12 years ago today I got engaged. It was a wonderful, exciting, strange day.
The day began with DZ coming into my bedroom at 6:20am (I lived at home still), with breakfast, and flowers. After breakfast he dropped me at school, only after I tried to convince him to take the day off, which he said he couldn’t. Several hours later I was sitting in my Mom’s office after skipping out of my class early since I had terrible cramps. I was nearly asleep. I heard something and opened my eyes. DZ was standing there. He told me that he was able to get the day off and we should go to lunch. We went to Disneyland and ate at the Blue Bayou. It was great
After lunch I wanted some ice cream, so DZ said that he knew of a great place, but it was a little far away. We got in the car and drove for what seemed like forever. I kept thinking that this much be some crazy good ice cream. We finally got there. It was a park. I was totally confused. To make things more interesting the park had a fence around it. We had to climb the fence. After DZ convinced me that I really wanted to hop the fence I got over it without killing myself. We walked a little way into the park and before me was a blanket, with flowers and ice cream on dry ice.
My heart was pounding. He then took my hands and asked me to marry him. My first thought was “yes”. My second thought was, “Who else is here? Are they videoing? Pictures?” I imagined my family hiding behind the trees. They weren’t there. DZ then told me all his secrets from the previous 3 weeks of planning. It was an elaborate plan, with several helpers and a little lying. But I forgave him. We drank our Martinelli’s, did a little kissin’, then drove back home. We met our families for dinner, met some friends at a coffee shop, then the day was over. What a whirlwind of a day.
12 years later I love him more than I did on that day. He is a wonderful husband, a fantastic father, and my best friend. My life changed that day. As I said in our engagement scrapbook, “November 7, 1996 was the beginning of our forever.”
