HE SAID . . . SHE SAID 

    As I previously mentioned in my webpage, I have recently become engaged.to the love of my life Dana Marie Camp on Valentine's Day 2002.  I thought it would make for an interesting web page article to give you a contrast of what her version of the night we got engaged was as apposed to my version of the night we got engaged.  Her remarks will be in red, my remarks will be in blue.  Sounds simple enough, but I know you people that are reading this, so I have to explain everything. Dana's version of that night comes from the email she sent to every teacher in South Lake Elementary School on February 15th.  My version comes from the wonderful deep clutches or my own mind and soul, or something like that.  Here goes:

SHE SAID: I want to share my beautiful story with you all.  I went home yesterday and cleaned my whole house. (I was so very anxious because Brian and I went shopping and purchased a ring last week.)

HE SAID: Well first of all, I don't think just saying that we purchased a ring fully explains how that went, so here is a little background information on the previous months leading up to February 14th.  Dana had pretty much decided that we either needed to be engaged soon or we needed to break up, because she wasn't getting any younger.  Well, I had already decided long before that she was the one I wanted to spend the rest of my life with, but I just couldn't bring myself to propose.  I went looking at rings around Christmas time, but I decided that it would be a very bad idea for me to pick out the ring, I mean this is the girl that tries on 7 shirts before deciding which one to wear and I damn sure wasn't going to spend a lot of money on something she didn't like.  So, I decided the best thing to do would be to pick out the ring together and plan it for Valentine's Day.  Well, I started my planning stages just after Christmas and had pretty much decided what I was going to do, I just had to prepare everything for that day.  Well, we went to several different stores until we both agreed (she on beauty, me on price) on a ring.  We got it at Whitehall's Jewelers in the Fashion Square Mall in Orlando.  Well as February 14th came closer and closer, I became more and more nervous, so my way of dealing with my nerves was to just not do anything associated with the proposal so I could relax.  The only problem with that was that before I knew it my procrastination and nerves had led me to February 13th.  I started writing the poem at work that day and then that night at Wal-Mart I bought the champagne, glasses, and cards, .  Then the next day, I finished the poem at work, decided what I was going to write on the slips of paper (you'll find out later what they are), wrote the message in the card, picked up the daisies at lunch (put them in water), and then headed home from work.

SHE SAID: He came home at 6:00 (as usual) and had a huge bouquet of daisies in his hands (my favorite).  He went out to his car as I put the flowers in a vase, came inside and went straight to his room.  I slowly walked to his door, knocked and asked if I should get ready or not.  He said, "Yes.  We are leaving at 6:30."  I replied, "Should I put on the pretty new dress I bought or should I put on jeans for bowling?" (We bowl on Thursday nights).  He said, "Wear the dress, but bring the jeans."

HE SAID: I gave her the flowers at the door and then I had to go out to my truck to get the rest of the items to be used later in the evening.  I had to keep them in my truck overnight so that she wouldn't suspect anything.  My whole idea going into the night was that we weren't going to do anything special.  It was just going to be another bowling night.  I decided that after we had already picked out the ring together, it was going to be very difficult to surprise her, so I felt that going bowling would give me the best opportunity for that, because I knew that if we went bowling, she wouldn't suspect that we'd do anything AFTER bowling, because we never got out of there until 12:30 at night.  I had to go to my room to finish writing on the little slips of paper, the cards, and prepare a picnic basket.  While she was getting ready, I snuck the picnic basket and blanket out the door and into the trunk.  Oh yeah, I had to tell her to bring both the dress and the jeans because we were in fact going bowling.  Then I waited. . . and waited. . . and waited for her to get ready.

SHE SAID: I got ready. . . and due to being too fat for my queen sized pantyhose I wasn't ready until almost 7:00!  I came out into the living room and was almost in tears, so he asked me what was wrong.  I told him, and he said, "Honey, we can go to Wal-Mart."

HE SAID: She always takes forever and it drives me crazy, especially when I'm on a schedule that she doesn't know about.  My plan was to go and eat a nice dinner and then swing by the mall and pick up her ring, but I handled it well and didn't get upset.

