#2

I was going to tell you all about the proposal today but I thought it would be fun to share something else with you. I think I told Chris not to tell anyone about this because at the time I was embarrassed but now that we're actually engaged I don't feel as stupid. Its actually pretty funny.

For our third anniversary last year we went to Monterey. We stayed in a hotel, hung out at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and basically just enjoyed being alone for the weekend. It was really nice. Chris had made plans to take me out to a nice dinner at the Chart House on Cannery Row. When we got there the hostess knew who we were and said "Happy Anniversary! Have a seat and your waiter will be right over to seat you." I was like, well that's weird! How the heck do they know that? I figured Chris must have said something when he made the reservation and they were just being super nice about it. The waiter comes over to show us to our table and does the same thing "Hello! I'm (we'll just say Dan) and I'll be your waiter tonight. I'll be right back with your menus." We say thank you and he drops the "Oh, and Happy Anniversary you two!" I've never had people be that nice to me at a restaurant. I don't know if it was because we were in Monterey and they're just nicer everywhere or if the Chart House really likes to celebrate with people.

Chris and I are sitting at a small intimate table in the back, there's music playing, we're by the windows look out over the bay, candles on the table, the whole shabang. "Dan" comes back and hands us our menus and I start looking it over. Then I see it. And my heart starts pounding, my head gets fuzzy, my hands get sweaty, and I feel like I can't breath. All those things that people tell you happened when you think someone is about to ask you to marry them. On the top of the menu it says "Happy Third Anniversary Mr. & Mrs. Dixon!"

I wait a second to try and get myself together and then I say to Chris "It says Mr. & Mrs. Dixon on the menu!" and he's all like "Yeah, I know! Weird." and then he looks at me and sees that I'm kind of losing it and starting to cry. "What's wrong?!" he asks and I say "Are you going to propose?!" and then I see it on his face and know that the answer is no and he kind of starts to laugh a little bit. I ask "Does everyone have these menus or did they just give them to us?" He said he thought they just made them for us. And then explains what he thinks happened. When he called the restaurant to make the reservation they asked him if it was for a special occasion and he said it was our third anniversary. They didn't ask if that was with a wife or girlfriend, they just kind of assumed wife and went with it. So for about ten minutes after my misunderstanding he has to talk me down from the tears, make sure I'm okay, and then he starts to feel horrible. I totally thought he was about to ask me to marry him and he had no plans to at the time. So then I spend ten minutes making sure he's okay, telling him I'm not crying because I'm upset, it was an adrenaline rush and I'll be fine in a minute.

Once we're both okay and I understand that just because he isn't proposing right now doesn't mean he's not going to one day, he starts laughing about it. I'm totally fine with that, I get it, its cool. And then the horrible embarressment kicks in. If I would have just laughed it off in the first place we wouldn't have had to go through this awkward State of the Union talk in front of a bunch of people. I'm worried he thinks I'm a little nutty for reacting that way, I'm thinking I've scared him and it'll probably take that much longer for him to actually pop the question. The embarressment was all encompassing and horrible. I felt stupid. But he just kept on laughing about it and asked if he could tell people. I had to beg him not to, I wouldn't be able to stand other people laughing at me, especially about this.

It took me a few months and an actual engagement to see the funny side of freaking out like that in a fancypants restaurant. But hey, its a good story to tell the kids one day. Here's a picture of us at the Monterey Bay Aquarium earlier that day. For some reason it looks like I have no upper lip but oh well!