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So it was 10 years ago today that I asked Wifey if she would marry me. We were such children then, merely 21 years old at the time. It is a cute story and much to the consternation of Wifey, I shall relate it to you.
It was just after lunch time on February 7th, I had just left the campus area to head to Chapel Hill Mall. One of the most craptastic malls in Northeast Ohio. This was a mall built in the 70’s so it was not that large, and was anchored by a Kauffman’s and I think a Sears. It’s food court at the time consisted of Crap on a Stick and the typical mall favorite Sabarro, best smelling/worst tasting crap pizza. I hoofed it over to Ultra Jewelers, one of the mall jewelry stores. Nothing says “the best” like a name like “Ultra.” No really, how can anything be better than “Ultra?” I imagine that if the jewelry chain were to open today it would have been called “Über,” cause who wouldn’t want umlauts. The manager there was amazingly sleazy, but I knew the sales guy from my fencing class and fencing club. I was quite the epee in my day, if I do say so myself. The deal on the ring was not the best I could have gotten, as indicated by the manager accepting my counter offer without pause, but I still think it was a good deal since the ring is now appraised for significantly more than I paid for it.
The ring: it was the largest ring I could afford and still have good quality. It’s small compared to today’s gigantor rings (5 karats, anyone?), but it was the perfect size for wifey’s finger. Sleazy manager kept making inappropriate references to the size of the ring a woman wants corresponding to…you see what I’m saying! Wifey accompanied me to find out what ring she wanted, but she was not there when I ordered the loose stone, when I chose from 6 stones, or when I picked it up that afternoon 10 years ago.
So, we had figured that I would need to put the ring on some kind of lay-away type of system and that I would have the thing paid off by May and it would be a graduation gift. Ultra the seedy place that it was set me up for 90 day same as cash financing for the ring. It was the Mid-90’s and credit was just starting to really open up to anybody. As a college kid employed at a NordicTrack, I really should not have qualified for any sort of credit, but what the heck. I applied, and was accepted in “10 minutes or less!” So, I had the ring in my hot little hand, and it was buring a hole in my pocket… the ring, not my hand.
I picked up Wifey at 7:30 pm from her afternoon / early evening seminar style class that she had every Wednesday in White Hall at Kent State. She got in the car in an absolutely piss poor mood. It seems that someone in the seminar was being a boorish ass, making the class un-enjoyable for all else involved.
I said, “Hey, let's go get Chinese, I have something to tell you, but I’m not sure if I should wait until we get to the restaurant.”
Her response was, “Well, whatever you want to do. We can wait or not.”
We started driving off and I said, “I’m just not sure whether to share the good news now or wait for until we’re comfortable and seated."
More vehemently, she said (very huffily), “I don’t care either way, SRH. Tell me now or tell me later – just make a decision.”
I stopped at a stop sign, it was dark and I opened the cheesy ring box that Ultra gave me. The ring box was white and when you opened it a white LED-esque light shone directly on the ring. Oh, Lord it was cheesy. A single beacon of light shone down upon this ring, and I said, “The ring came in today. Will you marry me?” Here we are at the stop sign of Terrace Drive on campus and Summit Street with a small light illuminating a ring. It was all so surreal. I had planned on doing the whole get down on one knee thing and ask her to get married, but it just wasn’t in the cards for me. Future Wifey was just sitting there mouth agape. She said absolutely nothing, had not even made a noise, and I honestly am not sure if she had let out a breath yet. I asked again, “Honey, will you marry me?” Again, nothing. Now, I knew the answer before I asked the question, or I would have never asked the question, I mean after all, she picked out the ring with me, but this silence was killing me.
I was not sure what was going through her head at that moment. It could have simply been “Guh, guh, guh, guh, ring pretty… der, brain not work right now.” Or it could have been what I feared most, “Shit, this is it, I had hoped someone better would have come along, but all I got was this lout. Well I had better say something, but I will let him hang for a second so he knows I am answering out of duress.”
So I tentatively asked, “Well?”
She snapped out of her shocked silence and answered with a stunned “Uh, yeah.”
Quelle romance. Yep, that’s it. The story we will tell our children and our grandchildren. Wifey was so excited to get married to me, I got an “uh, yeah” when I proposed.
We ended up getting some Chinese.
If I had to do it over again, I would have taken her back to the dorm room, and then gone out for Chinese. Gotten down on one knee, asked her and potentially gotten the meal for free.
To Recap:
Love you Wife
10 years seems to be forever in many ways and to have flown by in many ways
I do not want to be here today
Chinese sounds nice today though, maybe I will have her pick some up on her way home tonight…
It was just after lunch time on February 7th, I had just left the campus area to head to Chapel Hill Mall. One of the most craptastic malls in Northeast Ohio. This was a mall built in the 70’s so it was not that large, and was anchored by a Kauffman’s and I think a Sears. It’s food court at the time consisted of Crap on a Stick and the typical mall favorite Sabarro, best smelling/worst tasting crap pizza. I hoofed it over to Ultra Jewelers, one of the mall jewelry stores. Nothing says “the best” like a name like “Ultra.” No really, how can anything be better than “Ultra?” I imagine that if the jewelry chain were to open today it would have been called “Über,” cause who wouldn’t want umlauts. The manager there was amazingly sleazy, but I knew the sales guy from my fencing class and fencing club. I was quite the epee in my day, if I do say so myself. The deal on the ring was not the best I could have gotten, as indicated by the manager accepting my counter offer without pause, but I still think it was a good deal since the ring is now appraised for significantly more than I paid for it.
