We Got Married!

September 1, 2007

Yes, you read right (as if there was any doubt)!!  We got married!!

For those who weren't privy to this (which doesn't amount to too many people visiting this page), we've decided to leave this part of this page intact, giving visitors the story of how it came about.  How did I ask her?  What does her ring look like?  All the "usual suspect" questions...

New Year's Eve (2006, going into 2007) was coming up, and we really didn't have much in the way of plans to go out or do anything.  Both of us were perfectly fine with just staying in and having a safe little celebration together.  I've long joked that Evette has a really hard time staying awake during movies, and one of the running jokes with us is that I planned to rehabilitate her from her movie aversion by first starting with a relatively short, easy-to-watch comedy that would hold her attention.  Eventually, we'd move into more dramas, sci-fi, etc., and her "final exam" would be watching the three Lord of the Rings movies back-to-back.  She had mentioned that she wanted to attempt this "final exam" over New Year's, and I simply said, "okay!"  This was something I knew well over a week prior to New Year's Eve, but about two days before the ball would drop on Times Square, I thought about what we had planned to do, and all of a sudden, the phrase hit me...  "Lord of the WHAT?!"  Yes.  Rings.  I thought, "what a clever way to propose!"  Now, there are some of you out there who would think that something like this would be reserved only for the "Trekkie" crowd, but not so.  I thought it would be a little different, so I had to get this plan going fast!

I had picked out a setting, but I now knew I would have to have it ready for the following day.  Thankfully (this is going to sound awful, but), Evette wasn't feeling so well the afternoon of the 30th, and I kinda banked on the fact that she'd fall asleep (which she did).  I headed up to the jeweler, who proceeded to complete my ring and get it to me in nearly record time.  About 30 minutes before I was to get home, Evette woke up and sent me a message asking me where I was.  I forgot what I made up, but it was good enough to keep her inquisitiveness at bay.

That night, we began watching the movies, but she was sacked out inside of 20 minutes.  I began to ponder the idea of changing my plan.  I didn't foresee Evette making it to "The Return of the King" until 2043 (watching all the movies in approximately 5-minute increments).

Instead, Evette and I picked her mother up on New Year's Eve, at about 5pm, to go to a very large food store in Fairfield, Ohio, called "Jungle Jim's," to purchase a bottle of champagne that Evette was certain was carried there.  It turned out that they no longer had the champagne, and we shopped for some other sundry items.  All the while, I had been discussing the notion of the proposal with Evette's mother (who was in on the whole thing all along).  Finally, I decided that I would place the ring box on the passenger seat of the car so that when she got in, it would be right there.  I wasn't letting her open the box, either.  Evette's awful with surprises, so I thought that a little torture on our way back to her mother's place would do her some good.  After not even realizing that the box was there and sitting on it, I told her to hold onto the box.  She simply said, "okay."

This was an odd response from her, as I was expecting her to be nearly incessant with the "what is it"s and all, but she went on talking to her mother like nothing had happened.  Meanwhile, I sent her mom a 007 text message (yeah, she's sitting in the back seat!) asking her if Evette was just clueless or something.

We got back to her mother's place, and before we left, I asked her if I could have a word with her.  While I was confirming with her that we had said that "2007 was going to be our year," her stepfather, Bob, was attempting to tempt us with the most delicious of clementines.  It was a pretty comical moment, while her mom had to clue him in as to what was happening in their living room.

I asked Evette to marry me, and she said "okay."  This was an almost routine response to a question I had posed to her over and over again, but not with the momentousness this particular incident carried.  I told her, "I'm not kidding."  That was her clue that she was really being proposed to (I had told her that, one day, I wouldn't be "kidding").  I opened the ring box, that Evette had seemingly all but forgotten about, to show her the most beautiful diamond engagement ring.  The next time I saw her face, tears were streaming down, and all I heard was "yes."

So that's the story.  Nice and intimate.

Here are some pictures of her engagement ring, for those who are curious (click each individual image to enlarge)...