Earlier in the week…
I sent Melissa the following text message on August 17, 2009: “We have a date night this upcoming weekend … I hope you are ready :-D”
Little did she know the importance of the date that I was planning.
Earlier in the day…
The morning of August 22, 2009, the two of us were supposed to go skydiving and hang around the drop zone for a good part of the day, but due to some low clouds, the plans got scrapped. Instead, we went to the Mason Heritage Festival that morning. While sitting in lawn chairs, covered up by a blanket on the unusually cold August morning, we enjoyed the company of the family and watched bands, scouts, buses, cars, cheerleaders, and politicians all walk past handing out candy and fliers during the parade. The sun would peak out at times, warming everyone up a bit, but spent most its time hiding behind darker clouds, teasing of a chilly shower.
After the parade, Melissa and I meandered around the booths and games chit-chatting about this and that. While browsing the Main St. booths we found a self-proclaimed Mario-Kart style tricycle race setup in the 5/3 building (the old Mason Bank and Opera House) parking lot. Four people would mount tricycles and race around a track twice. The winner would earn a spot in the Finals which were held that afternoon, in competition for a motorized Razor Scooter. I took the inside lane and Melissa was near the outside. We took off and quickly found ourselves in second and third place. Melissa held her place lead by cutting corners and not letting me pass. Even when her shoe lace got stuck in the tricycle gears, she powered on and let the shoe lace snap and fall in her dust. We ended staying in those positions through the finish, not qualifying for the finals race, but walking away with hearts pounding, smiles beaming and lots of laughter while looking at her injured shoe lace.
Lunchtime was at hand, so we left downtown Mason and made our way to Subway to pick up sandwiches and take them to Pine Hill Park where we like to feed the ducks. We sat for a good long while eating and throwing bread to the ducks, avoiding the mean, hissing geese, except for Leroy, our goose friend that looked as though he needed a little extra loving. With a limp, a kinked neck, and a beak that looked as though he was at the losing end of a bar fight, we made sure he was not just well fed, but also well photographed. But we soon found ourselves short on hot dog buns and decided to head back to my parent’s house down the street.
Upon arrival, my Dad was doing some work outside and offered us a ‘fun’ job. We accepted and went outside to find an old porch swing that needed some disassembly. Twenty minutes later, there was twisted metal, broken bolts, and torn fabric coverings in a neat pile that satisfied our destructive urges for the day. But time was running short, I had told Melissa that she had to go home for the afternoon by 3:00pm, and it was already 3:30. She put on her best pouty face, but I had plans that needed time and sent her on her way.
The set up…
For the next few hours, I transformed the gazebo on the back porch into a homemade drive-in movie theater. I had borrowed a projector from the school’s library and had it hooked up to a laptop where a DVD and a special movie intro were ready to be watched. Plans were in works for both rain and shine. The poles of the gazebo were perfect distance apart and height for a twin sheet to cover all areas, protecting from rain. As my Dad and I pinned sheets up and connected the electronics, the skies opened and rain poured down on the deck. The sheets took a beating but did the job that needed to be done and protected the insides of the gazebo from the threat that is water against electronics. For the movie screen, I had a brand new king-size white sheet that was folded in half and hung up horizontal between two poles (skipping one pole in the middle) to allow a nice wide image. Finishing up with the clock nearing 6:00pm I brought pillows, sheets, and blankets outside, and the area was complete.
Dinner…
Exactly 6:30pm on the dot, I pulled up to Melissa’s house. She answered the door in a gorgeous teal dress all girled up in makeup, earrings, and her brand new glasses in which she looks so-very-cute. She looked as she always does, simply amazing, taking my breath away, making my heart beat extra hard, and me questioning how I could be so lucky to call her my girl. Without much time to spare, though, we were back in the car and on our way to dinner at Carrabba’s: Italian Grille. Neither of us had ever been before, but with Melissa’s love for Olive Garden, both of us agreed it would be a good place to try. On the way to the restaurant, I had the soundtrack to Wall-e playing on the stereo. Little did she know that the music was from the movie that we would be watching later in the evening. Walking up to the hostess stand at 6:59pm, 1 minute prior to our call-ahead arrangement, we were given a buzzer and told we had six parties ahead of us. I thought that sounded like a bit much, but nothing we could do about it. So we took a seat outside on the patio and looked through the menu. No more than ten minutes had passed when we were buzzed in for our table.
