It would have been romantic.

Exactly four years ago today I was supposed to ask Lauren to marry me. It did not happen as planned.

Flash back to November 25th 2001. We were already, as Mom would say, “living in sin” for a few years so it was time to, as Dad would say "shit or get off the pot" and make it official. I worked in a Sports Bar at the time and I was working on a Sunday afternoon because of football. Every now and then I would bet on a few games but I would rarely win. This particular Sunday I had some type of weird parlay bet going with three different games. I won the first two but the last game did not look good. I bet on the Miami Dolphins who were being dominated by the Buffalo Bills and were down by 14 in the fourth quarter.

As I left work I said to Mike, the guy I bet with, “Call me if a miracle happens.” I went directly to the jeweler to price out engagement rings. I was talking to the sales lady about all the payment options and when I could actually pick up the ring. I was on the fence about whether I should get a simple ring and get engaged right away or if I should wait until I had more money, buy a nicer diamond and wait until after the holidays to propose. My cell phone rang. It was Mike form the bar. “A miracle happened. Miami won 34 to 27.” I hung up and ordered the nicer diamond and a nicer ring.
The sales lady said I could pick up the ring in one week because they needed to set it. I said okay and made my plans for the following Sunday to ask Lauren to be my wife.

I was going to ask her Sunday December 2nd, 2001. We were going to go Christmas shopping, have dinner at the place that we met, I would pop the question and we would have plenty of time to go tell her parents and my parents the good news. She did not have a clue about my plans.

Sunday December 2nd, 2001, I told Lauren I had to go to work “for a few minutes” as an excuse to go pick up the ring. She was a little disappointed because we had plans to go Christmas shopping at Peddlers Village, a nice, outdoorsy festival type of place. I told her I would be only a little bit and that we would still be going shopping.

I arrived at the Jewelers, nervous and exited to actually pick up the ring. I knew this was gong to be a great day. I found the sales lady that assisted me from the week before and she gave me a puzzling look. I pulled out my paper work and asked for the ring. She looked it over and said that the ring was not in yet. It would be there tomorrow.

“What? Last Sunday you told me a week.”
“ I know but our office downtown was closed on Sundays so I could not place the order until Monday so it is a week from last Monday.”
“But YOU said a week. Do you know that a week is SEVEN days? Not Eight.”
“I’m sorry.” She pouted but immediately perked up and smiled to say, “But it will be here tomorrow.”
“But I wanted to get engaged today I had the whole thing planned.”

She looked horrified and she apologized about 90 times. She made a few phone calls and told me that I could pick up the ring in Delaware if I wanted. Delaware, which was about 1 and half hours away. I couldn’t do that because I would then have to explain it to Lauren and ruin the surprise.
I left the store in a huff.

Lauren and I went shopping at Peddlers’ Village and we had a nice time but I could not help but be distracted with the thought of not having the ring. The day was perfect. It was sunny and cold, but not too cold. We shopped drinking cider and hot chocolate. Perfect day to get engaged. We were driving home and Lauren even suggested that we go to dinner at the place we met. I was so pissed because it would have been perfect but I declined because I wanted to bring her there the when I had the ring.

Needless to say we did not get engaged that day. It would have been romantic.