The Texan & The Canadian

As everyone knows, the most exciting story right now is about the events that let up to our engagement. It is a tale filled with adventure, comedy, romance, mystery, and spine-tingling chills. Unfortunately, the story is quite different from each of our perspectives. First, to give everyone a grounding in reality, here is Sean’s side of the story.

Sean’s Version (What Really Happened):

The time had finally come. I had to put aside my nervousness and get a ring. It was long overdue… Least of all the reasons, I had gotten tired of calling Melissa my girlfriend when she was and is so much more. I knew that my number one goal through the whole process was maintaining a veil of secrecy. Melissa and I share most everything including a car, bank account and living space. I had promised I would surprise her when I proposed, so I knew that I had quite a challenge ahead of me (in addition to choosing the perfect ring).

We had been to jewelery stores around town, so I had an idea of what Melissa had in mind. Unfortunately, I didn’t think I would have been able sneak around town. I’m not very good when it comes to lying about my whereabouts. Even before I made buying plans, I had to find a way to pay for the ring without her knowledge. Luckily, I was able to sneak out at lunch and get a separate account at the local credit union and have all my mail directed to work. With a bank account, a debit card, and a mysterious money transfer from the joint savings account, I was in business.

I knew that when buying a ring I could not betray by nerd heritage. I knew what I wanted and I knew that I didn’t want to get scammed. So, I did a great deal of research and found a online jewelery store in Washington State. After emailing back and forth with the owner, I went ahead and ordered the ring. All went smoothly until the ring didn’t ship on the expected date. At that point, emails went unanswered for a number of days. When I finally heard from them, there had been a huge blizzard and the area had been without power for 4 days! Soon after that, the ring shipped. Now that the perfect ring was on the way, I had to make sure the proposal would come out perfect. That would prove to be just as hard.

I had planned for a while that I would propose under the Zilker Park Christmas Tree at the Festival of Lights. Unfortunately, we weren’t free every night of the week and I couldn’t make it too obvious that I *needed* to go. My decision was made easier from the delayed shipping of the ring. It seemed that there was a late UPS plane and the package wouldn’t arrive until my birthday. When the day came, I told myself that it couldn’t wait. I would act funny and nervous if I was waiting to propose… and my birthday was the perfect cover for going to the Festival. After getting permission from Melissa’s father and talking to James, the game was on. Little did I know, Melissa was also planning a surprise.

When Melissa picked me up from work that day, she was acting funny. She wasn’t able to answer questions about my birthday dinner or plans for the evening. She asked if I wanted Chuy’s for dinner, but I said no since I had eaten Mexican food for lunch that day. At that response she started laughing out loud. My suspicions were confirmed when we got home and I found a bunch of people waiting for us. She had asked good friends to come and have dinner with Allison and us. I had to feign excitement at the prospect of all my plans being ruined. Luckily, James was able to respond to my trepidation and support my suggestion of going to the trail of lights. So, with the ring box in my pocket, we all headed off.

Once we got close we realized that getting into the event would be a challenge in itself. It was nearing Christmas and it seemed that everyone in Austin was trying to get in! Needless to say, it took us over an hour to park. I nearly had a hard attack! Eventually we made it in, but it didn’t get any easier. I still couldn’t make up my mind if I should go through with it. Was the timing wrong, was the place wrong, was what I was going to say wrong? I was distracted to say the least. It almost gave me away. I was quiet and distant, but I was able to blame that on the crowds and the cold. I just couldn’t let Melissa get close to me — I had a huge ring box in my pocket.

Well, we reached the end of the trail — the large Christmas Tree. I drew up all my courage and pulled Melissa off to the side. With few people around, I got down on my knee. I don’t remember exactly what I said in my little speech, but it caught Melissa off guard. So much so that I had to specifically ask her if she answered “yes” to my question. If she wasn’t stunned enough at that point, I then unzipped my jacket and pulled out the ring. She couldn’t believe her eyes. We stood up to everyone around us cheering. It was perfect. I had surprised her. And above all, she had said yes. It’s a moment I’ll remember forever.

