The weekend, the proposal, the story, and the March For Life

On Friday evening, Ashley flew into Dulles on a surprise visit for Alex. I drove her out to Paul H.'s house in DC, where Alex was practicing a song for the Coffee House for Life that Paul and his housemates were hosting. He was surprised to see Ashley.

On Saturday, I woke up and went to the gym. After this, I spent a good chunk of the day cleaning. The apartment now looks pretty good.

I drove to Front Royal and delivered Josh's mail to him. After that, I went to Christendom, where Lizzie and I chatted for a while. Then I went to St. Kevin's, and chilled with Matt and TJ for a while. The three of us went to the store and then back to St. Kevin's. Matt and I hung out for a while, and TJ went to the welcome back dance. After that, I fell asleep on the couch.

I woke up the next morning to Francis's saying that choir practice was beginning right then. I changed quickly, and drove us to campus. The bass section was rather small, sadly, but Francis and I helped boost it up. Mass was as normal, and then I showed a few of the guys the music for Billy Joel's The Longest Time. The Palestrina Choir met and looked at/learned a new piece rather quickly. It was an Alleluia, but I can't recall by whom...

It was snowing outside. Lizzie, Emma, Emma's mother, and Sarah F. (Emma's sister), as well as a family friend were in town, and they were going to go into Washington, D.C.: Lizzie for an interview, and the rest for fun. But the weather was so bad that they turned around.

After choir practice, I drove back to the apartment. On the way back, I saw four or five overturned cars, five to ten cars that had slid off the road, a broken guardrail that looked like a car had broken it and slid down the embankment, a few wrecks, and several trucks driving around with their snowplows up. Driving wasn't difficult, but it was slow. It took almost two hours to get back to the apartment.

Ashley and Alex came back from the store. I was busy doing the dishes, and I had my headphones on. I was completely oblivious to the fact that Ashley was wearing Alex's engagement ring. She did everything except shove it in my face to get me to notice, but I was in a different world, doing my own thing. Finally, when I was done with the dishes, and I was just standing there talking to them, they threw me one final hint, and then, laughing at my density, they just flat out told me that they were engaged. I wasn't sure what to make of it. I stood there stunned.

One thing that I try to do is too keep an eye on a girl's finger, especially when I know that she and her boyfriend are getting along well. I knew that Alex was going to propose to Ashley quite soon. I knew he had a plan. He even told me when this plan was going to go into effect. This is why I didn't look, nay, didn't even think to look at Ashley's finger. This also explains my complete surprise.

The story is quite good. I don't know if I should tell it or not. It's not my story to tell to the world. Oh, what the heck...

I shoudl forewarn you that I heard this story from Ashley, Alex, and Paul. I may be getting some details mixed up. If any of the three afore-mentioned people read this, or if anyone reads this who was there, please provide comments and correct any mistakes I will probably make.

At the Coffee House for Life, Alex sang One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer by George Thorogood & The Destroyers. It's a fun song, and he'd been practicing for a couple weeks, making sure that he knew all the words. He'd even gone to Paul's house twice in this past week to practice with the band. So, on Saturday, he was ready to go. Everyone else was performing some sort of life-affirming song. At the end of his song, people asked him what his song had to do with life. Alex began some sort of hammed up explanation of how alcohol in itself affirms life, and how it's a natural good, and all that. At the end of this, he said, "But I can't stick with that, because that's just wierd. The only way that I can make this song life-affirming is if I ask Ashley to marry me."

The house had about 40 people in it, all chit-chatting and socializing, and several listening to the song. After Alex said that, the entire place went quiet, shocked that he had actually just said that, all thinking, "He can't be serious. Is he serious? Really?" This includes Ashley. She had been watching the performance, and was listening to the hammed speech, and then she just froze. Alex pulled the ring from his pocket, dropped down to one knee, and formally asked her to be his bride. Shaking and crying, she went up to the front of the room, unsure what to do. She managed to squeak out a "yes" from her shocked state of mind. She held out her right hand, still shocked, still uncertain about what to do, and still crying and shaking. Alex took her left hand, and placed the ring on her finger.

