It was a pretty good trip :)

Chicago was amazing, fantastic, best trip ever...... I celebrated my birthday... and made some plans for the future.

An August 4, 2008, my 26th birthday, the man I love got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. Of COURSE I said yes. It was a magical, romantic, and wonderful proposal, one that caught me totally off guard. Want the full story? Travel back in time with me, to one month ago......

Ok, so if you read my blog, you know that for D's 30th birthday, I surprised him with a trip to Chicago and tickets to three games at Wrigley. He loved the present, and I guess felt like he had to top me for my birthday. Anyway, apparently the idea of proposing had been spinning in his head for a while, so he just needed to figure out the right way to do it.

Enter the Cubs. They came in town for a three game series against the Astros in July. D sent me off to go get us some beers, and he proceeded to go down and catch the attention of the Cubs general manager. He explained that he wanted to propose, that we were going to be in Chicago, and the guy gave D his card and told him to give his office a call.

In the meantime, I remained oblivious while D picked out a ring and got us ready and set for the trip. The week before the trip, D told me that he had purchased us tickets for a tour of Wrigley field that happened to be on my birthday. I agreed, thought it could be cool, but was a little insulted that he was referring to it as my birthday gift. D also confessed to me that he had been so busy at work and so overwhelmed by trying to match my gift, that he hadn't gotten me anything, and he would buy me something I liked in Chicago. I was kind of hurt by this, I felt like he didn't care enough to do something, but I let it slide.

So, we travel to Chicago, and our first two days there are amazing. However, every time we pass by a store, D asked me if I saw anything I liked. He purchased me some small items like t-shirts and other souvenirs, and he kept asking me if he had "bought enough". I just gave up on the idea of a real birthday gift, and I threw myself into enjoying the trip.

On Monday, we woke up to yucky, rainy weather, which apparently caused D anxiety. The rain stopped in the afternoon though, just in time for our tour. We showed up for this tour of Wrigley, and I went to stand in the line that had formed while D went to pick up the tickets. He went to the will call window, but ended up having to go inside to the administrative offices. He came back out with a story about how they had a record of his tickets, but they didn't print them. I just believed what he said, even though it seemed weird. Turns out our whole tour was comped by the Cubs because of the special ending.....

Anyway, so the tour as quite interesting, but it was very hot and humid, since it had been raining all morning. D suggested bagging out on the tour a couple times to go across the street to an air conditioned bar. Turns out this was him just trying to lead me further astray. The tour ended down by the field, and at the end of the tour, people are supposed to be able to go down onto the field to take pictures. Only problem for our tour is that the players had already started warming up for the game that night, so they weren't letting people out there. This too caused D great anxiety, as it was about to ruin his plans.

I was in a totally oblivious state, taking pictures of the players, while D was getting the attention of someone on the field, and trying to explain without letting me know that we needed to get down there. They called the GM's office to make sure D was who he said he was, and eventually led us down on the field. We handed off the camera to a staff member, and we posed for a picture. I grabbed my bag to leave the field, when I turned and saw D drop to one knee and pull a box out of his pocket. He opened the box revealing the most beautiful ring I have ever seen. he then asked me to marry him.

I. was. a. mess. I was crying and laughing and shaking and squealing all at the same time. I think at some point I actually said "yes", but my actions gave away my answer. We hugged and kissed and celebrated right there, 10 feet away from the Cubs who were warming up. It was pretty cool.

We went and had a celebratory beer and called out families, and then returned for that night's game. The flashed a "Congratulations" and out names across the scoreboard, which was very cool. The game ended up getting rained out in the fifth inning due to incredibly severe rain, lightening, and tornadoes, but we just played in the rain and had an awesome time.

I'm still flying so high right now. I'm getting married!!!!!!!!!