Random story on a tired night

This week has exhausted me. Mike was away for work. The boys have been good and work hasn't been any more demanding than normal, but man, I am whooped. I had big plans for this week, a whole list of things I was going to get done every night after the kids went to bed. I had planned to be steaming the floors tonight. Right now, I'm sitting on the couch right now watching 50 First Dates. Adam Sandler is singing to Drew Barrymore ...

... which reminds me: have I ever told you all how Mike proposed?

We had been in Florida for about six months and were coming up on our third anniversary. One Saturday morning, I was up drinking my coffee and reading as usual when Mike came barreling out of our bedroom, fully dressed. He always slept in and was lazy on the weekends. He walked straight out the door, pausing only long enough to tell me to be at The Lyric, an old-fashioned theater downtown, in an hour.

So, I assumed I was getting an anniversary present. Mike can play guitar and would play open mic nights occasionally in college. While we were doing the long-distance thing, he wrote me a few songs and sent me song lyrics all the time. I figured I was getting a little anniversary concert.

I left way earlier than necessary because I still wasn't entirely comfortable in the roundabouts downtown and I can't parallel park to save my life. I ended up sitting in my car waiting for it to be time for me to go the theater. To kill time, I called my Mom -- who refused to talk to me for no reason whatsoever. Later, of course, I found out that Mike had called Dad to ask for his blessing and Mom didn't want to talk to me for fear of spilling the beans.

Finally, I went into the theater. It was just me and and a guy manning the lights. Mike sat on stage in the glow of the spotlight, his guitar slung on his shoulders and a dozen roses next to him. And then he began to play. He sang me the songs whose lyrics he had emailed as love notes, the songs he had written for me. At one point, he played the song from The Wedding Singer where Adam Sandler finds Drew Barrymore on the plane and I thought, "OH! It's a proposal!" But then he went right into another song and I forgot it. A few songs later, he sang a new song he'd written.

The chorus was, "Will you marry me?"

I tried to answer -- YES! -- but he just kept singing. There were multiple verses. Like, I don't know, four? He just kept singing and I kept trying to answer him and he kept singing. This is so typically Mike. He is a planner who follows his plan. I love him for it.

Eventually, he stopped and accepted my answer and gave me my ring. And a little more than a year later, a little more than six years ago, we got married.

I really miss him. I'm glad he'll be home tonight.