Sunday 30 December 2012

The Proposal aka The Day After The Worst Day Ever!


I have decided to edit this post with the comedic events of the weekend because the more I tell the story, the funnier it seems...

So imagine this... It's 7:30am on Friday morning (December 21st, 2012) I'm awake and dreading the fact that I have to work two graveyard shifts in the ER before our Christmas trip to Lance's parents house on the Island!  I tried to have a nap in the afternoon, but Slammy, I mean Kelly doesn't know how to close a door quietly, so needless to say, I spent a very busy nightshift in the ER on no sleep!  I stayed at my parents between shifts rather than commuting an hour(ish) each way but I suck at sleeping during the night, and I'm even worse at it during the day.  I finally fell asleep at 9am, but woke up at 1pm, full of beans and wanting to visit with my parents before heading off for Christmas at my other home away from home.  

I get to work on Saturday night with Gillian, who is great fun to work with.  Quietest night in the ER in FOREVER!  Unfortunately, we were both a little excited for Christmas and neither of us could take a nap.  Finally, after many giggles 7am happens!  It's Christmas Eve Eve... December 23rd!!!  

I've had a whopping 4 hours sleep in 48 hours!  I know, dumb right?  Anyway... Lance will be driving from Chilliwack to his parents, so I just have to make it home... No biggie.  Yeah right... Here's where everything goes downhill...My car is a block of ice.  I spend 15 minutes just trying to get into the cow... I'm cold and tired so I decided to grab a coffee at McDs to keep me going until I got home.  Apparently my power windows had some ice in the mechanism and when I tried to roll them down at the drive through window something broke and my window froze.  Coffee in hand, I pull over in the parking lot and try to fix it.  No go!  Well frig!  I'm running out of time as we have a ferry to catch so I figure the cold air on my drive home will also help me stay alert.  It was awesome how every semi that blew past me spat rocks and rain up into my face.  Definitely helped me stay awake.  =(

So I make it home around 8am and Lance comes out to meet me.  I explain what happened with the window and he tries to fix it while I run around loading all of the gifts into the car while the dog jumps on me repeatedly.  I'm now regretting buying Lance gifts in such gigantic, heavy boxes.  Combating the stairs 20 times when you're that tired = Not fun!  Lance is unable to fix the window and we are running out of time to make the ferry (on the busiest sailing day before Christmas, I might add!), so we leave with a still broken half-rolled-down window.  

We are on the freeway.  The wind from the broken window is a buttload colder on my legs on the passenger side.  I also forgot to grab my blanket and pillow in our rush.  Grumpy time!  I didn't want to ask Lance to turn around and grab my blanket because I didn't want to miss the stupid ferry, so I suffered.  Oh hell did I suffer!  I had a big yard garbage bag (Lance was gonna use it in the window, but we ran out of time) pinned into the glove compartment and pulled up to my chest with the air vents blowing hot air at my body.  It wasn't perfect, but it was the best I could do with what I had.  We got to the ferry terminal with minimal tears but once we realised that we had missed the ferry and the next ferry was an hour behind schedule, there were more tears.  I was so tired, cold and by this time pretty hungry that the tears would sporadically happen.  =*(

Queue my bladder.  I knew that coffee would come back to bite me on the ass, but I had banked on being on a ferry at that time, not stuck in a really long line of cars at the ferry terminal.  I tried to hold out but peeing myself was becoming inevitable.  I GPS'd the bathrooms at the terminal and figured that the 5 minute walk to the washroom in the pouring rain was better than smelling like pee for the rest of the trip.  I hoofed it to the bathrooms.  I felt awful.  Looking in the mirror I realised that I also looked awful.  Maybe that's why people had avoided smiling back at me.  Maybe they thought I was a transient?  A hobo?  *sigh*  Anyway... My foot found a lovely big puddle to dive in to and I had a nice soggy foot until I got back to the car and took my socks and shoes off.  I'm still sporadically bursting into tears and poor Lance really didn't know what to do with me.  He knows that I'm tired, cold, hungry, wet and cranky.  He's doing his best and telling me that I'm beautiful anyway.  Did it help?  No.  Haha!  I knew I was a mess and him saying that made me cry more anyway, creating an even bigger monster.  

