!!! She Said Yes !!!
[Proposal
Story]
[Pictures]
[People
Are Talking]
[The
Big Day]
[Directions]
|
|
!!! She Said Yes !!! [Proposal
Story] |
|
So Dave says I have to tell my story. I think it's more fun to tell people in person or on the phone, because they feel obligated to make a big fuss over you, and you can hear all those giddy noises. ;) But I will humor him because I love him, and because he does it for me so often! December 4th was our 2-year anniversary. To celebrate, we chose a day, Monday, December 10, 2001 as the day we would take off work and just have fun. Dave calls this our "2-year anniversary observed." Whenever I am at Dave's apartment, I am always searching for "something sweet" - a cookie, a bit of chocolate, just something to satisfy my sweet tooth. Dave must have caught on to this trend because, starting sometime the week before our 2-year anniversary observed, he began offering me "special surprises" - specifically Hershey's Special Dark Miniatures. He would say, "I have a very special surprise for you!" And I would be excited and ask what it was. Then he would present me with the Special Dark. These little treats became frequent and were given out anywhere, at any time he chose, as long as I acted surprised. I HAD to act surprised, and I had to accept the treat each time. I'm a fast learner, so I'm still recovering from sugar shock. (You can call Dave Pavlov from now on...) So on our 2-year anniversary observed, we began by going to 2000 Degrees, a fun little place on College Avenue in State College that I've been wanting to go to for months. They have all kinds of pottery that you get to paint yourself. They glaze and fire it for you. We showed up about an hour before they were open, but the guy in there let us in, an gave us a mini lesson. (Dave did a great food bowl for the kitties, and I did 2 switch plates I hope to have up in the apartment soon!) Special Dark miniatures were bestowed upon me throughout. Our painting adventure done, we headed to the Green Bowl, probably our favorite restaurant. Special Dark appetizer and dessert, of course. (So that's where that caffeine headache came from!) Quite full from our meal, we headed to the Penn State Ice Pavilion. We hadn't skated together in about a year, but
we were up for the adventure. Skates on, jackets zipped, ice zambonied,
we set out. We were a little wobbly at first, but we got into our groove.
We were skating for probably 45 minutes when I suddenly fall gracelessly
onto my knee (which is purple now, check out the picture of the bruise) He then looked up at me and asked if a "very special surprise" would make me feel better. Thinking, doesn't chocolate make everything better?, I said, sure. He reached into his pocket like every time before, but this time he pulled out a ring - a beautiful heart-shaped diamond ring! And he said, I want you to marry me. I was shocked! This was WAY better than Special Dark! Realizing what was happening I said, yes, of course, yes, and we started hugging and kissing and crying and saying lots of sweet things to each other. I'm sure everyone was staring at us, but we didn't notice or care. I didn't notice my knee any more either! We were and are so happy and excited. :) Also, we haven't set a date yet, but we'll be sure to let everyone know when we do... 12.01 Email Bridget |
He Said... So anyway, Sunday I had to go buy more Hershey's Miniatures at Target. Apparently you can't simply buy a bag of Special Dark Chocolate Miniatures, you have to buy the bags of the assorted miniatures. If you were wondering (and I counted), there are between 5 and 6 Special Dark Miniatures in a bag of Hershey's Assorted Miniatures. How irritating. So I buy these bags of chocolate and I'm out with the car picking out the Special Dark ones. People were giving me odd looks as I sorted bags of chocolate on the hood of my car like some sort of deranged Chocolatier / Pharmacist. With my chocolate sorted, I safely deposited the mini-bars in my front left coat (penguins) pocket. Now I only mention the pockets because my pocket situation was ridiculous on Monday (the Big Day). Let me give you a little idea of what was going down. It was madness. The Penguins Jacket that I was wearing has 6 pockets: 2 inside breast pockets, 2 regular side pockets, and 2 front pouch-style pockets. Also I was wearing a pair of blue jeans that contains 4 pockets (5 if you include that weird hidden pocket thing). So this is what each contained. Left inside breast pocket contained all the paperwork on Bridget's ring. This included the warranty, service information, etc. In the right inside breast pocket was the ring box that contained the wedding band which is a wraparound to the engagement ring. In my left side pocket I had my cell phone and a roll of quarters. The right side pocket remained empty for later. Like I mentioned before, in the left pouch pocket I had the chocolate. In the right pouch pocket I had the gloves that Bridget gave me that spawned our entire relationship. In my front left