The Remarkable Reaction of a Rube Goldberg Experiment

Ed designed the first event in which we crossed paths. It was a competition for Engineering Week. Teams had to create Rube Goldberg machines to move a Father Chaminade doll from one end of the table to the other. This competition was the first in a series of not necessarily meaningful interactions that led to three years of push-and-pull catty, flirtatious friendship: Smiling with my roommates behind him at the chapel, watching him as we both stopped after Navigators to listen to a band, called "The Leap Years," and staining my shirt with Dinosaur Egg ice cream before being introduced to him at the Galley. He would be at Swing Dancing on Monday.

These platonic interactions led to a love like in a romantic comedy. She put up with my loud car and ate my silly food. Emily became Ed's closest friend when he moved back to Dayton, and proved to be invaluable in a stressful transitional time in his life. It was in this period in our lives that we both realized our friendship could be more than eating pizza and watching Doctor Who. When decorating my apartment for Christmas one year, enthralled by Steven Curtis Chapman singing "Bring It On," I asked her on a date to Jimmies Ladder Eleven.

The planned proposal was to hide the ring in a basket of hydrangeas in the middle of Hills and Dales park, part of Dayton's Five River's Metro Parks. My friend was going to take secret photographer photos. Afterwards, we were going to hike through the woods, past a lake, up a big hill, where the trail comes up to a statue. I took Emily on a spontaneous late night drive and surprise walk there one night. It has a great overlook of Dayton. Later, we took photos there before an outing to the Spaghetti Warehouse (an Italian Restaurant- Note: we don't take photos before bulk shopping for pasta). So, the location holds some special meaning for us. The intention was for Emily to see the hydrangeas that just happened to be there, and to notice the ring. Then I would propose. But what actually happened was... I was running late. Lowe's took a while to get lively potted hydrangeas. So, I ran over to my friend Nick's house to confirm where he would meet us. Then I ran home to pick up Emily for "our date" at Buffalo Wild Wings. We were running really late. SO, instead of taking the back entrance and parking near the pond, we drove straight in and parked near the statue. But Emily is pretty darn astute so she was already on to me- she knew this wasn't barbeque chicken. There were five teenage boys hanging all over the statue. At least one of them was shirtless. Another was wearing his hat sideways. Emily wondered if they were dangerous or were a part of Ed's plan. Was this One Direction? Were they were going to start singing? She also spotted Nick in a very well camouflaged bright red shirt in the green bushes. Although Ed was on his phone texting Nick that Emily had seen him and not asking Emily a question, one of the boys shouted out "Say yes!" So she did, followed by "Are you going to put it (the ring) on me?" After a few more photos, Emily skipped happily the whole way back to the car.

We look forward to seeing you at the wedding!