1:30pm.  We are finally loading onto the ferry.  Maybe I'll finally get some sleep.  Hah!  I was way too tired to sleep.  Does that even make sense?  I was also growling pretty bad from my stomach region.  Lance offered to get me food.  My whole body is confused.  It's lunch time but my stomach is still stuck at dinner time two days ago.  Lance offered to get me fries.  I wasn't feeling it.  He offered to get me breakfast.  Not feeling that either.  He told me to trust him and he'd figure it out.  For the first time in forever, I decided that his decision making was probably a lot better than mine at the time, and he proved himself right!  Before long, I was happily digging into a California roll.  

And then I slept!  A whole 30 minutes.  I can't imagine what went through peoples minds as they walked past our car on the ferry deck and saw me sleeping on my stomach with both legs curled under my and my ass (now in PJs because my pants were soaked from that stupid puddle) sticking up in the air because that was the only position I could semi-comfortably get myself in without having seat belt buckles and door molds poking me in the back and head.  The ferry saunters into dock around 3:20pm and we start on the next stretch of our journey....

So it's 3:30 and I've had 4.5 hours sleep in 56 hours at this point.  I'm pretty much a mess.  A big cranky bitch of a mess.  Lance loves driving on the Island because the speed limit is 10km/hr more than it is on the mainland, so in "guy logic" that means that you can still drive 20km over the speed limit for a total of 130km/hr.  Well, I'm not down with this on a normal day, and especially not down with it on a bitchy day, so we spent most of the trip to his parents bickering about speeding.  I tried reasoning with him that getting there 10 minutes sooner wasn't that big of a deal and that I'd rather get there alive than not at all!  When did I get all old and sensible?  Needless to say, he'd had about enough of my crankiness and snapped back at me "I've got this, OK!"  

I shut up.  I shut up for the rest of the damn trip.  I stared out of the passenger side window and pouted like a 2 year old.  I'm still sporadically tearing up at this point too, but I was more angry than pathetically sad.  We pull into his parents drive.  Robyn, his sister is the first to come running out to greet us, and what did I do?  I waited until she hugged me and then I burst into uncontrollable tears, right in the damn driveway.  Argh!  They worsened with every person that hugged me and he's got a lot of flipping people in his family.  I felt ridiculous and pathetic.  His Mum sent me to bed.  Haha.  It was almost 5pm and I threw myself onto their guest bed and closed my eyes.  Ahhhh, sleep...  

Well wouldn't you know it... I'd been awake for so long that I couldn't remember how to fall asleep.  I led there... I closed my eyes, but nothing happened.  What the frig!  It was like torture!!!   Needless to say, I got up and went and joined the family to visit.  Robyn went on a Red Bull run for me, and I was able to feel almost human for a good couple of hours.  By 9pm I started falling asleep, so I figured that I could finally do this sleep thing...And I did!!!!!!!

11pm.  Seriously?????????  I wake up to three grown men animatedly discussing all of the fights they've been in.  I'm sure the beer was partially to blame for how loud they'd all grown, but had they forgotten that poor little old me was struggling to catch up on some much needed zzz's in the room next door???  Lance's famous barrel laughter finally did it for me and I got back up and went to the living room.  Good old drunk Lance offered me a beer and in return received the evil stink eye and a "no, I'd rather have some sleep".  I lasted about 10 minutes before I become too irritated to stay up and humor their barbaric bantering.  Back to bed. It was only a few minutes later that Lance came to bed.  Sorry, staggered to bed.  "Sorry we kept you awake Hun, goodnight, I love you"

"Goodnight" I barked back and curled into fetal position, feeling guilty that I didn't say  "I love you" back, but I was just too darned bitchy!#@!#!.  

