The Question that Popped

10 years ago today Adam asked me to marry him.  I, of course, said yes.  I'm writing this in an effort to record the story for our posterity.

(Oh, and today's post comes with a special musical number. . .)

Adam and I dated for 2 weeks before we both graduated from college.  I moved to SLC where I had a job lined up and he went to Brazil for 3 weeks to see his family (his Dad was serving as a Mission President there) and then came back long enough to pack up his car and move to Atlanta, GA to start a new job.  We went on 3 official dates during our college days. We went to a movie, went to dinner and a play, and went to an Institute Christmas concert and a pizza place afterwards.  That was the full extent of our college dating life. We spent a few days together after he got back from Brazil and before he moved to Atlanta where we were able to go snowmobiling and do a few other fun things. After moving to Georgia mid-January he flew out twice to visit me in SLC and then I flew to Atlanta on February 10, 2000 for a visit.  He had arranged for me to stay with a family in the ward while I was there but after picking me up from the airport he brought me to see his new apartment.  I walked into the apartment and saw a gray blow-up couch with a matching blow-up chair and ottoman complete with blow up accent pillows. In the dining area there was a plastic patio table with 2 plastic chairs.  In the bedroom he had one twin mattress on the floor and that was it.  All he had was what he could fit in the 1997 white dodge neon he drove across the country.  It was pretty comical. He had a car and some clothes and that was it!

After taking the grand tour (which lasted about 10 seconds) he told me he was going to take me someplace nice for dinner so he would give me some time to shower and get dressed up.  I showered and got dressed in the one outfit I brought for church. He knocked on the door to "pick" me up for our date.  When I got out to the family room I realized he had used the time to set up the table and make dinner for us right at the apartment.  The table had a tablecloth, the candles were lit and he had menus at each place setting.  The menu referenced all of the things we had done on our dates.

We ate dinner and laughed at everything and then he said he would dish up the dessert and bring it to me in the family room.  I went and sat on the blow-up couch while he fiddled around in the kitchen.  He came in with 2 green bowls but told me that I had to close my eyes and guess what we were having for dessert.  When I opened my eyes he was right in front of me, down on one knee holding a ring box in his hands.  I can't remember everything he said, but at the end he clearly said, "Will you marry me?"  After I said "Yes" and we hugged he asked me to dance. In the middle of his empty apartment in Morrow, Georgia we danced to a song that he had picked especially for the occasion.  It was a country song (which in and of itself was quite shocking since at that time Adam was NOT a fan of country music) "From Here to Eternity" by Michael Peterson, which is the song I have playing for this post. (Shocking fact #2-I had never heard this song before he played it for me that night so how in the world did a non-country music loving person discover this song?!)

We set up the camera to take a few pictures of the occasion.

Ok, so I look kind of dorky in this picture, but back in those days we didn't have a digital camera to make sure we got a good picture. I had to wait to use up the entire roll of film and then have it developed before I discovered that I looked dorky in our "I just got engaged" photo.  In this next picture we attempted to show how the candles had melted all over the candlesticks because we were talking for so long at dinner.  It didn't work. The counter we set the self timer on cut out the table completely. 

Adam surprised me by asking me so soon after I arrived in Atlanta.  The thought had crossed my mind that he might pop the question during my visit, but not just a few hours after my arrival.  It was all perfect.  He knew me well enough to know I would have been absolutely mortified if he had asked me to marry him in a public place or with a lot of people around.  It works for some people, just not for me. We went to lunch today to mark the 10 year anniversary of getting engaged. Definitely the best decision we ever made (getting engaged, that is, not the going to lunch part. . even though that was good, too.)