The Proposal

The punchline is old news at this point – Kelli really was crazy enough to say “Yes.”

As everyone asks for the story Kelli thought this would be a good addition to my first “honey do” list. (Kelli provides them typed up, alphabetized, and with a dewey decimal esque priority system – Don’t you wish you were as lucky as I am?)

This story isn’t as grand as some, or as pedestrian as others, but it is our story.

Since our first conversation that broached the topic Kelli had insisted there is no way I would be able to pull off a dramatic surprise proposal. In fact Kelli expected the minute I finally got the ring I would jump right in as soon as I had the necessary components.

The abbreviated timeline is as follows:

End of July – Go to DePrisco’s in Downtown Boston to meet with the best support team there is. Drop the ring off to be sized and engraved.

Mid August – We travel to Iowa for a wedding of one of Kelli’s college roommates. It was a great time and on our way to the airport to go home I snuck five minutes of time with Kelli’s dad to ask if he would mind if I asked his daughter to marry me. I believe his response was something along the lines of “Yeap, I’d be ok with that”

Late August – Booked a room at the Westin in Providence for the Waterfire Event (It was posted as a Jazz weekend but it ended up being some pretty stunning Opera)

Last week in August – Pick up the ring and let Kelli know we are going away for a fun weekend in Rhode Island.

September 5, 2009 -

10:30 AM – We leave in the morning to head off on our weekend getaway. During the ride I do my best to drop hints that the ring is still at DePrisco’s along with a few other items I need to pick up. (I am pretty impressed with my own wiliness at this point)

11:45 – We arrive at the Westin and check in without any problems. It is a pretty amazing day but hot (this will come back to haunt me later)

12:00 – We head out to explore the city and see all the shops. Providence is fun but after wandering around in the heat for a few hours Kelli looked over at me and expressed her displeasure with my aimless wandering and exploring. This was almost a disaster for the day, Kelli had given up on anything extra special happening during the day and just wanted to go back to the hotel.

How my complete inability to play shuffle board saved the day.

With the heat, and Kelli’s lack of patience with me (I directed us directly back to the hotel but someone walking with me had no faith in my navigation skills) we needed something new and air conditioned. Dave and Buster’s – Providence is located directly across from our hotel and neither of us had ever gone before. We headed directly up there and found a bar, air conditioning, and bar games. She spent the next hour and a half trouncing me at shuffle board (I redeemed myself with a stunning aptitude for air hockey). It was a fantastic afternoon in the city even if I lost 8 games in a row.

We went to Gracie’s for dinner. The food was fantastic (I had Sea Bass and she had Duck) and the service was even better. As we sat down for dinner I realized our late dinner was going to push my time line back and we would

A.) Miss the initial lighting of the water fire

B.) I might not be able to buy wine on the way to the river as planned (CT liquor stores close at 8, apparently no such rules in RI but no way I would risk it).

So after ordering our meal and drinks, I excused myself and decided I would go to Eno’s which I thought was a block away to pick up a bottle of wine. It turns out Eno’s was about six blocks away.Being nervous about being gone so long I decided to jog there once I realized how much further away it was. Picked up a New Zealand Pinot Noir (NZ wines are screw tops – very important).  I ran back to the restaurant – elapsed time <=20 minutes. (I stopped outside to catch my breath)

We left Gracie’s and headed down to the event. Turns out a lot of people decided to go to this one (turnout upwards of 50k), in my head I had anticipated a few hundred. We walked the river and eventually found a nice grassy spot to roll out our blanket and drink wine from paper cups. The crowds thinned out around 9 and then we just enjoyed the music and the wonderful night.

The moment finally came and Kelli was lying back on the blanket and I leaned over and asked. What Kelli said is important, but how she said it is more important. Think of the tone you would respond if someone asked you “Can monkeys give birth to geese?”

And what she said was…

“Are you serious? This isn’t very funny”

After she felt the ring in my hand she immediately thrust her hand out. I could have gone to get ice cream at this point. She had something new and shiny.

After a solid five minutes she finally got around to saying “Yes.” And here we are..