Two years ago...

I had one of the most romantic days of my life. It was on a Wednesday. My Monday and Tuesday of this particular week were very stressful and emotional! Brad promised to take me out to dinner at a special place in Greenville. This was a big deal for many reasons, (1) we were students and dinner out was a special treat, (2) we were in Anderson, so going to Greenville was going to be nice to get away, and (3) I desperately needed a something to get my mind off of school. In the weeks prior to this amazing day, Brad and I had several discussions which completely led me to believe that I would not be getting anything to wear on my left hand anytime in the near future. So, I was going to take the date night for what it was, an ordinary date night. My only stipulation was that the restaurant have cheesecake.

Oh, but little did I know...

He had two roses in his hand that he was waiting to give me; two roses was an odd number, but I didn't think much about it. We got in his car and had to make a quick stop at the gas station before we headed down the road. (Now this part needs a little explanation: His gas tank was dangerously empty and this was also right after Katrina happened and gas prices were at least $3 a gallon.) When we pulled up to the pump, he made the comment that he was going to put about five dollars of gas in and I laughed at him because I knew that that much gas wouldn't even get us to the interstate. He kept insisting that he didn't need that much gas, so finally we agreed that $10 would probably be enough for now. Oh, but little did I know...

When he got back into the car he reached in the backseat and pulled out a blindfold. Again, I laughed at him because he must have been crazy if he thought I was going to wear a blindfold all the way to Greenville. I actually thought he was paying me back from a couple of weeks earlier when I blindfolded him and took him on a surprise date. He made me put it on anyway, and to really confuse me, it felt like he circled the gas pump ten times to make me lose my sense of direction. I knew that we weren't headed down 81 towards the interstate because that is a long straight road, and we were making some turns. When we parked about 5 minutes later, I knew that we were not in Greenville. (He had taken me right back to the front lawn of the school) He lead me out of the car and I still had no clue where we were, I also was still oblivious to what was going on. When he finally took off the blindfold, I knew! I knew that this was going to be the most romantic day of my life.



The first thing that I saw when he took off the blindfold was Brad's suite mate hiding behind a tree with a video camera; but what I saw next took my breathe away. It was a long pathway of candles and rose pedals (That is why I only had two roses, he used the rest of the bouquet for this). At the end of the path was a table, and on the table were lilies (my favorite), two forks, and a bowl of strawberry syrup. He walked me to the table and we sat down. Off to the side, Brad had one of our friends playing the guitar, setting the mood with music! The first thing that he did was read me a poem he had written me, and in perfect timing when he was done, two of our other friends brought up two plates of cheesecake (hence the forks and strawberries!)



In the back of my mind, I was still questioning if I was going to get a ring or not because he had done a great job of convincing me that it was going to be a while. After our cheesecake, he stands up and reaches in his pocket...my heart stops beating...and then he pulls out a little USB key disc storage thingy. The first thought that goes through my mind is: "I can't wear that on my finger!" Then he pulls out a laptop where he had made a slide show of pictures of us from the past four years together. It was precious! By now, we are both sobbing! When that is over he asked me if I was ready to go eat. My heart sank. I thought it was over and we were going to go eat and that was going to be it. Nope. It wasn't. He grabbed my hand and led me out into the middle surrounded by candles and rose pedals. And he started talking. I am not really sure what he said though. All I know is that I said yes! It was definitely one of the most romantic days of my life!