As most of you know, I am an Auburn alum and LOVE going to football games. There is nothing like a college football game, especially an Auburn Tigers game at Jordan Hare. We made plans with Lane's brother and sister-in-law (and now my bro & sis too!) to go to the Auburn vs. Florida game on October 15, 2011. We all bought our tickets waaaaaaaay in advance and Lane and I looked at them lovingly pinned to our kitchen corkboard every day for months, counting down the days. The game was when I happened to still be traveling back and forth to Orlando every week for work, so catching up at work on Thursdays and Fridays when I was back in town was rough. We were supposed to leave to head to Columbus around lunchtime on Friday afternoon. I was late leaving work. Of course. By the time I got home Lane had the truck all packed and was basically twiddling his thumbs waiting for me to run around and finish whatever the hell I was doing so we could get on the road.
By the time we got in the truck, I was sweaty, we were late, and Lane was annoyed. Although he never said anything to me, I knew that he was annoyed, so naturally I picked a fight with him. I don't even remember what it was about (he probably does)... but, with the exception of spuradic little jabs I'd throw in every now and then, we rode in silence ALMOST the entire way to Columbus. It's a 4 and a half hour drive.
With about 45 minutes to go, we were both frazzled from all the fighting (I may have been a smidge PMS-ish?), I had finally pushed my ever-patient boyfriend to the point of looking me straight in the eye and saying, "THAT'S ENOUGH." in his best stern voice. Meanwhile, I have a dachshund on my lap who is beyond ready to get out of the vehicle and is whining and crying and twirling circles around, digging his 15 inch nails into my legs, back and forth... in the front seat, in the back seat, up the front again. I was ready to throw him out the window, and I said so.
Apparently Lane did not find it necessary to heed my warnings about the speed trap infested back roads on which we were traveling, OR pay attention to the radar detector when it went off, because the next thing I know we have a fat sweaty country bumpkin member of the Georgia State Patrol at the drivers window demanding license and registration. Fucking. Great.
After Mr. Baconface explains to us what we'll need to do to pay the fine that is almost as hefty as his massive gut, we are back on our way, and as you can imagine, my general outlook on life at that point does not improve. By the time we arrived at Lane's fam's house we are still not speaking. It took about 3 hours and 15 beers until we fiiiiiinally started to unwind and have fun. Lane and I talked and we agreed that we'd been planning this weekend for far too long to ruin it, looking at those tickets purchased so far in advance, pinned to our kitchen corkboard every day..................... And that's when it hit me. Those coveted, precious, purchased way ahead of time for a very generous sum Auburn vs. Florida football tickets remained pinnned to the corkboard... five hours away in Jacksonville.
We are instantly re-fighting, trying to figure out who's fault it actually was, and then trying to figure out how to get more tickets without Lane's brother and sister-in law knowing. We hid in the bathroom trying to sort it all out for about thrity minutes, when we finally realized that we'd need to recruit some help, so we had to come clean to Lane's bro & sis. Just a smidge embarrassing, but they were so sweet and assured us that we'd just scalp some more tickets in the morning as soon as we got to Auburn. Fine.
We ended up and accidentally stayed up until about 4:30 or 5 a.m.... we were supposed to be at the Auburn tailgate (30 minutes away) at 9 a.m. That did not happen. Lane got out of bed when his phone rang at the crack of 10:30 a.m. and through the window from the bed I watched him pace around on the deck talking on the phone. Hmm. "That's weird", I thought. And then I saw this ginormous Pterodactyl-sized wasp looking thing flying around Lane's back... and then I saw Lane frantically swiping his sholder. He'd been out of the bed for 30 seconds and already been stung by a wasp. I laughed and thought, "FANTASTIC! Another great day in store!"
The four of us managed to get up, get the truck packed, and get to Auburn by 11 a.m. Thank goodness for the central time switch - we saved an hour. Lane's sweet brother and sister-in-law tracked down the first scalper they saw and we were able to procure some tickets. I felt positively sick at the thought of our pristine tickets pinned up and mocking me when we got back to Jax. That, combined with all the extra money (that we did not have) spent to be sure that we could actually get into the game was enough to make me puke, so naturally to calm my nerves, as soon as we arrived at the tailgate, we cracked beers.
