Why Am I Wearing This?!

Please excuse the break in the #TravelLikeABoss series for the following news.

The week started off with a bet.

I bet that the kid, who is notoriously late for everything, could make it to work on time for an entire week. I wanted to see if he could actually make it to his office at 8 a.m. sharp for five days straight. So basically, I had this win in the bag.

And seeing that he’s never been one to shy away from a challenge, he gladly accepted, but on one condition. He wanted to know if, instead of five days straight, he could change it to only be four days, as he was thinking about taking off work on Friday.

Me: Why are you taking off work?
Kid: I wanted to do some stuff around the house so I might take off.
Me: …okay…

He rarely ever just takes off work.

That set off an alarm.

—

Then I received a text.

The week before, my mom had offered us two tickets to see a local play that Friday. I kept asking the kid if he wanted to go, but he refused to give me a straight answer. I kept getting follow-up questions like ‘Can I get back with you?‘ or ‘When do you need to know by?‘ You know, the ones that just prolong any chance of planning ahead and making decisions.

But even with all of that indecisiveness, it wasn’t him that made me suspicious. It was the text from my mom.

In it, she mentioned that she had sold the tickets and was going to instead hang out with some ladies she knew on Friday night. A little abrupt. And very random.

That set off an alarm.

—

So fast forward to Friday.

The kid did in fact take off work, and since I don’t work on Friday’s, we decided to hang out that morning by going to see the new movie, Captive, and eating lunch together. Around noon, we went back to his house and played with the a m a z i n g camera he rented, as he said that if he liked it, he was considering purchasing one.

So after I pretended to be Tyra Banks for an hour, we decided to call it a day, since I had made plans to visit sister for the weekend in another town. After we said our goodbyes and I threw an overnight bag together, I hit the road. Sister told me ahead of time that she wanted to go to dinner and for a walk afterwards, so our weekend would start as soon as I walked through her door.

—

When I finally made it to her place, I quickly went to the back to change my clothes. Since she told me we were going on a walk, I ditched my cute shorts, tank top and oxfords for a more practical pair of yoga pants, t-shirt and nikes. Fashionista? No. Comfortable? You bet.

But for some reason, she kept telling me to change.

Sister: Don’t wear that, put on something cuter!
Me: But we’re walking, why wouldn’t I wear this?
Sister: Because the new athletic department is right across the street and I’m trying to find a man!
Me: That makes no sense. I’m keeping this on.

Her argument had no basis. Or so I thought.

—

After dinner, we made our way to a local trail near campus and got out for our post-dinner power walk. We made our way down to a pier that the kid and I had been to before, so I stopped in to see if I could find our initials that we carved 3 years ago.

Sister found a bench nearby and sat down, complaining that she wasn’t feeling well from the food. So, being the loving and considerate sister that I am, I told her that she was boring me and to suck it up. So we got up and continued on our walk.

And lo and behold, guess who was walking towards us?

—

My heart was racing.

There was the kid, walking down the path towards us in with the camera in tow and a smirk on his face. He was 45 minutes away from home in a place that I wasn’t expecting him to be.

Me: What are you doing here??
Sister: I invited him because I felt bad that you guys couldn’t hang out this weekend. Surprise!
Kid: I just came down to hang out for the afternoon, I’m going to head back home tonight.
Me: Oooh, okay then. I thought you were here to propose! Whew, alright, I’m good now.

Yup. I actually said that. Poor guy.

The two of them just laughed it off and we walked back down to the pier to see if together, we could find those initials. The kid handed sister the camera to “mess around with” and we went off.

Once on the pier, she kept trying to get us to pose so she could take photos of us, which I thought was suspicious, but I complied. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find our initials, but we stayed there anyway and just talked. We had been to this place once before, where we wrote our initials and skipped rocks, so we reminisced. He also brought up all of the other fun activities that the two of us done together in our college town, whether it be picnicking on our campus quad or sneaking into the school’s theater room. And then he asked if we wanted to make another memory there…

Pause.

So I know what you must be thinking right now. You’re thinking ‘ohmigoodness, is this when you knew he was going to propose??’ Well no, Margo, it’s wasn’t.

In my mind, I was thinking ‘Oh yay! We’re going to take pictures at our old stomping grounds with this fancy new camera! Jeez, we better get a move on, before the sun goes down. I hope we have time to go back to the apartment, because I want to change into something cuter.’ Just clueless.

Okay, play.

At this point, he is getting down on one knee, speaking my full government name, and asking me to marry him.

Also at this point, I am repeatedly saying “Is this for real?” or “Are you serious?” mixed with a few “Is this a joke?!”

When he asked me again, because ya girl was shocked, I said ‘yes‘ and was immediately whisked off into the heavens, with balloons floating and angels singing, while the crowd around us cheered with glee.

Okay, just kidding. Once that rock was placed on my finger, I turned to my sister and yelled “Why am I wearing this?!” In her defense, she did try to get me to change…

Our night ended with us driving back home, because spending the weekend away was a ruse that everyone was in on but me, and being greeted by our parents and my friends.

So, we’re engaged!

Anybody know a wedding planner?