Valentine's Day story

Typically, Ambritt does all of the blog updating for our family, but today I decided that I would put my first blog together. While taking a college English class, my final assignment was to write about a meaningful event in my life. I decided that I would write the story of our engagement, which took place on Valentine's Day in 2006. I wanted to record it in our blog so that later in life our kids can read the story of that day: 

            “Dave, could this clock be going any slower this morning?” Sarcastically, Dave replied, “Why bud, you got somewhere better to be?” Dave knew how big of a day this was for me. The glimmer in his eye and the sly smile on his face told me that he would be giving me a hard time all morning. I had talked to Dave about this day ever since I had figured out what I was going to do. Dave and I have talked about a lot of stuff in fact. He is my co-worker and his desk sits next to mine in the office where we work. We have been friends for a few years and have become better friends this past year when we were assigned to work on a project together. “Hey Trav, you gettin’ nervous yet? I know I’d be a wreck and would probably forget to bring something important?” Dave said to me as he got up to get another cup of coffee. Little did Dave know that I had played this day over and over in my mind and had a checklist back at my apartment. No way was I going to forget anything that I needed to propose to Ambritt.

            I left work early to head back to my apartment and get prepared for one of the biggest days of my life. Not only was it Valentine’s Day, but it was the day I was going to propose to my girlfriend. I unlocked my door and walked in. There, on the kitchen counter to my left, was the checklist that I had carefully prepared last night. I continued walking down the hall to the bathroom. As I showered, I wondered what Ambritt’s reaction was going to be. Would she cry, would she smile, what would she say when I gave her the ring? I stepped out of the shower, dried off, and put on my clothes. Jeans with a blue and white striped polo seemed kind of plain, but I had hung my freshly pressed dress clothes by the front door to take with me. I walked into the kitchen and picked up my checklist. Ring, check. Dress clothes, check. CD with our song on it, check. I glanced up at the clock on the microwave. Perfect, I was right where I needed to be.

            Driving through Ferndale towards the freeway, I marveled at what a beautiful day it was. The sky was blue and the sun was shining brightly. It felt like someone was holding a heat lamp just on the other side of my windshield. I’m not sure if the day really was that beautiful or if it was just the euphoria I was feeling.

As I started down the windy stretch of freeway to start my journey, I was on cloud nine and nothing could dampen my mood. Twenty miles down the road my cell phone rang. It was a familiar ring that normally brought a smile to my face and floated butterflies in my stomach. However, this time was different. Ambritt’s ringtone brought a feeling of dread. I couldn’t answer the phone, she would wonder why I was driving somewhere when I should be at work. I quickly remembered that I hadn’t called her at lunch like I do every day. I had to do something. I knew a rest area was coming up shortly. I’ll pull in there and call her back to see how her day was going. I took the exit and whipped into a parking spot. I picked up the phone and hit redial. She answered on the first ring. We briefly talked about how our days were going. Then she asked, “What are you doing tonight?” “Well,” I started to lie, “the other guys on the bowling team called to cancel and we had to forfeit because we didn’t have enough people. So I’m not doing anything now, probably just hanging out at home.” There was a long, painful pause. “Are you mad at me?” I asked. “Yeah,” she said curtly, “If we had known this yesterday we could’ve met halfway for a nice dinner or something. Now I have to spend Valentine’s Day alone. Awesome.” I had to quickly do some damage control. “I’m sorry baby, I promise I’ll make it up to you this weekend.” I could hear the anger and disappointment in her voice as she replied, “Okay. I’ll talk to you later.” “Bye babe.” I said. Her short response said it all, “Bye.” I slowly pulled of the parking spot and eased back on the freeway. This is not how I planned for today to be going. I felt horrible that I hadn’t planned for this and that I didn’t think of a better excuse. I know she’ll forgive me later, but that didn’t help the bad taste left in my mouth from our conversation.

            I arrived in Kirkland one half hour before she left work. I had just enough time to stop by the flower shop and pick up the dozen roses I had ordered two weeks ago. As I pulled up to the house where she worked as a nanny, I looked at the clock on my dash. She still had 10 minutes left in her day. As I walked up to the front door, my heart was pounding with anticipation. I rang the doorbell. I could faintly make out the sounds of her footsteps approaching the door. She opened the door and her jaw instantly dropped. “What are you doing here?” She asked, as a huge smile overtook her face. “Surprise sweetheart. Happy Valentine’s Day!” I replied with an equally huge smile. “I came down to take you out to dinner for Valentine’s Day. Sorry about the excuse earlier, I had to throw you off somehow.” She threw her arms around me. “I don’t care. Thank you so much for the surprise!” She invited me in for a few minutes so that she could show her flowers off to her boss. We left from there and drove our cars to her apartment.

            Walking through the front door I told her that I had showered earlier and that all I needed to do was change into my dress clothes. She wanted to shower before dinner which gave me just enough time to get everything set up. The moment the bathroom door closed, I sprung into action. I quickly undressed and jumped into my black slacks. I grabbed the ring box and shoved it into my left pocket. I threw on my navy blue dress shirt and quickly buttoned it. I flipped up my collar and tied my tie in a blur of twists and tucks. I snatched the cd from my bag, walked into the living room and put it into her roommates’ dvd player. I turned on the tv and pressed play. Nothing. What?? No! This can’t be happening right now! I needed this song as part of my proposal! Just then Ambritt walked out of the bathroom and into her bedroom. What am I going to do?! At that moment I spotted her laptop on the coffee table. I flipped the lid open and pressed the power button. I prayed that she had the song on her hard drive. I clicked through her files and found the MP3 folder. Bingo, there it was! I cued it up and turned up the volume. I stood up and was fixing my tie right as she walked out of her room. “What are you up to now baby?” She asked. “I just wanted to have a dance with my sweetheart before we head off to dinner.” I replied as I reached down and clicked play on her computer. Keith Urban played “Memories of Us” as I wrapped my arms around her waist and her arms locked around my shoulders. I started to get nervous. My heart was starting to beat faster and my mouth was starting to dry out. I hoped that she couldn’t feel how hard and fast my heart was beating! Just as the song ended, I reached into my pocket and pulled out the box. Flipping it open with my thumb just like I’d practiced many times before, I dropped down to one knee, “I love you more than anything in the world Ambritt. Will you marry me?” She flashed a huge smile and tears formed in her eyes, but did not fall. She didn’t say a word. “Soooo, does that mean yes?” “I’m sorry, I thought I said yes but it must have been in my head! Yes, yes, yes, yes!!” I pulled the ring from the box and slid it onto her finger. The sparkle of the diamond perfectly matched the loving sparkle in her beautiful blue eyes. I stood up and kissed her like I’d never kissed her before. This was the woman I was going to marry and I felt like I was on cloud ten.

            We went to dinner at a little Italian place on the waterfront in Kirkland. The place was crowded, the food was okay, and the service left a lot to be desired. It didn’t matter to us though, this was the first day of our new life together. While there were certain parts of the day that didn’t go exactly as I had planned, I wouldn’t have changed anything.