The first entry in my journal was two days before Scott and I got engaged. The journal entries starting then is a sweet memory. One of my college roommates and friend had gotten engaged earlier in the semester and I had bought her a journal to write down thoughts and memories about the engagement, planning for the wedding and beyond if she so wished. So, when I got engaged, she bought a journal for me as well. The memory makes me smile.
The actual engagement itself also makes me smile. It was sweet and Scott made it very special. On the evening of October 6, 1990, Scott took me out to dinner at a restaurant downtown where we were seated at a window table. Our city has a circle in the middle of downtown and we were able to look out on the circle and watch all the activity. The restaurant was right next to where the symphony performs. They were having a show that night so it was pretty busy with lots to look at and talk about.
The next paragraph is directly from my journal:
Now, for about a week before tonight, I had been teasing ‘Scott’ about not being romantic. So tonight as we were just sitting at the table and eating, too, he would sit and tilt his head from side to side and bat his eyes at me. When I asked him what he was doing, he smiled and said that he was just being romantic. I laughed and told him that the girl was supposed to be the one that bat her eyes at the boy. So from then on he just kept looking at me, tilting his head side-to-side, and sighing. He was so cute!!
He definitely made me laugh! That was a big draw for me. I love to laugh.
Dinner was very nice. We were in the restaurant for about two hours and then went back to the car. For some reason, Scott had a Beretta GT rental car. It was a sporty car and quite fun. He started driving all forever and I had no idea where we were going. Turns out, neither did he! I figured he was just enjoying driving the car. I found out later that he was trying to find somewhere with water because I LOVE water (lakes, ponds, rivers, creeks and especially the ocean), but he couldn’t figure out where to go since it was late and the park with a nice body of water was closed.
So we headed back to our side of town. All the while he had a radio station on that played love songs all night in an effort to continue to be romantic. He asked me how he was doing on that front and I told him he was doing great. He stated that he hadn’t gotten me flowers, though. I told him that was not a problem. He had accomplished his goal. We drove a bit more and he pulled into a gas station and went inside. When he got back into the car, he handed me a rose exclaiming, “There’s nothing better than a gas station rose!’ What a goofball!
We drove a bit more and he pulled into a small park and turned on his brights pointing at the baby swings. We started to walk toward them when he said we could swing for a bit. I pointed out to him that the bigger swings were in a different direction. So he left me and ran back to the car to shine the light on those swings. When he returned, he started to push me on the swing. I told him he was definitely checking all the romantic boxes and he told me he was only doing it so he could play with my butt. Oh my word.
After he had me swinging fairly high, he ran off yelling, “Well, bye!” I just kept swinging watching and wondering what the heck he was doing. He came back with the rose in his hand and handed it to me. He told me to put it in my teeth and I asked him why. He said he thought it would be romantic. So I asked if I was supposed to do this with the thorns on them. He admitted that he had forgotten about that little tidbit about roses. But I figured out how to do it and we laughed.
Then he came and stood next to me. I slowed down and stopped swinging. We simply looked at each other, kissed and said we loved each other. Then he handed me a small present. I took it and started to open it with with shaking hands. When I was halfway through unwrapping the present he asked, “Do you wanna marry me?” I stopped unwrapping it and said, “Are you kidding? Yes!” Then I finished unwrapping the present and took out the ring. I couldn’t really see it until we got back in the car, but it was beautiful. We hugged, kissed and then (directly from the journal) said a prayer together so that we could start our life together on the right foot and with the best guidance ever!
It was very memorable. He did a great job making it romantic and surprising me with everything he did that night.
~ Joanna Lynn
