2012 December 21 (Friday) : I do!

My princess and I start the day off in a little slice of heaven they call Steak N’ Shake.  I have been privileged recently to be able to show up at a location daily and for the Lord Himself to foster my finger strokes into poetry and for this I take NO CREDIT, for the glory is ALL HIS and I thank Him from the bottom of my heart that He is doing something here, the scope of which I can only imagine and for this, I repeat, I take no credit.  So back to Steak N Shake.  I describe to my princess the world of Marty McFly, taking on the jerk of his arena, Biff, and rescue his princess Jennifer, even if he has to go Back to the Future to do it, for it feels I have just stepped into a time portal somewhere back there and find myself in the 50’s in conservative America. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtvYaK6cm0g

A waitress, Lily greets me with a cheerful American drawl, my princess goes to the bathroom.  Lily offers me coffee, a bottomless cup it turns out. Everything is suddenly almost perfect again.  The roads I understand need to be upgraded to gold, but everything else is in place.  This morning, we have had SNOW and I have helped the King de-ice the doors of the vehicles, sort the snow and iron out the ice from the relevant parts of the vehicles, unfortunately breaking a deicer in the process, for THAT is how much ice there has been under the snow.  Heavenly! So my princess and I have driven through the snow to get here and that has added to the feeling of super surreal for me, for I am a virgin at all of this.  Not to worry, for a deicer here is only $3 and a hop, skip and a jump away and I give my word to the king that I am happy to replace it.  So we order two skillets of a delicious delicacy and it is so perfect for about a solid hour or so that I am deliriously happy again. We then go across to Cherryvale Mall and I get more of my bearings with the GPS.

Now Cherryvale Mall is a wonderland of a different sort – basically all you can wish for under one roof, so I ask my princess if we can look around for signs of Pimsleur or Rosetta Stone.  She agrees willingly and we find ourselves in the Aladdin’s Cave of Barnes and Noble. I decide to do the correct thing and ask the locals for their opinion and the lady teller selling both courses recommends Spanish rather than French.  Spanish is the secondary lingua franca here and I determine to follow the Lord’s leading here rather than my own first choice of French, because, wow!  Así que tomé el curso de español Pimsleur I a III y gracias a la magia de la tecnología, tengo en mis manos un buen comienzo en español. Por supuesto, aprecio que es más probable que mis idiomas en inglés no sean traducibles directamente al español, que es donde mi base de datos lingüística será muy útil para aquellos que van a encontrar ese tipo de función útil, por lo que tengo toda la confianza que tengo. tengo un conjunto de habilidades comerciales aquí en los Estados Unidos, debido a una flecha en mi carcaj, por así decirlo. Y pasamos la mayor parte del resto del día en el cielo, que es el centro comercial Cherryvale para Navidad. Aproximadamente a las tres de la tarde, llamamos a la tienda de joyas para una entrega especial que ambos estamos pidiendo. La princesa Kim conversa con la princesa Jessica y hacemos un plan para regresar para una tercera visita. Tenemos un pequeño altercado sobre el GPS en la carretera, ya que parece que puedo confiar más en la tecnología que mi princesa, pero eso pronto se olvida, ya que no tiene sentido, nada más. Llegamos a la tienda de gemas y mi princesa entra primero y sale con algo secreto para mí y luego entro y obtengo algo secreto para ella. Luego volví al coche, deslizándome un poco más de las aceras heladas desde la mañana, y escuché a mi princesa lamentarme de deshacer el programa del Concejo Municipal de Rockford y mezclar sus pensamientos con los míos sobre las lasitud del tercer mundo en general y la ironía de que Los pensamientos estaban en comparación. Me parece que es como quejarse de que el cielo no es lo suficientemente bueno.

So I took the Spanish language course Pimsleur I to III and thanks to the magic of technology, I have in my hands a good start in Spanish. Of course I appreciate that my English idioms are more likely not to be directly translatable into Spanish, which is where my linguistic database will be very useful for those who are going to find that kind of useful function, so I have all the confidence that I have a set of marketable skills here in the United States, because of one arrow in my quiver, so to speak. And we spend most of the rest of the day in heaven, which is Cherryvale shopping mall for Christmas.

At about three in the afternoon, we call the jewel shop for a special delivery that we are both asking for. Princess Kim chats with Princess Jessica and we make a plan to go back for a third visit. We have a minor altercation about the GPS on the road, as it seems that I am able to put more confidence in the technology than my princess, but that is soon forgotten, since it is nonsense, nothing more. We get to the Gem store and my princess comes in first and comes out with something secret for me and then I go in and get something secret for her. Then back to the car, sliding a little more on the icy sidewalks since morning, and I heard my Princess lament the lassitude of thawing Rockford and intermingle her thoughts with mine of the lassitude of the investment in the third world in general and the irony that the thoughts were in comparison. It seems to me that it is like complaining that heaven is not good enough..?  Perspective. But yes, I must be patient with this Princess.

So a small break here to particularize a point to Princes.  When your princess offers you that kind of irony, be patient with her.  I am pleased to say I had the good sense to shut the heck up and my afternoon, evening and night were infinitely better for it.  Sure we disagreed on the GPS, but should that spoil any more than two minutes worth of a day?  HELL, NO!  Sure, she has no clue what inimitable ineptitude the third world is capable of, but SO WHAT?  Keep your arguments with your princess short, princes, DETERMINE TO DO SO and I am certain she will make your life better than you ever dreamed possible.  Now I admit for the second time I have never been to any marriage counseling, but these, I believe are the building blocks and I am certain that Prince Dave, Prince Colin, Prince Aaron, Prince Jeff and Prince David can readily confirm or deny this for me in due time.  Certainly all of my insight on this topic remains, at this point, theoretical but I believe with all my heart the Lord is about to show us all something incredibly practical in these and the next chapters of our lives. So back to the secret something’s.  I have absolutely no idea what my princess got for me, but I got her an engagement ring.  I asked my princess what was her favorite place in the world, for I knew we will treasure this moment in our hearts for the rest of our lives together.

Since the Rockton police sat outside the park – option 1 in princess Kim’s mind at the time and seemed to intimidate her and since it was cold enough to make my princess shiver, she suggested we go back to the house to warm up.  “Fair enough,” I thought, for this has to be perfect and ALL detractors drowned out.  We returned to a dark house and turned on the lights and the heat and I shoveled the snow off the deck as much as I could and there knelt in what snow remained and I asked my princess for her heart.  And she willingly gave it. 

"What satisfaction didst thou have tonight?  The exchange of thy love’s faithful vow for mine. " Truly, we will go out to the perfect dinner and do the right thing, for I know that is in my princesses’ heart although I have not yet heard “The Perfect Romance” by Princess Kimberly nor yet have seen all what her moving hand hath writ.  But it will be perfect.  It will, for she already wears a diamond on her finger and my princess has said, “I do!”