a propose-iversary of sorts

Well, shoot. It has just been a hot minute since I posted anything gushy mushy sappy wappy about my Freddiefriendhusband, hasn't it? Let's change that now. 

Monday marked our one year engage-iversary (now doesn't that sound silly? Hmm, what about one year since Freddie proposed-iversary? No? They all sound silly? Moving on). April 28, 2013 was a day when my left ring finger got a lil heavier and my life got a whole lot lighter. Lighter because my love for Freddie is so high, maybe? Man, apologies for this entire paragraph. 

How in the whole wide freakin' world has a year passed since then? I still remember so many little details. So many of the crazy happy emotions. So many of the endlessly long glances at my finger. But there's also a lot I'm sure I've forgotten. I am desperately trying to cling on to every last little memory I can squeeze outta that day. Like the most obvious memory of...me being the dumbest person.

There. I said. I was the dumbest person on April 28, 2013. Being a good blogger stalker, I have read many a proposal story online. 9 times out of 10 there's usually the line about I had an idea it would happen that night so I made sure I painted my nails. Or I made sure I looked really nice. Or He was so nervous! I was just waiting for it to happen. My story has none of those lines in it. My nails were not painted. HORRORS! My students had performances all day so my "nice" outfit consisted of an all black ensemble since I was working backstage. Nope, not the glam black ensemble you are picturing. More like a black leggings and an oversized black shirt ensemble. Very in style in the working-backstage-world. 

Now that I'm on this side of the proposal I can see there were a lot of signs that night. Signs so obvious that the universe might as well have had a big ole fat neon glowing finger pointing down at each moment. But I had on my anti-big ole fat neon glowing universe finger sunglasses so that's obviously why I didn't see any of them...

Sign #1

We had been talking about marriage and engagement for awhile. I was gearin' and ready to be married and living in South Carolina. So when Freddie insisted we have a special night to ourselves and go out somewhere nice I just thought he was happy to see me. Because ya know, long distance sucks and who doesn't want to celebrate being together by going to a fancy wine bar? 

Sign #2

April showers bring May flowers. April in Georgia is usually rainy, but fairly warm. Like hey, 80 degree weather already. April 28, 2013 was neither extremely rainy nor cool, yet Frederick wore his rain jacket the entire night. Even as he helped load up heavy scenery pieces after my kid's show. Even when inside said fancy schmany wine bar. 

Purple teeth and rain coats make for the more dapper night out attire. Everyone wave to Freddie's left sleeve pocket. Otherwise known as The Ring's Hiding Spot. 

Sign #3

This is the part in the proposal story where other girls might say they could see how nervous their significant other was and knew something big was about to happen. This is the part in our proposal story where I am singing and dancing around the room and didn't notice how extremely nervous my significant other was. I can't help it---give me a few glasses of wine and a good Spotify station and I'm good to go. I can rewrite lyrics for you. I can choreograph some new hawt dance moves for you. The possibilities are endless. So as Freddie grew extremely quiet around my loud-mouthed dancing self (which hey, it isn't that strange for Freds to stand there quietly and let me get the crazy moves out of my system) I wasn't aware that every time he kept pulling me in for a hug he was holding the ring behind my head trying to get up the courage to get down on one knee. And he kept pulling me in for hugs... 

So Monday night, April 28, 2014, in the 30 minutes between work and my rehearsal that we got to spend together, we sat down and just laughed. We laughed about how it felt like Freddie must have given me a script that night with how well everything worked out. We laughed at how dumb I was. We laughed at how this all means we are 4 months away from being married for a year (because laughing is better than freaking out about it, obviously). 

Boy oh boy, Freddie-o! I am so happy you decided not to wait to propose after you got the ring because that night is forever engraved in my mind as one of the most wonderful nights of my life. And I've had a lot of wonderful days and nights with you soooo kind of a big deal that I can pinpoint one down like that ;)

Didn't get enough proposal goodness from this post? Because one can never have too much proposal goodness. Check out the real proposal story here.