Seven Years Ago

Max proposed on March 22, 2002. Here's what I wrote two days later in my journal:

"I cooked us dinner and then we went to see Ice Age. It was over pretty soon and it was 8:30 P.M when we got back to my car. We were debating what to do... restaurant? my place? your place? We didn't know. Finally after like 20 minutes, he said 'Why don't we go back to campus, change into really warm clothes [it was well below freezing] and then go to our coffee house?' And then I said: 'Why do we need to dress warmly to go get coffee at the coffee house?'. And he said: 'Because then we can walk around on our bridge!' I said that was a great idea so we went and changed. We basically were doing our first date over again, except this time the coffee was to go...

We got to the lit-up bridge downtown and it didn't feel quite as cold because I was wearing four pairs of pants. We walked around the water's edge and finally found a place to sit down and sip our coffee. We were talking about us and our relationship and he said: 'You know I would never ask you without the ring, right?' I said 'Yeah...' He said: 'So, wanna marry me?' And then I hit him and said 'don't joke about that kind of stuff!'

And suddenly, he moved his hands back towards his pocket then stopped. My heart lept into my throat, I gasped and then I started to laugh. I told him: 'You'll never guess what I just thought you were doing--I thought you were reaching towards your pocket for the ring! Haha!' And then he said: 'Was that a good feeling or a bad feeling?' And I said: 'A good feeling, of course!'

Then he faked it two more times.

All of a sudden, he really DID reach into his pocket, got down on one knee--in the snow!!--and proposed! I was so overwhelmed at what was happening that I kept my eyes on his face and couldn't bring myself to look down at the ring he was holding out. In fact, I was so overwhelmed with emotion that I barely remembered what he said. I think it was along the lines of: 'I love you so much and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you marry me?'

Of course I said yes, then gave him a long, long hug. We finally pulled away when he asked me if I wanted to see the ring. I hadn't even given it a glance. I put it on and the diamond was sparkling even in the darkness!!"

So we're going to Outback Steakhouse tonight to celebrate. Also? We have a gift card that's burning a hole in my pocket. So it seemed like a good excuse to use it...