Engagement Picture Preview

Me and Katie were able to take pictures on Saturday for our Engagement. Other then having a blast and enjoying the beautiful Colorado weather it was really a nice time to bond with our old time friend and photographer Anya Semenoff (http://adventuresinthehouseofcards.wordpress.com/).  This is just one photo that she doesn't know I stole from her blog. This picture sums up a good portion of how the pictures will look. Katie being serious and beautiful and me being afraid and making faces at the camera.

Nancy Plowes, Disneyland Employee

     The alarm clock rang with ferocity so eccentric that Nancy Plowes thought perhaps she was still dreaming. Her head lay sideways against the soft cushioned pillow as one delirious eye glared at the red LED lights flashing an unnaturally early awake time. The sound spewing from the speakers caused her head to pound with a slow steady dull beat, the combination of too many cigarettes and too much booze with not enough sleep. She smacked the clock clear off the end table and turned over. The man sleeping next to her snored gently and it took her moments of immense concentration to finally piece together the events of last night. Her mind ran with images of a donkey, a rundown bar on the shady side of Anaheim, and 5 empty carafes still oozing the slushy remains of tequila and crushed ice cubes. The memory of it all caused her stomach to swoon as she sat herself upright on her crooked bed.

     “July…7^th?” She said out loud to the scattered clothing and drowsy companion that made up her tiny apartment bedroom. Nancy swung her legs out from the covers and placed her tender feet on the sharp remains of a broken ashtray completely filled with butts. The pain was tremendous but brief. At least the remaining alcohol in her system was still producing minor aid. She stood, gathered what composure she had, and sighed. The room was in complete disarray and her hair felt sticky with sweat. The horseshoe shaped toilet rug had replaced the calendar that once hung proudly from the bathroom door. The rug was missing almost all of its frayed carpeted wool. The missing twisted tuffs were super glued to the adjacent wall to spell the incoherent thank you message of a drunken patron.

     Nancy experienced her regular morning routine while dodging sleeping patrons, trash, broken bottles, clothing piles, dirty dishes, ashtrays, and cigarette butts. The coffee maker bubbled and churned out her morning tar as she quickly ate a piece of bread hardened by age. Her wrinkled powder blue dress sat awkwardly on her frame seeing as her uniform was originally tailored for her size 8 body which had now shrunk to a size 5 due to her new diet care of Joe Camel. Finally her coffee was ready, her smokes sat comfortable in the dress front pocket, and her smile was fitting, it was time for work in the Happiest Place on Earth.

     

NORMALLY I would continue to flesh out this story in a creative manner, but seeing as I must honor Katie as well as myself while telling our story I think it appropriate to just let you know about Nancy in good honest terms. The Blue Bayou restaurant sits next to the river that carries tourists across the magical land of the Pirates of the Caribbean. Me and Katie were lucky in our reservations to get a table next to this river. The setting is placed in New Orleans with lamps giving off just enough light to mood light the whole restaurant. Our waitress, Nancy, might have been one of the most overly cheerful people I had ever been served by. Her accent seemed like a mix between Marge Gunderson from Fargo and any wife south of Kentucky. Her eyes became huge at the mere mention of wanting an Arnold Palmer to drink. After the moment of proposal she came back with incredible ecstasy asking in great emotion "Did we just get engaged?!?!".

Anyone who is that fake cannot be so pure. Nancy "Plowes" has to be a chain smoking, constantly drunk, drug dealing woman with a dark hidden past, at least I think so...

             

The Engagement Story (according to him)

We begin, an August date in Southwest Plaza Mall. No good story really begins in the consumer-fest vicinity of a mall, let alone a dying one, but this one does begin there. A casual observer would have noticed a young couple strolling along, the woman with a plastic bag in the crook of her arm and the other wrapped against the hulking arm of her man. The observer, if still observing, would have then seen the unsuspected detour of the woman leading the man into a jewelry store. If the observer was truly perceptive they would have heard the woman shriek in delight at finding a ring that would be 'perfect' if only 'we were ready for that'. The creepier, previously known as the observer, would then have seen the man taking mental note of the exact ring, the interest rate plan, the specials, and the name of the store before the two love birds descended an escalator out of the shallow ruins of the mall. 

A few days later, the same hulking man came back, red in the face debating his current position. Armed with the woman's sister and brother the man reentered the same jewelry store, set up a payment plan, put down the federal reserve notes necessary and exited the store complete with the ring in a maroon box. 

The box inhabited several locations for the course of a modern pregnancy. A bookcase, a sock drawer, and the flannel shelf began their friendship with the box named Gordon's. As a few days would go by and the "Fruit of the Loom" got extra comfortable with the box it would find its newfound friendship torn away for a few moments as the man would stare at his prize, realize what it meant, and would then shut the lid, return the box to its new location, and close the drawer. Rinse, Lather and Repeat until July 3rd.

The sweaty musky suitcase must have been terrible for such a clean glittering ring. It had so much time to wait until its unveiling. It traveled from the foothills of Colorado, across the desert plains of Nevada, and into the smoggy windswept air of Los Angeles. The man never came to retrieve it. It was always tucked tightly into a pair of black workman socks. Every night the ring would listen to the laughter, the cute pillow talk, and the exhausted sighs of the two lovers wondering with each moment when it would become a part of their lives and not just an innocent bystander. 

July 7th 2010. She was showering, he was sweating. The ring felt the tension in the air. The man yanked the box out so fiercely that the lid almost flew open exposing the white gold band prematurely. A sweaty suitcase one moment, a lint-filled pocket the next. The woman came out of the bathroom, accused the man of wearing a terrible shirt, and made him change. 

The day felt long. The ring felt heavy in that pocket as if its already modest diamond had multiplied in size. Each moment seemed perfect for the ring's debut. Any minute now... any minute now... any...

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" the woman said, the ring could see the glint of the hanging lamp above her head. She looked frightened, amused, and happy all at once. It was strange look, and the ring knew instantly how the man could have loved someone like that. The man, in deep gulps asked " Will you marry me?" and received momentary silence as his answer. The ring was now fully exposed, the diamond reflecting the woman's astonished eyes. "Yes... yes... get up and kiss me". A tender embrace, warm laughter, and the ring was finally presented where it made friends with a wonderful digit.

Here ends the first volume of the tale of the Ring.