I'm sure that excitement flows freely through the veins of a newly-engaged girl. After the shock wore off, Ashley and Alex became the most popular couple in the house. Congratulations came from all directions, and when they finally got a break, Ashley went outside and called the important people. While she was outside talking, the guests all wanted to hear the story of how Alex met Ashley. Someone who knew the story, asked him, "Alex, have you ever punched out a girl's tooth?"

"Well, actually..."

It requires little-to-no prompting to get Alex to relate this very unique story. Oddly enough, he had. It was Ashley. And now they were getting married.

This happened our freshman year at Christendom. Ashley, Alex, and I were all classmates. The story, in short, is that there was a small confrontation that went kind of along the lines of this -- paraphrased, of course:

Ashley: "I like kids."
Alex: "I hate kids."
Ashley: "I know Taekwondo."
Alex: "I don't."
Ashley: "I can beat you up. See? I'll kick as high as your head."

What follows next all happened within seconds, and there are differing versions of the story. Ashley proceeded to kick as high as his head. Alex naturally deflected the blow, possibly uncertain as to whether or not she actually would kick him in the head, or possibly just to show her that she did not have the upper hand after all. After the deflect, he punched out with his fist, stopping it in time so that he wouldn't hit her, but close enough to prove that he did, in fact, have the upper hand. Ashley landed forward, bringing her face into contact with his fist. I know, I know, it sounds like a story a five-year-old would say, but I saw it.

An instant later, Ashley was cradling her face, and Alex was apologetically asking her to please open her mouth so that he could see the damage. He saw that he had punched her tooth out and we rushed her out to the hospital. Jimbo, who had been hanging out and studying with us, came as well.

Imagine, if you will, Alex and me. I'm 6'2" -- Alex is taller and broader. We're college men, and it's winter outside. It's cool to wear black trench coats, because they keep us warm. Jimbo is smaller than either of us. Alex and I lead the way into the hospital, with Jimbo and poor bleeding Ashley right behind us. The hospital staff takes one look at three men escorting a bleeding woman into the hospital. It takes them no time at all to assume that we did it, and they removed Ashley from our presence for her protection.

The police walk in shortly afterwards, scouting the place out. They look directly at Alex and me, just sitting there, looking at them. In walks a man bound in chains and in prison attire. They make him sit down across from us, and they remain near him.

In the meantime, Alex calls up the basement of Ben's, shortly before curfew. He tells them the abbreviated story of what happened, and why he will be late for curfew. We also called Ashley's dorm.

That evening, we had invited some people over. Sarah H. and Carissa were the only two to come, though. We chatted for a while, Ashley showed off her ring, told the proposal story,

I wasn't able to make it to the March for Life in DC today -- I had too much to do at work. I did, however, manage to get into DC to meet up with Lizzie, Emma, Laurel, Emily, M.C., Michael P, Francis, Paul E., and several others. Emma's mother and the family friend had also gone to the March.

Alex and I drove in to Union Station. He met up with Ashley, and I met up with Lizzie. She just had an interview from a priest for a job in St. John (right?), MO. I told her the story of Alex's proposal to Ashley, and just as I was finishing, Emma came up. Shortly after that, the rest of the group came up, and we went outside to sing a few minutes later.

Outside, we sang in front of a line of people waiting for taxis. It was loads of fun, especially seeing a few people holding up cell phones to either take pictures or let the person on the other end of the phone hear us. It was very flattering. A few people gave us a few dollars in the hat that we left on the ground. In the middle of our third song, a security guard asked us to move. Sure thing.

We moved, and began singing again. We didn't have that many donaters of monies this time, but the listeners were more around our age, and they seemed to really like us a lot more. One man came up to us and asked if we could sing Amazing Grace. We did. Ah, 'twas fun.

We decided to go back inside. Emily stopped and talked a different security guard about the rules. He said that it was perfectly fine to sing outside, and that he would take care of the misunderstanding. After we started singing, the first security guard came running up to us, yelling that we had disobeyed him, and that singing was against the law. It was all I could do to stop myself from physically dragging him away and making him show me this law. It was the stupidest thing I had ever heard. "Singing is against the law." Really? I think not. I think that he was just on a power-trip...

In any case, we were done anyway, so we went inside. The money went to ordering a pizza, but I was getting kind of tired, so I drove back to the apartment. And now, I'm about to fire up Top Gun. I haven't seen it yet, and it's been recommended to me very highly.