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I proposed to Annie on June 14th, in the garden of Glin Castle, Co. Limerick,
Ireland. Planning the vacation was nerve-racking enough but prior to that
wonderful day I still had to get a ring (no small feat when you live in
Afghanistan), get my passport renewed (imagine getting deported from Ireland on
the day you wanted to propose) and get Dr. and Mrs. Grady’s blessing.
lots to do, little time to do it:
With the help of two of Annie’s friends, I was able to get both the passport
and the ring. Now all I had to do was hide the ring from Annie for 10 days and
have a chat with her parents. Ann’s sister Carol was married in Seattle on
June 11th and with our flight departing for Ireland on the 13th, the wedding
reception would be my only chance to chat with the Grady’s without Annie
catching on. Luckily the bartender was slow in making the Margaritas so Annie
was stuck at the bar and I was afforded the only opportunity of the evening to
inform her parents of my intentions. With the Grady’s blessing secured there was
nothing to do but to get on a plane to Ireland.
on the emerald isle:
With exhaustion now setting in, we landed in Shannon and were ready to begin
our tour. Immigration was our first problem when we noticed that everyone
else was turning in their customs forms, and we had none! The agent was
kind enough to let us pass when he realized that the flight attendants failed to
give customs forms to half of the plane. After collecting our bags, it was
off to find the rental car, pay a month's rent for gasoline and get on our way.
We made a quick (two and a half hour) detour out to the Cliffs of Moher, stopped
for a cup of incredibly overpriced coffee in Limerick, and drove 140 miles on 2
hours of “airplane” sleep. All of this before even getting to Glin, our
destination for the first night.
at the castle:
Once we were finally there, we took a stroll through the gardens and took
lots of pictures. The ring was hidden in my camera case and Annie was sometimes,
unknowingly, toting it around. After we'd made a full tour of the grounds, I
decided I would ask Annie by a monument on a small hill overlooking the castle.
As we had already taken several pictures from the spot, Annie was less than
thrilled about going back, but she toughed it out.
will you?
While on the hill I asked her where she would like to
go if we could only take one last trip. Not knowing what was about to happen and
a little confused by the question, she asked “Where would you want to go?”
“Anywhere in the world, as long as its with you,” I replied.
And even though I was on one knee, holding her ring and saying, “Will you
marry me?”, Annie was so taken by surprise, all she could say was “What is
this?” over and over for what seemed like 5 minutes before I said “Sweetie, this
is supposed to be the part where you say Yes.”
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