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strange marriage proposal

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

I asked Sara to marry me today. She said yes!

It happened down at the dock here in Kirribilli (yes, a public-transport proposal). I was admiring her from the length of the dock, and reflecting on how good life has been, with her.

It's always been one of my gifts (perhaps born out of suffering from constant migraines) that I know when I've got it good. So I have been, over the last several weeks, quite aware of my intentions. In fact, I've been running around the city looking at every ring in every window (one fellow even laughed me out of his ritzy store when I revealed how much I wanted to spend, sheesh). But I knew that Sara would want to collaborate on that aspect of it all, so I decided then and there to just tell her 'marry me and let's go get a ring'.

Of course, it came out differently. I said, "Come here."

She said, "Why?"

I said, "Just come here."

Again, she said, "Why?"

But she relented. I told her, "I've been deceiving you. All this time you had me running around buying a hat for your dad and whatnot, I've really been shopping for wedding rings. I think we should talk about getting married."

She gave me a funny look, and said, "No, Idon't want to talk about it. Cos we'll talk about it then it won't happen, and I'll just get upset."

Watching her scurry away down the dock, I thought, 'That did not go according to plan,'

So I followed her, and spent five minutes convincing her I was serious. She said, "Are you proposing?"

I said, "Yes!"

She said, "Oh. Well, I suppose if it doesn't work out, we can always get a divorce,"

The ferry arrived, and I helped the giddy girl aboard. She wanted to know why I wanted to marry her, and I told her all the reasons. On the ferry terminal on the other side, she said, 'yes.'After three days of rain in Melbourne, we headed out for some rain on the road. We wound up for the night in a beautiful little spot - a town called Apollo Bay on the Great Ocean Road. Really good. Lots of waterfalls (thanks to the rain).