I woke up around 8am, which normally would have been a nice sleep-in, but not when you'd had such a crappy day before.  My face felt awful.  You know that feeling when you've spent hours crying and go to bed gasping for air between sobs, then you wake up with puffy eyes and a headache?  That's how I felt.  Lance came in holding out a cup of coffee as a peace offering.  I accepted.  He asked me if I wanted to take the dog for a walk down to the ocean.  Our 18 month old Lab Retriever puppy loves the ocean, even in December, but it was cold and early and I really didn't want to go anywhere (especially looking like I felt!) but I went anyway.  We were walking down the road in front of the ocean and I saw a bench that had some flowers tied to the back.  I loved the pop of color and was momentarily mesmerised and not paying attention to where Lance was going.  I had my hoodie up over my head so he couldn't see where I wasn't looking and I tripped over him as he turned to walk to the bench.  "What the heck, you can't just switch directions without warning me!"  I flipped out on him a bit.  Obviously I'm still grossly lacking sleep.  He explained that he wanted to walk over to the bench and me, being completely oblivious, didn't question it. 


I wanted to take a picture, so I found a good spot as Lance stared dramatically off into the distance obviously deep in thought.  With my picture taken, I climb back over the fallen tree trunk and put my camera back in my pocket.  When I looked back over at Lance, he was down on one knee.  Again, clueless me didn't figure it out yet and assuming that he had fallen, I laughed and asked him what the heck he was doing down there. 

He pulls out a ring box.

"Will you marry me?" 

O.......M......F.......G........

Totally in shock!  I didn't expect this... I'd hinted at it for so long and it hadn't happened that I just figured that it never would.  But now, on Christmas Eve!!!  HOORAY!

The tears start flowing, and it's cold out so naturally my nose starts running.  Don't forget, I still look like hell... I'm just a snottier, teary-eyed version of hell now.  "Yes!"  I said as I leaned down to hug him, still on one knee.  A quick snot-rub on the shoulder of his coat and I can follow my "yes" with a kiss.  I do the laundry anyway.  Hehe. 

There are no pictures after this one for a few reasons...

A) I had the ring on the wrong hand.  I really didn't expect this  and hadn't practised. 
B) Snot is relatively unattractive in photographs.
C) You can't take pictures when you're in shock and staring at sparkly diamonds! 

We went home and told Lance's Dad and his brother, Dylan.  Then we attempted to tell Hungover-Kelly.  Didn't get it.  Haha.  He looked at the ring and said "that's nice".  Then an hour later, came upstairs with a big "I totally didn't get what you were saying earlier.  Is that an engagement ring?"  Haha.  

Brook was funny too.  
     Me:  Brook, I opened a Christmas gift already.
     Brook:  You did?  Why? 
     Me:  Because your brother gave it to me early.
     Brook:  *looks at my extended hand*.  Oh, and engagement ring!  Congratulations!!!
     Me: Thanks Brook!
     Brook:  Lance, what's an engagement ring again?  

I sent my Mum a picture of my ring (on the wrong hand).  I was pointing across the ocean with the caption "Do you see what I see?".  I got a "No, what do you see" reply.  I told her to look closer and she said "I see a ring, but it's not an engagement ring because it's on the wrong hand".  D'oh!  I asked her to imagine that it was on the other hand...That's when she squealed!  I'm going to blame the wrong hand thing on my tiredness...Truth is, I just didn't know any better.  Lol. 
Anyway...Our families and friends seem happy and excited for us... I'm still in shock, and can't stop looking at how sparkly my hand is now!  We are planning the wedding for some time in 2015, but seriously... BEST FREAKING CHRISTMAS, EVER!



Our announcement picture on Facebook. 


5 comments:

  1. Aww, so sweet! I teared up a little just reading it because I know what that moment feels like - it's complete awesomeness! (P.S. Coby is getting really big!)

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    1. I tear up just thinking about it, mostly because it still hasn't sunk in. Hehe. How long does it take before it becomes real?

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    2. I tear up just thinking about it, mostly because it still hasn't sunk in. Hehe. How long does it take before it becomes real?

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    3. It'll sink in soon! When you start looking at a million different venues and caterers and realize how expensive they are!

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    4. Oh, I'm sure! I keep calling him my boyfriend still. Hehe. Fiance. It's so weird to say that! :D

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Thanks for your comments! I appreciate them all! :)