Let me preface this by saying that my sister got engaged exactly 1 week before we did. I had a feeling Mark was planning something soon, but when my sister got engaged, I just figured he was going to wait for awhile. Nope! The man had a plan and was sticking to it! I sort of felt like I was "stealing her thunder" and I was super afraid that people were going to judge me for getting engaged right after her, but I am glad that Mark stuck with his original plan. He had a special day in mind and didn't want to change it OR hold on to the ring any longer! (Funny story, when I called him to tell him my sister was engaged, he was on the way home from the jeweler with my ring.)
SO...what was this special day he had in mind? I was running my very first half marathon on June 6th and he had graciously decided to run with me the whole time, even though he can literally run a half marathon twice as fast as me.
I really didn't think he was going to propose at the race, but I was secretely sort of wondering if he had hidden the ring somewhere in his running shorts. It wasn't until we crossed the finish line and saw another couple getting engaged that I thought "well, wtf?! that would have been a GREAT time to propose, loser!" But who wants to get engaged right next to another guy down on his knee? No, no, no...he had other plans.
I make it no secret that a big chunk of my motivation for running is being able to indulge in more tasty foods more often. So OF COURSE we had to have a big dinner out on the town planned for the night after the race! We planned to go somewhere in St. Paul (where we both lived at the time) but Mark started driving towards Minneapolis. I questioned him, to which he answered that we were going to use our free drink tickets that we got from the race, I don't even remember where they were too...The Newsroom maybe? Anywho, after our free drinks Mark suggested that we just stay downtown for dinner. He non-chalantly suggested that we go to The Capitol Grille which was pretty nearby and didn't seem suspicious to me, except that it's a really nice restaurant. I was suspicious though when I realized that he had made reservations. But I played it cool.
We sat down and ordered some wine and browsed the menu. Mark started talking about celebrating my first big race and how we was so proud of me...then he said that he had something else to celebrate that night too. All of a sudden this beautiful sparkly diamond ring was right in front of me and he was asking me to marry him! Duh! Of course I said yes! We enjoyed a wonderful dinner and had fun calling our family and friends afterwards. Turns out my sister already knew and wasn't mad at all. Mark had "asked" my parents the week before and they briefed her on it just to make sure all went smoothly.
It was such a fun evening and of course seeing my friends the next day with my new jewlery wasn't too bad either. I can't believe it was already 3 years ago! Wow, where does the time go!?
