I've had the ring for a while, waiting for the right moment to ask HER... I've been carrying it around IN MY POCKET for the past week, waiting for the planets and the stars to all align in some way that I could know TODAY was the day.
So here's how yesterday went...
We decided last night would be our date night as we had no kids at home and we picked an Italian place that I've been going to for longer than I've even KNOWN her because we've just never managed to get over there.
Well, the owner is like my surrogate dad, after a fashion, so I really wanted him to meet her and get his patented nod or shrug, depending. (They've ALL been shrugs to this point, so I was nervous... I wouldn't have cared; I love her in a bigger way than that, but even so...)
We decide to get all prettified, her in a button down, vest, and tie. I was in a dress... We go, dinner is perfect (as usual) and he sat to talk with us for a few which isn't RARE, but it's not a NORMAL thing either. They got along well, we ate dessert, which was STUPID cuz I ate too much dinner... I digress. As we left, hersband walked back inside for a moment, came out smiling. {She told me later she asked his permission to marry me, he gave it with the stern warning that I'd been hurt and she better not hurt me or she'd live to regret it. I ♥ that man.)
We went for a walk around the neighborhood, it was just dusking to dark, the breeze was cool enough that 80 degrees was tolerable, it was PERFECT.... And I'd left the damned ring at home cuz I had no pockets.
As we're walking, one of my sons friends calls to ask if I can pick her up to spend the night cuz she'd been fighting with her parents. I roll my eyes, herbsand says it's ok and I say yes. After we grab her, we head home and the kid says she's bored. Now, I'm not ANCIENT but I'm OLDISH and it's already pushing 10:30. I ask her what she wants to do and she shrugs, so we change into comfy clothes (AND JEANS) and I slip the ring in my pocket. Hersband goes out to start the car and I show the kid who gets all excited and begins plotting.
We end up driving around randomly, doing a lot of nothing with music blaring (which the kid dug) and end up in Oklahoma. The kid suggests a casino nearby that everyone and their dog has been to at one point or another, I point out her age, hersband and kid are quick to inform me as long as she doesn't TOUCH the machines, she can be inside. So in we go.
We get in and the kid says, "DO IT HERE!!!" I look at her like she's crazy and say no way... ok, this story is already too long...
As we're wandering around, watching the hardcore gamblers, the ones there for fun and listening to the karaoke in one of the bars, Hersband recognizes the voice of one of the singers and bolts off. Fifteen minutes later, she comes back with a friend she hasn't seen in YEARS in tow. This is the friend she's been trying to make contact with for so long so we could meet and it just never happened.
So.
This is her best friend, mind you. And if ever there was an approval I would want, it's this girl. I pull her aside, show her the ring, ask her thoughts.
She "EEEEEK!!!"ed at me and said "You have to do it right now, tonight, I LOVE you, I wanna see you do it." Laughing, I tell her I have no idea how to do it. I come up with the plan that she could sing our song on karaoke and while she's singing, we could dance and while we're dancing, I could just... kinda... do it.
She squeals, loving this idea, bounds off to sign up for karaoke.
They aren't taking anymore singers.
Now I have the manager in on it, he asks if I have the song on my phone (as he doesn't have it), I say OF COURSE and try to pull it up, realize that I never synced my new phone and don't have it, try to DL it but I don't have my CC tied to iTunes yet and I had left it in my purse... at home. Seriously, this is what my life is like.
He shows me the songs he has by the same artist, I pick one and he says ok, I'll play it after Cupid Shuffle. As Wobble ends (yes, we were Wobbling), CUpid Shuffle starts... AS he was telling me mine was after it. I realize I have 5 minutes and start getting really nervous. CS ends, and there's just enough lag between songs that Hersband starts to leave the floor. The song starts and I say, "Dance with me." She says, "This song is lame {and I almost friggin died}." I say, "Aww, come on, we haven't danced in forEVER." She agrees and says again that the song is lame. Her friend says, no it's NOT. It's EPIC!!! (weird friends, sorry) and she dances with me... I start babbling some random stuff about how much I love her into her ear while we're dancing, ask her if she still wanted to marry me, to which she responded of COURSE, asked her if she was SURE and she looked at me cross-eyed and said yesssssssssss... All the while, I'm trying to work that ring out of my pocket without her noticing. She says yesssssssssss and I said, then marry me... standing like some goober but she didn't notice the ring and I belatedly remember the knee thing so I dropped down in the middle of a dance floor in a casino in Oklahoma completely unplanned surrounded by strangers and her one best friend and a kid. She covered her face and her eyes were huge and round and she nodded then she pulled me up, still nodding and started kissing me all over my face. The people in the bar were shouting out congrats and cheering and making a general ruckus then her friend came flying across the room and jumped on us in a weird little group hug then another seven people joined in, all congratulating us, telling us how cute, blah blah... I'm pretty sure it was the weirdest proposal I've ever heard of, but she was ecstatic, her friend was ecstatic and the kid was thrilled. I'm crazy in love and it was about time I showed HER how much she meant to me, too.
Sorry so long, if you made it this far, have some pics.
The ring... perfect for the girl in her, but not too gaudy.
Us, after dinner, before The Question.
Us, right after I proposed, with her best friend.
