Kally's Cauldron

For all of the unromanticedness (ok, I made that word up) of our meeting, Boo made up for it ten-fold with our engagement.

The company I was working for at the time owned a box for our local OHL team. Typically it was used to schmooze with clients but once a year our big bosses brought all the staff and paid for all the food and booze we could handle. We, of course, were welcome to bring a guest. Boo came along and we had a great old time with my co-workers. At the end of the evening, the girls and I convinced our bosses to hit the bar with us (do you notice a theme here??) Boo declined the invitation but told me to have fun. We went although didn't stay out late because, let's face it, by the time the hockey game was over, we were pretty much done anyway. I went home (we were living together by this point) and went to bed.

Roughly four hours later, Boo woke me up and told me to pack a bag and get my passport because I was being kidnapped. Obviously, the first thought I my head was "Haha, funny," but as it turns out, he was serious. So I rather begrudgingly packed a bag (and passport) and we set off. Boo told me I could sleep for a bit, so naturally, I did.

He woke me up about an hour later because we were about to cross the Canada/United States border. After crossing, he handed me the directions. Final destination: New York City! I was soooo excited.
We arrived countless hours later and checked into the Dream hotel. It was incredible! We settled in a bit and then headed out to dinner. I can't remember the name of the place we went now but the food was fantastic! After dinner, he suggested we walk through Central Park to burn off some of our supper.

We got to the park and after strolling around a bit, he told me a trip to New York wouldn't be complete without a carriage ride. So we found a carriage, hopped in and settled back to enjoy the ride.

About 10 minutes into the ride, he handed me an old ring of mine (a la Walmart) and told me he'd found it when we were packing to move and thought I might like it back since it was my favourite. It made him sad that I didn't wear it because it turned my finger green (told you it was cheap) so he had had it re-made so I could wear it all the time. At this point, he got down on one knee (yes, in a moving carriage) and asked me to be his wife. I can honestly say that this was one of the few moments in my life when I've been speechless. I just sort of nodded and the poor guy had to ask me "Does that mean yes?". I managed to squeak out a tiny yes and he put an exact replica of my favourite ring on my finger made of real gold and diamonds.

We stayed in New York for 3 more days and enjoyed countless lovely meals, shopped till we dropped at Macy's and went to see Beauty and the Beast on Broadway. It was romantic, fun and just incredible.

November is a special month for Boo and I. We started dating in November 2005 and got engaged in November 2006.

We met through a mutual friend. She was my supervisor at work and she and Boo were part of a regular group of bar-hoppers. For Halloween 2005, they all decided to hit the club but this time she invited me and another of our co-workers. We all met at her place to “pre-drink” and it was here that I met Boo. Apparently he was interested because he came over and we chatted for most of the evening until we left for the bar. We danced a bit but, frankly, he was far too short for me (I typically only dated guys over 6’...Boo’s about 5’7”). My co-worker and I left early.

A couple weeks later, the plan was to go out again and so my supervisor gave Boo our emails so he could include us in the planning loop. He sent me an email telling me that we weren’t allowed to leave early this time. We emailed a bit back and forth but I didn’t think much of it until my supervisor told me that Boo had been snooping around asking her questions about me. I still wasn’t 100% sure how I felt since he was nothing like the guys I normally dated, but he was cute and built (Why yes, I was that shallow!) I decided to just go with it and see what happened. Since Boo had an apartment downtown at the time, I asked if I could stay at his place after the bar so I wouldn’t have to bus and then walk home (I was much braver and stupider in those days). He agreed. Now I know what you’re thinking...unfortunately, I can’t really answer the question of what I was expecting to happen that night or if I was even planning on anything happening. I guess it was part of my "winging it". Apparently, it worked. We returned to his apartment after a great night (a little too great maybe) and in his highly inebriated state, he asked me if I’d be his better half. Not exactly the most romantic, but it worked.

The next morning, I wasn’t entirely sure what to say. I didn’t know exactly how drunk he’d been so wasn’t sure he even remembered anything from the previous night. Being the brave and stupid person I am, I just asked. He, in fact, did remember but apparently didn’t know the precise words he used (actually, he didn’t know them until I was regaling some of our friends with this story later on).

And thus began the story of Boo and I.