Story
Dead bodies. Dead bodies is what brought us together.
Got your attention, didn?t it? Well, Brian and I met over dead bodies. See, one weekend about 4 or 5 years ago we were both working the morning show. I worked in the newsroom as a video editor, and he worked in production. That particular weekend, the bodies of Saddam Hussein?s sons were discovered and contrary to what normal policy is (no bodies are to make it on air at any time) we glorified the pictures of these two dead bodies throughout the entire 2-hour morning show.
Sometime after the show, the other editor Jason and I went to talk to some people in production. Since I was the new kid in town, I was eager to go and meet new people that I was going to be working pretty close with. Out of the control room walks tall, dark and handsome, and I?m introduced to him and we begin to talk. About dead bodies, at nine o?clock in the morning, on a random Sunday.
Our first date was the Daytona 500, at the Sneakers Bar and Grill at Jax Beach.
The rest is history.
So, how?d you guys get engaged!?
HIS SIDE:
Well, it happened.
And here's how.
But first a bit of back story. (/Cue flash back effects... dissolve up on "soft focus" replay.) Years ago, Our "first date" was watching the Daytona 500 at Sneakers, (a sports bar) at Jax beach. This is where my accident prone girlfriend learned how well built Winston (yes I know) Cup cars are built when Michael Waltrip crashed hard and got out and walked away. Anyway......
(Dissolve effects again, and come up on sharp focus)
So last weekend Jamie is saying things sounding like she's figured out that I was planning on proposing to her Sat night while the Bank of America 500 from Charlotte (Lowes) Motor Speedway was on.
(cut to Scrubs style narrative)
Ok, see I've been talking about proposing to Jamie for most of this year, just talking about it and such. Every time I or someone else thinks of a cool/romantic/special way to do it, I tell her "Well, too bad, can't do it that way now, cause you know about it. This ranged from the top of the Ferris Wheel at the NC fair, to doing it on air one morning, to setting her up with a tape at home..
(back to live)
So I'm PISSED cause here 2 months of thinking and planning and scheming are down the drain. I mean, I'm to the point of calling it off for this week. But after talking to our VERY GOOD FRIEND Amber Brinker (you will get more on her later) I decided that it could be just as special and surprising as I wanted it to be. But now comes the real problem. How do I fool her into thinking what I told her I was gonna do (and really had it planned emails to prove) I'm not gonna do. Well as anyone who has hidden anything (or body) from someone will attest, sometimes the best way to do is misdirection. So... for the rest of the week I'm all pissed she "figured it out", I'm telling her 80% of what I was gonna do (and did) so she knows it and won't be surprised when she sees it happen.
There were about 3 other times over the past few hours where I wasn't sure I was gonna do it Saturday night. One is a personal reason to someone else, the other 2, well......
Well, it seems that this past Saturday night was a HUGE day in sports, SEC as well as MLB and my race (which I still didn't get to see and at this time don't know who won) so the place is FRACKING PACKED!!!! They are doing a "seat yourself" which I've not seen them do but maybe 3 other times in my almost 5 years of being here.
So Amber (who is with us cause you all know great plans often require an accomplice) looks at me dead in the face and says "What are you gonna do?" Ok I'm not sure but being like she is in "normal life" she takes charge, tells me to wait by the door and proceeds to look around the place and eventually "persuade" two older couples to leave so we can have the table. To make a long story shorter we eat and talk and socialize for about 2 hrs then get ready to leave. Amber sneaks the ring back to me under the table (yep, Jamie none the wiser) and we leave.
