Not that I would ever be happy to hear that Steve Irwin finally ran out of luck, but I gotta say, I’m especially not happy to hear how he died, what with my upcoming snorkeling-with-stingrays excursion.
At any rate, that seriously blows.
~~~
Saturday was date-a-licious. First, Matt took me to see The Descent, hoping that it was obscure enough that I hadn’t heard of it and knew nothing about it. So he was pretty disappointed when he ordered our tickets and I piped up with, “Oooh, cool! We’ve never been to a scary movie together before!”
Matt [crestfallen]: You mean you know about this movie?
Me [backpeddling]: Well, I mean, I’ve seen commercials for it. That’s all.
Matt: What do you know about it?
Me: Chicks and CHUDs in a cave?
Matt: Dammit.
Even so, it was a good movie. I’m always skeptical about any movie that calls itself the next Alien, but this was well done. It ratcheted up the tension at a perfect pace, didn’t reveal the monsters too soon, and it had a heroine who was believable and admirable without being overly heroic or turning into an action movie cliché. And it made me jump and scream enough times that by the end I was practically in Matt’s lap. And all of that without the lingering creep factor of being afraid that evil ghostly children will come out of my TV and get me. Good times all around.
After the movie we hit the Barnes & Noble where Matt first proposed to start saving up for a “riding lawnmower.” “I never did get you that lawnmower,” he lamented as he held the door open for me on the way in. “That’s okay,” I said. “Now you can start saving for one that’s not a euphemism, ‘cause we’ll need one in another year or so.”
After coffee we headed out into the store to shop for cruise reading. He got some Grisham. I temporarily lifted my self-imposed moratorium on buying new books long enough to get Pamie's first novel, the latest entry in Mary Janice Davidson's Undead and… series, and--now that it's finally out in paperback and down to a size and weight that's reasonable for toting around in a beach bag--Suzanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell.
Then it was to the Thai restaurant where we began our first non-chaperoned date, which was closed for the entire holiday weekend, the unromantic bastards, followed by driving around and trying to decide where the hell we were going to eat now, and finally settling on another Thai place we'd both been wanting to try for a while. The food was good enough to make up for our disappointment at missing out on the romantic significance. Mmm, Pad Thai. Seriously.
After dinner, and a side trip to the other Barnes & Noble, the one we went to more regularly when we were dating and spent many hours sitting in the café holding hands and making googly eyes at each other and having long conversations that made it clearer and clearer that we were perfect for each other, he took me to the most romantic place in the world: Denny's. Or rather, the parking lot at Denny's.
See, when we were first dating, and he wasn't yet ready to take me back to his apartment (partly because it was a mess and he was too embarrassed to let me see, but mostly because we were afraid our morals would slip if we were afforded too much privacy), we would meet at the Denny's parking lot, go do our date thing, and then he'd bring me back to Denny's and my car, where we would hang out in the back seat until we were ready to say goodnight, which usually meant hours of talking. And making out. Sometimes we never even made it out of the parking lot. This was where we had our first kiss, and where we both first said "I love you." And it's where he finally asked me to marry him.
"I've been meaning to do this for a long time now," he said, fishing for something in the back seat. "Here." He pulled out a rose and handed it to me. "Jeanie, I know this is kinda late, but will you marry me?"
"Yes. Duh." Smoochies followed. "How'sabout next Saturday at 4:00?"
"I think I can clear my schedule."
So I can no longer say that I never got a formal proposal. The long drive home passed with lots of hand holding and silly grins and "I love you" and "Squee! We're getting married next week!" and also some "Damn, that was some good Pad Thai." Once we got there and I put my rose in water, he presented me with a pair of wedding cake shaped sugar cookies, all decorated with icing, and we ate them together in celebration. They were yummy, and so is he.
Just four more days, you guys!
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