For years I've dreamed of marrying someone whose last name was Darling, so that my name could be Laura Darling. When I began dating Matt I had to put that dream aside because while he has a perfectly fine last name, it's not Darling.
A few weeks ago Matt and I went to an amusement park with some friends. It's a yearly tradition and in keeping with that tradition, I spent a good portion of the day experiencing roller coasters from my preferred vantage point, a bench. I am a girl who considers the log flume a thrill ride, and a roller coaster that sends you hurtling through the air at speeds faster than I drive a car is not a roller coaster I need to be on.
The weekend after our amusement park trip, which was July 4th weekend, Matt and I had plans to go into the city to watch the fireworks on the riverfront. That happened to be our first official date five years ago. In fact, here is a picture of us on that date, looking young and adorable and a little too nervous to stand too close to one another.
Matt told me he would pick me up at 5:00, and in a truly unprecedented turn of events, I was ready early. So I decided to Google roller coaster videos because my curiosity had been piqued the previous weekend and if I couldn't experience them firsthand, at least I could watch some videos and get the general idea. And that's when I got sucked into a Youtube channel called Front Seat Coasters. After a few particularly thrilling ones, I began to feel dizzy.
And my stomach felt funny.
All signs were pointing to motion sickness. That I had inflicted upon myself. While watched a roller coaster video in my living room.
My doorball rang promptly at 4:59 and I hobbled over to open it and Matt greeted me with a huge smile and an enthusiastic hello. I greeted him with a weak yet dramatic rendition of my motion sickness predicament and a request to delay our departure time for half an hour so that I could get a hold of myself.
And then I laid still on the couch and closed my eyes, and Matt paced around the kitchen and living room and asked me if I needed water and if there was anything he could do and then he paced some more.
After A LOT of pacing, Matt asked me what I did that afternoon and when I told him I straightened my bedroom, he went in and came out with a cup that I hadn't put away. And then he came out again with flip flops that I hadn't put away. And when he went in for a third time, I followed him in.
And when I got in there, he was down on one knee.
And he asked me to marry him.
There were some sweet words and a few tears and then he hugged me and I told him, "Now you get to call me your fiancee!"
But, since he isn't a fan of the French, I told him he could also call me "his betrothed."
And he hugged me a little tighter and said, "I'll just call you my darling."
Which is pretty much a dream come true.
