She Said Yes! (Not to give away the ending or anything…)

Over the weekend, I had my dream girl tell me she wanted to spend the rest of her life with me. How did I get so lucky? I don't really know if I have the answer to that. However, I can tell you how it all went down. So for about the last month or so I had been telling Megan I had a "trade show in Arizona" I had to work this past weekend. The destination was going to be super warm, get me away from my desk for a couple of days and let me go somewhere kind of different. I made sure she knew every detail. Too bad every detail was an complete, elaborate yet extremely well thought out lie.

How else was I going to explain the airport noise in the background when she called me Friday night?

I went to my hometown on Friday night, got up for an early morning run with Mike D. on Saturday and then that afternoon...it was on. I traveled down to Bowling Green and chilled out at PJ's apartment until Megan's roommate Chelsea and other friend Katie took her out on a "girl's night." While they were gone, Chelsea left a key out for me to have access to their house while they were gone.

Yep. Chelsea had known I was coming in for about a month at that point. She's a good secret keeper.

So after getting let in the house by Mary, Megan's other roommate, PJ and I started the decorating. I placed a trail of rose petals leading to her room from the back door to their house. Inside of her room I placed a photo album of just the two of us (including a pic of the night we met), two champagne glasses that had "i love you" etched into the side, and the ring box. On the book I had a note saying "look through this book first, then open the box." Along with these items, PJ draped some blue lights around her bed to jazz it up a bit. Outside on her back deck (that she would actually walk by going into the house) I had placed about 16 small tea lights - unlit - in the shadows.

Chelsea and Katie stall things enough for me to get the decor set up and headed back toward their house. In the meantime, PJ and I hid out behind a shed in their backyard, hoping the psychotic dogs at their neighbor's house didn't give away our position by barking. As soon as we heard the girls walk in and shut the door, we made a dash to their back deck. PJ hid out by the deck in the shadow with a camera while I frantically lit all the candles on the deck. It was for the finale.

Megan walks in and sees the rose petals going to her room. She immediately figures out that I'm not really in Arizona. She busts in the room thinking I'm there but finds what I had left out on her bed instead. After following the rules of looking through the photo album first, Megan then opens the ring box. Her friends are thinking "surely he didn't...." and they were right, I didn't. She finds another note that reads "You didn't think it'd be that easy did you? I've got something else for you on your back porch."

At this point she's a bit bewildered because after all, she had just walked by there and didn't see a thing. Meanwhile, out on the porch, the candles are all lit up and I'm standing there ready. She slowly opens the door and pokes her head out, sees me and then sprints up the deck and borderlilne tackles me. She was hugging me tighter than I think she ever had before and wouldn't let go. But I needed her to let go. I still had a task at hand.

At this point she just thinks it's a random surprise visit. That is until I tell her "I have one more surprise for you." I originally had a speech all planned out but as soon as I saw her I completely forgot it. I reckon being smitten about someone does that to you. I don't remember exactly what I said but when I got on one knee she knew why I came. Crying a bit (and yeah, I'll admit I was a bit misty-eyed myself) she said yes.

After that, there was a huge sigh of relief from me. Not that I was worried she'd say no. The plan had so many ways it could've fallen through, ways she could've found out I was coming. I was fortunate to have the aid of some really good friends and secret keepers. If it wasn't for Chelsea, none of this would have worked. She kept the secret for a super long time. My other friends, down there and ones she ran into up here in Chicago the week before who knew what I was about to do, did an AMAZING job of keeping things quiet.

So now I'm officially engaged. I couldn't be happier.

The date is set for August 6, 2011.