On The Precipice of Mediocrity, Teetering
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| I Am John's Stomach Pains. On The Precipice of Mediocrity, Teetering |
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Monday, May 14, 2007 My Proposal Is Worth 254 Points As many of you probably know by now, on Friday night, around 8:30pm, I proposed to my girly-girl Night Nurse, and before I was able to get the ring outta my pocket, I got the response, "Of course, I'll marry you. I would love to be your wife". So yeah... that was awesome. In my opinion, the whole experience was just perfect. On Thursday, I left work a bit early to head up north to the jeweler to pick up the ring I had been putting together for over a month. Originally, I thought the hardest thing was going to be getting the band, and the diamond would be really easy, just find a good one at a good price, and plop it in there. Surprise, surprise, the band turned out to be really easy. After weeks of looking at stores around the country - one of the benefits of my business travel - I eventually wounded up back at square one, the first store I went to months ago with Kristine on our lone excursion for ring shopping. The diamond on the other hand was an event, having to order in various ranges of color, carat, and clarity (the cut was a given), and spending hours deciding between them. My timing at the jeweler couldn't have been better, as I walked in I could actually hear it getting the finishing touches in the back room  .After leaving, and chatting with my mom on the phone about the good news, my next stop was at Kris's parents house for the good ol' permission request. Now, for the weeks leading up to it, and even the drive there, I was a rock, but as soon as I got outta the car, with each step I started getting the butterflies in my stomach. So I knock on the door, and Chloe bounds out of the house and jumps all over me. Amazingly, this sorta calmed me a little bit. So, Phil invites me in, and I see Nancy on the couch. This is pretty much how the next 15 seconds goes: N: "Hi there John, Kris isn't with you?" J: "Nope, she's at home waiting for me, I'm just stopping by on my way home from work." N: "Oh well isn't that sweet. Can we get you anything to drink?" P: "Anything to eat?" I'm now halfway up a three-step set of stairs, and my right leg is starting to quake, quite visibly. J: "No, no, no thanks. I'm, uh... I'm actually here in a... a kind of old-fashioned... capacity."  Realization dawns on Nancy immediately, and she begins giving a few joyous "oh's" to Phil, and I turn to him, nodding my head.J: "Yes, I'm... whew, I'm going to ask Kristine to marry me, and I'm here for your permission." They couldn't have been kinder in their words to me, and they voraciously gave their approval, asking as if there were any doubt. They are just great people, and have so completely welcomed me into their family, I wasn't that worried, but as I said then, "I'm only going to do this once." Apparently that went over well :-) So, cut to the next night. I'd been carrying the ring around in my pocket all day... it was pretty hard to let just lie around. Since Kris had to work later that night at 11, we had a couple hours to hang out together. We first went out to Olive Garden, which is a favorite of her and I's (roll your eyes all you want). We had discussed over instant messenger earlier in the day if we wanted to do anything special. My one-word answer "Yeah." seemed to pique her interest, more in the vein that she thought I really wanted to get outta the house. Instead I just told her I wanted to get dinner, then stay in and play some Scrabble. We get back around 7:30, and we get comfortable. I try to run the the bathroom quick, but I'm scared she'll get to the Scrabble board before I get out, so I hustle out. Wouldn't you know it though, she's turned on the TV and has started the DVR'ed episode of Scrubs for us to watch. I think to myself: "Huh. So that's how that feels."  So we sit down and enjoy an episode of Scrubs, that no joke, was all about how Elliot was feeling confused on her new engagement. Honestly, could I have timed this any more awkwardly? Of course, it is sweeps time, and nearly every television show on the air now has an engagement/wedding subplot somewhere in it. As the episode is wrapping up, Kris is expecting us to start up the latest episode of Grey's Anatomy (wedding episode next week), but the timing afterwards just won't work, b/c it's nearing 8:30 and she needs to head off to work in 2 hours. So I ask her if we can just play Scrabble instead, and watch Grey's later. She says sure, but her "weirdness-alarm" is going off, because come on, how often do I turn don watching TV, right? I