I undoubtedly shared our story in the old thread, but here it is for the new thread:
My then-girlfriend and I had been dating for a year and a half, and we both were pretty sure we wanted to get married. At that time, we were spending our summer weekends working at the renaissance faire (we worked at the blacksmith shop which was owned by some good friends of ours); another acquaintance of ours who worked at the faire was a goldsmith, and he had a jewelry shop there.
My girlfriend and her friend went over to that jewelry shop the morning of the first day of the faire (which would have been the end of June), and she found a ring that she fell in love with. My girlfriend’s friend then dragged me over there, to see the ring, and I bought it, to serve as an engagement ring. So, my girlfriend was pretty certain that I was, from that point forward, in possession of an engagement ring.
But, immediately after that weekend, she then left the country for several weeks, on a long-planned trip with her sister. I knew that I wanted to make the proposal special, so I waited until after she got back, and then we arranged for a dinner date, at a nice restaurant. By that point, I had had the ring in my possession for at least a month – my friend the goldsmith kept asking me, “Didja ask her yet??”
After a lovely dinner, we went back to my apartment. I told my girlfriend, “I have a few gifts for you” - the plural “gifts” confused her.
Then, in order, I had her open up this series of small, gift-wrapped packages:
- A mint-condition baseball card, of San Francisco Giants first baseman Will Clark (Will)
- A little ceramic sheep, with a pink ribbon around its neck (ewe)
- A cassette tape, “The Best of Peter, Paul and Mary,” with an arrow-shaped sticker on the label, pointing to the final word of the title (Mary)
- A pair of two kids’ wooden alphabet blocks, an “M” and an “E,” glued together (me)
After the first two gifts, my girlfriend looked very confused. “Baseball and sheep? I don’t get it.” After the third gift, the light dawned, and as she opened the fourth gift, I dropped to one knee, and pulled out the box with the ring.