The night she said, "Are you serious?!?!"
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
How we got engaged
For the short version of the story, move right to April 20th which was written by someone with a journalism degree. For those of you with nothing better to do than read a short story from a former class clown turned student who almost failed high school English, try your luck with April 19th as well.
April 19, 2011, As told by Charlie
Somewhere in between Newark, NJ, and Cabo San Lucas, Mexico - Christa and I were sitting like a King and Queen in a first class throne aboard a Continental flight for vacation (Christa got us upgraded due to all her traveling while working at The Knot). We were sipping bloody mary's and champagne while our friends John and Kristen were living like animals in the back of the plane in a section they call "Coach" (I'm really only gloating because this was my first time in first class and it was spectacular!!) All of a sudden an announcement from the flight attendant starts in, “Ladies and Gentlemen, we’d like to make a quick announcement to congratulate a couple…”
I started sweating thinking “did John tell a flight attendant that I’m going to propose?!?! I’m going to kill him!!”
The flight attendant continued, “their names are Joe and Elizabeth and they’re sitting in row 17 if you’d like to congratulate them.” Ok so I totally made those names up, but the point is, nobody was on to my plan yet, the ring I bought Christa, which Dayna, Camille, Susie and Francis helped me pick out was still in tact in my camera bag after passing through security in Newark and I was still in good shape. I came back to reality, totally pale and in a cold sweat realizing Christa was looking right at me. “On a plane?” I said, realizing I just said that out loud. Christa looked puzzled, then I said “I mean, I just don’t know why anyone would do that on a plane, that’s all.”
“Yeah I guess you’re right,” she replied just before I changed the subject and we moved on about enjoying our lavish first class lifestyle.
After we arrived in Cabo, we had to pass through customs again and I kept opening and closing my camera bag every single time Christa looked away because I was so worried about losing the ring, I kept thinking “I’m sure if I made it through US security, Mexico will be a breeze. We finally made it to the front of the line where there was a small booth set-up. Kristen was first, she walked up to the booth, the customs agent made her hit a big red button like in the “Whammy” game show. A light above the booth turned green, and she was on her way. Up next, John was up for the whammy button, once again the light was green. Christa followed, one more time, green light, I’m thinking “wow this is easy.” Now it’s my turn, I’m glued to my camera bag like there's no tomorrow. Time for the red button and I'm thinking “no whammy, no whammy, no whammy” as I hit the button, a small bell sounds and a red light fills the air. I’m the lucky winner, the security agent guides me to a table where they go to open my luggage and they wrestle my camera bag out of my hands. Next, they opened up my bag and are working their way right towards the ring. Thank god Christa has the patience of an angry old man who just found out he was double-charged for a half gallon of milk at a grocery store. She rolled her eyes then walked to the women’s room. Luckily, the security agent never found the merchandise.
We made our way outside the terminal and we’re all making jokes about airport security when Christa says “that reminds me of a story I just heard last week where a guy was trying to sneak his engagement ring through security by hiding it in his camera bag.” As she said this, she looked me right in the eyes and I was convinced she knew what I was up to. I really thought she had it all figured out, and she was now testing me to see if I would crack. I kept the straightest face with those now familiar cold sweats, thinking that the jig was up when she finally looked away after what I thought was an eternity. I was safe for now.
April 20, 2011, As told by Christa
Cabo San Lucas, Mexico - I had a feeling something was up – before we left for Mexico, I caught Charlie acting strange a couple of times. One time he would not let me look at his email…the other time I saw my friend Susie’s number in his phone. No, I am not a psycho girlfriend – he just walked right into both these instances, and, lucky for me, he is really not a good liar.
So the day after we arrived in Cabo San Lucas, I was a little suspicious. But he was totally calm, cool, and collected. We laid out by the pool all day and he wasn’t acting any differently. When we got dressed for dinner, I kept thinking “I could be getting dressed for the night I’m going to get engaged. What am I going to wear?!?!” Charlie on the other hand was just drinking beers and watching Terminator.
At dinner, nothing out of the ordinary happened. The conversation was normal. After dinner, we went up to the lobby bar and sat on the balcony which looked out to a cruise ship. Charlie was playing with his camera, as usual, taking picture after picture of the cruise ship in the distance. Even though we were drinking coffee, I started falling asleep (it was after 9 p.m., after all).
That’s when Charlie got up to take a picture of the cruise ship, again. I thought to myself, “ there he goes again, taking another picture…”. I even took out my own camera to take a photo of him in his usual photo-shooting stance. That’s when he turned around and got down on one knee. I was totally shocked. It was really happening! And instead of “Yes” right away, all I could say was, “Are you serious?!?!”