I'll make you smile for the simple fact I'm good at it

I'll make you smile just so I can sit and look at it

--Atmosphere "Modern Mans Hustle"

It just slipped out...

Well, it wasn't a slip where immediately afterwards I said "oh %#@, I didn't mean that" scrambling to find some sort of 5 second take back rule. No, it slipped out, but as I've had a good couple of days to mull it over, the slip was inevitable, subconsciously calculated, and the most off the cuff wonderful thing I've ever done.

The Scene: Pearl Street Grill, Saturday 5/12/07 at 10:45pm

Me-just finishing off a BBQ Pork Sandwich

M-Nursing a Turkey Club(slow as Molasses eater)

I've had 2 beers at this point. M has nursed 1(see above eating habits)

Me: So Spider-Man 3 was silly...and it really did suck.

M: It didn't suck like Grindhouse sucked.

Me: Blasphemy...I hate you.

M: Fine, but Grindhouse still had problems like a blind man driving on the freeway has problems.

Side Note: The discussion of whether or not Grindhouse was worth any sort of price of admission remains a heated topic for us. I'll just leave it at this...she's wrong and I'm right. It's better than you think.

Me: We should've seen Away From Her again.

M: Or Hot Fuzz...

Me: Good call.

M: I feel like dessert.

Me: Do you want to get married?

M: I don't think that's on the menu.

Me: I know, its tonight's special.

Side note #2: I pride myself in being somewhat witty and on point, but I cringe that this lame attempt spewed from my mouth...ugh, really embarrassing.

It just slipped. I can't explain why, at this particular moment, on this particular day, this particular feeling, which I will add, has been thought about, but never to the extent that I was seriously considering it; or so I thought. Why, at this particular moment, my brain went into overdrive and summed up in a split second calculation that 1) I enjoy being with this girl immensely, 2) She enjoys being with me and enjoys on occasion getting naked with me...hehe, I said naked, 3) When I decided to move to Denver, and I asked her to join the ride, without hesitation she said yes. 4) She has no problem with my sometimes idiosyncratic behavior and I have no problem with her sometimes, though quite less than mine, idiosyncratic behavior, or poor taste in films (see Grindhouse debate), 5) See second part of number 2...naked, 6) I love the girl. 7) If there was ever a time to lock this deal up for the long term, now was it...sans a ring and a lack of an overall proper romantic overtone to the evening. There is more but hopefully, you get the idea.

The next 10 minutes were the worst...

10:50-10:52-Dead silence. I actually wrestled with the idea that she misunderstood me; quite possibly thinking I said meringue.

10:53-10:56- The meringue idea is stupid, as my thoughts are simply this...$%@# me. Dead silence continues. I manage to pay the bill as the frights move in quickly. Things might get so weird that I may be taking up residence on the couch tonight with the cat. The cat doesn't like people sleeping on her couch. It looks like the floor then.

10:56-11:00-Exit the restaurant. Silence... $%#@ me, continues to be the dominant thought in my head. M looks as if she might shatter if touched. She doesn't look at me...this is bad, very, very bad. It's obvious; she never mistook meringue for married.

Now before I move on, as I mentioned before, the idea of marrying my girlfriend has never been something that occupied a huge chuck of the daily/weekly thought process. It's always been nestled in-between thoughts about wanting get out of script development, which I do now, into starting up my own production company, and whether or not I should get season tickets to the Nuggets next season. Just random thoughts that I knew someday I might actually move forward on. It wouldn't be without careful planning though, I'm not an off the cuff kind of individual. So what I did completely baffles me.

Thinking back on this, the only thing I can surmise is it must have been a look she gave me that triggered a response in my head that said, "Would you really want to let this one get away"? No, I really don't.

11:02- M looks at me, interlocks her arm into my mine, rests her head on my bicep, and said "Yes". A sense of calm fills the air...thank God.

A discussion much later that evening revealed that the minutes of silence were due to her thinking that 1) why did my approach seem so flippant if I was indeed serious? 2) An overwhelming sense of excitement that a second later mixed with anger over the fact that I was not "proper" in my approach (see above #7). It was agreed upon that I would recreate the scene, in a proper fashion on a date to be determined by me. I told her we should go to Casa Bonita and properly recreate the scene there. I can't repeat what she said to me.

It's certainly not the most romantic story ever told, and it's a tale that won't have Hollywood busting down my door anytime soon, but it's my story, and I'm now officially getting married.

Till next time kids...