Published on April 18th, 2006.
Viewed 606 times.
Story rank of 6.
It took the excitement of New Year’s Eve 2001, to bring my fiancé and me together.
Dan and I had met several times before. We always had interesting and in depth conversations about our favorite football teams (Packers for me, Bears for him), growing up in our respective cities and whatever else was on our mind. Dan was like that with everyone though. However, on New Year’s I noticed something different in Dan. Maybe it was because we ran into each other more this night than any other night, or because he spent more time talking to me than his friends. Whatever the reason, I’m thankful for it.
For the next three months Dan chased me. He called, emailed and asked my girlfriends about me. Because I lived in Milwaukee and he lived in Chicago we had to take one baby step after another at the beginning of our relationship. Our distance forced us to establish a strong friendship before anything romantic formed - which was another blessing in disguise. For three and a half years Dan and I drove back and forth between Chicago and Milwaukee every other weekend to see one another. Neither of us took life too seriously at that time. We were both young and eager to experience as much as possible in life. After a while, the traveling and the scene we were enveloped in grew tiresome. We desperately needed a change, not necessarily in our relationship but in our lives – he in his and me in mine. We wanted to get out of the Midwest, start over and embark on a bigger experience.
He was given a coaching opportunity in Arizona and decided he was going with or without me. So he left. About a month later I still hadn’t given up on moving out of Milwaukee, or on my relationship. Dan hadn’t given up on us either, so I moved down to Arizona. For the first time in our relationship we lived in the same state. Going from a long distance relationship to a day-to-day one, was an adjustment. We had to start over and discover one another’s daily habits, routines, quarks as people and not as a couple.
It didn’t take long for us to realize what we wanted as individuals. What we wanted was each other. A year after we both moved to Arizona we took two more leaps of faith together and bought a house…and then a puppy. Everything was heading in the right direction, however, I handled our financing so I knew a ring and wedding was going to stay on my wish for a while.
A few weeks ago, a girl friend insisted that I take Friday off to go out on the lake with her. Her company was shooting a commercial and needed extra people for it. I asked Dan to come with me, but he had made plans to go on a bike ride with friends.
Friday comes, and Dan leaves early in the morning. I get my suit and towel ready, head to work and a few hours later get paged to the front office. I was shocked to see my girl friend standing there with a HUGE smile on her face. There had been a change in plans, she tells me. I needed to go home, pack and bag and get to the airport.
Everything was happening so fast and to make things more confusing my friend had been instructed by Dan not to answer any questions. Once at home I find a note and a ticket in my suitcase. The ticket is to Chicago and the note has suggestions of what type of clothing to bring for our weekend and a phone number to call once I got to Chicago. He signed it, ‘see you later, love me.’
My stomach starting flipping and tears pooled in my eyes. How he had pulled something like this – whatever this was – off left me flabbergasted. To make matters more gut wrenching, I arrive at the airport to see my flight has been delayed an hour!
When I finally arrive in Chicago I call the number as instructed and minutes later am picked up by a limo. The driver was just as helpful as my girl friend. He too had been instructed by Dan not to answer any of my questions. Without any guidance to this wild goose chase my mind begins to form its own story. I imagined a number of scenarios, none of which could have topped what was about to happen next.
The limo stops downtown Chicago. The driver pulls all of my bags out and points me to Buckingham Fountain. He tells me, ‘you’ll know what to do next.’ A gather my luggage and hull it around the famous Chicago landmark to find Dan walking up a staircase looking extremely sexy. He hugs me and kisses me and tells me that he couldn’t do this anywhere else but in the city we met and helped formed our relationship.
He drops to one knee and asks me to marry him. After all our years together and the number of ways I imagined him proposing to me I was so nervous I could barely get out ‘of course I’ll marry you.’
He tells me we have to hurry because we’re already late for our dinner reservation. We rush to a hotel, change as fast as we can and walk into a restaurant to find my entire family and my closest friends waiting to congratulate us. I completely fell apart and couldn’t have been happier. Dan pulled off the biggest surprise of my life and I can’t wait to see what happens next.