jeans pocket I had all my regular pocket stuff, money, keys, pocket knife, etc. Now, the reason all of this pocket business is important is because I had the ring in my right front jeans pocket. All by itself. I didn't want this thing to get scratched so I had to figure out this elaborate plan as to where everything would be located. Also, I had a winning soda bottle top in the "5th" pocket. That wasn't planned, just pure luck. So, I'm lugging around all this stuff, my left side obviously weighted down more than my right. You may say to yourself, "Dave should've left most of this stuff at home." To which I say, you must not know me very well. This was a light day for me. It just happens things were organized this time. :-P So we went to 2000 degrees and painted some fun stuff and all the time I'm giving Bridgey this chocolate, each time demanding that she act surprised when I say, "Would you like a special surprise?" I demanded this for dramatic effect. Little did she know how dramatic this effect would turn out. <Insert diabolical laughter here> We then ship off to The Green Bowl, the greatest restaurant in State College that has a sneeze guard. We have our lunch, Bridgey gets her 'special surprise' at least twice that I remember. We sit and talk for awhile about how nice it is that we get to have our Observed Anniversary Day (patent pending). She was clearly excited that I was so excited about our day. Once again, she had no idea what was coming. *tenting fingers* Excellent. We then got in the car and headed towards the Bryce Jordan Center and Beaver Stadium because I knew the Ice Arena is over that way, somewhere. We stumbled into an Orange Parking Lot, which is the only one I'm allowed to park in, and decided to walk the rest of the way. We wound our way down past Holuba Hall and found the rink. We were a bit early so we got our skates and decided to get a locker rental for our shoes (remember the roll of quarters I mentioned before?). While Bridgey got into the little locker and read (struggled) with the directions I quickly (we're talking pickpocket speed) got into her purse and snatched her cell phone. This took residence in my right side pocket which had been previously empty. Remember that one empty pocket? Exactly. I took this so that later I could give her the cell phone immediately after the proposal. I was sure that she would want to call people ASAP. I had my cell phone with me as a backup if I was unable to snatch hers. We stuck our shoes in the little locker and I put the key in my "5th" pocket. Off we went, skating around like newborn horses unable to stand. It was pathetic. It took us at least 15 minutes to get used to the ice. I blame the Zamboni. Anywho, at this point my guts are starting to churn because I'm getting nervous. I don't know why I was getting nervous. It's not like I thought she was going to say 'No' or that I didn't know that I wanted to marry her. It's just one of those times that you're supposed to be nervous I guess. At about 2:25pm we were talking about 'crossover' steps in skating and she asked me what I meant. So I showed her the crossover step and I sped ahead to show her from a distance. I had fully intended to just go around once and catch up with her. I turned to my side to say something to her and she was gone. So I stopped and looked around a bit and didn't see her anywhere. Oh! There she was, sitting on the ice talking to the Skate Lifeguard (patent pending). I raced over to see what was happening and realizing that she had fallen. I knew we had to get her to the benches to sit down. She was ready to cry. I could totally tell. So we went to the benches and sat down and I kneeled in front of her to rub her knee. The next 30 seconds are pretty hazy for me. I swear I blacked out at some point. I remember asking her about wanting a special surprise and pulling the ring out. When I put the ring in front of her my head was swimming and I don't quite remember how I asked her. I had fully intended to say, "Bridget Maeve O'Brien, will you allow me to be your husband?", but that didn't happen. I don't think… Like I said, the world was spinning, I collapsed into her arms and I remember her saying "Of Course" and there was crying, but beyond that, I'm pretty hazy on those couple instants. We basically sat wide-eyed and amazed with one another for about 5 minutes. She says that people were staring, but I only saw her. That may sound like mushy rhetoric but it's not. I honestly don't even remember seeing anyone around but her. Talk about Tunnel of Love Vision(patent pending)! Then we went to the Nittany Mall. The Most Romantic Place On Earth. Like she says, we haven't set a date, but we are in a state of limbo on deciding what's happening since there are some complications with scheduling and such. Weddings seem to place a lot of responsibility and time commitments on a lot of people. Who would've known? Anyway, read more for some of the interesting tips we've received from, what we call, our friends. --Dave 12.01 Email Dave |
