Dodger Gurl
Shiny_Rock
- Joined
- Oct 15, 2004
- Messages
- 352
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Memoirs of an Evil Day (and other strange musings)
By Mr. Handsome
( Mr. Handsome would tease me by referring to his proposal plan as “The Evil Plan” which would be carried out on “The Evil Day” during which he will present me with “The Sneaky-Sneaky” (the ring). Yes, we are silly like that. =P )
The proposal was supposed to take place on Saturday. No, Sunday. No, Saturday!! Believe me, I'll remember that day on the beach with Dodger Gurl for the rest of my life, but due to some strange and unpredictable weather, it began in a way that was both unscripted and a bit unnerving! My otherwise leisurely Saturday morning was interrupted by ________, the company I'd hired to assist me in my proposal scheme! I was overcome with a great deal of both panic and excitement as Tinkerbell, the head guide for the company, informed me that although the weather held the possibility for some sprinkles, Sunday (the day I switched to) was looking even worse. In short, it was either switch back to Saturday or wait for the following weekend. Since the proposal was to take place in _______ (near ______, roughly 4 hours away), I immediately called Dodger Gurl, got the ring (then proceeded to check 3 or 4 times to make sure I'd remembered the ring), and headed out the door! As we made our way up north, I remember thinking "Wow! What's happened to the last year and a half? We were sitting in the living room of that apartment for post-grad Bible study just yesterday!" I felt more excited than I'd ever been, and yet so inadequate: how does one ever meet the lofty expectations of a godly husband? When we finally arrived at the trailhead where we were to meet our guides and begin the ride, the sprinkling was fairly steady, and frankly, I began to worry a bit! Dodger Gurl, however, remained in good spirits and was eager to begin the adventure! I was so thankful for her attitude, her willingness to endure what ended up being a pretty soggy day, and with a smile on her face (even before she knew what was in store). As we rode across the beach and spotted the picnic I'd had the guides prepare for us, words aren't quite sufficient to describe the anxiety that seized my heart! I wish I could tell you that my mind at that point was filled with something more romantic, something about how much Dodger Gurl means to me, anything of that nature would have been great! There will be none of that here. "Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! This is it! Oh my gosh! Everything's going to be fine! Oh my gosh!" And so on. After a quick picnic, we decided upon a stroll along the beach. Not far away, beside a large piece of washed up driftwood, was planted a very antiquated-looking message rolled up inside a bottle. I felt as if time simply stood still as she read that note: no raindrops, no waves crashing in the background, no soggy shoes. Just waiting. Forever, and ever, and ever! Finally, as she finished, I knelt and clumsily recited the only phrase I'd managed to memorize in Tagalog. "You are a gift from God to me." For the male contingent of this letter's recipients, I'm sure that you may be developing a bit of nausea yourself at this point! My words were, however, intentional and sincere. I feel as if Dodger Gurl is an answer to prayer. As I finished my butchery of what was previously a beautiful phrase, I asked Dodger Gurl to be my wife. She stood in shock, and after about two seconds that seemed like yet another eternity, said yes! I was too excited to remember what I said or did next, but I do remember the short ride back to the car on a soggy horse, and this wonderful feeling, the feeling that my life in those few brief moments had been changed forever.