The good part was that the day was absolutely GORGEOUS. One of the most beautiful days I've seen in Auburn EVER. Some awesome friends of Lane's bro & SIL had the BEST tailgate spot, the food was great, the beers were cold, I got to see my precious college roommate whom I had not seen in forever... the day was amazing.
Early in the afternoon Lane started talking about going up to the Auburn University sign on College Street so we could get a picture. I thought it was a little weird because he's not usually into "photo ops", but it sounded like a good idea, and it's a big "game day" thing to do, so Lane the four of us trucked it up to the big sign.
The sign has special significance for me and Lane because the first picture we have together was taken in front of it one day when we drove over to Auburn to get a Toomer's Corner Lemonade and go to Chewacla State Park.
There was a big line in front of the sign of people waiting to have their picture taken and the longer we stood there the more Lane started to act like a maniac - he even started to bow a little kid out of the way to get up there, but luckily I reeled him in before that happened. Finally it was our turn and as we walked up toward the sign Lane said, "Do you remember the first time we came here?" and I said yes, of course. As I sat down and turned around to face the camera I looked over and realized that Lane was not beside me, but down on one knee in front of me... With tears in his eyes (MANLY tears that is!), he said, "We've come a long way since that day and I don't want to spend one day of my life without you - I love you more than anything... will you marry me?"
I hugged him...
and the crowd surrounding us was clapping and yelling "WAR EAGLE!", and in the middle of all of that, my FIANCE slipped a gorgeous ring onto my finger. When we stood up I could hear a little girl ask her mom what was happening and the mom responded, "They're going to have a MARRIAGE!" So random. Not, "they're going to have a wedding" or "they're going to be married", nope. "They're going to have a marriage!" We still make fun of that to this day.
Anywho, we were wiping tears away and walking away back to the tailgate - about a good five to seven minutes after the actual question was popped - and Lane gently pointed out that I had never actually answered him!!!!!!! "OH MY GOD - whoops!!! YES!!! Yes, yes, yes, a thousand times yes!!!" Sorry dude, but you just can't give a girl 3 hours of sleep, beers at a college football tailgate, and diamonds and expect her to be completely focused!
The rest of the tailgate was so fun - every one there knew what was happening so they all were giving us hugs and checking out my ring. I, of course, started sending out texts and pics, and then we grabbed our scalped tickets and headed to the game.
Ah the game. We got to our seats and found ourselves in a sea of orange and blue. And not the right kind of orange and blue. The Florida kind of orange and blue.
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| a brief moment of happiness while ignoring the FL idiots |
I will spare the details for my precious Florida fan friends, but it was a less than thrilling experience. Just a brief recap... the guy next to Lane called him the "p-word" for cheering for Auburn when the team ran out, the girl in front of Lane's brother turned around and stuck both of her middle fingers directly in his face when he cheered when we scored a field goal, and the guy behind us screamed "Auburn SUCKS!!!!" to an eight-year-old girl who was cheering for Auburn a few rows in front of us. NOT Florida's finest. I guess they all had their jorts on a little too tight that day. All I know is the more Auburn started whooping Florida's ass on the field, the more smack they started talking in the stands, and the more we needed to get the eff out of there. If there's one thing I do know, it's that the Jones' do not stand by and just let this kind of disrespect go unchecked, and since we all agreed that we probably shouldn't end our engagment day at a bail bonds office, we went down to the ramp and watched the rest of the game from there. That's right, $800 worth of tickets (well $1100 if you count the speeding ticket too), and at the end of the day we watched probably less than one full quarter of the game. BUT, we had a blast, and we were engaged!
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| mocking the Florida flicker-offer from our ramp seats |
And speaking of changes in plan... next came the wedding planning... wow. But we'll have to save that post until I get the pictures back.
For now just enjoy this... a glimpse of the end result of what began with our engagement nine months ago. For us it's not always (well, hardly ever) what we plan, but it always ends up perfect! We are so blessed.
Katie + Lane
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