Her Version

When you're single, people always say, the best place to meet someone is at a wedding. Being an introvert/pessimist, I couldn't get myself to truly believe that... until now. Because it was under these circumstances Andy and I came to know each other.

In November of '02, it was happenstance that I was at a wedding reception in Philly when a friend asked me, how come I hadn't "found that someone yet." In my embarrassment, I jokingly responded, "oh well, do you know of someone [weird enough] for me?" And that's how I had heard of Andy, only by his first name.

Now 8 months later, I was casually invited to my first chaperoned set up dinner date. Due to circumstantial events at the time, I completely forgot the "date" part of dinner date. So, needless to say I showed up a bit flustered, a bit sweaty, and I immediately began with my nervous chatterings. Basically I don't really remember much of the conversation because I had 2 overwhelming concerns: a) Is this guy Korean or Chinese? (can't tell by his last name) & b) what am I going to do, I don't skateboard? (while staring at his goatee). Boy, I was intrigued. It wasn't until later I made the connection that this was thee Andy from way back when...

Somehow after a series of fortunately placed events (thank you god), we managed to finally hang out in nyc several weeks later for a fun evening of guitar shopping, eating at Virgil's, and ending the evening with my sheepish but memorable question,"... do you like me???"

Bringing us back to the present time - In October '04, I was doing laundry at Andy's new pad & he blindfolds me and surprises me with a brand new guitar, a Yamaha APX5A, an electric acoustic. The exact model I showed him that day we had our first hanging out in nyc. I ask him to play something on it for me. He starts to get really annoyed with this "buzzing" sound, which I don't hear probably because my smile is like plugging my ears. I tell him to forget about it but he makes me pull out the tag inside the guitar. But wait, it's not a tag, it's a manila envelope (I thought it was free picks!). Inside is the most precious diamond ever! I am rendered speechless, or er more correctly I was only able to say,"what?!.. whaaat??!!. What. WHAT?!?!!!" The rest I honestly don't remember at all, you'll have to refer to Andy's version.

His Version

I had been happily single for about a year and a half. things were really looking great for me. I was involved with a missions group and was preparing to go on my first missions trip. My job was humming along boringly, but steadily.

Then it happened. One bright Sunday afternoon, a friend asked, "Are you free for dinner on June 20th?". "How specific", I thought. Then it hit me. "I bet this is a set up". No sooner had I thought this, when I realized I had already agreed.

"Well, okay. But this is NOT a date!" I was getting to the point where my friends wanted to set me up with various people, and this was one of those attempts.

As it turns out, Elaine totally forgot that it was a setup! That was okay with me, as it probably put her more at ease. Anyway, we enjoyed a nice meal, and she talked. A lot. Earlier in the evening, we had a chance (read: it was rigged) to go for an emergency run for butter and a few other oddments. On the car ride, we got to talking a little, sharing about our interests in outdoor activities and about our respective churches.

One thing led to another, and we started dating (after much prayer and consideration). I don't know when it was exactly, but at some point, I just knew that Elaine was the one. I had a funny feeling that first night we met that there was somthing different about this one, but I didn't want to jump the gun.

Fast forward to end of summer 2004. Elaine was headed off to Texas to visit her sister. In the weekend that she left, I purchased the diamond and made "the visit" to her parents' house. It went well (or so I think), and all was set. Now, I just needed to figure out how to propose. Plan "A" was to move her baby grand piano to my place and put the stone in the piano in just the right place so that when she played (at my request), she would hear a strange sound, and have to figure out where it's coming from.

you might think that moving the piano isn't such a big deal. Well, you'd be wrong. There's history here, too. When we first started dating, Elaine stated that her piano would go wherever she may go. That included my small condo in northern Jersey. I wouldn't have it. There's no way it would fit, let alone getting it up the 26 stairs with the 180 degree turn. We argued about this one for a while, and she finally resigned herself to living without her piano, at least for as long as we lived in the condo. Back to end of summer.

So, Elaine heads off to China and Taiwan with her dad. I take advantage of this time by calling some moving companies to get a quote to move the piano from Long Island to NJ. The least expensive place wanted $800 and I wouldn't get delivery for 30 days. This was unacceptable. I couldn't have Elaine arrive back in the states at her parents' house and say, "uh, where's my piano?!?. I had to think...

So,I devised a plan "B". I would purchase her the guitar that she had been looking at for so long, and hide the stone in there. The day she left for China, I purchased the guitar, and got it all polished up and put the stone inside, in a small envelope. About a week after she returned from her trip, I invited her over, and I set the trap. I insisted on watching "the Princess Bride", our favorite movie, and we sat and watched it. Then, I started reminiscing about that time we went guitar shopping. After some deep sighs about "the good ol' days", I excused myself and put the plan in motion. I returned with a blindfold, and put it on her. At this point, I'm sure she had no idea what was going on. Once on, I placed the guitar in front of her, still in its bag. When I removed the blindfold, she just looked around and wondered what was up. Apparently, she couldn't see it without the glasses on. I gave her her glasses, and her eyes widened. She knew exactly which one it was :)

Still in shock of receiving her guitar, I insisted that there was something odd about the sound. upon inspection, I "noticed" something inside, that probably didn't belong. She shrugged it off, figuring it wouldn't be a real problem. I was starting to get a little impatient. It took a good 20 minutes of insisting that there was *something* in there, and it most certainly did *not* belong there. Finally, under much protest, she fishes out the small envelope, all the while mumbling about how they must be picks or something, and "why would they be in here?". So, finally, her digging reveals the rock, and she suddenly can't speak. She didn't even recall that I had actually asked her to marry me.

That's it. I asked, she said "yes".