I had the surprise of my life last Thursday. I was to have dinner with Harl, my supervisor, his wife and the head couple of my internship committee, Bob & Jan Reiner. According to Harl, this was tradition and that this date was the first on his schedule that would work. Since I was being taken out, I decided to dress up and look the part. The Reiners picked me up a little before 6 and we arrived at my favorite nice little restaurant here in town called The Outside Inn. This is the place of surprises in Sierra Vista; in December, about 20 members of my church gathered in the back room for a surprise lunch as well as the gift of a beautiful pectoral cross that I wear now and will wear when I serve elsewhere.
On this day, we were again taken to the back room and I was seated at the head of the table and Bob and Jan at my side and Judy, Harl's wife next to Jan. Harl was running a little late, but showed up 10 minutes after us saying what a hectic day he had had. He looked distressed but happy to be sitting down. The thought that ran through my head was that it was funny that he had a camera cord that looked like my camera cord hanging from his pocket. I didn't think anything of it because, after all, my camera was in Las Vegas, with Colin, my boyfriend of a little over two years.
No less than two seconds later, someone came in and grabbed my shoulder. My back was to the opening, so I couldn't see who it was, but I thought it was someone from the congregation who had seen Harl and so wanted to share some greetings with our group. So, I didn't turn around. Then the person walked to my side and I heard a man's voice say hello and I began to turn and say hello. Then I saw that it was Colin who had arranged this whole dinner.
Then my jaw hit the floor.
Have you ever done a double take? This was a double take of a lifetime! I believe the words out of my mouth were, "Hi--Oh my gosh, Hi! It's you! And you're here!" Then I jumped up out of my chair with eyes wide and smile bright. He said he had come because he had a question for me and went into a beautiful spiel about how I'm his best friend and how he loves my family and my love for music and all of these wonderful things and he said he wanted to marry me, to which I said, "I want to marry you!"
We got to spend the weekend together in Sierra Vista, I got to show him around and introduce him to the wonderful people in my congregation and life this year. He also got to see my church as well as me at work! It took me two days for me to really believe that this wasn't a dream and that we are really going to get married.
It was so fun to send out phone calls to family and text messages to some friends and then to change our relationship status on Facebook. It's been fun to make plans with him.
The best part was that it was a complete surprise. The second best part was that I got to say that Colin and Harl were in cahoots!
Isn't it great when people are cahoots?
Posted by: Trudy Woo | February 12, 2008 at 08:11 PM
Isn't it great when people are in cahoots?
Posted by: Trudy Woo | February 12, 2008 at 08:11 PM
oh that is just perfect! can't get any more wonderful than that!! the pictures of you guys are so sweet. congratulations.
Posted by: margaret | February 12, 2008 at 08:20 PM
Happy for you!
Posted by: Dan Morehead | February 13, 2008 at 02:27 PM
Jeni, My blog topic of today is a tribute to you. Needless to say, we are all very happy for you and Colin! T
Posted by: T | February 14, 2008 at 08:54 PM
How very sweet and wonderful. Congratulations Jeni & Colin.
Posted by: Jenny Bartholomew | February 17, 2008 at 05:48 PM