Well family & friends, its time for a guest appearance for yours truly once again - that's right, its time for 'ol B to have some blog writing time. Sorry to disappoint with a less melodramatic and a hopefully downsized level of grammatical errors as can be normally expected from our speed-typing heroine; I hope that my writing style doesn't make you want to check back another day for one of Cat-Cat's posts.
So, as you can see from the title of this entry, the picture to the right, possibly the news Friday night or the possible spreading of the word on the street, I FINALLY DID IT (for some reason, I do not believe that Catherine ever thought it would happen). And being that such a momentous occasion has taken place, Catherine wanted all the details up on the blog for everyone to see, but unfortunately I have worn her slap out since yesterday evening with all this excitement. Here’s how it happened.
Yesterday afternoon, I left school around 3:30pm taking two of my students home after a Friday detention and when I was done, I called back over to the house to see what Catherine and my future mother-in-law, Gigi (Ms. Pam) were up to. Ms. Pam said that she was waiting to wake Catherine up from a nap, some very valuable rest that came in handy last night. So I decided that, with Catherine’s patented “Brian Radar” temporarily deactivated, I would take a stroll down to Warner Robins to check out Satterfield and Dempsey Jewelers. While on the way, I thought to call Stephanie Lynn (Catherine’s fantastic photographer from Delaney Holliman’s studio who is documenting Cat’s journey). I asked her if, at the time that I finally decided to pop the question, she would be there hiding silently to record the whole thing and she was immediately on board for a little bit of inside information.
Well, when I got to Satterfield and Dempsey, I met Sam Satterfield himself and sat down with him for a bit to look at several rings by A. Jaffe. As we were looking at some things, some good, some maybe, some not so much, I still had not seen anything that truly caught my eye until, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a ring toward the right side of the case and I said, “That one!” As soon as it came out of the display, I knew that was the one for Catherine. So after a little bit of heckling and finagling (not really) and some discussion about making a matching band, I wrote the most important check of my entire life (if you don’t believe so, you should break into my bank records and see the memo line it the check – I even wrote it down for the non-believers). With it bagged, boxed and back in the car, I rushed back to I-75 as we were scheduled to be arriving at Relay for Life in only 20 minutes.
During the car ride home, I called my dad just to talk and to tell him what was going on. If you have never met my dad before, he is one of the most amazing men on the entire planet and I really look up to him for everything that he has done in my life and in the lives of so many people – that is why I asked to stand next to me on that altar and be my best man. Well while I am trying to talk to him and drive, Catherine has begun blowing up my phone with missed calls, mean messages and ALL CAPS TEXTS (adds emphasis, like I would hurry more because of capitalization?!). Well, when I get home, Catherine is waiting at the door, and I have to rush inside to change clothes and get on over to Sandy Beach park for Relay.
As I was driving back home with my knees, eating my lunch I never got to, drinking a sip if Sprite, clearing Catherine’s calls and talking to my dad, the thought occurred to me to change my original proposal plan and do the whole thing that night in front of friends, family and film crew (my alliteration skills seem almost uncanny tonight; why do these words keep coming to me in such a manner?) This whole week was just tremendous for our girl and she loved every minute of feeling rested, relatively normal and being the center of the media’s attention, but I knew that I could not cap this week off in the way I was devising without first talking to Bubba (Mr. Lee – I called him Mr. Lee when I asked – gotta be proper so as to keep him from body slamming me on the Relay track). So being rushed out the door to the Relay by Cat-Cat and Gigi seemed to spell A-I-N’T / G-O-N-N-A / H-A-P-P-E-N (I’m not quite as good as Aretha Franklin).
Well, we get on over to the Relay camp, which is only a short distance from the house and Catherine, in a pink & blue color scheme and me at her side to carry her most effeminate flowery purse, fell right into her role as Superstar Survivor. About 15 minutes after we got parked and into the tent areas for the school system, Weaver and the “Cure Catherine” girls, Bubba showed up and I started looking for my opportunity. When I saw the first available time when we were separated from everyone else and Catherine and Ms. Pam were distracted, I asked when might be a good time to talk to him. When he said, “How about Sunday afternoon?,” I was far short of having (as Uncle Lee would tell you that he is glad I had) the balls to say, “Well how about right now?” Shortly after that, another chance was presented so I gave my self a quick pep talk, said some prayers, swallowed my stomach full of nerves, checked my crotch to see if I met requirements (this is me being facetious, by the way) and asked Mr. Lee right then and there. After explaining the plan a bit more and the situation’s amazingly fast progression since this afternoon, he said “Yes” to the 3rd most important question I’ve ever asked (1st was asking for my salvation and the second comes up shortly).
Next, I went and told Stephanie and Claire Simms (phenomenal reporter from ABC Macon who did this week’s mini-series on Catherine) NOT to leave for any reason and snuck away from the crowd to head back to the Jeep for that little black box (not the thing from a plane crash, the one with the ring inside – speaking of which, if the black box is what always survives a plane crash, why don’t they just make the whole plane out of that stuff?). Once back at the tent, I managed, after a ridiculously difficult wait, to get Catherine away from the crowd. I walked her across the Relay track, but someone on that side started talking to her again. So I headed back towards where he originally started and as we crossed the track, I told Catherine how proud of her I was for how far she has come and how well I know that she is going to do after seeing just how well she did with the first half of her chemotherapy treatments. Then I told her how much I loved her and, as I tried to fight back the tears and all the distractions, I told her that I was going to get down on one knee, take a box with a ring inside from my pocket, hold her left hand and wait for her to say yes to this question...”Catherine Lee Carswell, will you marry me?” As you can see from above, she said yes, a barrage of photo-taking, filming, hugging, hand-shaking and congratulating ensued and we spent the rest of the night at the Relay being the topic of many discussions. I even saw some of my students from Westside and got to introduce them to Catherine for the first time.
When we got home, we turned on the 11:00pm ABC Macon news to watch the last segment in the mini-series and when the segmented finished, the anchor looked into the screen to say, “And with a bit of breaking news in Catherine’s story, Brian proposed tonight while at Relay for Life and the good news is that Catherine said yes.” By god man, she better have said yes. And so, the week drew to a close and we both finished the day with a new Facebook relationship status.
We are waiting on date decisions until we discuss recovery time with the doctors and surgeons a bit more, but you will always have the most up-to-date information, right here, on Catherine’s blog. Well ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, little children, dogs and cats. This will close out another segment of my guest appearance writing; I apologize for such a long entry but I know there are people out there (ahhm, ahhm, cough, couch, my momma) who want to hear all the sappy details. We love you all and thanks for reading.
Check the Ta-Tas (or have someone else – like a certified medical professional, for those with dirty minds – do it for ya). Peace, Love, Chicken and I am Dundee like the Crocodile Paul Hogan.
B (Brian “the fiancé” Aplin)
