About a week ago I proposed to my girlfriend, Kristin at the place we first saw each other… The Cheesecake Factory Restaurant in Houston, Texas.

It was fate, really.  I was visiting Houston from out of town, and after a few hours of shopping I asked someone where a good place to eat was.  They suggested the Cheesecake Factory.

I walked in, gave my name to the hostess, and moved to the side.  Moments later a beautiful girl walked in by herself.  She put her name in and stood across from me.  Every minute or so I’d look over at her and she’d catch me looking.  Then I’d catch her looking over at me… This went on for a few minutes.

Then, they called her name and a waitress came up to her to take her to her table.  Hey, I was there first!  Another few minutes passed and the hostess called my name and the waitress took me to a small table between two large and loud families.  I told the waitress I’d be right back.

I then looked for this girl that caught my eye, hoping by chance she was also eating by herself and not meeting her boyfriend or husband.  Jeesh – I didn’t even check to see if she was wearing a ring!

Before I knew it, I was walking right towards her and she looked right at me.  I couldn’t stop now.  I big lump in my throat began to build…

I walked up to her table and asked if she was eating alone and she said that she wasn’t.  She was meeting her mom and her mom’s friend for dinner.  I said oh, and began to turn to go back to my tiny table.

She then said, “Why, are you eating alone?”  I said yes, and she then asked if I wanted to have dinner with them.

I was shocked and quite nervous.  After all, I’m a shy person and the mere fact that I asked a beautiful girl if she was eating alone was a big leap for me.  But to have dinner with her and her mom?

This by the way is way out of Kristin’s character as well.  She has never done anything like that before.
Within one minute of me sitting down, her mother and her friend arrive.  From that point on, the rest is a blur.  For about an hour, her mother asked me every question you could imagine.  She knew everything about me!

I thought for sure that Kristin would have lost interest because by the end of the dinner, she knew my story from childhood all the way to why I was in Houston in the first place.

To say the least, although her mom liked me, she wasn’t too happy that I was there.  I was a stranger and she was not impressed that her daughter would invite someone she doesn’t know to dinner with them!

I was worn out from my trip to Houston earlier in the day, the shopping, and the thousands of questions.  I didn’t even think to ask for Kristin’s phone number when we were about to part ways.

Thank goodness she was thinking on her feet and made the move.  She quickly gave me her phone number before she left.

Before I knew it, I moved to Houston and Kristin has been a huge part of my life and success.  I couldn’t imagine my life without her.

So let’s go back to the proposal…

I had my father and step-mother in town from North Carolina – who were in on the plan.  Kristin’s mother helped me contact all of her family members in town and also told them the plan.

The day came…

My father mentioned that he wanted to go to the mall before we head over to Kristin’s parents house for dinner.  So we headed over to the mall in the afternoon.

Between running late, battling the traffic, being nervous, that had to have been one of the longest drive of my life!

We thankfully arrived at the mall with some time to spare.  We walked around and after a few minutes I asked if a coffee sounded good to everyone.  Talk about bad timing to ask, as little did I know that there was a Starbucks right by us when I asked everyone.

My father quickly mentioned that he’d love a coffee from the Cheesecake Factory. (Quick thinking Dad - thanks!)  Vera, his wife and I agreed, while Kristin wondered why we wouldn’t just walk over to Starbucks instead of walking to the other side of the mall.  (This is the 4th largest mall in the world, by the way.)

As we walked towards the Cheesecake Factory, I quietly rehearsed the proposal that I had written a few days before.
We walked in and my stomach was doing flips and I felt sweat beading on my head.  I took a deep breath and told myself that there was no reason to be nervous.

I then walked up to the hostess station and said, “Hawthorne, party of two.”  Kristin looked at me and said, “Rob, we have four people.”  I looked at the hostess and said, “yes, Hawthorne, party of four.”  Which, happened to be the secret words that would let the Cheesecake Factory workers know that we were there.

One of the waiters quickly went downstairs to inform the family that we were there.

Kristin, my father, Vera, and I walked over to the cheesecakes to wait to be seated.  To keep Kristin distracted, and her back turned away from the stairs that her family would soon be walking up, I directed her attention to the cheesecakes.

 Now the plan was going to be that her family was supposed to come up and surround us, and I was going to propose to Kristin right there – standing in the very spot where we first met.

However, I think her mom and family was as excited as I was because before I had a chance to do anything, her family came up to us.  Before I knew it, Kristin was getting hugs from her family and I heard everyone saying, “Wow, it’s coincidence to see you here!!”

I looked over at the camera man (I hired a professional video company to record the entire event) and looked like a deer caught in headlights.  I didn’t know what to do!

And worst of all, I had lost Kristin.  I didn’t know where she was and was so afraid that someone would say something to her by mistake.

Suddenly, the crowd parted and I saw her.  I quickly walked over to her, took her hand and we walked towards the center of the floor.

Because of all of the confusion, I had completely forgotten everything I was going to say to her pre-proposal.  I just muttered some words that even the video camera didn’t pick up.  Who knows if anything even made sense?  I was so nervous!

I then got down on one knee, in front of my dad, my step mother, Kristin’s parents, brother, his girlfriend, her aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. along with the waiters and waitresses from the Cheesecake Factory.

I asked Kristin if she would marry me – She said yes!  I then took the ring out of my pocket and slid it onto her finger.  (Might I add that everyone is very impressed by the ring – Kristin loves it!)

So now the wedding planning has begun.  Between the location, guest list, photographer, videographer, flowers, dress, band, string quartet, food, honeymoon location, this, that, and everything else, our heads are spinning.  After all, we’re planning on a March 1st, 2008 wedding, so we need to move quickly!

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 3rd, 2007 at 9:14 pm and is filed under Just For Fun, Off Subject. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.