I am still a little bit in disbelief. But more than anything, I’m more excited than I’ve ever been about anything in my entire life.
My man’s a smooth operator. Unbeknownst to me, he’s had a Mary’s-finger-sized sparkler burning a whole in his pocket for a few weeks now. Also unbeknownst to me, he’s been waiting on the weather to cooperate before getting down on one knee. Darn you, Milwaukee and your wishy washy weather and your stubbornness at letting spring sprout forth. Ah well, it all worked out in the end now, didn’t it.
Saturday, April 9 started out like any other. Slow. Drinking coffee. The usual. Except that Russ was checking the weather forecast like he’d invested money in it and was hoping to see dividends. He remarked several times that he was pleased to see that the gray clouds that had camped out all week long were likely to clear out and be replaced by sunshine in the afternoon. He suggested we should go for a walk on the lake if that happened. I shrugged. Sure, whatever. I like walks.
In the meantime, I thought of about 37 things I needed to/wanted to/couldn’t live without doing that day. We bought cheese from the local cheese market. We bought sausage from the local sausage market. We bought spices from the local spice market. No, seriously, we really did all that. Then I whipped out my novel-sized shopping list and headed to the grocery store. After stocking up on cereal ($10 off if you bought six boxes of Kellogg’s brand! Heck yeah!) and hot salsa and butter substitute, I was good to go. With all my food gathering shenanigans, I managed to kill a good portion of the afternoon and stave off Russ’ walk like I’d done it on purpose (I really didn’t, I promise!). Finally around 4 in the afternoon, the sun shine beckoned from outside the apartment windows and I relented to Russ’ wishes. For a walk we shall go, I said. Well maybe I didn’t quite say it like that. But you get the gist.
Unfortunately, the weather didn’t realize Russ had big plans. Ol’ Mister Sunshine tucked himself behind some clouds, and less endearing Mr. Fog descended. But we walked anyway. And enjoyed the beauty of Lake Michigan sprawling out beside us. We strolled and we talked. It was lovely.
And then we made our way to a more secluded spot with some benches and we snuggled up and my favorite redhead uttered the sweetest words I’d ever heard.
I said yes.
Sun trying to peek through the fog cloaking the shoreline of Lake Michigan. I took these a few minutes before Russ asked me to marry him. 🙂
There’s a funky piece of art shaped like a ring on the River Walk that runs beside the Milwaukee River downtown. We had never seen it before, but we spotted it as we walked to a bar for drinks to celebrate our engagement.
The Frozen Southerner 