It happened on a day I had said we should go to the beach. I was the initiator of said day trip... 'cause we'd never been to the coast together. Granted it was going to be overcast, but what day at the coast in Oregon isn't? So it was a normal day. Full of laughing, love, and sand fleas (the horrid things ate our feet!). Now this part is a little gross, but I hadn't gone... ahem, number two all day which is not a fun thing. I had even mentioned it to Jeff. I said "When I don't poop, I feel a little disconnected from reality". Sick? Yes. Pertinent to this story. Very. Carry on...
As the day progressed, we were getting hungry and we couldn't find a food place that sounded especially good so we decided to go back to Portland and eat. But on the way we started getting super, duper hungry so we ended up stopping at a pho place in Hillsboro! And it was cute 'cause they stayed open for us (keep in mind, this all was normal... not planned... has nothing to do with the actual engagement but it just added to the "us"ness of the day).
I was scheduled at church to bring food on Sunday and hadn't baked so I was talking about that in the car on the way home from pho (I was driving at this point, as opposed to him earlier on that day...but his stomach had been hurting him that week so I didn't think anything of it when he asked if we could switch driving jobs). He suggested we stop at New Seasons (this move he made comes to play later on). So we did. I got challah bread and jelly, and had gluten free cookies at home as well as plums we picked together earlier that week. It was the most pathetic food I'd put together. A random assortment, but I was so tired and decided it would have to do (this too comes up later).
So we drove back to the house and walked in with everything, and I was like "I'm so tired, I don't even want to go to the kitchen... let's just take this stuff to my room!"
We walk up the stairs (I'm on the third floor) and I saw from the stairs that my light was on and I heard guitar music. It didn't phase me because that's not an atypical thing in our house of musicians. I was tired though so in my mind I was thinking up how I could get musical things moving along so I could plop into bed.
And then I walked into my room (which had been a mess for a while with RFKC remnants everywhere). I stopped and stared as I am flooded with thoughts and emotions.
"There are so many candles!!!! Christmas lights?! Where is my stuff?!!!!! It's so warm!!! Who had to go through my room to clear everything out?? There's a camera!!! Is this really happening?! Is this real?! I didn't even POOP today!!! There's a shrine of Jenita!!!!"
At this point, Jeff grabbed the groceries from my hands and nudged me a little further into my room and I proceeded to say "NO!! What?!! No.... no... what?!!!" and so on...
Then I just hugged Jeff. And as I was hugging him, I noticed the music I had heard on the steps was a song I had written for Jeff a few months prior, but instead of me... it was JEFF!! He doesn't play the guitar, but he learned the chords on guitar and recorded himself singing it with a mini lyric change making it 100000% appropriate for this very night!
And after saying the sweetest things (which I doubt I'll ever remember due to the PPSD (post proposal stress disorder) he asked me to be his wife. And of course I said YES!!!!!!!!!
Now back to some of the background things I pointed out.
I drove the way home 'cause he was texting with the others to see the status of stuff. He was also texting a friend of ours who was wanting to hang out the next day, so it didn't phase me. At all. 'Cause he's not normally a texter when he's around people. I am.
The camera was being operated remotely from the back patio by one of our friends, however due to the heat of the candles and Christmas lights, it overheated... so it didn't work and that's okay. It's truly the thought that makes me melt. He knew it'd be something I would want captured via picture (I take pics of food for goodness sake!) so he worked it out as best as he could. He suggested stopping at New Seasons because there was a glitch that caused the decorating friends and camera man to need more time back in my room... so he found the opportunity!
Lastly, when Jeff and I were "just friends" we texted a lot. I also was having serious feelings for this guy. And I'm dramatic. So when I'd think he wasn't into me, I'd delete all our texts as a gesture that I'm letting go. But once we were together, a few months in, I was mentioning how I wish I could retrieve all those texts 'cause it has a lot of random history of our friendship turning into lovey doveyness. Well, Jeff never deleted his texts, so he got hold of a program that converts all the text history to a pdf and had that printed out with a cover page that said "Jenita" tied in purple ribbon. Icing on the cake.
Oh and the food I bought for church!! The day after the proposal I woke up beaming, and saw my picnic basket I had recently been given by a friend. And thought "Life is really a happy picnic!!" And realized all my food I had would qualify as picnic food...so I made almond butter and jelly finger sammies, and packed that into the basket with cookies and plums and made a sign that said "Life Is A Happy Picnic" to display with the food. 'Cause I'm cheesey and it made what I thought to be the most pathetic food into the most precious picnic for my church that Sunday.
