I went to a party in Lexington, KY while an undefeated UK team was playing for a spot in the Final Four. Incomprehensibly, the game wasn’t on. This never even occurred to me as a possibility. If it had, I probably would’ve just stayed home. But it didn’t, so I didn’t, and now here I was, utterly bewildered, with no recourse but to check my phone for updates roughly every 15 seconds or so. After several minutes of this, I was approached by a beautiful girl, the only person at the party that I didn’t know. “Are you watching the game?” she asked. “Well, checking the score” I responded sheepishly, not sure where this line of questioning was headed in a room full of sports-haters. “Well you can watch with me if you want” she said, producing her own phone which was streaming the broadcast. I couldn’t believe my luck. I got to watch the game, AND I had an excuse to spend time more or less alone with her? Come on. So I grabbed 2 chairs, set them out of the way, and went to grab each of us a fresh drink. Over the course of the game, we got to know each other a bit. What’s your name, where are you from, how do you know everyone, etc. The usual getting to know you small talk, but it was so much easier than usual. Everything just sort of clicked. And it was a great game, too. A couple of late free throws put UK up two, and Notre Dame missed a three at the buzzer. It was all perfect. The rest of the night is a bit of a blur. We played some party games and my buddy Tullamore Dew put in an appearance. The next morning (well, afternoon) when I woke up, all I could think about was the girl I had met the night before. I added her as a friend on facebook because I am very smooth, and later texted my best friend to semi-jokingly tell him that I was pretty sure I had fallen in love the night before. I couldn’t remember a lot of the party, but the one thing that was crystal clear to me was that I needed to spend more time with Katie, the girl I had just fallen in love with.

It was a mutual friend's birthday at the end of March, and the Kentucky Wildcats were undefeated. I was promised the UK Game would be on a tv somewhere at the party, it was not. I still don't understand why English PhD's hate basketball enough to throw a party during March Madness and not show the game. At some point during the night, I noticed Corey feverishly updating the scores on his phone and invited him to join me in watching the game on my phone, which I had been blatantly staring at while pretending to mingle. One win for the Cats and a couple hours later, we were happily ignoring the other party guests until heading home. I was certainly hoping to hear from him again.

I bought the ring in November. In retrospect, this was a terrible time to buy the ring. Her birthday, Thanksgiving, and the holiday season were about to happen, so I didn’t want to cram another celebratory event into that space. Perhaps a Valentine’s Day proposal? Gross. Our engagement needed to be special, and by the time we got past Valentine’s Day, I might as well wait until our celebratory cruise in April. This meant I had to sit on this ring for five long months, hiding it away in a container full of clothes in the back of our guest room closet, fearing that the secret would eventually take me from Smeagol to Gollum. The proposal itself turned out to be the culmination of a truly incredible month. Katie finished her pharmacy school rotations, and it was time for me to choose where I would pursue my law degree. We spent a week in LA, ostensibly to tour UCLA, but getting to do all sorts of fun touristy things. Then, before our cruise, we visited Atlanta to tour Emory, and it was here we decided we would start our future together. We also celebrated two years together and my birthday on the cruise. We had a lot to celebrate. Our cruise was incredible, a time that was ours alone, away from all of the concerns of the world. I knew that this was the perfect time and place to propose. The proposal itself, however, was not easy. Our days were so packed with activities that the right opportunity never seemed to present itself. As the week carried on, I became more and more nervous. I had waited five months to propose, knowing that this cruise was the right time to do it. What if I didn’t get the chance? If not now, when? Not wanting to find out the answers to those questions, I told myself that any time would be perfect just as long as she said yes. So I dug the ring out of my luggage while Katie showered, and before we left the room for an art auction, I got down on one knee and asked her if she would like to attend it as my fiancée. Lucky for me, she said yes.

It was the last day of our cruise in the Western Caribbean, we were getting ready to go to an event somewhere on board. Our 2 year anniversary was 2 days ago, and though I had tried REALLY HARD not to expect a proposal at all, I thought that if he was going to do it on the cruise, it would be the day we swam with dolphins, ate a fancy dinner, and celebrated 2 years together. It didn't happen that night, so I went back to assuming it wouldn't happen any time soon. I had been pretty sure that he hadn't even started looking for a ring yet, and I was in no rush anyway. I was putting on my face, my back to him when he asked, "Are you sure you still want to go to this thing?" "Yeah, of course I still want to go. Why wouldn't we? We have nothing else going on." "Well, how would you feel about going as my fiancé?" My heart skipped a beat and I just shouted, "WHAT???" "Do you want to go as my fiancé?" I turned around and after much spluttering, dumbfounded staring, and a few "Are you for real right now??"s, he asked again, "Will you marry me?" and it finally hit me that he was on one knee, holding a whopper of ring, and actually asking me to be his wife. Obviously I said yes once I stopped being a total idiot. I was so thoroughly, completely surprised. I spent the rest of the day grinning at my left hand, staring at him in shock, and going absolutely crazy that I couldn't call anyone because we were in international waters. A proposal on our anniversary would have been good, but it could never have been as perfect and romantic as this. PS - I still can't believe Rachel knew about the ring and lied to me for 6 months. I think she and Corey deserve some sort of Best Secret Keeper medal.