Proposing to Rae-anna could be, to date, the crowning achievement of my life. Now, when I say crowning achievement I of course mean it in a romantic way; after all I got the girl in the end. But there’s another, more selfish, ambition at work when I tell this story. A man can connive and plan for months, maybe years, at the perfect proposal. He can lay out the groundwork, bribe waiters, chill the champagne to the perfect temperature, but there are other factors to take into consideration. These factors, or X factors as I have learned to call them, are intrinsically connected to all things associated with the girl. For example, mood, time of day, whether she’s eaten, whether she’s wearing the right clothes, whether she put deodorant on that day. These are all things that could make or break the proposal.
For example, my father, Stan Haugan, is the rule to not follow when attempting a marriage proposal. In 1984, overwhelmed with Norwegian Romance, which was previously thought a myth, he drove hours to his girlfriend Louanne Chmelyk’s to propose out of the blue. Of course, at this time in the calender year it was not only extremely dark and cold, but many Canadians were suffering from cold and flu symptoms. One of those people was my mother. So, as he arrived unannounced, my mother, in sweatpants and a t-shirt, red-nosed and nauseous, trudged through some snow to listen to her boyfriend, my father, propose. She was not impressed. However there was another power at work that night which was even more powerful than common sense, and that was the old Haugan animal magnetism. Needless to say she, despite everything, said yes.
Having said that, on March 26, 2009 at 10:30 a.m., with a ring in my jacket pocket, the conditions were perfect. We had stepped out of Nelly’s on 17th avenue after a very nice breakfast. I had a crab meat omelet (this has nothing with the story, but it is a little out of the ordinary). The weather was cool, but the sun was shining. There were birds chirping (presumably) and we were holding hands like a couple completely in love. I had to act while she was under the spell of my immense charm. So driving back home in South Calgary I decided the time was now.
We arrived at home and once in the door I told Rae it would be a perfect morning to spend with a book at our local Starbucks. But first, I said I had to get the mail.
After I came back, we both hopped in my car and drove off to get some coffee.
To be completely honest, I was never a Starbucks kind of guy before I met Rae. The coffee, for starters, is expensive and it’s far too city for a kid from Peace River. However, I loved Rae-anna since our first date where we watch Fast Times at Ridgemont High together. After that night, Starbucks didn’t seem like such a big deal any more. In fact, it kind of became our thing.
We arrived at Starbucks together at around 11:30 a.m. I ordered for her one of her favorite drinks, a grande-non-fat-cinnamon-dolce latte. I went with an americano. We sat down. Knowing that Rae-anna, without fail, checks to see what “the way I see it” is written on the back of her cup, I asked her which of the cliche, new-age sayings was pasted on her cup. But no sooner had I asked her, that she began to almost hyperventilate. As she attempted to communicate, it was clear the writing on the back of her cup were the lyrics to her favorite song, Kathy’s song, by Simon and Garfunkel. Already there were tears beginning to well up in her eyes, but what she found below those lyrics put her into shock.
“Marry me???” it read.
I, true to form, was on one knee with the ring out.
It seems there’s nothing a bit of computer savvy, glue, a helpful store staff and some ingenuity can accomplish. That is, there’s nothing it can’t accomplish if you time it right.
