Engagement

Two weeks ago, Rachel took me to Ocean City for the day. For the whole week leading up to Sunday, she told me that we were going to go to the shore for the day, so that I can enjoy the beach, relax, and distress myself before starting summer school. That morning she was supposed to work, so I planned on getting some laundry done before hand so that my new pair of shorts would be clean.

As I headed downstairs to the washer/dryer in the basement, I look out into the parking lot and notice Rachel walking towards the house (about 5 hours ahead of schedule). Due to work being slow, she was allowed to go home early, but would have to make up the remaining hours the next day. Instead of doing laundry, I jumped in the shower so that we could leave much earlier that anticipated.

After my shower, I was standing in front of my dresser, trying to find socks, when I noticed Rachel in the hallway watching me. She asked if I had noticed anything, which made me look really hard at her, but she hadn’t changed anything about her appearance. Finally, she pointed at my dresser where she had put a bouquet of red roses on my dresser. I had been staring at them the entire time, but never noticed that they were even there. I have to admit, my eyes were very teary eyed at how sweet they were.

I had gotten all dressed and was ready to go, when she recommended that I wear a brighter shirt, instead of the t-shirt I had on. I had just bought a white polo shirt at Target, so I pulled that out of the bag, and as I was cutting the tag off the shirt, I managed to snip my middle finger too. There was lots of blood…

I wanted to pass out…

Rachel was very concerned too, but I hadn’t even realized how overly concerned she was at that point. She helped me clean out my wound and bandage it, because there was no way I was going to do it myself. Did I mention how much blood there was?

I don’t do blood…

Finally, we get into the car and she has the Beatles playing in the car. (I’m not sure how at this point, I hadn’t realized that this day was extra special). She said that I could pick out whatever we were going to do, which was really nice. She had originally planned on taking me to Higbee Beach, but when we got into Ocean City we changed our minds and headed towards the Cape May Lighthouse instead.

We walked around the nature trail, hoping to see an otter (but had no luck seeing any wildlife). Then we walked the beach. We wandered the coastline until we passed the World War II Bunker, and decided to sit in the sand. We sat there for a moment when she pulled out a ring box.

Rachel: Will you marry me?

Me: Yea…yes…yea!

There were two rings in the box, a black ring with a diamond in the center, and a silver ring with a black diamond in the center. After exchanging rings (and giggling for the next minute or so), five dolphins swam towards the coastline. When Rachel saw the first dolphin, she thought it was a shark. I would have believed her if I hadn’t seen the other four dolphins quickly approaching the original dolphin. We walked the coastline in the opposite direction, following the path of the dolphins.

Afterwards, we headed back to the car (where I made very important phone calls/text messages/status updates/relationship status changes) where I was surprised again with a beautiful card hanging above my head in the visor.

The rest of the day was very magical. We headed towards Wildwood to walk the boardwalk. While we were there, we ate Curly Fries (the best fries in Jersey) and I was even brave enough to pet a giant snake. (Snakes are not so slimey.) On our way home we even went to Sonic for a Chocolate Cream Pie Milkshake.

Did I mention how much I love my girlfriend fiancée?