So one time when Jamie got up, Amber and I "worked out" how I was gonna pull off the actual "question". The plan was, Amber walks first (getting her cell phone cam ready) Jamie goes second carrying the digital cam (cause if she has it we can't possibly be taking pictures of anything) then me. Ok on the picture thing, In March on our Cancun vacation, we faked a pic of me proposing on the beach and she put it on her My Space page, yeah lots of reactions to that one, all questioning if it was real or not.. We assured people that next time it would be real. The plan called for me to "trip" (and those of you that know me, know that's not beyond the realm of happening.) And since I was down there with a good cover, I could "pop the question" ring in hand and she'd be none the wiser. Well you've seen how my "plans" have gone so far. We get jumbled up and it is Jamie, Amber, Me. So as we exit the door, some of Amber's fancy footwork comes to play, she slips left, I go down with a "Hold on" and Jamie DOESN'T EVEN TURN AROUND!!! I have to tap her back, she turns (unknowingly why) and sees the ring in the box and STARTS TO RUN THE OTHER DIRECTION!!! Guess the misdirection had worked. So I stand up, (me big guy blocking the door way not a good idea) and hug her tight, look down into her face and in a very romantic way (where did I get that from) ask her to marry me. (Pause video, insert voice over) Yeah she doesn't even know what I'm saying she is giggling/crying to hard and fast to concentrate!!! She says yes (guess she figured it out now) I give her the ring, more hugging, crying, giggling (her not me) kissing (ok me here) and in one embrace I ask her if she remembers what I said.... ask her yourself, the answer is no! So I repeat it for her ("Jamie, for the past four years you have been my lover and my friend, will you now be the mother of my kids and be my wife?" yep I'm good)
So (end coming up I promise) after standing around the entrance taking pictures (photo credit Amber Brinker), we call our respective parents, (oh yeah, gotta restage the question one, just to match the fake) and she DRIVES US HOME!! Giggling and sniffling and crying and.... yep, couldn't make her move over, despite the advice from Rob.
So that's the basic story. All photos mentioned will be posted on a web site we (rob and us) are putting together, (also on Jamie's Myspace page). If you don't see them, I'm sure you will in the next 53 weeks or so.
Now the hard part. Actually pulling off the wedding.
Her Side:
I was really pissed off when Brian started talking about how he was going to propose on Saturday. I got mad because I didn't "Figure" it out. I had a hunch, and since I have been already planning the wedding I figured that was okay, having hunches that is. That made the week absolutely horrible. I was grumpy and sad, feeling guilty for something that wasn't even really my fault to begin with. FINALLY the weekend comes, and I'm looking forward to just chilling out and relaxing and not dealing with anything.
Saturday morning, we take Hocus to Dogtober fest. It's a doggy Halloween fundraiser for FCNMHP (First Coast No More Homeless Pets) and it was hilarious. Seeing these poor dogs all dressed up in their costumes, that they obviously didn't want to be wearing, just made the day fun. Hocus wouldn?t wear a costume, so she went as the black dog that she is. After that, we went and spent the day with Chris for his birthday. Brian kept disappearing to talk on the phone randomly but....I didn't think anything of it. We try to disappear if there is a phone call coming in.
We bail from the party relatively early because it was "date night" and we wanted to clean up a bit before going so we drive home. I've been fighting a bad headache so I take something, and throw on one of my patches to try and kill the pain. Amber calls and asks if it's okay that she can come with us to dinner, and I shrug and say sure. Amber is one of my close friends as well as Brian's...and since I figured the proposal wasn't going to happen, why not one more? We swing down and pick her up on the way to Sneakers at the beach to watch the Nascar race.
Sneakers was PACKED. As in insanely packed. Apparently we missed the memo about Saturday Night football. I went to park the car while Amber and Brian went to find a table. As I'm walking up I'm disturbed because of all the people that were there. We finally find a table, and sit down. We order dinner, have dessert, and DON'T watch the race at all because that place is crawling with baseball fans and with football fans and hockey fans. Needless to say we just weren't going to get to see the race where we were, so we decided to bail.
I'm walking out, and not thinking anything of it. We step outside and the wind kicks up. Brian says something like "hang on a second" and I just stopped. I figured he had to tie his shoe or something...I felt a poke on my back and turned around to find him on his knee, with a ring box open to show a beautiful diamond solitaire. I literally yell "You SON OF A BITCH" and turn away and walk a few steps (NOT A RUN AWAY like he says) I turn to him and he's standing. He gives me a big hug and proposes...and obviously I say yes.
I'm laughing, I'm crying, I'm shaking, I'm losing it. He actually had to tell me again what he said because I didn't remember it at all...I was so overwhelmed. He said "Jamie, for the past four years you have been my lover and my friend, will you now be the mother of my kids and be my wife?"
I'm still in shock, and it's finally sinking in. We got home and talked a lot about what went into the proposal, the fact that there were a hundred times at least in the past week where he wasn't going to do it, and then probably just as many on the day of. I was under the impression that it wasn't going to happen at all that day, and was kinda mopey because of it.
I was totally surprised. And am absolutely in love with how it happened, and the new bling on my left hand! YAY!
