How We Met
I had just gotten out of a relationship with my high school/ college boyfriend at the end of summer 2013, we had done the whole break up and get back together thing for a while and by Christmas of 2013, I was over it. I swore to my mom that I was going to take a break from dating and just focus on myself and school for the next year. And so I did that to the best of my abilities. The new year came, and then a month later my 20th birthday. I commuted to college, while all my friends went away to different schools, so for my birthday that year we had decided to go to Barstool Blackout. I was iffy about going and honestly couldn’t make up my mind if I wanted to go or not until a few hours before the concert. I went with one of my best friends Nicole, and she brought one of her friends, Amber. Here we are in the middle of February freezing our butts off standing outside in line waiting to get into the venue when I hear Amber say “oh my god Teddy, how are you?!”. Ted was standing in line in front of us. He too bought his ticket only hours before the concert, and since his friends weren’t of age to get into the concert he decided to go alone, knowing that he would meet up with people that he knew there. Amber introduced Nicole and me to Ted and we began talking, people watching drunk fools who were trying to get into the concert and laughing. He seemed nice. Since we were in the middle of Hartford, I told Ted to hang out with us until he found some more friends inside the concert, not knowing the rest would be history. Ted hung out with us when we got into the concert, conversation kept flowing, we had mutual interests. The girls decided to stay in the back of the crowd and we headed towards the stage. I knew Ted was a good guy when other guys would try to come up and dance with me and he would say “leave her alone, she doesn’t want to dance with you”. This was all very innocent. We ended up spending the night dancing and talking and laughing, and by the end of the concert, we went our separate ways. He gave us all a hug goodbye and walked towards his car, and there I stood thinking “who the heck is this guy, he didn’t even ask me for my number.” Nicole, Amber and I got into my car and started driving back home. I grilled Amber with probably 10000 questions about who this kid was. I waited three days, annoying my parents about this kid that I met that was so nice and so genuine. Finally, on the third day, my dad told me to friend him on Facebook because he couldn’t stand listening to me anymore LOL. A quick accept to my request and the Facebook messaging started, which lead to texting, which lead to the biggest surprise and the most romantic thing I would experience to date. A week after talking online or through text, Ted showed up to my job at the time where I waitressed, sat in my section at a table by himself and ate dinner. He waited for my shift to be over and then asked me if I wanted to hang out with him and his friends. But get this, the time came to pay the bill. He overtipped me by a far and wrote on a napkin “buy me a ticket for the 28th”, that was the next concert we both wanted to go to Excision. I couldn’t help but smile and think to myself, who is this kid and where the heck did he come from. We have been together ever since.
How They Asked
Ten years ago we lost my aunt to brain cancer, 5 years after she passed, Ted came into my life, during the hardest part of my life. We would talk about memories and how much I missed her, she started a tradition with me when I was seven. It was Christmas Eve and we were exchanging gifts, she had gotten me a glass turtle. I couldn’t understand it at the time, but now I totally get it. The meaning of a turtle is a survivor, to protect itself. So every year since that Christmas, she would give me a turtle, whether it was for a birthday, holiday, or on vacation. After she passed, my family still carried on the tradition, getting me turtles and keeping her memory alive. Ted and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary this past March. We had been talking about what to do to celebrate, but since we had bought our first house in October, time slipped away and we were stuck doing house renovations. It was memorial day weekend, and Ted suggested that we go to the aquarium. For the last few weeks, he was acting pretty strange and my guard on a proposal was up. So on that Sunday, we decided to go to the Aquarium. Ted was dressed in one of my favorite anchor shirts that I bought him and he told me to dress nice. This was it. He was going to propose. The whole car ride to the aquarium my heart was racing. We got there and I immediately glanced at his pockets. No sign of a ring box. We make our way to the seal exhibit, watch the show, then Ted asks me to go see the turtles. Instant butterflies, this has to be it. We go see the turtles and Ted is asking me to pose to take a picture with them. Again, I look at his pockets and nothing. If he was going to propose he had to do it here right?! Nothing. Time passed by and we made our way to the next exhibit. Apparently, for Memorial Day weekend, the aquarium had scuba divers in the shark tank, this was something Ted was raving about all day, so we went to go see. We sat on the floor in a room filled with people you could barely move, the lady in charge of the show was asking everyone to scrunch together, and now the little boy sitting on his mom’s lap was kicking me with his shoes, not to mention it was a million degrees. I asked Ted if we could get up and maybe stand to the side, he quickly said no and that he didn’t want to lose out on a good seat. The exhibit lady was now letting all the children ask questions about sharks, while they were getting the divers into the water. Once the divers were situated, she said: “now one of our lucky audience members gets to answer a question from one of our divers, any volunteers?” Ted quickly points to me and I almost had a heart attack. I quickly started panicking not knowing any information about sharks and how I am in a room with 100+ people. The lady comes over to grab me and I insist about 10 times saying no thank you before Ted just scoops me up like a baby and brings me to the front of the show.
As if my RBF wasn’t showing how annoyed I was, the lady asks for our names then stating “Ok Ted, our diver has a question for you!” I turned around to the tank to see a diver holding a sign, I could barely make out the words before realizing what was going on. “Billions of fish in the sea, but you are the one for me, Sabrina Marie, Will You Marry Me?” While trying to hold in my tears I turned around to see the love of my life on one knee asking me to marry him. I couldn’t stop myself from bawling and it took me a good few seconds to catch my breath to say the surest “YES” I have ever said. I couldn’t even wrap my head around what was going on, let alone to think that Ted could ever pull something like this off. Oh, and if you’re wondering about the ring box I was looking for earlier that day, it was there the whole time, but not the average ring box. Ted had ordered one that was so sleek you could never see it in a pocket! I’m still in awe about that whole day, but what I think is the best part is that on the most special day our of lives yet, is he somehow incorporated turtles. Its as if my aunt was there, giving her blessing before one of the biggest days of my life.
