This small series
will be a break from my normal travel writing and blogging. It will attempt to document to the best of my
memory and limited writing skills the run-up to Colleen and I's recent
engagement. I apologize in advance if I
get a little sappy at times. Brent.
With the ring now procured and the proposal plan hatched
out, there was only one thing to do.
Wait. Well, that and attend two
of my best friends' weddings in the two weeks before I would fly out to BC and
attempt to surprise Colleen. Talk about
maximizing your time away from Inuvik: in the span of ten days I was a
groomsman in one wedding, a best man in another and I was planning on getting
engaged. Throw in a quick one-night
getaway with the lady to Niagara Falls and you've got the healthiest dose of
lovey-dovey stuff this side of a Nicholas Sparks movie. Unrelated: The Notebook gets me every time.
About a week and a half before the planned proposal, I
received a frantic text from Colleen's friend and my partner in crime
Stephanie. Rather hesitantly and in a panicked
state she informed me that Colleen had borrowed her phone while they were out
driving and had seen that the two of us had been texting each other. While
Colleen did not see the contents of the messages, she became instantly
suspicious and thought something was up.
Steph did her best to make up excuses as to why we were messaging each
other and I told her that she should just tell my girlfriend that the two of us
were having a long distance sexting relationship behind Colleen's back. On second thought, my sexting skills aren't
that deft, so as to further sell Colleen on the idea of their "Girls'
Getaway Weekend", I quickly drafted up a fake gift card (see image below)
for Stephanie to show Colleen in the hopes that it would deter some of her
suspicions. As I later learned, this
gift card trick actually worked quite well and helped convince Colleen that in
fact she was just going for a night away with Stephanie and there was no
elaborate plan in place between the two of us.
 |
| The fake gift certificate I drafted up in hopes of squashing some of Colleen's suspicions. |
As mentioned, in the days leading up to the proposal Colleen
was in Ontario for the wedding festivities of my friend Jon and his now-wifey
Gianina. Their wedding was on a Saturday
night and Colleen was scheduled to fly back to BC on Sunday. I had a return flight booked from Toronto to
Inuvik on the Wednesday, so the plan was for me to fly out on the Monday to
Kamloops and return to Toronto on the Tuesday.
That was the plan.
People who have followed my stories in the past know that I
often times travel on standby as my mother is a retired Air Canada employee and
my sister works for West Jet. Standby is
great when there are lots of open seats, but can be an absolute fuckin'
nightmare when flight loads are heavy.
The day of the wedding, we learned that the only flight Colleen could
really make it out on the next day was a flight leaving Toronto at 6am. Since she travelling on my sister's West Jet
standby passes our options were pretty limited and we resigned ourselves to the
fact that we would be getting no sleep that night.
 |
| Jon and I. Pure business. |
With that in mind, we moseyed on down to Casa Loma for the
wedding and proceeded to have ourselves a great time. My parents were also invited to the
festivities and everyone was having a fantastic evening. Some might say a little too fantastic, as
sometime during the night my Mom slipped on the dance floor and shattered her
wrist! At the time, we did not know that
she had severely injured her wrist as she was receiving medical advice from a
bunch of people who had already been enjoying an open bar for a few hours
(Lines like, "I'm a volunteer firefighter so I say you are ok" and
"just put ice on it, it heals everything" were being tossed around). Eventually, wiser heads prevailed and my Mom
and Dad were shipped off to the nearby hospital in a cab. The rest of us continued to celebrate and
dance all night, figuring my Mom and Dad would be back in no time and that my
Mom's wrist would be nothing more than a minor sprain.
 |
| The conga line, or as I like to call it "My Mom's wrist's worst nightmare". |
Well, that didn't happen!
When 2am rolled around, my parents were still at the hospital and Colleen
and I returned to the hotel that we were supposed to be sharing with them by
ourselves. Seeing as how we had to get
up to shuttle Colleen to the airport in two hours, we grabbed a quick power nap
and the next thing we knew it was morning.
An open bar followed by two hours sleep is possibly one of the worst
feelings of life. My Mom and Dad had
still not returned from the hospital and upon calling them we learned that my
Mom's wrist was about as broken as broken can be and would require major
surgery. So much for that sprain. As we frantically got ready to shuttle
Colleen off to the airport, we realized that my parents had Colleen's wallet
with them and we would need to detour to the hospital. Somehow, with the bare minimum amount of time
to spare we got Colleen to the airport and on her way back to Kamloops, BC.
 |
| Gettin' our wedding on...someone else's wedding. |
Colleen may have been back on her way to BC, but for myself
the adventure was just beginning. After
dropping her off at the airport I headed back to the hotel in downtown Toronto
to await word from my parents on what was happening with my Mom. They were still waiting to see a specialist
and we were all kind of left in limbo.
As noon rolled around I had to check out of the hotel and ended up just
grabbing a bite to eat and watching football while I waited to hear
something. Eventually around 1:30pm or
so, after 16 plus hours, they released
my Mom from the hospital, although she was going to have to come back that
evening. With that being said I jetted
over to the hospital and picked up my now extremely tired and in-pain Mother
and Father and we headed back to Bradford.
Not exactly how we imagined the weekend going, but hey shit
happens! It'll be a good story for the
grandkids one day.
Once back at my parents' house, we logged online to the Air
Canada employee website to check the status of the flights the following day to
Kamloops. My worst fears were suddenly
realized when we saw that literally every single flight to Western Canada the
following day was sold out or oversold (a practice all too common with airlines
nowadays). There was no possible way to
get to Kamloops or anywhere even close to Kamloops, so we quickly shifted into
panic mode. After scouring all of the
flights, we found one to Vancouver that had 60 open seats and I would be able
to connect on to Kamloops from there.
The thing was it was leaving in two-and-a-half hours! We deduced that this was my best (and really
only) option. I had no clean clothes, so I quickly washed and semi-dried one
outfit as fast as I could and headed off to the airport. I loaded a small
carry-on with my laptop, the engagement ring, and couple of toiletries that I
had that I could carryon to a plane.
Clean clothes and the rest of my toiletries would have to purchased
tomorrow: in Kamloops hopefully!
I arrived at the airport and was texting Colleen who had no
idea I was on my way to BC. I was as
giddy and nervous as could be. Super
excited to get on that plane, and then; my worst fear: The flight filled up at
the last minute and I didn't get on. The
crazy weekend, just got a little crazier.
My stress levels were reaching epic proportions...
~Brentski~
Next time: Bringing
the cheesy plan to life.
I've waiting for this part 5 of your engagement story. I'm sorry to hear that you didn't get on the plane. I hope destiny speaks for itself.
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