First I have to start with: I met Tim my freshman year of college. He was visiting Lauren, his friend/my friend & neighbor. I was kind of (not officially though) dating someone else, but I was pretty smitten. We went to a party together and I ended up *gasp* holding hands with him on the way home. Long story short, we were friends for two years (I was secretly in love with him the whole time) and then we started dating when he moved to Philly in 2005. (September 23, 2005)Okay, fast forward. I moved to Philly in the summer of 2007 to be with Tim. We moved into this horrible little apartment. The apartment situation was needless to say, one of the hardest things I've ever had to go through. It was infested and it destroyed a huge portion of our belongings and our sanity. Tim had said he wanted to propose, but was waiting because he didn't want that memory associated with that time in our lives.
In September of 2008, things started turning around for us. We moved into a much better apartment, bug free, and I got a great new job. I thought for sure the proposal was coming soon, and I was pretty sure it would happen around Christmas time. We both love the holiday season and he asked me to be at his dad's for Christmas instead of going to my parents.
Just before Thanksgiving, we decided to put up the tree. I wanted to go to Kmart on Sunday morning and look for a topper and he said he'd go with me. He woke me up that morning with breakfast in bed, which was really sweet. He went out to the store before I woke up to buy a cheese danish, but when he got it home it had a fruit fly in it and he had to throw it out. So he made me cereal and english muffin and cinnamon & sugar toast. We showered and got ready and Tim told me I needed a jacket. I didn't think I did since we were just catching a cab and then going straight into the mall, but I grabbed it anyway. When we got into the taxi, he said, "the zoo." I was a little confused and for a split second, I tried to figure out if "the zoo" was a nickname for "the mall" that I just didn't know about. After realizing that couldn't possibly be the case, I gave him a bewildered look. He just smiled and said that he knew I had been wanting to go there for awhile now. (It's true too, we had a running joke about how I wanted to go to the zoo and he'd always say no.)
In the cab on the way to the zoo, we were both pretty quiet. I was thinking about the zoo and Tim must have been thinking about this huge life changing event that was going to take place at the zoo. On the highway we passed a billboard that had a picture of a girl holding up her ring finger and it said, "She's Been Waiting Long Enough." At that moment in time, the thought occurred to me, "What if Tim was going to propose today?" But the thought only lasted a moment, I was sure he was doing it at Christmas at his Dad's house. (Tim also mentioned later that an engagement ring ad came on the radio toward the end of the short car ride.)
Once we were there, we walked around for awhile. It was November so it wasn't very crowded, which was really nice. It was a little cool out, but not cold. On our way around we saw two giant sea turtles mating. It was pretty romantic! Then we are just outside the Big Cats exhibit and I see a gift shop, I tell Tim that I want to stop but he really wanted to do the Big Cats first. So we go to the lions and then circle around to the tigers. The tiger exhibit is where it all happened. I love tigers now. There are three sides to the tiger exhibit where you can see in. There was a tiger down by the window on the first side that we started on and he kind of followed us around to all three sides. When we got to the third side, there was a family looking at them, so I kind of moved on to the panthers, or whatever huge cat came next. When the family moved, Tim asked me to come over and look at the tigers again. I obliged.
That's when it happened. Right there, in front of that tiger that had been watching us the whole time, Tim got down on one knee and pulled out a pumpkin. A pumpkin? Yes, a pumpkin. I was completely thrown. At first I thought he was "pulling a Jim" from the Office, and just messing with me because I knew it was going to happen soon. An explanation of the pumpkin will come soon. But more importantly, he opened the pumpkin and there was my beautiful ring. He said, "So what are you doing for the next forty or fifty years?" I started crying. He asked me if I would marry him. I said yes (obvi!) and he put the ring on my finger.
We then walked around the zoo for EVER not looking at the animals. He told me the whole story about the ordeal with getting the ring done. (It was originally his grandmother's from the 1930's and then it was his mom's and now it is mine, but my fingers are fatter than his mom's and they had to put a new band on it. He had to take several trips to Jenkintown to get it done and deal with this weird Jeweler who insisted that he have a pumpkin ring box for the special occasion. He also put it in a gift bag. Perhaps the jeweler does not know how engagements work?) He also told me all about how he had decided to do it like Rocky: in front of the tigers at the Philadelphia zoo!
Afterward, I wanted to get back to that gift shop (which was actually closed) or any gift shop for that matter; I had to get a disposable camera! The only gift shop that was open was in the very front of the zoo... and I mean the VERY front. We had to leave the zoo to get to it. And the nerve of those zoo people, thinking they were going to stamp my hand on the day I got engaged! I don't think so! I told the Stamper that Tim had just proposed to me and I showed him the ring. The guy was actually super happy for us and really nice. He stamped the inside of our wrists instead. We went to the gift shop, bought a camera (and a stuff Tiger that we named Rocky) and went back to the tigers. (The Stamper didn't even need to see our stamps, he waved all giddy-like at us when we walked back in.)
When we got back to the tigers, I asked everyone who didn't have a kid to watch after to take our picture, explaining to everyone that we had just got engaged. I even told the janitor lady by the firefox exhibit and she gave me a slightly-broken tiger snow globe out of her trash can that someone had left behind. (Our first engagement gift!)
After we left the zoo, the best day of my life was only half over. Tim said he needed some more "supplies" for dinner and was going to go pick them up, but I wanted to be with him, so i went with him. We stopped at the pizza place on 19th and Chestnut for some lunch (mind you we went to the zoo pretty early). And then went to the Wine & Spirits store and Whole Foods.
When we got home, I went into the bedroom and made some phone calls and Tim got started on my other surprise. By the time I came out, he had this elaborate sushi dinner laid out, candles lit, and the coolest thing I think he has ever created. He had made a mini cocktail color wheel. There were six shot glasses placed around a round plate. Each had a certain amount of liquor. And then skewered on toothpicks and propped on the edges of each of these little shots were heart-shaped frozen fruit juices and mixers. As we ate dinner, we watched the hearts drip down into the liquors, melting into these perfect little cocktails.
The whole day was amazing. I say now that not only was it the happiest day I've ever lived, but its also a kick-ass engagement story.
