Engagement Story

May 8th, 2015. Geneseo. ~4000 feet up.

Let’s back up.

I (David) was waiting for a good day to hot air balloon. I also had to go through a ton of stuff with Geneseo police and administration, because I wanted to launch from Daga Field. The launch from that field brought us very close to Niagara Hall, where Debbie and I met.

niagara hall — We got this close to Niagara Hall, in the center of the picture.

The morning of May 8th, a text message conversation:

10:22am Me: It’s so nice today

10:47am Debbie: Beautiful

11:10am Me: Let’s go for a drive

11:11am Me: You wanna get iced coffee and drive to Geneseo and get dinner at Aunt Cookies?

11:52am Debbie: Let’s do it!

This was something we had discussed in the past, but never done. The morning of May 8th I called the hot air balloon company to check that the weather would be good. Time set for 6pm.

At 3:32pm I called Debbie and she wanted to go see her students play baseball at Coca Cola Field, in downtown Buffalo. A place well-known to not be Geneseo.

At this point I’m freaking out about everything, worried that I’m going to give something away and tip her off to the proposal. What do guys who aren’t about to propose do with their hands? Would I go to this baseball game any other day? Debbie knows everybody there, buys some students popcorn, and introduces me as her boyfriend for the last time, though she doesn’t know it yet.

I checked my pocket to make sure the ring hadn’t fallen out. About 300 times.

At 4:30 I ask to leave, with no discernible excuse. We don’t know how to get to Geneseo from there, so I turn on my GPS, watching as it drains my battery more and more. A charged phone is key for those “tell the world” moments after an engagement.

At 5pm, we have to stop to get gas for Debbie’s car. Debbie goes looking for flip-flops inside the gas station store, and by insane luck that is exactly when the hot air balloon guy called me. He said that the weather was shifting, and there could be a storm. He asked if we wanted to put off the launch. We’re already on our way. Can’t trick Debbie into going to Geneseo twice. Launch is in one hour.

At 6pm we arrive at Geneseo, and we pull into the parking lot near Onondaga Field. We’re nowhere near Aunt Cookies, which was my cover story. We start walking and we pass by a hot air balloon getting unloaded. I ask Debbie if she would like to try flying in a hot air balloon some day.

She said yes.

Whew.

I yell “HI GUYS” to the hot air balloon crew, and we walk over to begin pre-flight stuff. Debbie is shocked and surprised, and very happy.

I think she figured out my plan.

So, hot air balloon baskets? They’re like, baskets. Real baskets. Wicker baskets. And they have little footholds, and you put your foot in the footholds and jump over the side to get into the basket. Then you just pray that you don’t drop the engagement ring through the footholds when you pull it out.

We launch and fly from South Side to North Side in Geneseo, over the campus from the dorm where we met, to our dorms on North Side, to the townhouses we lived in as seniors. We take pictures of the school from above, and the school takes pictures back.