The Proposal

I had a big elaborate proposal all planned and ready to go. It involved her kids at school, video cameras, and her friends. I had to scratch it because it was planned for the last day of school. I just couldn’t wait any longer.

On 4/22/09 I decided to surprise Maria over the weekend. She was heading home for a few days to see her brother and sister-in-law before they move to Germany. I figured I could drive up Friday after work and surprise her before she left. I just had to have one of her friends convince her to stay in town until Saturday morning. Hmm-good thought, but the word ended up leaking out to Maria. When Maria asked me what was going on, I told her I was just testing out which friends I could trust. What else was I supposed to say? I didn’t want her to know anything that was going on.

After some quick thinking I decided to drive to her house on Sunday (my birthday!). She normally leaves to go home after lunch and gets home around 4:00 in the afternoon. I’ll just plan on leaving at 7:00am so I get to her house about 3:00pm. That way I should have enough time to hide my car and get everything set up. The bed was just so comfortable…

9:00am – I just left the house!! Maria called me a few minutes into the drive and asked what I was doing. I told her I was driving to Lowes to pick up some trim, and was going to be working on it all day.

1:00pm – She texted me to say they are heading to her dad’s house. I still had to call her dad to ask him if I could marry Maria.

1:30ish – She called to tell me her dad has a roto-tiller he is willing to sell me. She wanted to hand the phone to him and I said, “NO, I have to work on the trim. I’ll call him in a few hours.” I didn’t know what else to say, I didn’t want to talk to him about the engagement plans with Maria standing right there.

4:15pm – Who knows where Maria is, but I just pulled into her driveway. I set up the scavenger hunt and put my car in the garage. I didn’t want to look like I was trying to break into her house so I went for a walk.

5:00pm – I started to get real tired of walking around AND very hungry. I figured Maria wouldn’t be home for a while so I went and grabbed a sandwich. At this point my worst fear was that her cell battery died and she will be home any minute. After I ate my sandwich I called Maria’s mom. She couldn’t talk, but said that Maria was sitting on her couch reading a book.

5:20pm – I called Maria’s dad to talk about the rototiller and to ask him the big question.

7:00pm – It’s going to be dark soon, I hope Maria can still find the scavenger clues.

7:20pm – Maria called to say she just left her mom’s. Omg, that means she won’t be home until about 10:30. So we talked and talked and talked while she drove and drove and drove.

10:20pm – Maria is a few blocks away. I ran into the garage and put on my headlamp. I could hear her pull into the driveway. When she got out of the car I could hear her talking. I hung up because I was worried she would her me talking to her. I could hear her running around outside gathering all of the clues. And then she opened the garage. She just stood there saying “oh my god, oh my god, oh my god…”

The end.