The Proposal

This is Andy.
Not Becca.

Gather 'round kids: it's story time.
The preamble: The marriage proposal is one of those rites of passage that has always been a little daunting to me. At times my mind raced, "What if she thinks my proposal is totally lame? What if she hates the ring? What if something goes wrong: all h-e-double-hockey-sticks breaks loose and the engagement night lives on in infamy?" To be honest, most of those concerns began to fall to the wayside as I started to really consider what it was that I was planning. Asking someone if she wants to spend the rest of her life with me is an event of greater importance than any matter of preparation and production. Had the day been awful, had the dinner been a disaster, had the weather been unbearably cold and windy (it was); in spite of those things I knew I was still going to confirm a promise to devote my life to the one woman that I love. (pause to bask in the sentiment)

The proposal: I wanted our three-year anniversary date to be a day full of enjoying each other's company. We live in separate cities and so the lazy-day date isn't usually an option for us. Becca came to Little Rock sometime in the late morning on Saturday and we went and grabbed some lunch. Five Guys Burgers and Fries. Romantic, right? I tried my best to play the day off as something that the two of us planned together. I asked her if there was anything that she really wanted to do on our big date since she had been so bogged down with school that she hadn't had a whole lot of time to enjoy the finer things in life: like the new Harry Potter. Indeed we did catch an early showing of Hermione Granger 7 Part 1: what Becca claims to be her favorite part of the day. (pout) After the movie, we got gussied up for our dinner reservation at Little Rock's, A Brave New Restaurant. Clever name. Thus began stealth mode as I now had to conceal the ring in my jacket pocket while also concealing my immense excitement/childish nervousness. Dinner was a success and we proceeded to head into downtown Little Rock for a nice stroll. Never mind the Marry Poppins gale force winds and the sub-comfortable temperatures. We grabbed some coffee and made our way down to the River Market area. My original idea was to take her up to Junction Bridge - a pedestrian bridge that crosses from Little Rock into North Little Rock - to enjoy the skyline view but the wind tunnel that was forming over the river at the time proved to be a little more than we cared to endure. We did, however, mosey/shiver our way down to the amphitheater and onto a lone bench in the middle of the stage facing the river. This spot held a certain amount of sentimental value as we had been on a (much warmer) walk there once before when we first started dating. We sat and enjoyed the coffee and company as we talked a little bit about what a nice day we had spent together. I decided that I couldn't keep up the charade any longer so I got off the bench, onto one knee, told her that I couldn't stand the thought of not spending the rest of my life with her and asked her to marry me. Her expression went from one of confusion (as I along with her entire family had been misleading her for a couple of weeks with regard to the true purpose of our date) to one of uncontainable joy. We hugged it out, gushed a little bit about being engaged and then got the heck out of the cold.

The end.