get the board out, but then, another snag comes up, as she chooses then to call her mom and discuss the grocery list we need to pick up for Sunday's Mother's Day get-together. There I've put the the box on the table, and I've had it set up in such a way that a dot I put on the box is up top, making sure the message on the board is showing properly. After about 3 minutes of her on the phone, and me pacing back and forth (it was at this point I was getting antsy), she said goodbye to her mom, and I'd set up the ring-box in my pocket. I wasn't nervous per-se, but I was beginning to worry this wasn't going to go nearly as well timed and with the surprise I hope. I'm approaching Kris, and she looks at me funny. "What's wrong with you, you're acting very weird." She reaches for the box, still looking at me, and I'm now thinking it's gonna work perfectly. She'll open the box, turn, and see it. But, of course, not that easily. For some reason even she can't tell you why, Kristine takes the box and turns it 90 degrees and begins to take the lid off. I don't think I slapped my hand down on the box hard, but I did stop it, and pleaded "Wait!" "What is wrong with you? Something's up, why are you acting so strange?" By now, I've resigned the fact that it won't be as smooth as I'd hoped, but I'll go all-in with gusto. I stutter something along the lines "Okay, yeah, there is something up, but it's not strange." With Kristine sitting down with her legs under the coffee table I get down on my knees, and pull the top off myself. She looks at me, turns to the board, and as I beginning reaching for the ring-box in my pocket, she looks back at me and gives me my favorite smile ever, with the sweetest response, "Of course, I'll marry you. I would love to be your wife." She wraps her arms around me, and we kiss of course. Then I pull back, "Well can I give you the ring now?"  The ring goes over amazingly well, and the one thing I was dreading - that she would hate the ring and ask for a new one - turned out to be for naught. I slid the ring on (in pictures, you'll see she has the wedding band on as well, mostly to show off), and we officially became engaged. And for those wondering what the Scrabble board read, you can see it in the picture.Afterwards, her mom called, and Kris broke the good news (her parents knew I was going to do it sometime before Sunday, but not when... mostly because I didn't know how I was going to set up the Scrabble board without her knowing. We sent out a bunch of text messages, and got immediate texts... thanks all! Before she went off to work, we back over to her parents for pictures and celebrations, and Chloe moping because she wasn't the center of attention for once. We were both sad she had to run off to work, but like Kris said, it wasn't too bad because she had something to stare at 100 times during the night The rest of weekend was a blast. We got to spend more time with her family, with her brother coming for the weekend. It's was nice to be able to give such a nice Mother's Day gift to both of our mothers. *side note: with her Y-E-S going down the right column on the Triple Word Score, proposal gets bumped up to 272. ...eta: in case you didn't know, clicking on the pics enlarges them posted by Holz | 11:32 AM | Rant & Rave, Bitches! (5) 5 Comments:
I could not be happier - the pictures you all sent are perfect for the album I am creating to give to my Grandbabbies. Ok - no pressure - ring is on the hand of the best daughter in law I could ever hope for; whose parents I am forever grateful to, for welcoming John as one of their own. I look forward to many occasions where we can all gush over our amazing children. (ok nd Grandchildren - but no pressure really)
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Congrats to the both of you. Awesome!! So I guess your next Scrabble game will be kind of boring?
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I would never play scrabble again for fear of the triple words score "I M Pregnant."
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Congratulations! I had heard the story from Melissa, but it was great to read all the details. I love that you managed to get all the information in the blog. Very unusual for a guy. Way to go! Kristine is very lucky.
By Sincerest congratulations to you both. Very well described blog entry too.
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"Let a man get away with fuckin' you once, you stay bent over so's he can fuck you again whenever he damn well pleases. An' if one man can do it? Another will too. An' another, an' another still. So's being fucked, that's yer life. 'Til who you were, you ain't. 'Cause all you are is an asshole." 100 Bullets #42 | |||||
