The Proposal

We looked at rings a little that weekend, but neither of us had ever done it before, so the process was long and confusing. But we picked out our wedding location (it was the only place we looked!) and starting talking about dates.

The weekend ended too quickly, and I wasn't ready to say goodbye on Sunday. I wouldn't see him for two more weeks, when I flew to Philly for his birthday.

By the time I got to Philly, we had decided that we would use the diamond from my mom's ring and just buy a setting. So we went to the jewelry store and bought one we liked. But we had to wait for them to size the setting and set the stone, so I wasn't getting it for a while.

Two weeks later, I was BACK in Philly (long distance dating gets expensive with all those plane tickets) and I KNEW I was going to get my ring. I sorta felt like there wouldn't be much of a surprise, since we picked it out together and I knew he had it because he called me when he was there picking it up. I thought it might be a "Okay, here's your ring" sort of thing. And I would have been fine with that. I was just happy about marrying him, I wasn't gonna create too many expectations about the proposal.

But Jeff had other things in mind.

We stopped at a convenience store (I don't remember why) and while we were there, he bought some red roses. He told me to act surprised later when he presented them to me. Strangely, I still didn't realize there was going to be an actual "moment."

That night, we had a church function to go to, and when we left, I remember thinking we were leaving a little early. And we're never early to things. But, okay, whatever, I didn't ask. As we drove through the city, we approached the art museum and he turned in to the museum drive. THAT is when I finally figured out.

(Okay, I must be dense. I knew I was getting my ring that day. I knew he had it. He had just bought flowers. And we left too early for the thing we were going to. And it wasn't until we were in the art museum parking lot that I had a clue about what was happening.)

We ended up back on the steps of the art museum, where we had hung out those many months ago when we first met. (Ha!) He had brought ice cream, the same kind we had that first night. And he had the same two plastic spoons we had gotten from McDonald's. And he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him.

Absolutely!

We sat there for a few minutes and ate ice cream, but it wasn't August anymore, it was November. And we were cold.

Funny, we ended up being late to church. :)

Sometimes we would look at the calendar and say to each other, "Wow, this happened really fast." But it didn't feel too fast. In fact, it actually felt a little slow to me.