do it?

Let me back up to Friday. Friday we went down to Houston to celebrate Good Friday at Cirque du Soleil's Corteo with my parents. It was fantastic, by the way.  We bought tickets for that months and months ago, acknowledging that the following day would mark a year and a half since our first date, but we didn't really care. I didn't think it'd make any difference whether we spent it in Houston or Austin. But, as the date got closer, I kept asking Henry what he wanted to do for our semi-anniversary and he said he'd like to do something in Austin. That made it easier on me because I was scheduled to work and driving back on Saturday would mean I wouldn't have to find someone to take my shift.

So, that's what we did. We drove back to Austin on Saturday morning, and I went to work at 1. After I got off work at 6 we were both hungry and I was craving Madam Mam's fried rice, so we went there and got some. Now that I think about it, he kept trying to persuade me to cook something at my apartment instead of going out, and I wonder if I messed up part of his surprise...hmm. I'll have to ask. Anyway, it was getting close to 8 o'clock by the time we left the restaurant and here I was still in my work clothes. I began to wonder if we were really going to do anything special at all, or if we'd just go watch a movie or something.

Then we got back to my apartment and he told me to wait in the living room while he did something in my bedroom. A few minutes passed and he told me to go look. There sitting on my desk were purple hydrangeas and a card. The card was sooo sweet! It said all of these mushy things that I'll spare you on and then at the very end it said, "Put something nice on I want to take you somewhere special...."

So after some hemming and hawing over what to wear, because believe it or not it was like 34° F outside and really rainy! he took me down to the car and blindfolded me (my idea because I wanted to add to the surprise as much as possible) and took me to the secret location. It was so funny because even after multiple turns somehow I still figured out that we were on Congress, so then he tried to mix me up by driving in circles through parking lots and through neighborhoods. Even after all this, I still guessed that we were on Congress and I was right!

Anyway, once we arrived at the place and got out of the car I tried to walk along with my blindfold on, but because I was afraid of tripping over something, I was walking at tortoise speed. Henry picked me up and carried me on his back to the place and when we got up there he put me down and told me I could open my eyes. I did and I saw a park bench and not much else because I was blind! Henry had forgotten my glasses in the car!

So he said, "Be right back," and ran back to the car. Then of course when he tried to put them on me he missed and put the arms in my ears. It was so cute.

Once I could see again I was still a little disoriented and I think I asked him where we were. Then I turned around and I could see the buildings of St. Edward's University, the place where we had our first date. We were at the top of a hill that had a great view of downtown Austin. It was pretty. I just couldn't enjoy it too much because it was so dang cold!

I think we were standing there for all of 30 seconds when he dropped down on one knee (onto the wet ground! what a trooper!) and asked if I'd marry him. I said yes, he asked which finger he was supposed to put the ring on, we hugged and then I ran back to the car. haha. Now he likes to tell people that I ran away with his ring when they ask if I said yes.

It was sweet and simple and definitely memorable! Henry was kind of upset about the weather and things not going quite like he'd planned. He asked me, "what does that say about our relationship?" My reply:  "It can weather any storm."  

No comments: