From Miss to Mrs. in Four Short Words

I tried and I tried but I just couldn't find the stories I KNOW I have already written about how Chas and I got engaged and our first dates. So please bear with me if you're rolling your eyes saying "Not this AGAIN" and "She wrote about this LAST week!" Hard as it is to believe, there are almost 700 posts to go through and I'm NOT doing it.

When I first met Chas I was dating his friend, Nick Asshat. I was 29, Chas was almost 35.  After three decades on this planet with no real luck in the dating world, I did NOT believe in love at first sight, and, while I still don't believe in it, I do believe in The Lightning Bolt Moment, also known as When You Know, You Know.

I walked in through the door of my roommate's house; my roommate was still up. "Out with Nick?" she asked.

"Yeah," I answered dreamily. "We went to Oktoberfest. I met the man I'm gonna marry."

"Nick ASSHAT?" she asked, incredulous (with good reason).

"No," I answered, still in reverie. "His best friend Chas."

Okay, so the word "best" may have been overstated, since Chas himself might have substituted the word "golfing." But the point -- did you catch THE POINT? I knew then, after only a couple of hours in his presence, that Chas was The One.

Chas? Not so much. Chas took another 3 1/2 years to know that I was The One.

Fast-forward to Joe's Bar, December 11, 1997. The Christmas season was in full swing for me, as a retail gift store owner, and I had worked another 12-hour day, with several more to come before I could rest. When smart people would be home putting their feet up and getting as much sleep as possible, I opted instead for a couple of hours in a tiny packed college bar with my favorite guy. My favorite guy didn't know it, but he had only about three weeks left with me before I pulled up stakes and moved on, because as much as I loved him, I wasn't gonna wait this one out any longer and had given him an unspoken deadline of January 1, 1998 to put up or shut up.

We were talking about my teeny tiny apartment and it's teeny tiny kitchen.  I loved the apartment but the kitchen was a nightmare, and I said something to that effect.

"Yeah, I think we should get a house -- one with a decent kitchen," Chas said.

Wait, what?  Chas knew I wouldn't move in with him -- not unless we were married. It had less to do with my sky-high morals than with my keen understanding of inertia as it pertains to the human male.

"What are you saying?" I asked him, aware that I was boring holes through his face with my eyes.

A very long and self-conscious pause.

"Are you asking me to MARRY you?" I asked, incredulous.

"Um . . . yeah," answered the normally articulate Chas.

Beat.

Beat.

"Well, I wanna hear the words," I said, as petulant as someone with nothing to lose.

Beat.

Beat.

"Will you . . . marry me?" asked Chas, just barely audible above the din of the college bar dice games.

"Yes," I answered, suddenly aware I was grinning like an ape.

Now what?

I reached for a cocktail napkin, then dug around in my purse for a pen.  "If this were MY table, I'd want to KNOW!" I said, then proceeded to leave a note for the cocktail waitress.

"He just asked me to marry him . . . and I said YES."

Comments

[The Glamorous Life Association]

I totally thought you were gonna 'get it in writing' when you reached for the napkin and pen!!!!!!!!

Still awesome.
Even 2nd time around.

[Cactus Petunia]

You hopeless romantic, you!

[foolery]

Well, CBW, if you'd like to read a little about the honeymoon, you can go here:

http://foolery.typepad.com/foolery/2008/05/the-honeymoon-p.html

Other than that, I'd have to reeeeeeally dig to come up with something interesting. We'll see. : )

MPM, I'll never know about the waitress -- we just walked away.

Ellie, I left the napkin for the waitress! Come to think of it, I should've made two and kept one. Dang.

Auds, a Nasal Emergency was too good for that napkin. ; ) And YES! I'm excited about July! I think I'm gonna take care of the whole ticket thang this weekend . . . maybe?

Rick, you don't fool me. You love to come here and be disgusted. ; )

Bob, I really don't believe in love at first sight, because real love takes discovery and work. And I've fooled myself before. But I do believe in the electric Ah-Ha! And knowing where you're headed. Unfortunately it isn't always a two-way lightning bolt. This all made PERFECT sense in my head.

Hey Miss Envy! 15?! For real? I didn't even know how to take care of my PERM when I was 15! Amazing.

Hiya Miss Kathi! Yeah, your own engagement story pretty much makes a liar out of me, I think . . . so does Bob's . . . hmmm . . .

And Meg, that made me laugh out loud. I need to tell Chas's mom that one, ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

Thanks for reading everybody!

-- Laurie

[Meg]

My mom called me tonight to say that she has heard that a man will know within 8.5 minutes whether or not a woman in his presence has mate/marriage potential. I replied, YEAH, but it takes most of them at least 2 years to admit it!

Glad he heeded your unspoken deadline. Telepathy rocks.

[Kathi D]

Awwwwwwwwwww shucks! That is sweet!

Series!!

I believe in, well, if not love at first sight, certainly at second. It got me.

[Big Hair Envy]

I knew I was going to marry Cool Breeze when I was 15 years old. True story!!!

LOVE the fact that you left a note on the napkin. The waitress probably posted it on the wall:) I vote for the series...

[Bob Cleveland]

And you STILL don't believe in love at first sight? When the mailboy at Wabash Fire and Casualty Insurance Company introduced me to Peg, 51 years ago this April 11th, I said "I'm going to marry her" as soon as we were out of earshot, maybe 20 seconds later.

I believe in it. Yep I do.

[Rick's Cafe]

gag
I'm heading back to the political blogs where it less threating.

[Auds at Barking Mad]

I'm with CBW on this one. We need a series of stories...the Napkin Dailies, or something like that.

And gee, I wonder what the waitress thought and if she hung onto that napkin...well until she had a nasal emergency anyhow. *lol*

P.S. Are you getting excited about July? I am...believe it or not, I am. I'm nervous as hell...not just for social anxiety reasons, but because didn't CBW mention Water Moccasins...or maybe it was Black Mambas?

[Ellie]

Now *that* is a good story. Hope you still have the napkin.

[Mental P Mama]

Awwww. I hope the waitress was suitably impressed.

[Chesapeake Bay Woman]

Pass me that napkin, I think I'm gonna cry.

I think this should be a whole new line of stories, Mrs. Foolery. We need to know what happened next: how you told your parents, the preparations, the nuptials themselves, the honeymoon (spare us all the details though), picking a house, moving in together...I'd say this could keep us busy for months.