SHE SAID: So we did, and we headed to Orlando by 7:30.  We got to the outskirts or Orlando and it was 8:00 (we have to be at bowling at 9) I said, "I'm sorry I made us so late, I guess we don't have time to eat."  He said, "I know, we are just going to have to pick up the ring and eat at the bowling alley."  We got to the mall, and I suggested, "Why don't we try Ruby Tuesday's since it is right here?  He said, "Only if we get right in." (I had to try, who wants Valentine's dinner served in a cardboard tray from a snack bar?) Needless to say, we had to sit in the bar (I kept sliding off my stool because my dress was slick!)  He went to get the ring while we waited for our food.

HE SAID:  I don't really think it was my fault that we might have had to eat our dinner out of a cardboard tray or that we had to sit in the bar to eat.  I never actually told her I was going to get the ring, but I figured she knew that's where I was going.  I went, picked it up, and took it outside and put it in the trunk of the car in the picnic basket.

SHE SAID: When he came back, he handed me a little slip of paper.  It said, "You are so beautiful." Every 10 minutes he handed me another slip of paper from his wallet that said more sweet-nothings.

HE SAID: The little slips of paper took a lot of time and thought.  I wrote 20 different romantic things on the cards putting them in a specific order and saving the last two for what lay ahead in the night.   This wasn't the first time that I had done this for her, as I first did it earlier when we had started dating, but it hadn't been in a very long time and I figured that it would be nice to remember the days when we first fell in love.

SHE SAID: We left for the bowling alley.  I was so disappointed when we were really pulling into the bowling alley parking lot!  I had to change out of my dress in the car.  (All part of my plan)  We bowled as normal (except he kept giving me the slips of paper.)  I kept thinking I would just die if he proposed to me over the intercom at the Bowling Alley!! . . . but he didn't.

HE SAID: Anybody that knows me at all would know that there is no way in hell I would ever propose in a bowling alley.  First of all, I am terribly frightened of even speaking in public, much less public proposing.  And second of all, I am soooooooo much more romantic than that.

SHE SAID: I also thought that one of the little slips of paper would ask me to marry him . . . But they didn't.

HE SAID: I never really thought of putting the proposal on one of the little slips of paper, but I suppose I could have if I didn't have grander plans in mind for the evening.

SHE SAID: It was a normal evening so far.  We left like normal, and he stood by the car like normal, chatting with his brother. . . and I slipped into the car and fell asleep, like normal.

HE SAID: Well, there were two reasons that I stood outside the car talking to my brother.  #1 was that I was hoping that she would go to sleep. #2 was that I was stalling because I was so damn nervous.  But after about half an hour talking to him, I decided that I was ready to go so I got in the car and was trying to be as quiet as possible.  I didn't think there was any chance in hell that she was going to sleep for the whole car trip to Cocoa Beach, because it took about an hour to get there from the bowling alley, which was 20 minutes longer than it usually took to get home.  I turned the radio on really quiet and then just hoped that she would stay asleep.  I could have swore that she woke up three or four different times on the ride over, but I guess I was wrong and it worked out perfectly. As I said earlier, I figured the only way left to surprise her when she knew the ring was coming was to drive to the beach after bowling, but I had no idea it would work out that well.

SHE SAID: I woke up when the car stopped, and I began crying. (I was disoriented because we weren't home.)  He had driven all the way to Cocoa Beach!!

HE SAID: The sly devil that I am.

SHE SAID: He got my picnic basket and a blanket out of the trunk and we walked down to the water's edge.  He laid out the blanket and asked to hold me.  He sang to me (our two songs) and then began to dig in the basket.

HE SAID: The two songs were She's Every Woman by Garth Brooks and I Swear by All For One.  I was really nervous, and originally I had thought of recording those two songs, but then I thought, how the hell am I going to get a cd player out to the beach without it looking obvious, so I decided singing them to her was the best and most romantic way to do it.  Oh yeah, and she forgot that I gave her the last two little slips of paper and two cards . . . which was brilliantly thought out by me since it was DARK!!!

