Monday, January 29, 2007

the unexpected proposal

today's journal prompt on cafemom is "what was the best day you had with your husband?"

we need prompts like this more often, i think, to help us reflect on the positive. sometimes when we look back, we focus on what went wrong, or how we'd do it differently. really....when was the last time you went back in time to the best day you had with your husband/wife/child/friend?

honestly, i had to think about this one. the obvious first comes to mind - wedding day, a fantastic spur-of-the moment road trip we took one day, the day we adopted our puppy, the day our daughter was born....
but i think the day my husband "proposed" is up there among the best days i ever spent with him.

he didn't get on one knee. he didn't plan a romantic dinner for two. he didn't even go into a long speech about how much he loves me blah blah blah. in fact, i already had the ring - he had given it to me for my birthday--- not indicating that it was an engagement ring, even though i had picked it out as the ring. [yes, i was expecting a proposal when he gave me the ring. but quickly got over it because, hey, i got the ring.]

we had been together about 4 years. we graduated from college that summer (another one of the best days) and we were planning our "what's next" as far as jobs, moving, etc. but marriage never came up. (of course i was hoping it would, but never pressured him.)

some of our friends invited us to a birthday party. at the party we were talking to our friends about our plans for the future when one of them asked my then-boyfriend "so, are yall going to get married or what??" - joking, sort of.

and his response: "yes. we're getting married on December first."

WHAT!? i about fell to the ground. this was the first i heard of it. this was his proposal. he looked at me with a "what do you think?" expression and i smiled and nodded my head. December first sounded good to me. we were flooded with congratulations by all the friends that were standing around and over heard it.

the DJ caught wind of the exciting news and played "You Dropped A Bomb On Me" dedicating it to us. the birthday party suddenly became an engagement party.

so maybe it wasn't as romantic as other proposals, and maybe sometimes when i see movies where the guy gets down on one knee with a little velvet box, maybe i get a little jealous, but then i look at my wonderful husband and realize if i wanted that kind of proposal, i wouldn't have gotten the kind of man i got - and he's wonderful.