The Proposal

(Originally posted on rachelandjoe2008.com)
When I graduated from college I designed my own invitations with a flying pig on the front and a disclaimer that anyone attending might want to wear a hard hat because the sky might fall. Well, get the hard hats out again ...

In October, we went to Knoxville for the annual alumni awards dinner and South Carolina game. At the end of the night, I’d come home with more than one piece of hardware. UTNAA awarded our chapter a gold medal, and Joe gave me something of the platinum and diamond variety! Yes, we’ve already heard it more than once, “It’s about damn time!” After the awards dinner, we went up to Circle Park to look at the Torchbearer and take some pictures of it at night. The weather was perfect, and there was a rather large full moon in a very clear sky. We took a seat on one of the park benches that runs along the path behind the Torchbearer to enjoy the evening for a bit.

Either Joe is the most stealth person alive or I’m completely clueless (NO NEED FOR COMMENTS!) because I had no idea what he was doing! We were on campus and dressed up for entirely different reasons, and I always want to go see the Torchbearer statue, so nothing seemed out of line. He was completely calm and even ate all of his dinner. He said he had a present for me and he wanted me to wear it to the game the next day. I’m thinking funny hat or a T-shirt, but when I opened my eyes, there was a box in my favorite shade of blue sitting in my hands. (When he said hold out both hands, I asked him if it was a puppy.) I’m no stranger to Tiffany boxes — Joe has excellent taste in jewelry — but this one didn’t have the usual blue pouch in it. The black suede box threw me off, but my oblivion persisted. Go figure! When I open the box, I was speechless (again, no need for comments). Joe was grinning from ear to ear, and of course, I said yes.

I don’t think Joe could have picked a more perfect place to propose. Knoxville is where we met and were friends for years before we ever thought about dating, much less getting married. I’ve always loved the Torchbearer, and Circle Park is so quiet and nice at night. There wasn’t a soul around, so it was just me and Joe — somehow, that’s how it’s always managed to end up, just me and Joe — back where it all started. Perfect.

Apparently, Joe has been working on this for some time and went to great pains to make sure no one knew it was coming, especially me! He researched and shopped for months before picking my ring. He told me that he’d looked at a lot of rings, but he bought this one because it’s perfectly colorless and perfectly flawless. He said this is something that we’re only going to do once, so it has to be the best. It’s forever. ... My sentiments exactly.