The ring: it was the largest ring I could afford and still have good quality. It’s small compared to today’s gigantor rings (5 karats, anyone?), but it was the perfect size for wifey’s finger. Sleazy manager kept making inappropriate references to the size of the ring a woman wants corresponding to…you see what I’m saying! Wifey accompanied me to find out what ring she wanted, but she was not there when I ordered the loose stone, when I chose from 6 stones, or when I picked it up that afternoon 10 years ago.
So, we had figured that I would need to put the ring on some kind of lay-away type of system and that I would have the thing paid off by May and it would be a graduation gift. Ultra the seedy place that it was set me up for 90 day same as cash financing for the ring. It was the Mid-90’s and credit was just starting to really open up to anybody. As a college kid employed at a NordicTrack, I really should not have qualified for any sort of credit, but what the heck. I applied, and was accepted in “10 minutes or less!” So, I had the ring in my hot little hand, and it was buring a hole in my pocket… the ring, not my hand.
I picked up Wifey at 7:30 pm from her afternoon / early evening seminar style class that she had every Wednesday in White Hall at Kent State. She got in the car in an absolutely piss poor mood. It seems that someone in the seminar was being a boorish ass, making the class un-enjoyable for all else involved.
I said, “Hey, let's go get Chinese, I have something to tell you, but I’m not sure if I should wait until we get to the restaurant.”
Her response was, “Well, whatever you want to do. We can wait or not.”
We started driving off and I said, “I’m just not sure whether to share the good news now or wait for until we’re comfortable and seated."
More vehemently, she said (very huffily), “I don’t care either way, SRH. Tell me now or tell me later – just make a decision.”
I stopped at a stop sign, it was dark and I opened the cheesy ring box that Ultra gave me. The ring box was white and when you opened it a white LED-esque light shone directly on the ring. Oh, Lord it was cheesy. A single beacon of light shone down upon this ring, and I said, “The ring came in today. Will you marry me?” Here we are at the stop sign of Terrace Drive on campus and Summit Street with a small light illuminating a ring. It was all so surreal. I had planned on doing the whole get down on one knee thing and ask her to get married, but it just wasn’t in the cards for me. Future Wifey was just sitting there mouth agape. She said absolutely nothing, had not even made a noise, and I honestly am not sure if she had let out a breath yet. I asked again, “Honey, will you marry me?” Again, nothing. Now, I knew the answer before I asked the question, or I would have never asked the question, I mean after all, she picked out the ring with me, but this silence was killing me.
I was not sure what was going through her head at that moment. It could have simply been “Guh, guh, guh, guh, ring pretty… der, brain not work right now.” Or it could have been what I feared most, “Shit, this is it, I had hoped someone better would have come along, but all I got was this lout. Well I had better say something, but I will let him hang for a second so he knows I am answering out of duress.”
So I tentatively asked, “Well?”
She snapped out of her shocked silence and answered with a stunned “Uh, yeah.”
Quelle romance. Yep, that’s it. The story we will tell our children and our grandchildren. Wifey was so excited to get married to me, I got an “uh, yeah” when I proposed.
We ended up getting some Chinese.
If I had to do it over again, I would have taken her back to the dorm room, and then gone out for Chinese. Gotten down on one knee, asked her and potentially gotten the meal for free.
To Recap:
Love you Wife
10 years seems to be forever in many ways and to have flown by in many ways
I do not want to be here today
Chinese sounds nice today though, maybe I will have her pick some up on her way home tonight…
7 Comments:
It wasn't the most romantic, but that "uh, yeah" was the best decision I've ever made.
I'm a big fan of the umlauts.
My wife turned to one of the other couples at our table in the restaurant and asked them, "what should I say".
-Nadolny...
Not to rant on your blog but yours was better than what I got. Coming out of our last lamaze class and honey telling me he couldn't wait any longer and me explaining this baby would come when it wanted and him saying "no, this" and handing me the box. i thought he was excited about the upcoming birth....wrong. needless to say it's been a long time and i still remember.
funny, when you're young(er) it all is perfect ...recapping makes ya wonder why ya didn't do this or that. It all worked out in the end..that's all that matters right?
Nice comment Wifey! Very sweet!
Wifey:
You da best
Nadolny:
That is only fitting since I know you both, but, wow, that had to sting.
kimmyk:
Looking back on it, I am pretty sure that the restaurant would have given us poor poor college students a free dinner. That is the only thing I regret, free food.
i remember finding out about the engagement during our weekly group sitting of ER in your dorm hall. (The first 2 seasons of that show deserved group watchings. too bad we didn't have a drinking game). Reading that story 10 years later was just as good as hearing about it after it first happened. Congrats to you 2.
And your story is romantic compared to mine and the wifes. The plan was to get down on one knee and make it special after dinner and a movie. Well, the ring was also burning a hole in my pocket and i got so excited that after the dinner and during the movie, i decided to do it. Yep, right smack in the middle of Crimson Tide. Right when Denzel and Gene are fighting in the commander area of the submarine. She got so excited but could not really talk and it was so dark, she could barely even see the ring. I know that i did this to be funny and it was a spur of the moment thing, but not quite so romantic. but at least we will always have crimson tide.
-k&l
K&L:
Roll Tide Roll!
Hey---this was nice. Thanks.
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