Run Like Hell (and a marriage proposal)

I was never one of those girls who dreamed about what her wedding would be like. I never dreamed about getting married in a big white dress and having children and buying a home. My dreams have always been of travel, silly parties and costumes, laughter, friends and drop-of-the-hat adventures that might be as simple as bussing across town to find a specialty beer I'd been hearing about.

G knew this about me and was fine that I had no pointed interest in getting a ring on my finger on any specific timeline. I'd mentioned it many times and one of the sweetest things he ever said was "well, if I thought you wanted to get married I would have asked you a long time ago. So if you ever change your mind you'll have ask me".  So I did just that.

For over a year I tried to put together something special but things kept falling apart, the timing wasn't right, the situation felt forced or most recently several wonderful couples got engaged including my sister and I wanted to focus on that.

G and I have been trying to practice healthier life choices recently. We quit smoking earlier this year and regular exercise is, as always, on the list. This, coupled with costumes and an almost flash-mobesque take over of downtown portland made the Run Like Hell a more perfect choice than anything I had previously imagined. G's uncle passed away just a couple years ago due to Lou Gehrig's disease and it just so happened the the RLH this year was raising money for ALS research.

While many people think that public proposals are loud, tacky productions that don't respect the 'solemnity' of the proposal to take center stage... well, if you know G and I that's a pretty fitting description of us as people. It couldn't have been a better fit!

An incredibly huge thank you to our friends and family for being there, for loved ones who were there in spirit and to Kelly Wilde of June Lion Photography who's keen eye and uncanny ability to capture the true nature of special moments will allow us to relive it, till death do us part.

I thought instead of practicing what to say that the words would just come to me... which resulted in strangely nerdy blathering about time machines.

"50 or 60 years from now, when it's the future and we're really, really old... if i had a time machine at the end of my life, i would travel back to the day i met you and not change a thing. All of time, all of space, all the dimensions... I would always choose you. You are my best friend. I want you to be my partner, my eternal drinking buddy (you ready? Here it comes...) Garrett will you marry me?"

 

 

You can find the full set on Flickr here!

Once Upon a Time... 5 Years Ago....

Once upon a time (five years ago) on an internet dating site far, far away (yahoo personals)

there was a girl who was on a quest to find a best friend and drinking buddy. While she had some wonderful friends who were always game for anything...

she missed having that one 'special friend' who was more 'magical' than all the others and so she continued to search for that special one.

One fine day she happened upon Sir G's likeness...

and was taken back by his humor and similar attempts...

 to buck the system of evil, green-shirted duck fans and trying-too-hard-to-look-perfect douche-faces.

After several attempts at descreet communications ("and if you wanted to find me online outside of yahoo personals you could always find me under my nickname ositacr at "The Space That Is Mine"), she was successful and they enjoyed long written correspondence which led to a meeting at the town cafe.

 This was followed by a film at the Dollar theater in which they were the only two laughing...



and long conversations over pints. 

And it was this first meeting in which the girl knew her intuitions about Sir G being special, were right.


Nearly a month of enjoying events of valor such as the drunken mini-golfing...

 and the giant tricycle racing...

 proved to be delightful time spent together, however the girl was beginning to wonder if, perhaps, her affections were not being returned. Regardless of long talks, and unspeakable fun when in each other's company Sir G had yet to make any indication that he might be able to truly fulfill that 'special' drinking buddy status the girl was seeking.

Then one day, a full moon's cycle after their first meeting Sir G took the girl to see a musical stage performance.

The girl's sister made the demand that tonight MUST be the night she discover if Sir G was to be the special one she thought he was or would her search continue. The performance was wonderful, as was everything they did together. Later that evening the girl stood up from her seat to excuse herself to the restroom, took a deep breath and planted one right one Sir G's lips. And (damn!) was she grateful hereturned the kiss.

From that time on, the girl and Sir G were not only best friends but the best kind of best friends. They had all kinds of adventures.....

They moved to a new land where the kingdom of kickballing thrived and the people were happy and friendly (if not a little odd) and the couple thrived and were happy (and, of course, a little odd).

 A time later Sir G was gravely injured...

 by bravely fighting off monsters which led to a hard time for the two but they held to each other and got through the tough time.

Sir G recovered and the adventures continued.

 

5 years later the girl looked back at her time with Sir G and could hardly believe that it had been so long because in some ways it seemed like the blink of an eye and in other ways... it seemed like they had always known each other.


The girl was happy and looked forward to many more years, many more friends, many more beers and many more adventures with her eternal drinking buddy, Sir G.

(not anywhere near...)The End