Today is April Fool’s Day. I thought seriously about penning a blog about some outrageous event and then saying that it never happened; that it was just April Fool’s Day joke. But that would be mean, and how on earth would I come up with something more outrageous than the “normal” occurrences of my daily life with four kids? So instead, I thought I would blog about the only significant thing that has ever happened to me on April Fool’s Day – this is the day my husband proposed 13 years ago. Now, the actual story of the proposal is kind of boring: After work, we went to our favorite Italian restaurant where we enjoyed a great dinner and at the end he proposed. I said yes. He did go and talk to my parents before he did this, where my dad asked him “Are you SURE you want to do this? Do you know how much money she spends on shampoo?” and my mom stared at him in disbelief and just kept saying over and over “I was sure you were coming to talk to us about painting the house.” Actually, our relationship didn’t have many truly funny stories until we had kids, but I never blog about my husband, so I thought that I would recount the way we met. If you are here for my normal tales and adventures from Mommyland, this may not be one you want to read.
When I graduated college, I got a job in Birmingham, AL. I was dating a loser. I eventually became engaged to said loser and 4 months before my proposed wedding I quit my job and moved home to plan the wedding. Well, after the dress was bought and the invitations were ordered, he broke it off. Over the phone. Because his parents didn’t like me. And then he wanted to be friends. Um, yeah, that didn’t happen. So, here I am, 23 years old, living at home after quitting a great job. I wasn’t that upset about not getting married, but I was BEYOND PISSED about quitting a job that I liked and living at home with my parents. I soon took a job as Co-Manager of an apartment complex, and it at least got me out of my parent’s house.
I was bemoaning the fact that all of my friends from my hometown were either married or had moved away to a college friend on the phone one night and she said that I needed to call up “her boys.” She, like me, had a lot of close guy friends from high school and she had grown up just one town over. I told her that I would wait for her to come home and we could all get together then because I was NOT in the habit of calling up men I had never met and saying “Hey, Kate gave me your number and said we should hang out.” She ended up calling them and giving them my number instead. So these 2 guys called me and invited me to their apartment for a little house warming that they were throwing for themselves. I told them that I had to go to church that night, but I would swing by later for coffee or something – not really sure I wanted to go. As it turned out, it rained horribly that day and we had a water main bust at the complex, so I missed church all together. About 8:00, I decided to go to their apartment but I wasn’t going to get gussied up or anything – bleached out blue jeans, sweatshirt, no make-up, and wet hair.
When I got there, the apartment was pretty full of people. The 2 guys, Gary and Derek, had made dinner and everyone was about done eating and just hanging out. They asked if I wanted something to eat and I declined but said I’d take something to drink. Gary said “We’ve got Coke, Beer, water, milk, coffee….” I said I’d take some water. At this point, Derek erupts into objections – “Oh no – uh-uh!! You said that you would come for coffee, so we went out and bought a coffee maker! You HAVE to have coffee! But you have to make it because we don’t know how.” The statement that they didn’t know how to make coffee was further proved by the fact that they had bought a little 4-cup coffee maker and Taster’s Choice instant coffee. So as the evening progressed, Gary and I sort of just always ended up talking together. Derek, whom I love, and who I hope doesn’t take offense with this, was running around like a squirrel on meth. He was so hyper and energetic and fun to observe. Another friend of theirs, John, saw something that night that even me and Gary didn’t. When I invited everyone to come to my apartment the next night to watch “Friends” and “ER,” John made sure that no one else showed up except Gary. He ended up staying at my apartment until after midnight that next night and we talked and talked. We had several more pseudo-dates like this “just as friends.” Until we went hiking and got lost on Monte Sano Mountain. After that, we had our first kiss and the rest, as they say, is history. Six months later he proposed, I said yes, and the wedding was 6 months after that. I sprinted down the aisle with my dad telling me to slow down the entire time to marry the man who was crazy enough to ask. In the 13 years since he asked, he has never once tried to take it back (not that I would let him).
When I told Lorelei that this was the day her daddy asked me to marry him, she got very excited and said "Wow, Mama! What did you say??!" I wanted so badly to tell her that I was still thinking about it, but as smart as she is, I do not think that she would get it.
No comments:
Post a Comment