She said "yes!"
by Kundai V. Chirindo

Monday, January 24, 2005

Brenda said yes! She and I got engaged this past weekend, on Saturday night to be precise. For weeks I'd been planning against an unrelenting barrage of curiosity and pressure. I didn't mind the curiosity about what I was thinking, it's the pressure that was particularly difficult to mitigate. How was I supposed to keep a straight face while hiding the plans I was freaking out about on the inside? Dinner plans, how to surprise her, and off course, how was I actually going to 'pop the question?'

I must have done a fine job of acting and covert planning because the closest anyone came to smelling anything at all was Miranda a couple weeks ago who came up to me and flat out said, "I feel like your days of bachelorhood are coming to an end." That scared me, really scared me. I felt like I was an open book with big bold red letters all over. But I had to keep my game face on and I did. 

So, what plans went into this co-op (covert operation, not cooperative!) you impatiently wonder. I'll tell you. First and most importantly, I had to procure the ring. This was no easy task given that I had to do it clandestinely.  She wasn’t much help either because she frequently reminded me that we were both ready anytime now but a fortuitous set of circumstances came to my aid. 

One of my very first Bethel friends and Bren’s junior year roommate, Anna Kinney (Ingalls) who had all but disappeared from our lives, returned to play a pivotal role in the ring procuring phase.  Anna was at the time working at Goodman’s jewelry and was quitting that job for a job at a science research lab (she was a bio-premed major).  I needed to have an industry insider in my corner, Anna was the perfect person. 

She and Bren hadn’t seen each other for around a year and had begun trading emails about getting together to catch up.  Three weeks ago they agreed to meet on a weekday afternoon—it would be an ideal time for both; Bren gets off work at 3:30 and Anna was going to be between jobs.  Good for them, bad for me.  Anna was going to quit her Goodman’s job the weekend before they met!  So I had to act fast, and I did. 

Pulling on the fading strings of my relationship with her, I got Anna to cajole Brenda into visiting her “for Caribou” while she was at work.  We worked it out so that Bren would go see Anna the day before Anna’s last day and Anna would encourage—nay hound—Brenda to figure out what she liked.  Brenda would never suspect a thing; I hadn’t talked to Anna for ages.  All went well; needless for me to say the subject of their first conversation in a year turned to rings which so happened to be sold where Anna worked.  The rest as the saying goes, “is just history.”

While she was at the jewelry store “hanging out” with Anna, I was on the phone with Sharon, her sister who lives in Omaha.  Brenda had caught my attention earlier when she expressed smugly that I wouldn’t be able to surprise her; I was going to surprise her by bringing her sister up from Omaha! 

Ring purchased, Sharon’s consent in hand, my next task was to decide a date and how it would all “go down.”  I couldn’t do it midweek cause Sharon wouldn’t be able to get off from work (and I’m not as cool as Brian), so it had to be a weekend.  The weekend the ring returned from being customized didn’t work either for a couple reasons; a small thing could delay the ring’s return and plane tickets bought within a week of travel aren’t exactly thrifty.  Hence the decision was made for the weekend of the 21st. 

**The plan was simple.  I picked up Sharon at the airport and kept her concealed while putting final touches to my room. Minutes before proposing, I dropped off Sharon at Brenda's apartment where I’d invited my family and our closest friends to congregate.  They all entered the building through the main door while I called Bren and told her I was there to pick her up. As with any good Bethel event (we’re a typical Bethel couple), we served hors d'oeuvres to entice (mainly) my family to come. 

Bren came out through a side door oblivious to all else that was going on. I took her to my house under the pretext that we were going out on the town.  Melissa and Shelly meanwhile scuttled off to host the crowd at their house. 

It all went down at my house; I’ll leave it up to her vivid memory to recount the sentimentally meticulous details.  Immediately after, I convinced her to go back to her apartment. Her sister (the biggest surprise), along with eleven of the closest people to us were waiting to ambush her each with a rose and a different picture of the two of us from the last year in hand.  I’m forever indebted to my friend (and aesthetic director) Tom for helping me pull this part together.  The look on Brenda's face when she opened the door to find our friends and family well dressed waiting for her was pricless!  It took her while to figure out her sister was in the crowd, but when she did find her she screamed.  

After regaling in the splendor of the moment we all rushed out to an exotic dinner at Everest on Grand. 

So after starting off her Saturday evening fairly mundanely, Brenda ended the night with a ring, two dozen roses, a dozen pictures from the last dozen months in our relationship, and with her sister sharing the same room.  Not too shabby eh!?

I however feel like I was the biggest winner that night: I won her for the rest of my life!

**The original plan was for Friday night but had to be moved back a day after a couple mishaps owing mainly to the weather, which forced the cancellation of Sharon's flight here.