The Best Day Ever

So last Wednesday.... was the best day of my life (so far).

Tuesday I had a pretty rough day at work and got home a lot later than normal to find that Zach had brought me flowers and left them on my table (see Facebook picture)! He asked me later that evening what I wanted for supper on Wednesday. Wednesday night is our standing date night, and we alternate who cooks. I had told him I wanted tacos, and he said "perfect!"

Wednesday afternoon rolled around, and Zach told me that he was just going to pick up the food right after school and head to my apartment to start cooking, so I'd better be home on time that night! I had wanted to leave work at 5, but ended up leaving ten minutes later. I figured he wouldn't mind. Tacos would keep.

I arrived home at around 5:35 - traffic was abysmal. When I unlocked the door to my apartment, I sniffed the air, expecting to smell tacos. Nothing.

What the heck?

So I opened the door to find this:

Bag of shoes, food, a mix CD, and some notes.

The first two notes said this:

As soon as I looked at the first card I knew what was up. That didn't stop me from being excited.

I was 95% sure I knew what store he meant. But I wasn't about to ask him where I was supposed to be. I said to myself, "Laura. You are smart. You can figure this out."

So I took the mix CD, the bag of shoes, and the food and got in my car. One of the sticky notes said that Anthony was expecting me at 5:45 pm, but there was no way I was going to make it there then - I was sitting at a stoplight by my house at 5:42. The music on the CD was fantastic and I still can't stop listening to it. Such lovely songs. I was shaking with anticipation all the way to the mall.

I walked into the mall and headed to J. Crew. I always comment on the kids' section there - "Crew Cuts" - how adorable is that name? A manager-looking lady saw me walk in all confused with my clue cards and asked me if I was Laura. YES! I was in the right store! Score one for me. She introduced me to Anthony, who was a personal shopper at J. Crew. He told me that I was there to pick out a new outfit! So he led me around the store and I told Anthony to just pick stuff out because I had the fashion sense of a mule. So we picked out a bunch of clothes and headed back to the fitting rooms. There was a fitting room cordoned off for me with a sign, and inside, there was a little envelope that said "Arrive":

After a handful of outfits, I decided on one and told Anthony. He took it from me, brought it into the back, and gave it to me with the tags cut off and told me to put them on (hence the bag of shoes - Zach didn't know what kind of outfit I would pick out, so he packed all my shoes), and handed me an envelope that said "Depart"

I knew exactly where to go for this clue. We went to Mozza Mia for a great date last year, so it was just a matter of finding a parking spot. :) When I got to Spalon Montage, I asked for Brittney and they gave me an envelope that said "arrive" and a book of French phrases:

Eek! I felt like such a princess (I told this to Zach later and he said, "Good. You should always feel like a princess.")! Every place I went was so excited for me because they already knew what was going on. After I got my hair all done, I went to the front desk and they told me I had to go and get a manicure! This was the second time I've ever gotten a manicure - it was heavenly.

As I went to the front desk again, they handed me an envelope that said "depart". I had to ask them to open it because I just had my nails done! No way I was going to mess them up.

It's a good thing I have cruise control, or I would have gotten a speeding ticket on the way to the school. I found door #3 (which was hard, guys, there are 17 doors in Edina High School), walked in, and stopped. Follow what music?

Pretty soon, I started hearing music, a band or an orchestra. As I started walking towards it, I noticed that there were little music notes on the floor. Conundrum. WHAT MUSIC DO I FOLLOW???

The notes and the music went the same direction for a while, so I walked until I saw the music that I was hearing - it was just the band practicing in the theater. I was pretty sure that was not where Zach wanted me to go, so I kept following the music notes that were on the ground.

I would have taken more pictures that night, but let's be serious, my mind was preoccupied.

The notes lead to the choir room, where Zach was sitting at the piano. He stood up when I walked in and brought me over to a bench facing the piano. He then said he had a song he wanted to play for me. It was called "The Luckiest" by Ben Folds (click the song to listen). I looooove that song, so of course, I started crying immediately. After he finished playing, he came over to me, knelt down on one knee, and said a bunch of lovely things. Then he asked if I would marryhimANDISAIDYES!

The night was not finished, though. He wanted to take some pictures, so we went to his house and told his family. Then his sister came back to the school and took pictures of us. I'm posting some of the best ones here! Update: Okay, so I posted a gazillion. Can you blame me? We look goooood.

After the pictures, Zach had arranged for us to go to Chatterbox to celebrate. We had gone to Chatterbox for our first date a year and half ago, and Zach had already ordered the same food and drink that we ordered our first time there. It was a magical night and I didn't get much sleep, that's for sure! 

I (we) are very excited and happy for this next step, and couldn't be happier!

The next post is going to be back on our Chile trip - I just HAD to post this first. :)

No funny picture this time, I think you've seen enough pictures in this post.

I'm getting MARRIED!