Chika Reproposal - Wonderin' & Wanderin' Wednesday

So last week after nine years with my beautiful and wonderful Chika, I re-proposed to her. Mostly because I’m an idiot and she’s wonderful and in order for her to stay with a knucklehead like me, I’ve got to show her that I’m not always a knucklehead. Here is how I planned the day, and how the day spooled out. I wanted to surprise her of course, so being blasé about our day in Asheville, NC had to seem unplanned.  So I dropped little tidbits of information about things that I’d “just” found out and maybe wanted to do that day. The long version is below, the nutshell version is at the end of the page.

We left Greenville around 10:30am and arrived in Asheville around noon.  Just in time for lunch at one of Chika’s favorite restaurant, Posana. The meal was great; Chika had an omelet with delicious French fries, and I had braised tempeh on a bed of couscous and beans. Yum!

I had said that the reason I wanted to go to Asheville was to get out of town, but that I still had a lot of work to get done (MFA work, this part was true).

When Chika went to the Asheville Coop, I pretended that I wanted to get a cookie, which I did, but also dropped off a video at the Asheville Fine Arts Theatre.  More on that later.

So we walked around some, and then settled in at Dobra Tea to get a bit of work done.  I read and did a bit of writing, Chika worked on an art project that she had, a dragonfly pin. 

At this point Chika has nothing but the merest hint that the evening is going to be different.  I’ve casually mentioned that I’d like to catch a movie, and then a bit later mentioned that there’s a Langhorn Slim concert that I may or may not want to catch later on.  The plan is progressing smoothly!

We went to dinner at the Corner Kitchen.  Chika is starting to be a little suspicious, but I think I’m acting casual enough. I mention that I’ll go order the hors d'oeuvres, but then drop the ring off with the waitress with instructions to bring it with dessert. I read the menu to Chika so she’ll really get what she wants and won’t worry about the price. She’s frugal, my honey!

With dessert, I took the ring and re-proposed, telling her how wonderful she is, and how she really helps me to be a better person. And how she’s beautiful and creative and thoughtful and kind and sexy and, well, you get the picture. When we started to leave, a few of the people in the restaurant were confused, because they though I was proposing, but I already had a ring.  When I told them I was re-proposing, everyone in the restaurant applauded.

Right afterwards we went to see The Artist at the Fine Arts Theatre. The folks here are awesome. I had called them earlier in the week and asked them if I could play a short video before the movie started and they said, “No problem!”.  So we’re sitting in the movie theater and the lights go down and Chika thinks we’re just going to see the previews, but instead they play this three minute video which was a “Thank you for being wonderful and with me” Video right up there on the big screen.  It was fantastic!  Watch the video I made for Chika below:

After the movie, we went to see Langhorne Slim at The Grey Eagle.  I had emailed everyone on Langhorne Slim’s website: managers, website designers, booking dudes, but hadn’t heard back. We went in but then decided to grab something from the car. On the way back to the car I gave Chika the pretense that I wanted to ask a question of the merch booth guy. He said he'd gotten the word, and the band was on board.

So Langhorne Slim came out after the encore, alone, and said this song is for Chika and Travis for keeping love alive and being an inspiration to the rest of us. He didn’t just blurt something out. It was obvious that he’d really thought about it.  Below is a video of the song he dedicated to Chika. You can even hear him apologize to me in the middle of the song

A bit of it starts at 1:30. He starts singing doo-doo-doo-doo at 1 minute, 30 seconds, and then at 1 minute 50 seconds says:

“It’s interesting, that in music, saying doo-doo over and over again sounds really great. Travis I really hope I didn’t just ruin the moment."

We waited in line afterwards. I thanked Langhorne Slim, bought a couple of CD’s that I had him sign, and we took a picture.

We finished up the night at the Residencies at Biltmore, which has a hot tub!  Chika loves hot tubs!

Evening in a Nutshell:

• Corner Kitchen – had the waitress bring the ring with dessert and then, ‘pon bended knee, re-proposed to Chika
• Fine Arts Theatre – played a short video before the previews started.
• Langhorne Slim at The Grey Eagle – surprise song dedication. ‘Land of Dreams’
• Residencies at Biltmore – surprise stay at a really nice hotel. With a hot tub!

Damn, I’m a lucky guy.  :)