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Part II : The Night
Part III : The Aftermath
The first question everyone asks when you tell them you're engaged is "How did he do it?". It comes right after "Let me see the ring" (which isn't a question) and just before "Is that platinum or white gold?". So, here's the story of how Ricky proposed to Tammy.
It was a cold, stormy night in a little suburb just outside the city. I was sitting in my office polishing my magnifying glass when I heard a knock at the door. I looked up and there she was. The most beautiful dame this side of the bowling alley down the street. My heart skipped a beat as she entered, but then I realized it was just my spastic colon. She sauntered over to my desk like a tree blowing in the wind. I asked her what she needed, and she slapped me across the face. I was about to kiss her when I realized that I was telling the wrong story.
Okay, here's the real story. Once I decided to ask Tammy to marry me, it was all a matter of timing. Tammy had endured a whole semester of people constantly bugging her about when we were going to get engaged, and of course I had plenty of people asking me the same thing. I briefly considered asking her on Christmas or New Year's Eve or Day, but my move into my new apartment sort of eliminated those possibilities. In all the craziness of moving and getting adjusted to living on my own again, I just didn't really have time to pick out a ring and plan out how to ask her.
This worked out nicely, because my brother ended up getting engaged right before New Year's.
One day, while I was at work and looking at a calendar, I happened to notice that Tammy's birthday, on January 12, landed on a Friday this year. Almost immediately the little wheels in my head started turning. The hamsters were working hard. Since the weekend is normally the only time I got to see her, that would work out quite nicely as a day to ask her. Plus, having the excuse of her birthday to take her out to a nice place to eat would help mask my true intentions (I'm a bad liar).
At some point in either late December or early January, I came across a website that can print a customized message on a teddy bear (or just about anything else). I had the bright idea that that would be a very creative way to ask her, so I ordered one that said "My darling Tammy, will you marry me?" on it. Somehow I've become known as being really creative on anniversaries and other special occasions, so I figured I'd better live up to the hype. It was really weird just typing those words in (which I actually had to do several times because their website was having problems). When the bear got here about a week later, it was even weirder to see. I promptly hid the bear where Tammy wouldn't accidentally see it.
Just after New Year's, I went ring shopping. Months earlier Tammy and I had looked around at rings so that I could get a feel for what she liked and disliked. This helped greatly. I went into the store at the Galleria I had already decided I wanted to buy her ring from. The guy working there was really nice. Less than an hour later, I was on my way home, having bought the perfect ring and leaving it there to be resized. I had some difficulty convincing the guy that I really did need a size 3 3/4, but he finally believed me when I told him we had her finger checked at several places. Well, okay, I wasn't actually on my way home...I went to another store to buy a couple of DVDs, but that's beside the point. But not entirely beside the point...one of those DVDs was Dirty Dancing, which I decided to get for Tammy (it's her favorite movie) for her birthday as a distraction.
The week of the 12th I was a nervous wreck. I did one of the better Oscar jobs of my life. I was with both her and her parents the entire weekend before and never let on to my evil plans. In what was probably the second most nerve-racking experience of my life, that Tuesday I found the nerve to call Tammy's parents and tell them that "we needed to chat". I knew they weren't clueless and knew exactly what this was about. Anyhow, they had church on Wednesday night, so we planned that I would drive up to Huntsville after work on Thursday.
Wednesday at work, I don't think I got very much done. I was freaking out. Tammy's parents are about the least intimidating that a girlfriend's parents could possibly be, but still...I was terrified. Around lunchtime, I got an email from Mrs. Stewart asking me to call her. I won't even bother describing all the weird reasons I came up with as to why she needed me to call her. I called her, and she said that it would work out better for me to go ahead and come that night.
In the end, that probably worked out much better than my original plan, but still...I hate it when plans of mine have to be changed. I was counting on having another day to figure out what I was going to say. I got permission to leave work a little early that day. I went by my apartment to get my CD player so I'd stay awake in the car, and I stopped by the Galleria and picked up the ring. It was still beautiful, and the band so WAS small looking. Irrational panicking that it was going to be too small starting going through my head. Anyhow, I drove up to Huntsville.
I honestly don't remember much of anything about the trip up there. My mind was understandably elsewhere. I ended up getting there like 30 minutes before the Stewarts were expecting me, so I sat in the parking lot at McDonald's planning everything down to the word. I'd go in, small talk for a few minutes to break the ice, then go for it. I had every word, every pause planned out.
6:00 finally rolled around, and I got to the Stewart's house. I rang the doorbell, and Mrs. Stewart answered the door. Mr. Stewart had something at church he had to take care of, but then was going to hurry home. So my expected few minutes of small talk became much longer. Mrs. Stewart and I managed to keep the conversation going pretty well, I think. I'm told I about petted all of the dog's fur off in my nervous way. Finally Mr. Stewart got home, so I had to do some more small talk with him.
I finally found a good pause in the conversation to totally change the subject and ask their permission to marry their daughter. Of course, they said yes, and everyone's nerves subsided a little bit. We talked for quite some time about who knows what, and finally I drove home. I managed to convince Tammy, who had tried to call me several times, that I had been working out or shopping or something.
Then came Thursday. Of course, I again probably didn't get anything done at work. That night, I finalized my plans for how I was going to ask her. This required a trip to Pier 1 to buy a ton of candles. I went by my parents' house for a while and hung out with them, again putting in my Oscar contention. I didn't sleep a whole lot that night.