The Proposal – Part 36 min read

Click HERE for The Proposal – Part 1.

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There’s nothing quite like celebrating your engagement by sleeping in the bottom bunk of a bunk bed, alone.

Unbeknownst to me, my fiancé (yup, I can say that now) was well aware that the rooms in our hostel slept 24 people when she booked. Furthermore, as this hostel was on the top of a mountain, the building was very small. The best way to optimize the space? 12 single mattress bunk beds with 2 feet on each side.

I had been so caught up in planning the pre-game that I had given zero consideration to the post-game… The Olde Fiancé rightfully made fun of me all evening… We ended up playing cards with a group of Germans and traded notes on the weird customs of our respective countries, as one does. As we headed to bed, I drifted asleep with a big smile on my face: First, the woman I love agreed to become the love of my life. Second, she was sleeping in the top bunk above me and this was all quite absurd, just as I like it.

The wakeup was quite brutal. It was 5:30am and pitch dark. A strange Spanish voice called out something in Spanish (yes, she clearly said ‘yes’ because of my looks…). I was in the middle of deep sleep as it took me a solid minute to realize:

A) Where I was

B) What the heck was going on

C) Why I was in the bottom bunk of a single mattress bunk bed with clearly lots of people in the immediate vicinity

Oh right… The whole botched engagement post-game fiasco…

The lights turned on, we all put our coats, mittens and headlamps on and filed out to hike the summit before sunrise.

A sunrise is a strange thing. In your life, you should be privy to about 27 000 of them. However, most of us only consciously witness a small sliver of them. Perhaps it’s because reflecting on the fact that we depend on a liquid ball of magma floating around millions of miles away is heavy stuff first thing in the morning… Or maybe we’re just asleep most of the time…

In any case, existential angst aside, we were very happy to be perched atop Spain witnessing this beautiful sight. It was a great way to start engaged life…

How to Choose a Ring?

A few hours later, we had returned to sea level and stopped by a mall to grab some lunch at the food court. Julie had been wearing her ring since I had given it to her the previous evening.

Picking out the ring was a lucky affair. I went to a single jeweler, spotted the ring I wanted, went home to sleep on it and bought it the next day. I had rummaged through my girlfriend’s drawers to get a sense of the style, cut and colors of her other pieces of jewelry. I’d also gone fishing for information with thinly vailed questions over the past 6-12 months…

– (While watching the Olympics) Hey! You see those 5 Olympic rings on screen?
– Yeah…
– Do you like the gold one or the silver one better?
– What are you talking about?
– Which one best represents the love the athletes have for their sport in your opinion?
– …

As is fairly evident, I wasn’t having much luck getting useful information with my reconnaissance mission. The element of surprise was more important to me than getting the “perfect” ring, so I just settled on a few adjectives I thought my girlfriend would like: Simple, Elegant and Unique. This guided my selection process.

Otherwise, we’d also agreed in previous discussions that if we were to participate in this arbitrary engagement custom (a diamond ring), that the diamond needed to be ethically sourced and wouldn’t burn a hole in our pockets… Ok, back to the food court.

Habits Formed with Cheap Jewelry

After the meal, we went to the restrooms to wash up. I waited a minute for the Olde fiancé to come out after wrapping up. We decided to roam around the mall a bit. There were a few interesting stores to check out. A few minutes later, my fiancé stopped dead in her tracks. I didn’t notice and kept walking… Most likely, I was making remarks about unimportant things because I am an old man trapped in a young man’s body…

– This siesta thing is an interesting concept but it seems so inefficient. You double your transit time every day!

– Joël! I left my ring in the restroom!

Pow! That’s all I needed to hear. I snapped out my old man stupor and bolted for the women’s restroom, leaving the ring wearer behind. I did a quick but exhaustive scan of the bathroom. No ring to be found. Lots of ladies wondering what the heck I was doing but no ring. I ran back out as my Fiancé was getting to the bathroom.

– I left it on the counter when I was washing my hands out of habit… I’m not used to having nice rings!

– It’s OK… Don’t worry about it. Let’s go double check.

We went back in and looked again. No ring.

– Maybe they have it at Lost & Found.

No. No, they do not. We spent a bit more time hanging around the mall hoping it was a matter of time before someone brought it to Lost & Found. Wishful thinking…

Turning it Around

My Fiancé was feeling quite horrible at this point… I kept telling her not to worry about it. Besides, now we were even for the whole bunk bed fiasco. This was a win as far as I was concerned.

She asked me how I could be so light hearted in this situation… That’s when I uttered the 3 magic words that put our vacation back on track:

“I have insurance!”

Thankfully, when we phoned both the insurance company and jeweler from overseas (those calls almost cost more than the ring!!), the claim was painless and the jeweler had an extra ring in the same size. #Luck

We continued our vacation with the knowledge that things would work out on the ring front. I was also very excited at the fact that I had a “get out of jail free” card for the rest of this vacation and probably a while thereafter. Furthermore, I had collected an epic story that would now be part of the family lore.

If this was the quality of story we were churning out at the engagement stage, one could only be excited for the stories that would come next. But, that is for another time.

P.S. The astute amongst you will have caught the fact that there is no silver Olympic ring. In reality, the “gold” one is really yellow… They represent the 5 continents. But hey, the gag still works.

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