Ross proposed about 5 months after we met.
I was... shall we say... unprepared.
Don't get me wrong. I knew where we were heading. I'd told my mom at Thanksgiving that we were probably going to get married. I just had a timeline in my head that was a little different. I figured we'd get engaged in the summer, about a year after we met, because... well I don't know. Ross' idea was better. By the time the wedding finally got there, I knew another 6 months would have been unbearable!
I had an improv show for New Year's Eve with my troupe Locked Out Comedy at Dave and Buster's. I was performing in the late show, scheduled to finish at midnight. We got there a little early and I noticed that Ross was acting a little weird. I worried something was wrong. Was he annoyed to be spending New Year's Eve watching me perform? He'd been sick over Christmas, so I wondered if he was feeling alright. He asked me if I had any paper in my bag (I did) and after I gave it to him, he said he was going to go for a little walk. I got ready for the show and performed in it, catching his eye and smiling throughout.
After the show was over, there was a balloon drop and champagne toast for the whole room.
That's me in the blue hat in the middle. I've got no idea that Ross is going to propose in about 2 minutes.
After the hub-bub had died down, Ross pulled me into the backstage area. It was like a concrete alleyway behind the stage, not exactly atmospheric... I didn't think anything of it and was happy smiling at my love and kissing in the new year.
Ross then handed me a little stack of torn strips of paper that had been folded in half. He says to me, "I made some blind lines for you." Now, Blind Line, is an improv game where the audience suggests lines which are then written on pieces of paper and scattered around the stage. The players, who don't know what the lines are, perform a scene and intermittently pick up lines, read them, and find a way to make them make sense in the scene. It's a fun game and one of my favorites when it's played well. So when Ross handed me a pile of paper I thought, "Well, that's kinda weird, but ok." I started to read them and they were little sweet things and inside jokes. In retrospect... duh... totally should have seen this coming. The final strip said "Will you marry me?" I looked at Ross and back at the strip and back at Ross. I managed to squeak out "Are you serious?" Ross assured me that he was. I did a goldfish impression. I stammered and stuttered and teared up and freaked out silently in my head. "He's really proposing... YES!!!... but it's too soon, right? You're not supposed to get engaged until you've been dating for a year... or something... right? Ok, you've got to say something... the poor man is waiting.... say SOMETHING... you're going to say yes, so just say yes... " is something like how the inside of my head sounded. Ross, apparently had had enough of my non-answering ways and started talking (mostly, I expect, to distract us both from the near-deafening silence I was producing). He said many things, but the one that struck me most was this: "I know there are a lot of questions for us to answer, but if the answer to this one isn't yes, what are we doing?" Boy he's smart!
I was working up an actual verbal response of some kind when a few members of my troupe popped in backstage to collect their belongings. They never knew they were interrupting our proposal and teased us (good-naturedly) about being ooey-gooey. We got called out to join the group and as before we walked into the main room I managed to respond.
"Of course, yes."
So while my proposal may not have been what most people imagine (after all, I was wearing sweatpants and a big stupid bow and there was no ring* or bended knee in sight) it was absolutely wonderful. The best part was, I got it in writing. ;)
*We went ring shopping together a few days later and picked out something awesome.
Awwwwww! I teared up a bit reading this. Very thoughtful and romantic. Thank you for sharing that personal moment in your life with us.
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