Melissa’s Version (Obviously THIS is What Really Happened):

So! It was the week before Sean’s birthday and I felt that I should do something out of the ordinary. My sister Allison was going to be in town the next week and I though it would be fun to throw a party. This way she could meet our friends and I would have help planning. I had decided to just make it a small group and invited about eight of our friends over for dinner and swore them all to secrecy about it. I always like to surprise Sean.

Well the evening got here and I picked him up from work. He was acting very strange and nervous. Though he had been acting that way for a few weeks so I figured it was more stuff to do with “work” and decided not to bug him about it. As we were heading home I asked what he’d like to have for his birthday dinner. He said, “Anything but Chuy’s.” I couldn’t help but laugh, as I had bought Chuy’s take out and it was waiting at home with our friends. You see, Sean normally love’s to eat TexMex and one of his favorite dishes is Chuy’s soft taquitos. I couldn’t do anything about it at that point so I laughed it off and said we could see where Allison might want to eat.

Well, we got home and when we got to the top of the stairs Sean about had a heart attack. I knew he’d be a bit surprised but that reaction was a bit much. I almost felt bad. He finally started to laugh a bit and seemed to be OK with all the of it. We had a good time taking and eating. Allison and I even got a cake and put sparkler candles on it. I was a little worried when we lit them. As you can see they were a bit much for the little cake.

We had a nice time but our friend James was acting a little weird and Sean kept insisting we go to the Trial of lights in downtown Austin (To learn more about the trail of lights go here to the Austin City web page). We finally all agreed to go and hopped in the car. My sister, Sankalp and I were talking politics and French on the way as Sean drove. When we got downtown there was a lineup to get in and it was almost closing time. Sean was practically sweating. I was really confused as to why he wanted to go so bad. He just kept saying your sister really needs to see this while she’s here.

Well we made it just before closing hours and walked the trail. It’s a beautiful trail fully lined with Christmas lights that goes through Austin’s Zilker park. At the end you come to this huge tree that is made from one of the remaining moon towers in Austin (To learn more about the tree click here). We had a nice stroll. Sean was a little quite but for anyone who knows Sean this isn’t out of the norm.

We reached the end and Sean pulled me to one side. Another thing not out of the norm for Sean. He likes to have a few alone moments when we’ve been around a lot of people. And there was a lot of people on the trial that night. Though as I turned around I saw Sean dropping to one knee. I jumped back and said, “you’re doing this now?” He looked a bit out of sorts from my comment. Of course my comment had been made only out of surprise. He said, “Is this not good?” I was like, “are you crazy, this, this is amazing. Go, Go!”

He started to tell me these beautiful things… of course I didn’t here most of it as I was thinking in my head, “He’s doing it! We’re getting engaged! He’s gonna marry me! He actually got me! I had no clue.” Then all the sudden he looked a little puzzled and said, “Melissa will you marry me?” I realized later I had missed it the first time due to the crazy things rattling off in my head. I practically screamed, “Yes.” I leaned over and kissed him. Then I thought to myself, “Why isn’t he getting up?”

Well he got me again. He unzipped his jacket and pulled out a box. I screamed out, “Holy s**t!” as he opened it. He said, “Honey there are kids here.” I had completely forgotten about all the people around us. I had lost myself in the moment. As he went to put the ring on my finger it stopped at my knuckle. It was a bit small. The look on his face was of panic. I just kissed him and said to put it on my pinky finger. He looked sad but I told him that the moment couldn’t have been more perfect.

As he rose to his feet the people around us began to clap and cheer. It was my very own Cinderella moment. My sister and our friends joined us. We got hugs and congratulations all around. It was the best night of my life. He surprised me and the whole thing was amazing.

Here is a photo my sister took of Sean and I just after he had proposed.