SHE SAID: He pulled out two crystal glasses (which he bought for the occasion and will be used at our wedding) and popped off a bottle of champagne and poured us a glass.  He fumbled in the basket more and pulled out a poem which he began to read.  It was so sweet, mind-you it had rhyming words, such as cupid and stupid in the contents. . . but I loved it.

HE SAID: I'm not gonna lie, I don't even really like champagne, but I seemed to really be drinking it quickly that night to try and calm my nerves.  She always makes fun of the poems I write and then complains when I don't write them for her, if anybody can explain to me what all that means to a female, please call me and let me know.  It took me a long time to come up with that poem, and I thought it was rather good.  It was very difficult to read, because the whole time I was reading, I was thinking to myself, "You do know when you get to the end there's no turning back."  But I went through with it and I'm very glad that I did.  I've put a copy of the poem at the bottom of the page.

SHE SAID: He was fumbling in the basket the whole time he was reading, and I heard the load clink when he (casually) dropped the ring into my glass. . . but I pretended not to notice.

HE SAID: Yeah, I realized when I started to read the poem that I had absolutely no idea how I could put the ring in her glass without her noticing.  Apparently I should have spent a little more time thinking that one out, but I figured it's either stop reading the poem to put the ring in the glass or casually slow down reading the poem to give myself more time.  So I slowed down and felt like the biggest jack ass in the history of the world.  Oh well!!

SHE SAID: The end of his poem said "I will make you happy for the rest of your life, if you'll just agree to be my loving wife."

HE SAID: Oh did it now.

SHE SAID: I immediately joined him on bended knee.  I whispered yes through streaming tears of joy, and we kissed and held each other for a few minutes.

HE SAID: Then we spent five minutes looking for the cork that was in the champagne bottle because she wanted to save it.  It was a miracle that I found it.  God must've wanted to have it also.  You try finding and then chasing a cork down a beach in the wind and dark and see how well you do.

SHE SAID: We left shortly after, because it was freezing cold.  On the way home he asked me, "Do you think that will be a romantic enough story to tell our grandkids?"

HE SAID: You're damn right it was romantic enough.  Even though I didn't pull off the whole put the ring in the glass without her knowing it thing, I'd still say the evening went very well.  She got her romance, and I got the most important thing . . . her.

SHE SAID: I love Valentine's Day.

HE SAID: So do I and I'm looking forward to spending 50 more of them with the woman I love.
 
 

DANA MARIE,
 
 

WE MET SO LONG AGO BUT
THROUGH ALL OF THE YEARS
I’VE LOVED YOU SO DEARLY
THROUGH LAUGHTER AND TEARS

WE’VE GROWN SO MUCH CLOSER
OUR LOVE IS SO STRONG
WHEN YOU’RE BY MY SIDE
NOTHING COULD BE WRONG

I LOVE WHEN IT’S RAINING
AND YOU’RE HAIR GETS SO WET
AND I LOVE WHEN WE HOLD HANDS
AND WATCH THE SUN SET.

I LOVE WHEN YOU KISS ME
SO GENTLE AND SWEET
IT MAKES ME FEEL WARM AND
MY HEART SKIPS A BEAT

I LOVE WHEN YOU LAUGH
AT A JOKE I’VE JUST TOLD
I LOVE WHEN YOU SMILE
YOU’RE HEART’S MADE OF GOLD

I LOVE WHEN YOU’RE CUTE
BUT THAT’S EVERY DAY
YOU JUST CAN NOT HELP IT
YOUR MOM MADE YOU THAT WAY

I’VE THOUGHT LONG AND HARD
ABOUT MY GOALS AND MY DREAMS
BUT NO MATTER WHAT ELSE I THINK OF,
YOU’RE ALWAYS BY MY SIDE IT SEEMS

I PROMISE TO MAKE YOU HAPPY
FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE
PLEASE GIVE ME THE HONOR
OF BEING MY WIFE.

I WANT TO BE WITH YOU
AND I’M DOWN ON ONE KNEE
DANA MARIE CAMP
WILL YOU MARRY ME?