The Proposal

My engagement ring
Originally uploaded by likeamemoryitfalls

Instead of writing this to everyone who asked about it separately, here is the story of how Zenon proposed.

First of all, it's important to note that for a few days to week ahead of time, Zenon had been acting a little strangely. I know, I know, you ask how I could tell. Well, he was sort of distant, and prone to random silences, which was really odd, and he was having trouble sleeping and had banished himself to the couch to sleep for a couple of nights consecutively. I asked him to tell me what was on his mind, but he just told me, "You can't help me with it." I thought that this was odd and persisted, but he just got kind of mad at me. I finally asked him, "Is it me? Are you breaking up with me?" He said no, but in that way that I didn't quite believe him.

So, Wednesday rolls around. I had been talking to my friend Lesley in the van on the way home about Zenon's odd behaviour. She reassured me and told me that he was probably just being a guy and keeping something like money troubles to himself. I was comforted, but still suspicious.

When I got home from work, Zenon came in and suggested that we go for a walk. "I saw some neat nature trails up in Thickwood when I was working on that guy's house," he told me.

I scampered off to get ready, and grabbed my favourite ball cap which I bought at Acadia. I walked into the kitchen and Zenon took one look at me and started laughing. "Take off that hat," he ordered.

I was kind of annoyed. "This is my favourite hat," I told him with an offended air.

"Well, take it off," he repeated.

"I'm having a bad hair day."

"I don't care. Put a hairband in or something. Let's go."

I put on my next favourite hat, my PEI hat. I came back to the kitchen for approval, still feeling pretty annoyed. "Is this better?"

"Yes, that's cute. Let's go."

Zenon took me out to Thickwood and parked the truck across from some nature trails. As we headed into the woods, the bugs came out. "Maybe we should have brought some bug spray," Zenon said. "Oh well," I shrugged, and swatted at another mosquito.

We walked and chatted and swatted at bugs, and I again brought up how preoccupied Zenon had been. "Actually, there's more to that than I've told you," he said.

Uh oh, I thought, here it comes!

"I wasn't completely honest with you about why I went to Nova Scotia last month." Then he stopped walking.

Crap, I thought, Whatever it is is so serious that we have to stop walking to talk about it. I braced myself for the worst.

Then he did a strange, unexpected thing. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a box. My eyes widened in surprise. He opened the box, and there it was, my beautiful ring. "Oh my goodness! Are you kidding me???" was my lovely response. According to Zenon, I looked very happy and beautiful at this moment, but all I remember is feeling totally overwhelmed with surprise. "Oh my goodness! Oh my goodness," I kept repeating.

Finally, he said in a little nervous voice, "Actually, I was hoping that you'd marry me." He seemed so nervous. I realized that I needed to say something to this besides "Oh my goodness," so I did. I said, "Of course I'll marry you!" It's a good thing that I had this answer ready, because at that moment I wasn't really capable of coherent thought.

Then he slipped the ring on my finger and kissed me. We walked back to the truck hand in hand (when not swatting mosquitoes) and he told me about going back to Nova Scotia so suddenly to get the ring, and about how it was supposed to be my birthday present, but he couldn't wait (my birthday is August 22), and how relieved he was that I said yes. He also said that this was why I couldn't wear my Acadia hat. "It's too big for you, and I couldn't imagine proposing with you looking at me from under that huge brim." I was still in shock, and kept repeating, "Oh my goodness," though at slower intervals now.

Then I had a tiny freakout for the next half hour to an hour, but by the time we went to bed that night (late, as we had lots to talk about), I had stopped freaking out and was really excited. And excited is where I've stayed, except that now planning a wedding (especially one across the country) is starting to daunt me. Zenon has been sleeping well since Wednesday night, and hasn't slept on the couch once. My bug bites (I got close to 10 that night) have all but disappeared, so all is well.