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Message in a Bottle (and other romantic happenings)
By Dodger Gurl
One word to describe me during most of that day: Clueless. I thought I was going to get to see Hearst Castle. When Mr. Handsome first suggested that we go, I was a little resistant to the idea because it was so far for us to drive for a day trip. However, he seemed intent on going so why not? I’d heard it was beautiful. (Clueless!) Little did I know that he had never intended to really go there – it was just an excuse to get us in the area of _______. Our non-existent tickets were “purchased” for Saturday, but was rescheduled to Sunday due to the rain forecast. However, on Saturday morning I received a call from Mr. Handsome asking me if I could be ready to go in an hour. So, off we went!! About halfway there (it was a beautiful ride up by the way!) we stopped for lunch. While we were eating Mr. Handsome said he had to go and make a call to Hearst Castle to make sure it wasn’t raining up there. So he went outside to make the “call” (he later told me that all he did was go out and sit in his car for a little bit). He came back with his face all downcast (I would like to nominate Mr. Handsome for an Oscar award!) told me that he had forgotten to call and switch our “tickets” back from Sunday to Saturday so we would not be able to go to Hearst Castle after all. Well, there I was feeling really bad for the guy because he had seemed so excited to go, we had driven all this way, and now he was really disappointed!!! So when he suggested we do something else in the area so as not to waste the trip, I readily agreed. He said that back when he was looking up horseback riding places for my birthday (I love horsies!), he had located one that was in the area. So we hopped back in the car and he made a phone call to _______ to see if they could squeeze us in last minute. I later found out that that phone call was basically made to his home phone number and he was talking to his answering machine!!! Sneaky!!!!!! (Ummm, yep, you guessed it - I am still absolutely clueless at this point.) We arrive at the trailhead and it was drizzling/sprinkling a little bit but it didn’t bother me. I think maybe Mr. Handsome was just hypersensitive to it because he was so anxious for everything to be perfect. (Awwww!) It was so beautiful and the horses were awesome!!! Mr. Handsome pretended to have never met Tinkerbell before and our ride began. As we left the hillside portion of our ride and approached the beach, Tinkerbell sent some of the trail guides ahead of us to “search for some belongings of a rider on the ride previous to ours which had fallen from their backpack”. What they were actually doing was setting up the picnic on the beach. We finally came to the picnic which I thought was really nice of the horseback riding people to include in their tour. However, there were also some flowers included which were tulips (my favorite). A brief thought crossed my mind – “Wow! What a weird coincidence that they are tulips!”. (Hellloooo!!!!!!!!!!!! How clueless could I be!!!). But I shrugged it off because from what I knew this was a spontaneous trip and we signed up last minute – there was no way Mr. Handsome could have done it. After the picnic we went for a walk on the beach and we spotted some driftwood. Mr. Handsome pointed to it and said “Look honey, what’s that?”. To which I replied in my normal smart-alec way “Ummm, it’s a dead tree honey.” LOL! Mr. Handsome again said “No, look – there’s something there!” At this point I was thinking “What is it? Is it an animal? What? What?” We got closer and I could see that it was a bottle with a cork in it. AND it had a little rolled-up paper inside! This is the part when my heart started racing like crazy!!! I bent down and picked it up. The note looked like it was on old parchment paper, complete with the edges burned and sealed with little drops of wax. During this time I’m thinking “Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Is this it? Oh my gosh!”. I broke the wax seals but at this point I am so shocked and full of hope that it was for me and yet also afraid that this was NOT it, that someone else wrote the message and it WASN’T meant for me that I handed the note over to Mr. Handsome for HIM to read. (What did I tell you – CLUELESS!!!!) LOL!!!!!!!!! So Mr. Handsome patiently “reads” it silently then hands it back to me. I took a deep breath and read the beautiful letter that Mr. Handsome had indeed written . . . . it WAS for me! After reading the letter I turned around to see Mr. Handsome down on one knee and I started crying. He then said in perfect Tagalog (the Filipino language) “Ipinag kaloob ka sa akin ng Dios. Mahal kita.”, followed by, “Will you marry me?” (Translation: “God has given/granted/entrusted you to me. I love you.”) I was even more shocked, if that is possible - so shocked that I just stood there and forgot to give him my answer. (Sorry honey!!!) I think he asked me again and I cried some more and nodded my head yes and then I cried some more. It was the most special, surprising, fun, beautiful, romantic moment in my life!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!! !!!! ! ! ! He then placed the most beautiful ring EVER on my hand. On the inside of the ring is inscribed "Proverbs 18:22"! Mr. Handsome, I love you! What a blessing you have been to me. Thank you so much for planning such a wonderful and special day!
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