The Engagement Story

Darin and I got engaged on April 2, 2008.

Six months ago. (Wow, time has flown by.)

I was thinking to share the story... or my recollection of it. I'll try to have Darin tell his view of things and add it to this post.

Here goes:

So I totally knew he was going to ask me. He's not too good at keeping secrets - neither am I for the matter. We really pick up on each others' vibes and can tell when some thing's up. It's good and annoying at the same time.

He was acting weird. I kept asking him what was wrong, and he would say that everything was fine. But I knew differently. I was worried about it being about his work (the stresses of being a graduate student) or some health related issue. I was worried it was something bad.

And then he asked me if it was alright to call my parents. He needed their number.

What?

I was like, ahh, sure. You can talk to them whenever. So he did. I asked my mom about it and she just said he wanted to talk to them and that it was strange, but good. I can't remember exactly why he told me he wanted to call them. Maybe he'll remember?

A week or two later, he went over to his parents house (by himself) to have dinner and talk to them afterward.

What?

He's not too slick.

Before I put two-and-two together, I flat out told him I knew something was up and to tell me about it. I don't deal with stress well, and I was getting frustrated/worried/annoyed/scared/etc.

So he told me that something was going on, but it was a good thing and for me not to worry.

See I told you he's not too secretive.

A lot of different options went through my mind at that. I'm not going to say any (because you'll think I'm crazy), but let's just say I'm very creative and have an active imagination.

And then I knew.

He'd been acting sweet/affectionate to me and just being his cute self. He talked to my parents and his. I was convinced.

So like a day or two later he told me that he wanted to go out to dinner the next week, somewhere nice.

Bingo!

Side note: So I called my sister, Dru, on April 1st to talk to her about this whole topic because she was the only one who I could think of that wouldn't think I was too weird about making this up. BUT it was April Fools Day. And my family had always done notorious things this day. So she didn't believe me. At. All. She kept saying, "don't talk to me about this today because I don't believe you. Call me tomorrow." Ha.

Back to the story...

We ended up going to this fantastic restaurant in downtown Winter Park called Bosphorous (which was a Turkish restaurant) and ate a fantastic meal. While I was trying to make small talk (and waiting for him to propose, mind you), Darin just sat there and ate his meal. I couldn't figure it out.

So we finished dinner and walked back to the car, so we could put the leftovers in the car and then walk around some more.

I guess now you need to know a little bit about the City of Winter Park. When I moved down to Florida, I lived officially in the city and was like a ten minute drive from Park Avenue, which is where you can eat lunch/dinner, walk your dog down the sidewalks, go to the Art Festival, go to stores. One of those avenues! I love it and always take people there when they come to visit.

After dinner, Darin and I walked around the Rose Garden - and he got down on one knee and asked.

He said how much he loved me and other stuff I don't remember because I started crying.

And I said, "yes!".

(He can tell you what I actually said. He thought it was cute.)

And that's it!