In For The Long Haul

Patience. That single word sums up my entire knowledge of and dating of Autumn Carlisle. What started (in 2004) as an insecure boy with a crush on a girl who was WAY out of his league, has now miraculously morphed and matured into something unfathomable by said black hair dyed, girl pant, emo band t-shirt wearing, poem writing, hopeless romantic dork four years ago.

I tried for two years to get Autie to like me. I wrote her letters, made her CD's, and became that close guy friend who was fun to hang out with but wasn't THE guy. I slowly came to the realization that our friendship was nothing ordinary. To make a long story short (and if you really know us, you know the story), to my utter bewilderment I asked Autie to be my girlfriend one last time in August of 2006. She nodded her head up and down. Thus began our romance...

We spent 11 months in the same town slowly working on our new relationship, and in July we both had to move. Her to San Francisco to study fashion design, and me to San Luis Obispo to further my education in English and following the idea to resurrect an old band with two of the original members. So since July of '07, Autie and I have been doing the long distance relationship.

In the past few months, things had gotten to a point in my head where I had decided that I really wanted to ask this girl to marry me. I was tired of being lonely in a town where I had few close friends, no music (it didn't work out), and no exciting perceivable future. Over the course of a few months I saved up money and made contacts with the people I'd need to in order to pull off my proposal.

This last week, I had told Autie I might be able to come visit her due to the President's day weekend. This excited her greatly. On Friday (horrible, I know), I told her I just couldn't make it due to my money situation. This saddened her greatly. Throughout the week, she started cracking and Friday night expressed her despair to me (while I lay in the guest room bed at my Mother's house in the East Bay ready to surprise her the next morning).

While Autie cried on the phone to me, I tried my hardest to sympathize and act just as sad. With all of me, I wanted to tell her I was just a few miles away and that I'd see her in the morning, but I held my ground, told her I'd call her in the morning, and that we would spend a nice Saturday (with free phone minutes) talking.

At 4:45am on February 16th, I woke up ready to show her I was only kidding. I dressed in some nice clothes and took the BART to the bus to her apartment. I had conspired with one of her roommates to let me in. At 7:30am, I quietly walked into her apartment and set down my backpack. Now, her door and door casing are made of metal, so they're not the quietest. I peeked my head in the door and Autie awoke (stupid loud doors). All I heard was a gasp followed by a "what....what are you doing here?"

I walked through the door and set down some orange lily's on her pillow. I gave her a huge hug while she sat up on her bed. She was very warm while all the walking and waiting for public transit had made me very cold. I said I had brought her some flowers and......something else.

I dropped to one knee and the rest is history.

The girl who was WAY out of my league is now going to be my wife. I'm no longer a confused boy with the wrong gender pants, wrong color hair, wrong taste in music, and wrong use of words. I now can grow a big beard, wear pants that fit, like music that doesn't suck, and use a less depressing vocabulary. Oh, and I am engaged to my best friend. One who compliments, challenges, and surprises me physically, emotionally, and spiritually. I am the luckiest guy....seriously.

Thank you Lord.