Mat completely caught me off guard this last Wednesday, the 4th of February, and asked me to marry him. We had decided to get married 3 weeks before, and had kept it a secret from the world for that whole time. It was actually a comical experience for both of us. In the moment that we decided to get married, people started randomly asking us if we were going to get engaged! Mat and I started having a daily ritual of telling each other the experiences we had had that day where people had asked us and we had to flat out lie to them.We looked at rings about a week later, about the 21st of January, and I assumed that it would take forever for the whole process to happen, so I was just happily going through life, thinking we wouldn’t actually get engaged for a long time. 
Mat was gone last weekend, so when he got back on Sunday, I asked him what his plans were for this week. I had Wednesday free, which was a miracle, so asked if he wanted to do something. He seemed surprised, said he didn’t know what to do, and as I looked at him with a “hmmm…” look on my face he stumbled out, “oh, wanna go get something to eat?” I consented, thinking it would just be another “dinner and hang-out” night, which is fine.
Wednesday came and after nutrition class, which we have together, Mat told me that he had late practice including film and lifting, so he wouldn’t be done until 7:30 or so. Seven-thirty rolled around and Mat came over. When he came in, he looked completely palid—literally pale. I asked him if he was ok, and he said he was just really hungry, which made complete sense. I was putting together a piano with my roommates, so I made Mat wait for a little while until we finished.
We went to dinner at Macaroni Grill, which was really fun. As we walked out, K
yrsten, my best friend and roommate called me saying that she and another of our roommates locked her keys in her car and needed me to go back to the apartment to get Kyrsten’s spare and bring it to them. So Mat and I headed back to my apartment. We pulled into a nearby parking lot where Mat normally parks, but there was a cop there so Mat didn’t want to park. I suggested he just wait in the car and I could r
un up, but he wouldn’t park there. So then I suggested he do the same in our lot, and I would just run up, but he was bent on going up with me. I guess I just thought he was being chivalrous or something so we went up to the apartment together. As I opened it up and looked in the living room, all I saw was a beautiful array of candles and flowers everywhere, and Mat’s guitar on the couch. He escorted me in and began singing one of my favorite songs that he must have been learning recently (Dark Blue, by Jack’s Mannequin), then got down on one knee, pulled out the ring, and proposed.
Just for your entertainment: the funny lies that Mat (and my roommates) told me:~Mat didn’t have late practice; he was preparing everything for that night
~Mat had told me that he needed to change his shirt because his teammate Rusty had thrown soap at him in the locker room and had splattered his shirt. Amazingly fabricated story; very well told; I totally believed it, yet a FLAT OUT LIE. Pretty hilarious though…
~When he arrived, apparently he had left all of the stuff he needed set up in the apartment in the north stairwell,
so when I made him wait while I put together a piano, both he and Kyrsten were a little agitated, trying to get me out of the apartment as soon as possible so she could go get the stuff.~Mat told me during dinner that he was texting his roommate Vance. Yeah, apparently “Vance” was code for “Kyrsten.” Good work Kyrst.
~Kyrsten told me that she was at Smith’s, where we were supposed to take the key. That’s like 3 blocks from our house. If I would have been smart, I probably should have asked why they didn’t just walk home… yeah… good blonde moment, Amanda….
~Kyrsten doesn’t even HAVE a spare key for her car!!!
