The Proposal, Part 1

Okay, people. I have waited 34 years to have a proposal story, and I LOVE THIS STORY. I have met you halfway by skipping ahead TO this story before I even tell you more about our dating season, so you have to meet ME halfway and let me take a few days to tell it, okay? Trust me. It's worth the wait for the detail. Deal?

Okay. So for those of you who don't know or remember, last month, Lynne and I started a new show that we call BLT. Stands for Bekah...Lynne...Thursdays. It was born out of an idea Lynne had to offer one day a week when the two of us just banter on air together and chat with listeners. We'd gotten so much good feedback about those segments of our shows that we decided to just go for it once a week - for a whole hour. And so far, people seem to be loving it and it's truly one of our favorite things to do.

So this past Thursday we had this plan for the show. (All plans for BLT are created but flexible. If we decide we want to change something halfway through, we can. It's our BLT.) Our plan was to start with general chatter, followed by each of us sharing a moment we would relive if we could (that was Lynne's idea) followed by a segment about a funny thing one of our morning guys did (that was my idea) followed by a sharing of most embarrassing moments - and we'd open the phone lines for that, so listeners could share theirs too.

The day before the show, I got a text from one of my friends who said, "Hey did you know tomorrow is National Frappe Day?" Um, NO! I did NOT!!! So I told Lynne we had to work that into the show, and in fact, to make it authentic, we needed frappes FOR the show. She said okay.

Thursday morning I got up and had my usual morning dilemma: straighten the hair (25 minutes) or go with crunchy hair (5 minutes)? I only had time for crunchy but I was scheduled to give devotions at a church meeting that night and I knew I'd love myself more later if I spent time on my hair. So I straightened it. While straightening, I said to myself: GIRL. Your roots are out of control. Buy hair color.

I put on a kinda cute outfit because I knew I'd see Ryan at the church meeting and I always like to look cute for him if possible. So I put on a brown shirt that I like (one of the few that actually makes me feel extra good about the way I look) and a little denim skirt and my knee-high brown boots.

No time to apply my face after all the hair straightening, so I shoved the makeup in the work bag and headed out the door.

Ryan and I talk on the phone for most of my commute every morning (I know - BARF!!!) so I just sang some duets with the Gaithers until my phone rang. My ringtone for Ryan is JJ Heller's song "Who Will Love Me for Me" and when it rang that morning, I let it play just a little extra so I could hear those words...Who will love me for me...not for what I have done or what I will become...and then I answered.

We chatted for a while and I looked at the clock and realized it was after 7:30 and I was still on the regular phone with him. Usually by then he's in his car and has me on the hands-free set and he sounds like he's in a tin can. So I said, "Hey honey are you on the road yet?"

He said yes.

I said "Oh. Well I can hear you so much better today. Thank you for leaving it on the regular phone." (sigh.)

I got to work and told him how much I loved him (barf) and how much I'd miss him (double barf) and how much I couldn't wait to see him that night. Then I said, "I tried to look extra cute today." He (probably a little too quickly) asked why, and I said, "Because I'm going to see you tonight and I like to be cute for you!" I think he thought I was on to something....

So I went inside and started to get busy on the pre-show stuff. Lynne came in and said, "Where are the frappes? Didn't you get them?" I looked at her as though she'd lost her mind and said, "Um it's way too early. They'll be a melty mess by show time. I'll go out at 9:30 and get them."

She said okay and then disappeared. A minute later she came back and said very brightly, "Sheryl is going to get the frappes." I just stared at her. Why would Sheryl do my job? I mean not that I care, but it was just weird. She rushed on. "She has to run an office errand this morning and I told her we were getting frappes, so she said she'd get some for all of us."

I shrugged and said, "Okay. Works for me. Gives me more time to get stuff done. I have a LOT to do today since I won't be in the office tomorrow or Monday."

Before Sheryl left for the errand run, she stopped by to say hi. When I wheeled around in my chair, she got a look of utter HORROR on her face. I quickly said, "Oh don't worry. My face is in my work bag. I will put it on here in just a minute. Sorry it's so scary!!!" She looked relieved and left.

While she was gone, I put on my face and did one other quick little chore - slapped some light purple polish on my nails. I don't normally do my nails at work but I'd noticed that morning that the Colts blue polish I'd been sporting for a week was chipping. I HATE chipped nails. And worse than that - I hate naked nails. My general rules are: if your polish chips, redo it, and if you have holes in your ears, wear earrings. So I'd hastily removed my polish that morning and threw the light polish in my bag to repair at work so it would look good for Ryan that night.

A few minutes later, Sheryl came back and I did a photo shoot with all the frappes and their owners, so I could have blog material. Been dreadfully short of that here lately, you know. So here I am with my frappe:

 And Lynne with hers. HER FIRST EVER frappe. (She hated it.) (I was brokenhearted.)

 Ron Schneeman with his frappe. We got him one because we planned to play a song during the show - something we don't normally do - and I needed help bringing it up on the system. So he agreed to hang out in the studio with me and help me. I figured he needed a reward for babysitting the freaked out producer.

 And the lovely Sheryl Glancy with hers!

One more detail and you'll have to wait til tomorrow for more! :)

So about 15 minutes before we went on the air, Lynne breezed in to our office and said, "We're having Telos issues." (Telos is our phone system that puts our callers on the air.) I just stared at her. My first thought was Really? Because aren't the morning guys using it right this very minute?? Yes, yes indeed. I hear a caller on the air right now!!

But then I remembered they take calls in the studio I sit in for the show. Lynne sits in another room and sometimes her computer gives her fits. So maybe it was just her Telos system that wasn't working - and that wouldn't affect the morning guys.

She said, "So I'm going to sit in your studio with you while Craig fixes it." I thought Why would she do that?? Then I thought, Oh - well if Craig is messing around with the actual computer, he can't do that with a live mic running. Makes sense.

And so it was that at 10:00 a.m., I sat in my engineering seat, with a frappe beside me, my face on, my hair straight, my outfit cute, and Lynne Ford and Ron Schneeman sitting across from me.