After 9 years of dating, Simon and I are officially engaged!
The engagement story….
Thursday: Simon was in Texas on business and I was in Richmond for a funeral. Simon was supposed to return home Thursday evening and therefor would be able to feed Tucker (our cat). I received an e-mail from him stating things in Texas were not going as planned and he would unfortunately have to stay through Friday and would not be returning home until Saturday morning. This is not an uncommon turn of events, so while I was disappointed I was not surprised. He also told me not to worry that he had arranged for our good friend Gerrit to feed Tucker in his absence.
Friday:Â I returned to Baltimore in the evening and began cleaning the house in preparation for my parents visit. I was able to confirm the cat had been fed both dinner Thursday night and breakfast Friday morning, due to small “changes”around the house. A teaspoon had been used to feed him his wet food in the morning (instead of the normal spoon we usually feed him with) and the food scoop had been left on top of the container in the bedroom where he gets his dinner (instead of putting the scoop back in the container like Simon and I normally do). Other than that everything appeared as expected with nothing out of place or out of the ordinary.
Saturday: I heard the house phone ring, but since the ringer is turned off in the bedroom I was not 100% sure if it just rang once or had been ringing but I only heard it once. Regardless of how many times it rang, it was enough to wake Tucker and get him harassing me for his breakfast. This was particularly annoying as it was 6:30 am. I decided to get up and feed him knowing I still had some things to do in the morning before my parents arrived. After feeding the cat, I got on the computer and checked my e-mail. Gerrit was online and I sent him a few messages, amazed he was up so early (as he is NOT a morning person) when Simon logged in and we began chatting online. I was telling Simon what I needed to still do before my parents arrived and wished him a safe flight from Texas. He told me he was sorry again but that he had to go now and signed off. I then put my laptop down and went about doing what still needed to be done around the house. I went into the guest room and opened the window to let some fresh air in when I noticed that outside on the sidewalk was a tree with its roots in a burlap sack. I starred at it for a second and initially thought that Baltimore City was so stupid to deliver a tree to our side of the street, when the tree that had fallen over the winter due to the snow was on the opposite side. Then, I noticed that it had yellow and red ribbons tied to it on the branches. About 2 seconds later it hit me that it was May Day!
May 1st is a day that in Germany is celebrated by the delivering a tree covered in streamers to the house of a girl the night before so that in the morning they awake to find the tree. The tree is typically from a love interest, though a tree wrapped only in white streamers is a sign of dislike. (Thank goodness mine were red and yellow!)
After realizing this tree for me from Simon, I suddenly understood why our friend Gerrit had also been awake and online so early in the morning, HE must have delivered the tree for Simon! It was all clear to me now. I was about to go down stairs to look at the tree closer when I remembered I still had to clean the bathroom. So I raced down the hall, gave the bathroom a good quick clean then came down stairs to look at my tree. I walked out of the house, admired the tree and touched its ribbons. Then noticed the bottom had a different color ribbon, I thought this might be a note! In fact, it was just the tag that told me it was an October Glory Red Maple tree! So much for a note. I turned around and went back inside to send Simon a text message thanking him for the tree. When I got back in the house Simon was standing in the doorway of the front room!
I told him I was just about to send him a text message to thank him for my tree. He said “Why would you send me a text message?” I looked at him and smiled and said, “Because you were not here”. He smiled back and said “I’m here now!” I then gave him a hug and thanked him for my tree. He took a small step back and said “There is something else… I would like to ask you to marry me.” While he said these words he pulled a small velvet box from behind his back. I said, “Yes….100% yes”
The box contained a beautiful titanium band, that fit well but Simon says it is just temporary until we get my Grandmother’s ring. As the only granddaughter, it has been my desire to use the stone from my Grandma Martin’s ring if I ever did get engaged.
Simon did actually come home as planned from Texas late Thursday night and had been busy getting everything set up for the big surprise. He made sure to touch nothing in the house but the cat items and to make it look more likely that someone else had fed Tucker he was sure to do things “a little differently”. He went to work Friday and after work hung out with some of his friends. He then went to Gerrit’s house (which is just down the road from us) and stayed there until 6am. This is when he quietly let himself into the house to hide in the basement and begun trying to wake me or Tucker up by calling the house phone! The rest of his morning was spent standing on the basement steps listening to me type on my laptop and clean the house. It wasn’t until he heard me go outside to look at the tree that he so slyly slipped out of the basement and met me in the hallway! It all went very smoothly, just as he had planned. But admits at one point Tucker stuck his nose under the basement door and started sniffing very loudly. Simon was just hoping he didn’t start meowing, but even Tucker behaved and didn’t give away Simon’s hiding spot!