Dinner was very nice. Melissa ordered the Manicotti and I ordered the Chicken & Spinach Cannelloni. We each shared our food a little bit, and all was very tasty. For drinks, Melissa ordered a White Italian Sangria which came out red. She tried it and by recommendation of the server ordered a Blackberry Sangria instead to replace the wrong drink. I ordered from the ‘Birra’, an Italian Peroni. I thought both tasted very good, but Melissa preferred her Sangria.
About halfway through dinner I handed Melissa an envelope that was sealed and had her name on the front. I also told her that she was not allowed to open the envelope until I said so. Melissa was a good sport (as she always is with my silly games) and tried to get me to tell her she could open it, asking “now?” (2 minutes pass) “now?” like the persistent “are we there yet?” from the backseat of a car. She seemed content when I told her that she would be opening the envelope within the half hour.
The Proposal…
Getting back in the car, I had a necktie in the backseat which I took out and told Melissa she was not allowed to see where we were going. So I tied it around her eyes and we set off. I was making wrong turns, hitting dead ends and making three-point-turns when Melissa chimed in, “If you are making wrong turns to get me lost, no need, I really have no idea where we are.” But I was having fun with it, and made the normal 10 minute drive turn to at least 15 or 20 minutes. We pulled into the driveway at my Parent’s house and parked the car. From the driveway I told still blindfolded Melissa to open the envelope, where she found two laminated pieces of paper. With her completely confused, I went around the car to help her stand. Thinking that walking through grass would give away our location, I picked her up and set off around the side of the house to the back patio. I set her down in the gazebo and quickly removed the plastic coverings over the blankets and projector. It was then that I told her she could look and see where we were.
Now being able to see, it took her a few seconds to recognize her surroundings and ground her bearings. With the soft glow from the Christmas lights that bordered the gazebo roof, she looked down at what was once sealed in the envelope and found two handmade tickets to the “Pawlak Drive-In”. She was very happy and surprised to see all that was set up, then understanding why I needed so much time to myself in the afternoon. After taking in the atmosphere for a few minutes we went back out front to get her change of clothes to get comfortable before the rest of the evening’s festivities. While she changed I took the popcorn that my Mom had popped for us while we were gone and got the computer set to the proper screen for the movie intro.
Now, more comfortable for the cool evening air under the blankets and ready to watch the movie, I hit play. A few aged, drive-in movie commercials played through, setting the atmosphere even more as Melissa asked how I put this together and I just smiled and watched the screen excited for what was to come. About three minutes into the clip, the Pixar lamp and intro screen comes on, and Wall-e makes his first appearance. She then realized the movie that was going to be played, which was the movie we watched on our first date at the Holiday Auto Theatre in Hamilton some 13 months prior. After the Pixar screen, and abrupt transition brought a very large TV-Jason (the Brankamp’s name for me when I was on webcam while living in California) made an appearance to say some sweet things to Melissa while Ben Folds – The Luckiest played in the background. TV-Jason ended his appearance telling Melissa that “I really am the Luckiest and am All Yours” as the video transitioned to a slide show to the Jason Mraz’s tune I’m Yours. Melissa was borderline and eventually crossing the line into tears as the pictures went by, recalling many of our amazing memories so far. We saw pictures from our scuba trip to Florida, skydiving up in Lebanon, OH, going to the drive-in on our first date, carving pumpkins during Halloween last year, and many more. As the song and slides ended, she gave me a kiss and I started to get a little nervous, knowing what was coming next.
The next clip came up announcing: “And now, for our feature presentation…” I looked over at Melissa and asked her, “you ready for the feature presentation?” While she answered yes, I moved over to the other side of her, got down on one knee and took a little green box out of my pocket. Her shining eyes stared back at mine as I started to tell her how amazing she is and how much I love her. As I finished off asking her to “make me the happiest guy in the world by marrying me”, she sat up straight and answered: “Really?!?!?” “Yes, really Melissa” “Really?!?!?!?!?!” with a chuckle I told her “I love you very much, and yes, really.” She happily replied YES with a big smile and took the ring right out of the box. After a few moments of holding onto it, we both remembered that I was the one that was suppose to put the ring on her and I did what I had been dreaming about doing for such a long time and put the diamond on her left hand’s ring finger.
After…
After a number of phone calls and messages, my parents came home and Melissa’s parents came over to congratulate us on our engagement. It wasn’t until around 11:00pm that we finally relaxed back outside and started watching the movie of the evening, Wall-e.
Now, a few days later, we are both happier than we ever thought possible and loving the new title of fiancé. We have started thinking about dates for getting married and all the details that ensue. We are very excited about our future together and know that God is so good for leading us to find one another through our walks in life.
And so begins our happily ever after.