In the beginning, time stopped.  Then it started again.  That was cool.

But enough about time, there is a much more interesting story to tell at this moment and it is the one regarding the proposal I made to Jolee on July 28th, 2017.  Actually, by the time July 28th rolled around, I had changed how and when I was going to propose several times due to scheduling changes in our lives.  You see, the first time I planned to propose was going to be at Burning Man 2017, but earlier that year Jolee was accepted into the DPS Academy and would probably not be attending.  The next idea was to propose at the Tim McGraw and Faith Hill concert a month sooner, but as the concert date came closer, Jolee didn’t think she would be able to take the time away from her training to go.  The third plan was to take her to Virginia City on her birthday for the rodeo and a romantic night in a B&B, well lets just say that plan was changed back to the Tim McGraw / Faith Hill concert because someone decided she DID want to go after all, all within hours of us having to leave for Sacramento to make the concert….  

I had researched the concert and their setlist all that spring, making note of a particular song and the time it was played at each concert leading up to the July 28th one.  The plan was to get down on one knee at a certain point in the song ‘It’s Your Love’ and slip the ring on her finger.  Right on que, Tim and Faith took the stage as they had done so many nights before on this tour, the song began and I reached for the ring in my pocket to have it at the ready. But before I tell you the obvious outcome, let me set the stage, so to speak, a little better for you all so you can grasp exactly how this played out.

There we were, twenty something rows from the stage with a pretty decent view of the headliners.  The stadium seating at the Golden One Center in downtown Sacramento did not leave much room to move or spread out.  As we made out way to our seats, I was scoping the area out and realized that getting the ring out of my pocket was going to be challenging enough, let alone getting down on a knee.  Yikes!

I managed to squeeze the ring out of my wranglers without dropping it just as Tim and Faith started their song and trust me, had I dropped it, there’d be no getting it back without moving 100 people lined up like dominos. Then came the point in that fateful song, two singers, the instrumentals hushed, alone singing in harmony the verse “It’s your love, it just does something to me…”. 

With the ring on my pinky finger, tight death grip, I had to somehow wiggle out of my seat, let the seat fold back, then turn and face Jolee on a knee.  Being a respectful gentleman, I also wanted to remove my hat but there wasn’t a place to rest it.  I pretended that I dropped something, placed my hat on her lap, moved forward enough in my seat to allow it to fold away and with a confused look on her face, I slipped the ring on her finger and tried like crazy to be loud enough for her to hear me over the music and sang along “It’s your love, it just does something to me…” and she started to cry.

I don’t think but one person noticed what was going on around them, everyone else probably thought the song brought back memories for her, a real tear jerker for sure, but that one person who sat behind us the entire night, knew exactly what had gone down, and with a wink and a smile, I gave my fiancée a kiss and held her hand and we enjoyed the remainder of the concert.

~RENO~