The Juicy Details.

ALTERNATIVE TITLE:  Requiem for a Stubbornly Selfish, Independent Life

About the details of the engagement day:

Britt had been after me for about two months to go on a walk with her.  She’s been wanting to do a picnic for a long time as well.  Because she wanted to have an outside wedding (we both love autumn), I was thinking of doing the proposing thing about three weeks ago, during a picnic but it didn’t materialize.  I didn’t talk to her parents in time, and so it made looking for a ring sort of unnecessary.  I already knew what sort of ring I was looking for.

Finally, three weekends ago (the 22ndish of October), I decided that I couldn’t just wait for things to happen sort of naturally.  Britt and I were up visiting her dad and half-sister, and I finally just set a time to go and talk to her Dad. Because her dad lives a couple of hours away from where I do, I picked a time the following week.  I’d been hoping that a time would just sort of show up where her dad and I could have the, "Can I marry your daughter," conversation, but it wasn’t coming up, so I made an appointment that next Tuesday.

On that Monday, I’d had lunch with a friend who told me that Nickel Creek was playing in Madison on Sunday night.  I’ve been dying to see Nickel Creek, and I knew that Britt liked them as well.  I also knew it was just random enough to be perfect as a way to propose.  We’d be driving to Madison anyways, and so now I had an excuse to be in Madison, and keep her off guard.  She’d never have guessed I’d be able to get things together that quickly.

On Tuesday, I drove up to see Britt’s dad, we had lunch and talked for a couple of hours, and then I drove home.  He gave his approval.  When I got back home, I went to the store and bought the ring.  It was supposed to be ready on Thursday. 

On Wednesday, I met with Britt’s mom.  She gave her glowing approval.

I told both parents that it would probably happen inside a week, and then swore them to secrecy.  Britt knew I hadn’t talked to either of her parents on that Sunday, and I figured she’d never expect me to get my act together that quick.  (It takes me 10 minutes to put on shoes after I’ve decided I want to go somewhere.)  I’d decided that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her last year.  She knew that I was going to ask.  She even knew roughly when. So I figured if I worked quickly and did it, I might just be able to catch her offguard.  I also figured that since I was preaching on both Saturday and Sunday, I’d have the perfect cover, because she knows how much time I put into my sermons and so I’d have enough time to get everything ready under the auspices of it being my sermon.  Plus, because I spent so much energy in my preaching, I also figured she wouldn’t guess I’d propose on such a big weekend.

On Thursday, I picked up the ring.  (Just to summarize here, I went from having no permission and no ring to having the permission of both parents and the ring in 3 days. Not bad.  Not bad at all.)

I called Britt on Thursday and asked if she wanted to go to dinner as long as we were "going to be in Madison anyways."  She said that was fine.  So, I started calling around to places, but nothing seemed to fit.

I preached twice on Saturday and then spent some time with the guys on Saturday night.

I preached on Sunday, and then made a couple of on-the-fly alterations to my plan.  Originally, I planned to propose during dinner, or on the way to the concert, in a park in Madison.  But the weather forecast on Sunday changed the plan.  It was set to rain most of the evening.  So, I asked Britt if she wanted to take a walk in the afternoon.  I let her pick the place, and to my amusement, she picked the park where we’d basically started dating.  We had a long talk in that park shortly before we started dating, and that discussion basically set the table for us dating.  So, I put the ring in my pocket and we went for our walk.  When we got up there, we were on the swings, and I brought up the fact that the last time we were in that park, we hadn’t started dating yet.  I’ll give you a rough transcript of the exchange.

Me:  You know, when we started dating, that made me very happy.

Britt:  Me too.

Me:  How’d you like to make me happy again? (it was something to this effect, though I think I managed something a bit more elegant than this.)

Britt: *absent mindedly*  Sure.

Me: *drops to a knee*  Would you be my wife?

Britt:  *excited nodding*  Mmmmmhhmmmmm!

And from there, we finished our walk, got dinner at my parents house (where we made a bunch of phone calls letting people know), and then went to the concert, which btw…was excellent.

A FEW MISCELLANEOUS THOUGHTS:

If there is any way you can, see Nickel Creek in concert.  They are excellent musicians, and do a great show.  (They covered Britney Spears’s "Toxic" at the Madison show.  Not surprisingly, they sounded better than the White Trash Debutante.)  Very, very, VERY good show.  Do yourself a favor:  see them in concert.

Carrying around an engagement ring in your pocket must be roughly akin to carrying around a multimillion dollar winning lottery ticket in a lanyard around your neck.  So uncomfortable.  Every minute it is in your pocket, you’re paranoid it’s about to fall out or get stuck there, or some other catastrophe.  Seriously.

Being engaged is…well…different.  Not bad.  Just different.  More on that soon.

I didn’t realize how strange it is to call relatives and tell them you’re engaged–it is repeating the same story and receiving the same reactions over and over.  One reaction is the mushy/sappy congratulations, which is undoubtedly very sincere, but remarkably predictable.  The other reaction is the smartaleck congratuations, which usually takes the form of something like, "Why’d you wanna go and get married for?" which is just as predictable, and much less amusing than I imagined.  What’s worse:  the fact that I’ve given one or the other of the responses nearly everytime someone tells me they’re engaged.  I’ve got a job for someone:  Come up with a good response to someone telling you that they’re engaged, and get back to me.  I’ll undoubtedly need it in the future.

At any rate, there is the story, for enquiring minds.