Well kids, it finally happened – after 5.5 years, Erik proposed! Here’s the story of how it happened… Caution: you may need a tissue or two. 😉
Thursday (08/12/10) morning Erik had to go in to work really early for a meeting. Later that afternoon he texted me and said that he wanted to go out to dinner, somewhere nice. I was all ‘okay, any idea where?’ and he said no but he’d figure something out by the time he got home. I was a little suspicious of him considering it was out of the blue and usually when we decide to go out it’s somewhere not-fancy… Anyway, he came home around 5:30 and I complained that I was already hungry and asked if we could go right then but he said no we had to wait until 6:45 to leave and I asked ‘why? Do you have reservations?’ and he said no, he did not. He also then suggested I wear something “nice” (I was in jeans) since we were going somewhere a little more upscale. Weird, but I complied.
We headed out to the restaurant which was in Buckhead (that’s the fancy-pants part of town) and it wound up being Bone’s, one of the best steak houses in Atlanta. We dropped the Subaru off with the valets and headed inside. Already I’m thinking to myself ‘expensive restaurant, valet… what the heck is going on?’ Once inside we were greeted by the maître d’ who welcomed Erik by name (“ah, Mr. Jacobs, so lovely to see you again”) and I said ‘wait, how does he know you??’ and the guy quickly replied “he’s been here several times with some business colleagues for meetings” (turned out to be a total lie – nice one, maître d’!!). So he seated us and like a bajillion different servers came to our table (one dude for water, another for bread, another for menus, another to drop off the wine list [which was actually an IPAD!! SO COOL!] and another to take our wine order). Dinner was excellent and then Erik suggested we go somewhere else for dessert since he had heard of a really good place.
As we walked out of the restaurant I noticed a white Miata parked out front. I jokingly said to Erik, ‘aww cute Miata! Is it for me?’ and he was like “pffffft NO”. The valet ran off to get our car and came back on foot. I was really worried that the Subaru wouldn’t start or something like that but then guy handed me a not-our-Subaru car key. I then proceeded to go from worried to confused… ‘why is he giving me a key? Usually I give them the key and they bring me a car….’ ‘is the Miata his and he wants me to drive it because he heard me say I liked it?’ then Erik pulled out another Mazda key and the both of them just stood there smiling at me and the only thing going through my head was ‘…………………?’ so Erik finally pointed at the car and goes “it’s yours!” I then squealed and did girl-hands and ran over to it and pretty much freaked out. AWESOME.
My beautiful 1.6L ’93 Mazda Miata MX-5 “Elli”. Best. Engagement Present. EVER! 😀
We got in the car and drove down to the ice cream place (Morelli’s) which was about 20 minutes away. I was suuuupppper excited about the car (it’s SO cute!) but figured that was all that was going to happen. We ordered (salted caramel, if you’re in Atlanta you need to try it because it’s amazing) and sat down to eat. It was so beautiful out… typical warm, breezy Atlanta night – a few clouds and some really gorgeous heat lightning… perfect.
After we finished I got up to throw out the cup and get ready to leave. Erik said “hey, no, let’s stay a bit since it’s so nice out” so I sat back down. I don’t really remember the next bit exactly because it was such a blur but basically he asked me “do you remember where we were when I first said ‘I love you’?” and I said yes, we were at Carvel. He asked where we were now and it clicked that we were again at an ice cream store… Then he told me to kiss him so I did and while we were kissing he started fiddling with his pocket.
The next thing I know, he’s down on one knee. He said some things that my mind couldn’t comprehend and then asked “will you love me forever?” annnnd I pretty much lost it. I completely forgot to even say the word ‘yes’. Ha! So we started kissing and some people standing nearby were all like “awww, yay!” and then he pulled out ANOTHER box! So by then I’m seriously confused because I’d already gotten a car and a proposal, what the hell else could this be? Turns out it was his grandmother’s engagement ring… I stared at him blankly and asked ‘wait, do I have to pick one?’ and he assured me that no, I did not: I got both.
That’s pretty much it but I’m sure I’m leaving out a lot of details. I’m SO beyond excited/happy/everything… I don’t think it’s really hit me yet though 🙂
Anyway, after we had gotten home and were done smiling/crying/calling our parents/etc. he told me a bit more about the plan. Apparently he’d had the car since MARCH and had been hiding it from me in the parking deck at his work. I had even seen it a few times when I went to visit him at his office without knowing that she was actually all mine! There were lots of sneaky people involved in this… Eugene, Rob up in NC and Seth helped find the car, Mikel fixed it when it had a coolant leak. Wow. Thanks so much to everyone for making this the best day ever and for keeping a secret! Lastly, remember that “having to go in to work early” thing? Yeah, it was part of the plan. Erik dropped the car off to be detailed that morning then picked it up and dropped it off at the restaurant so that he could surprise me. Amazing. He’s absolutely incredible.
I think I’m the luckiest girl in the whole world. I love my fiancé, Erik Jacobs!
SR20DETg20girl's Blog 