Has Anybody Seen My Fiancee?

I asked Lana, my girlfriend of over two years, to marry me over the weekend. I'm surprised she actually understood what I was asking her because I was so nervous and crying. Tears of joy, people! I read her a poem and started tearing up in the middle of it. I was thinking to myself, "great, you idiot, just give it away here", and she was able to pick up on what I was doing. Do my tears surprise you? Well, strong men also cry. Strong men also cry.

The first time I heard Lana's lovely voice was about four or five years ago. I was sitting at home at 3103 West St. and received a phone call from a girl asking if she could show up to frisbee practice. She kept stressing, "you're sure it's okay?". It was kind of annoying and I just mentioned when practice was and told her she should show up.

Then, some time later, Jon and I were at the rec center working out before practice. I knew who Lana was by that time because the women wanted her to join the frisbee team. I saw her with some friends and said hi. I think she knew who Jon and I were and said hi and then said "well, my friends and I are going to run now", and then she's off to the races.

Skip ahead to early summer 2004. School's out and we're practicing at the Ames Middle School behind Wendy's. Lana shows up to a practice for some reason. She is fairly quiet most of the practice, but then at the end, turns manic on us. "Hey everybody, guess what I'm doing tonight!", at this point I think she was akwardly perched on an outdoor electrical box. "I'm watching the Lord of the Rings extended version with my friends and we're going to have onesies, and twosies, and threesies, and foursies! Does anybody want to come with?" Before anybody can answer, she jumps down says "Well, bye" and seriously, sprints to her car. A couple of people share a "What just happened?" look, including myself.

Lana attends Aquatennial in 2004 and has a good time. I ask if she like to join the team, but don't actually add her to the roster until the day before it is due. Apparently, she found out when all the tournaments were and blocked off those weekends, and was just waiting for me to ask her to be on the team, and had almost given up hope before I asked her to fill out her roster information.

Added in there was a time I could have gone out to see Farenheit 9/11 with Shawn, Tony, and Lana. I ended up playing hearts and eating pizza with Brian Lucido's parents. I don't regret the decision.

Pre-regionals 2004, Lana and I travel up to Minneapolis early to play some miniature golf on Friday. We don't find the place and instead opt for Chuck-E-Cheese's. It was sort of our first date. Then, we win central regionals and make nationals. Games of keep away are played for hours in the ocean by ourselves. We almost win the whole thing.

Then yada, yada, yada, blah, blah, blah, 2005 and 2006 happen, and early in 2007 I ask her to marry me. I was going to do it in Chuck-E-Cheese's in Minneapolis, as some of us went there on Sunday afternoon, but the place was too crowded and loud and full of kids that would rather punch you and tell you to shut up than ask you to get out of the way.

We've shared a lot of good times and God times, seen 10 national parks, travelled around the earth, won some frisbee tournaments, laughed, cryed, argued, farted (okay, just me) and never stopped caring for each other.

Here's to you, Lana.