An Engaging Day

Inspired by the SugarV's recent post on how he proposed, plus the fact that I have been talking about Billy Lane alot so I want everyone to know exactly how awesome Hub, here is our "getting engaged" story.

We had met in 1994 at a seedy, meatmarket-type bar in NYC (someday I will share that story). It was now November 1996 around my 25th birthday. We used to have season tickets for the Devils at that time, so he came to my parents house to pick me up for a game and was an hour early. I came downstairs yelling, because why was he there so early! I wasn't ready! Turns out he was asking my parents for my hand in marriage. I knew something was up because when I came down, everyone was completely silent (a rarity for my family) and Hub was white as a ghost and trembling.

A week later, he tells me we are going to do something, but won't tell me what. He comes and picks me up and we drive out to western Jersey. We pull into the parking lot of some little inn/bed & breakfast/restaurant place. As we pull into the parking lot, I see what they are doing in the field behind the building - preparing hot air balloons. So we go over there and of course I realize the whole plan now.

We assist in inflating the balloons (there were three balloons going up at one time), and then we take off. We float over the ground, and since it was fall we can see through the leafless trees and watch deer and turkeys and other animals roaming in the woods. It was awesome. Finally, Hub gets down on one knee (yes, in the teeny hot air balloon basket, and yes, he is afraid of heights) and proposes. I don't answer right away because I am distracted by the fact that he tied the ring to his pants with string so that it wouldn't fall over the edge if he dropped it. Someone in another balloon apparently also got engaged, as our pilot gets a message over the radio that "She said yes!" So our pilot says "We have a yes too!" To which I replied - "I didn't say yes yet!" So of course then I say yes. We have champagne and all that. After the flight, we talk to the other couple who just got engaged and they already have a date and a place picked out!

Then we drive to my parents' house where they are waiting for us to arrive, along with his mother. She has brought Italian pastries and his sister sent a pricey bottle of Perrier Jouet champagne for us to enjoy. We hang out for a little while, reliving the event for them. Then, Hub tells me to go get changed for dinner. What? There's more?

So I go change, and he takes me to The Shadowbrook, which is one of my favorite restaurants of all time. We have a wonderful dinner, and all the while I am wondering how he planned all this and when he had gotten so romantic. It was just perfect.

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Funny thing: remember how I said he tied the ring to his pants? The pilot said, "I had a guy propose to his girlfriend up here and he dropped the ring over the side. The girl was freaking out, wanted to land the balloon and look for it, etc. Then, he pulls out the real ring and says that was just a practical joke." So I go to work the Monday after we get engaged and I am telling this girl how Hub proposed. She tells me how her now-husband proposed the same way - and threw a fake ring over the side as a joke. Ha ha. He was the one the pilot had told us about. Ha ha. They are now divorced.