Thirty one years ago today…

I was 17 years old and he was 18.  Oh, we were so young.  And so in love.  He had already asked my dad for my hand in marriage, a mere formality as our plans were no secret.  After all, we had been dating seriously since shortly after my 14th birthday. 

He drove me to Lawry’s restaurant in Beverly Hills for dinner and officially asked me to be his wife shortly after placing our order for prime rib.  He gave me the ring we had picked out a few months earlier (someday I may share the story of what happened in between) and I spent much of the rest of the meal trying to make my hand as visible as I could to anyone who might be paying attention to the incredibly young couple grinning over their meal.

In what was no doubt a foreshadowing of the many laughs we would share over the years, we found ourselves in one of those ridiculous situations that remains a fond and funny memory.  I decided that I wanted to keep the water goblet I drank from that night as a memento.  David asked our server if we could purchase it and she said yes.  Perfect, or so we thought.  In a couple of minutes she brought us one of Lawry’s goblets with engraved logo nicely wrapped and bagged for us to take home.  Trouble was, I wanted the one I drank from, not a brand new one. 

Thus began the ridiculousness.  We decided that I would just quickly drink my water and discreetly swap out the glasses under cover of the linen table cloth across my lap.  Easy peasy.  Have you ever been to one of those restaurants with absolutely superb service?  You know the sort.  As soon as you could possibly need something, it appears.  Oh, and I suppose it would be helpful for my readers to know that I am a sipper, not a gulper (one reason I don’t generally *do* shots with friends – I’m incapable of drinking fast).  So here I am trying to finish my water so I can make the glass switch.  I’d get about half of it drank and here would come someone with a icy cold silver water pitcher to fill it back up again.  Pretty soon I was totally water-logged and the silly-ness of the whole thing was getting to us.  Finally David reached over, swallowed the whole glassful of water and quickly switched the glasses.  My hero. 🙂  And he’s been taking care of me ever since.

We are currently in New Orleans and have lunch plans at Mother’s in just a bit so Part II of our engagement story will have to wait for another time.  Hey, maybe I should follow the Pioneer Woman’s lead and write our love story in episodic fashion here.  What do you think?