Renee and Stefan: Engagement story (Stefan's additional details)

26 August 2005

Engagement story (Stefan's additional details)

After reading Renee's post, I want to add just a couple more details so everyone gets the whole picture.

What you can't tell from Renee's story is that preparing to get engaged is not an easy thing - if you're a man. I had to buy a ring, find a place to stay, talk to Renee's dad, and plan out the weekend...all without Renee ever suspecting anything.

I was constantly nervous Renee would find out what I was up to, and there were a few close calls. On the night of the Pink Martini concert I found myself completely unable to relax, because the very expensive engagement ring was in my backpack in the trunk of Renee's car - parked in the vast, unsecured parking lot at the concert. I kept worrying that someone would break into her car (it's already been broken into once), take my backpack, and discover the ring inside. And it wouldn't have been covered by insurance! These thoughts made it hard to concentrate on the admittedly great music.

One of the close calls happened one morning when Renee and I were carpooling to work. My cell phone rang, and I didn't recognize the number. I was expecting a salesperson from one of the jewelry stores to call me, and I instantly thought it must be them. I didn't want to answer, but Renee wanted me to. I managed to hem and haw long enough to miss the call, but when I got voicemail, Renee insisted that I listen to it. It turned out to be a Google relocation person, which was a good thing, because I would have had a hard time coming up with a good story to explain why someone from Tiffany & Co was calling.

After two nerve-wracking weeks of planning, I felt like getting engaged was actually pushing the two of us apart. What irony. But I was determined to have a fun engagement weekend with Renee. That meant I had to be able to relax - and that meant I had to get the big question "over with" early. So I was happy when I finally came up with the idea of proposing at Deception Pass relatively early on Saturday. Sure enough, it was impossible not to have a fantastic weekend after I heard the woman I love so much say "Yes."

posted by Stefan Pharies at 19:51

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