Ok so if you haven’t already heard, I got engaged this weekend, and long story short… everthing went wrong.  Well almost everything.  I was pretty mad about it at first, but it turns out a funny story will be better than a boring romantic story that went as planned, so here’s how it all went down:

The Plan(s):

Plan A -  My original plan was to get Jennifer to go play golf with me one lovely Saturday afternoon, and have Eric go out ahead of us and hide the ring in the hole on hole #5 (you don’t need to know that, the important part is that hole 5 has a bathroom shack next to the green).  Then Eric was going to run back to the bathroom shack for cover, and take pictures of us as it unfolded.  I was basically going to have to make sure Jennifer got her own ball out of the hole for a change, so she would find the ring, and turn around to find me on my knee, etc. etc.  while Eric snaps pictures secretly from a distance.  Anyway, then we could go get cleaned up and head to her surprise birthday party I had planned (you’ll see later).

Pros: The idea is pretty romantic, surprising, and of course,  golf-themed which is always awesome.  Also Eric would be able to get a lot of candid pictures until Jennifer spotted the peeping-tom Eric over by the bathrooms.

Cons: The whole idea is very uncontrolled and dependent on the weather, and even if that works out, she could be called away at any time to go show property.  Also, Eric the albatross isn’t small enough, or sneaky enough (calm down) to be certain he could go undetected during any of his responsibilities.  Last and possibly least, it would have ended badly if Eric was arrested for being that pervert hanging around golf course bathrooms with a camera.  We’ve all been there.

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Plan B - My second plan, when I discovered the weather was probably not going to cooperate, was to hide a series of notes in several places, and send Jennifer on a wild goose chase throughout the subdivision, from her house, to my condo, to the clubhouse, tennis courts, etc.  Basically just get her out of her house long enough for me to create some kind of romantic setting there and eventually lead her back to the original location and propose.  Then from there we head to her Surprise party ( I said you will see later! )

Pros:  It’s another cute, romantic idea.  It’s a more controlled plan, not really dependent on the weather, and it would make a fun little story I guess. 

Cons: Again, Jennifer could schedule a showing during that time, and I wouldn’t be able to tell her to keep that time available without letting her know that something was up.  On top of that, as soon as she started following these hidden notes to each location, she would know something was going on, and I could only hope she thought it was something else and was still surprised when it was a proposal.

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Plan C (Plan A) - Keeping all of those things in mind, I decided that the only way I could assure that Jennifer would be in a certain place, at a certain time, was to schedule my own showing on one of her listings!  Not me of course, but I AM the Director of Technology (no big deal) so I can create a fake person, and send in a lead from that person and know that it will be routed to Jennifer.  Then when she shows up at the house to open it up, I’m hiding inside with some champaign, maybe a ring or two, and of course Eric hiding in a corner somewhere snapping pictures of the whole thing.  Oh and a video camera set up somewhere, because let’s face it, this is 2009, and people expect video.

Pros:  Well obviously the main reason for creating this idea is the best part, so that she can’t schedule something else during this time, yet she doesn’t know it’s me and I don’t have to tell her to keep a time available which would make it obvious that something was up.  Also it’s pretty romantic if I do it right, and it’s the most controlled plan out of all of my ideas, because nothing can possibly go wrong!

Cons: Apparently everything can go wrong.

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So obviously I used Plan C! (It turned into my Plan A, because I liked it more than the other ideas once I thought of it)  So Becky Lancaster (beckylanc@yahoo.com) from Fort Worth, Texas requested a showing for one of Jennifer’s listings on Tuesday or so, and the lead came through to Jennifer.  Then Becky and Jennifer talked back and forth all week establishing their plans to meet at the house Saturday at 5:30 p.m.   You know, because Becky had a baby shower to attend until that time, and couldn’t go earlier like Jennifer was requesting… (Also because Jennifer needed to go to a surprise party from there as close to that time as possible). 

So now you know what was supposed to happen… but stay tuned for Part 2, where I will tell you the story of what ACTUALLY happened.

Get excited.

P.S.  For those of you who didn’t understand, and you know who you are, Beckly Lancaster isn’t a real person.  I created the a fake email address and talked back and forth to Jennifer the whole time, and told her that Becky’s husband couldn’t make it but that they would both be back down in a couple weeks, etc.  She never suspected a thing.