The Proposal: Version 1

Ok, so I think it stands that for any girl who is excited about getting engaged, or has been with a boyfriend for a long time (hopefully longer than a year, yeesh) begins to think that every vacation or outing will be the event in which he pops the question. And when it’s not, it’ll be the next time for sure. Ok, well that’s how it was for me. In fact that “hope” started with our Florida trip back in 2005. Yea. 2005. Let me remind you it is now 2008. I knew I would marry Rus someday, the question was when? With that said, I didn’t know for sure it was coming. But I knew, or hoped, that it was coming soon. And with the recent prodding of his mom, sisters, and  long-time friend, and especially with Rus warning me not to look in his email which is easy access from his ever-precious iPhone (because “part of my Christmas present was there”), I definitely had my suspicions. But I had been wrong before.

So, fast-forward to Christmas Vacation 2007. We spent Christmas with his family in Salt Lake City. Rus has a very large family. Total of 13, that includes parents, sisters, in-laws, nieces, and nephews. It can become quite an adventure to try to get some time alone.

Rus scheduled one day of skiing for us. Just us. And I thought it was so nice of him to do that. He planned a whole day for us to ski at a ski resort called Snowbird. And man did he talk this place up. It was my first time there, and I was expecting to see this huge log cabin resort with chimneys and chandeliers, the terrain was supposed to be the best ever, with an awesome aerial tram that took you to the top of the mountain where you would then ski through the mountain, yes through, via a man-made tunnel that took you to the backside of the mountain. Yea, I was stoked! The weather was supposed to be good as the weather-dude had stated, light snow mid-morning. Jerk.

Well, we get there and I see this building that looks like a Greyhound bus station. And I thought, well maybe the cabin is behind the building we just have to walk through it. Nope, no cabin AT ALL. Anywhere. That was it. And as soon as we walked in I felt like I had warped back to a time where women wore gold hoop earrings and bell-bottoms, and where the men had afro’s and wore polyester pants. I mean the place was SO out-dated, I mean really really bad.

But oh well right? So, there’s no beautiful cabin. I mean, what’s a ski resort without a cabin, seriously? But whatevs, we’ll have a good time anyway. We still had that awesome aerial tram, and the cool tunnel to get to the other side of the mountain to look forward to. It’s not everyday you get to ski through a mountain. Well we go up to pay for our lift tickets, and the friggin’ tram’s not running. WTH. Due to high winds, they said. Ok, so disappointment number two.

We make do, take the chair lifts up instead, and that is when we realize what the hell the ladies down below were talking about. Down below there was no wind at all, and while we were on the chairs it was kinda windy, but man once we reached the top it was as if Shu himself unleashed the winds from hell. It was so bad. We couldn’t see past 2 feet in front of us. I had no idea snow could burn your face off. It was monstrous. So, we ski down to calm, calm base of the mountain and look up to see the aerial tram is working. Yay!!! We wait for the tram, we’re first in line, and years of working for a theme park should have taught us how to push our way inside. Operative words being ’should have’. We are the last ones to get on, and they packed us in like a fat lady would pack into a size 2. We were seriously body to body in that thing, and you all know how I feel about my personal space. Yes, it was my own little personal hell. It smelled of coffee, and smoke. Yea, ew. And even with all that, Rustin and I could not help but crack up. I’m sure people looked at us like we’d just escaped from the nearest asylum, I didn’t look, I mean, I couldn’t turn my head to look.

So at the top, the blizzard from before, yea the one that scraped the first layer of my facial skin off, was twice as worse. It had to be THE scariest event since Britney Spears’ come-back. It was just terrible. I mean, I scare myself well enough on my own just thinking about being on the top of a mountain in long wood planks for feet, just knowing that at any moment any wrong move could break my legs into tiny little pieces, or sometimes I think I could get buried the snow from an astronomic avalanche with no one around to help me out and then freeze into a Janey-Cube for years and years to come. The possibilities are endless. And not to mention how intimidating it is to look out and be on top of the world and see a beautiful landscape of mountains and trees and cute little homes with cute little people inside and you think, “Man, it does not get any better than this!” And then you look down and think, “Oh, shit. I’m going to die.” So take all of my fears and times them by one hundred. At some points I was truly scared for our lives. We managed to get down in one piece, and that is when we decided no more lifts up. And the cool tunnel that takes you through the mountain, you ask? It. was. closed. *Le sigh*

We did a few more runs and then called it a day, and I do have to admit that the terrain is incredible but I was happy to commit suicide another day. On our way back to Rus’s parents’ house we drove passed an area where Ted Bundy resided during his reign of horror, and I so desperately wanted to see where he lived because I felt this would be our only opportunity. But Rus was eager to get home. The rest of the afternoon we were ridiculously giddy. I think we were partly delirious, sprinkled with a little bit of exhaustion, and topped off with a healthy dose of happy to be alive. It was the worst day to ski, but it was THE best time I’ve ever had skiing.

So, night time falls and we’re in our pj’s, we’ve already said goodnight to the parental units and grandpa, and we’re minutes from going to bed. So we were in Rustin’s old room, the one he’s had since he was a wee little dutchman, still laughing at nothing and everything. And in that moment he says, “I have something…”, and he pauses and giggles, and then he gets down on one knee. And I just stopped breathing, he pulls out this tiny little black box, opens it and inside is the most beautiful ring I have ever seen. So, of course I start balling. And he says, “I want to ski with you forever. Will you marry me?” I start balling even more and realize, oh it’s my turn. And all of the things that I had cleverly come up with in the past, the “Geez, finally”, or the “Could you have waited another 50 years?”, or the “Gawl, I need a coke”, everything, all of it, somehow ended up in the vortex of blegh. And all I could say, was “Yes.” Just a definite, absolutely, would not have it any other way, yes.

I run up the stairs to go show his mom. We call up his sister, mind you it is close to midnight at this point, and somewhere in our conversation I say to her, “The ring is beautiful. I can’t wait for you to see it.” And she responds with, “Oh, I already have.” Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Rustin pulled a fast one by me. And then immediately mom goes into wedding planning mode. We take some pictures, I glance at my ring and say, “It looks like it’s got some color in it.” You should know that at previous ring shopping adventures I always fell in love with the diamonds that had some color in them, particularly the ones that were M in color. I just loved how unique it made them look, and screw the people that need to have the clearest of diamonds. Boring. Rus looks at me and says, “It’s an M in color. This is your ring.” I about fluttered out of my seat, and I don’t flutter. I just don’t.

Yes. This is my proposal story. This is my version. It’s been two weeks and I’m still in part disbelief. If I can get a hold of the pics we took I will post them soon. Take care, kids.