First, I’d like to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CASEY!!! I can’t
believe it’s already the fourth anniversary of your 21st birthday;
time flies! Anyways, I hope you have a wonderful day!!
So…the proposal. Where do I begin?
I bought the engagement ring at Robbins Bros about a week
before I planned to propose. I had driven up to Orange County for the day
(somehow without Casey) and had a great alibi already planned out for the
inevitable “what did you do today?” question that I was so sure Casey would ask
(and she did. And she believed my answer).
Anyways, some of you might be thinking “why did you buy the
ring at Robbins Bros, HH?” or “their rings are overpriced!” Well, at the time,
we had a friend by the name of Twin Unicorn who was working at Robbins
Bros. Not only did she make the ring buying process was less stressful but she
was also able to hook me up with a discount!! Side note: Casey had already went
in to Robbins Bros a few months before to check out some different ring styles
so as to make sure that when I did buy her an engagement ring, it was one that
she would like. Based on how well you know her from reading this blog, are you
surprised?
Neither was I.
Back to the story. I got the ring. I drove over to my
grandparents house and said “hey guys! Here’s an engagement ring I just bought
because I’m proposing to Casey soon so can you hide it for me until I need it?
Kthanksbye!” No, it was actually a little nicer than that, plus they were
expecting me so it wasn’t SHOCKING news to them. After the ring was in its
hiding spot, I returned to sunny San Diego.
The date was Saturday, April 4, 2009 and Casey and I were at
a park celebrating my cousin’s daughter’s first birthday (Cousin Teeny Girl!) with my whole family.
The only thing I remember from that party is being a bit anxious because my
proposal plan was already set in motion.
I tried to time our departure from the party to coincide
with that of my grandparents because they had the engagement ring with them in
their car (as I had instructed them to do, not because they chose their car to
hide my ring in). When we were walking to my car, I gave Casey the keys and
told her to go start the car and that I have to go help out my grandma with
something. According to Casey, this was a very weird request because apparently
my grandma didn’t appear to need much help with anything but she got over it
and got in the car. I went over to my grandma’s car, got the ring, put it in my
pocket, got in my car, and started driving to the place where I had chosen to
propose to Casey.
I knew it was going to be tough to get Casey to agree to go
to the place I had chosen to propose, not because it was some disgusting,
horrible place, but because she’s not a very “go with the flow” kind of girl.
As soon as something gets off-track, she has a mild panic attack (love you,
babe!).
So I asked her if she wanted to go check out our old junior
high school, which as most of you may know, is where we met for the first time.
Of course, and as I anticipated, my question was met with a very less than favorable response but alas, I
was the one driving so therefore she had to do what I wanted to do (little did
I know, that would be the last time we ever did anything I wanted to do that
Casey didn’t want to do #marriedlife #justkidding #butseriously…).
We arrived at the school and parked in the mini parking lot.
I think it is so funny how much smaller a school seems to get once you graduate
from it and get older. I remember thinking that our junior high was SO big!
Then, we went to the high school right down the hill and then I though the high
school was SO big. Now, after going to college at a large university, both
schools are ridiculously small, but I digress.
This part was another part where I anticipated some more
difficulties. I told Casey that I wanted to get out of the car and go walk
around the quad of the school. She, of course, was saying things like “this is
so dumb!” and “why are we doing this?” I just ignored all of that and began
walking onto the campus because I knew she would follow me anyways.
First, we walked over to where we used to hang out in 8th
grade. There were these blue benches that we used to sit at, so we went and sat
on them (you know, be able to really feel
the memories better). My plan was to get Casey to stand in the spot where we
took the famous (at least in our world) picture of us together in 8th
grade. I thought it would be very romantic to ask her to marry me in that very
same spot (awwwwww!). But that’s not what happened.
We got to that spot and I gave her the whole “omg this is
totes where we took that picture of us in 8th grade!” thing and she
was naturally surprisingly unimpressed. Not really caring about her lack
of enthusiasm moments before I was about to change both our lives with a
serious question, I was determined to still do it right there. She turned
around for a second so I got down on bended knee and had the ring in my hand
and then…………………
…………………she didn’t turn back around! So, I did what anyone
would’ve done. I quickly got back up and put the ring back in my pocket before
she could turn around and see the disaster that had just been averted and just.
Acted. Natural.
From that failed moment on, I was wingin’ it. We walked over
to the blue benches where we used to hang out in 7th grade and sat
there for a little bit, reminiscing ‘n such. I stood up (Casey was still
sitting on the blue bench) and noticed that there was a mural painted on the
wall to her right that I had never seen before so I very smoothly said “hey, I
think that mural is relatively new.” Just as I had masterfully planned, Casey
took the bait and turned her head to the right to look at the mural. When she
looked back, I was down (again) on bended knee with the ring in my hand. Of
course, she was extremely surprised to see me in that position and to see the
ring. I started to say my piece, which was basically something along the lines
of “hey. You’s cute. Let’s get married ‘n sh*t. Aight?” “Casey, you’re
the love of my life. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you
marry me?”
She said yes (she was excited about that!) and the rest is history!
At Mother-in-Law Red's House hours after we got engaged, with Cousin Ronomon and Tutor Girl!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY,
CASEY!
