Tampa Engagement Trip

As I mentioned in my journal, this weekend I went to Tampa to get engaged. All went as much according to plan as I can generally muster.

The plan

My plan was simple, really.

Get a shirt saying "marry me" on it, and wear a hoodie over it. Then, get on a roller coaster, open the hoodie, revealing my shirt. The camera will then capture my proposal. Next, I close my hoodie before the ride ends, so Heather is none the wiser. When she sees the picture, she'll swoon and turn around, where I'll be suavely waiting on bended knee with the sparkling ring outstretched. The crowd will hush in awe and amazement, and Heather will accept, causing a chorus of cheers from the entire population of Busch Gardens.

Foolproof.

The plan goes slightly awry

There were a couple snags.

First, I setup this random trip down to Tampa for no reason whatsoever. We've done little trips before, but they've always been kinda spur of the moment. I planned this one for months, and that was an obvious hint. One of Heather's friends made the comment:

So... random mini-vacation out of nowhere, huh?

This was the start of the give-away.

Second, the night we left we stopped at a bar out in the country to meet some other friends. Earlier we had dropped off the dog at my parent's place, and I had picked up the ring. I had the ring and some advil and penicillin in my cargo pants, so figured I could excuse myself from the bar to arrange everything in the duffel bag. Unfortunately, I had a few beers on an empty stomach first, so used poor judgment. After calling Heather outside to smell what some thought was the county burning confiscated contraband materials, I decided it would be a good time to put my stuff away. Heather, being the loving girlfriend she is, walked with me up to the car to keep me company, since I already made her go outside. I ended up with a clumsy "just go inside", and then put everything into the bag.

Third, when we got to our hotel, Heather started unpacking the bag. I had shoved the shirt and ring into the pocket holding my socks/underwear. She tried to unpack that, and I had to interrupt with an even more clumsy "No, I'll do that!"

At this point, I figure I've given her a lot of hints, but I haven't quite blown my cover. She knows something is going to happen, but my hope is she's not sure if this is the secretive occasion, or if I'm just making a bumbling attempt at romance.

Busch Gardens

The next morning, I managed to dress quickly enough to avoid discovery, wearing a grey hoodie, some cargo pants, and my home-made shirt underneath. It was hard to appear calm going to the continental breakfast at the hotel. We drove out to Busch Gardens, and made for the first roller coaster, the Montu.

Attempt #1: The Montu

The Montu is a hanging coaster, and once we were on, my pulse was high. The harnesses prevented Heather from seeing my shirt, and I awkwardly unzipped the hoodie to reveal my message. The ride began, and I felt good.

About 10 seconds into the ride, I noticed the seat in front of me and wondered how the hell a camera would ever get a decent angle on me. I mean, the thing was huge, and about 3 feet away. Unless they took the picture at the apex of a curve, there was no way. As the ride ended, I hastily zipped up the hoodie, and got my hand around the ring.

Apparently they no longer take pictures on the Montu. We looked around for it, but they seem to have either discontinued that feature, or never had it in the first place.

Attempt #2: The Kumba

By now its getting late enough to be a little warm, and I can feel Heather getting wise to my plan. I know the Kumba has the photo feature, because I remember my Mom buying one a long time ago. I figure I should go for the sure thing. We stopped along the way to see some wildlife:

On the way in, I saw the photo kiosk, the glorious, glorious photo kiosk with its listless attendant. This was it. It was still early enough in the day for the lines to be short, so we got right on. I was feeling good. This was going to be it. I opened the hoodie on the way up, and smiled through the whole ride. We got off the ride, and I walked slightly behind Heather, stealthily manipulating the ring box inside my pocket. I triumphantly walked up the to photo booth, and scanned the LCD monitors showing the different rows. Heather spotted it first, and simply said "Oh, there we are." I looked at the monitor, and saw a very pleasant picture of us, with my shirt a blurry smear. At this point, I figured the plan was totally blown. I stood there for a few seconds debating just asking right there, and then realized I was standing frozen there, and tried to shake it off. Heather mentioned maybe getting a good picture at the next ride, and I figured any surprise was completely, totally, blown. I sincerely thought Heather was just playing along with me now so the plan would work out in some sense, and we could get the cute story. Luckily this wasn't the case. I resigned myself to one more attempt: the Sheikra.

Attempt #3: The Sheikra

The Sheikra is the newest roller coaster. It features two 90 degree drops, meaning the coaster is riding straight down.

At this point, I figure she knows exactly what I'm doing, and I really just want this one to work. I decided if it didn't work, then I would just propose anyway. The hoodie was now quite warm, and I figured if I rolled up the sleeves, Heather would ask "if you're hot, why don't you just unzip the hoodie?". Heather later confirmed this, so I'm glad I chose to be too hot.

The ride itself was pretty amazing. On the first drop, it brings you way up high, and then slowly progresses to the drop, such that you get a lot of suspense. Then, right before the big drop, they completely stop the coaster, so you're looking straight down for a few seconds. And then you fall, and then they take a picture.

One thing Busch Gardens didn't seem to plan on was the wasps. I couldn't see any because I rode without my glasses, but Heather saw a massive swarm, and other riders were talking about them. I guess they found a nice spot of coaster and built a giant nest. While we waited for the first drop, the suspense for Heather was heightened by the very real possibility of multiple wasp stings.

The big fall was fast and hard, producing involuntary yelling. As the coaster came out of free-fall, I adjusted the hoodie, and saw the flash of the camera. Finally, this was it. The ride continued, with another free-fall into a mist-filled well. It ended a few seconds later, and then we were walking to the exit.

There was a big crowd in front of the LCDs, and Heather was ahead of me. I saw the picture, read the words of my shirt, and got down on a knee. Heather looked back at me, I said something along the lines of "Heather, will you marry me?". She looked at the picture, comprehending the words, then got bumped into by the throng surrounding us. The hushed awe didn't really kick in like I had hoped. Heather responded with something like "This is an odd place for this", to which I sat in stony goofy silence on my knee, smiling like a retard. The crowd jostled Heather again, and she said "Yes! Let's go over there!". There we exchanged my planned hugs and kisses, and I took this picture of the ring:

She said the ring was perfect.

Then, in my final blunder, we bought the picture and took a closer look. Here's the image, scaled to fit the screen:

Here's the close-up of us:

We interpreted this as:

The rest of the day was fun, and we got lots of comments about my shirt.

Bonus: The Tattoo

That night, we went out to Ybor City, and Heather finally got the penguin tattoo she's been wanting:

That picture doesn't really do it justice. The tattoo took three hours, during which I read several chapters of Broca's Brain.

All in all, an excellent little vacation.