The Proposal Story |
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Many weeks before her birthday, Sunil had been hinting that they would be doing something special and that she should keep that day open. Whenever she would ask him for details, he would say, "We'll probably do nothing, but just keep the day open." Her birthday fell on a Sunday, so in the interest of making no plans for that day, they decided they would celebrate her birthday with friends over dinner on Saturday night.
The week before her birthday, Sunil decided that it would be fun to head up to the Sonoma Valley with their bikes on Saturday, and ride around before heading back to Palo Alto for dinner. (He somehow made her believe it was her idea to begin with.) He mentioned that they would want to make sure they were well-rested for whatever was planned for Sunday.
Saturday morning rolled around, and Gopi was woken up at 5:15 am by Sunil saying that there was a great place to see the sunrise in Sonoma, and they shouldn't miss it. She grumbled about the hour, but she figured they'd be back in no time and be able to sleep in before the bike riding. Before leaving, she insisted on taking a picture of themselves making sad faces to document that she was NOT happy about her sleep being interrupted.
When they got to the supposed sunrise spot, she was eventually told that they were actually there to take a hot air balloon ride, and that they were in fact in a private balloon instead of being piled in with 6 other people. Any cognizant person might have gotten suspicious then, but she was still half asleep, and didn't think too much of it. When she asked when he had made this plan, he told her it was a few days ago-- when they decided to head to Sonoma.
After helping with the balloon preparations, Sunil and Gopi took off with their balloon operator. It was so beautiful - the weather was perfect, and they saw sprawling vineyards and rolling hills from the balloon. The balloon operator was giving directions via walkie talkie to the crew on the ground ("Turn left now. Okay, that field looks good.") and Gopi just assumed he was telling them where they should pick them up when their balloon landed. A few minutes later Sunil asked Gopi to check out an interesting landmark on the ground. She saw a large white sheet with the words "Gopi!!! Will you marry me?" spray-painted on.
All she could say in response was, "You're crazy! You're crazy!" and then she turned to Sunil (who was as much on one knee as you can get in an oversized basket) with an open ring box in hand. The balloon operator said, "Is that a yes? Because I wouldn't want to ruin my record." She finally got out a "yes" and the rest of the ride was somewhat of a blur. It turned out that Sunil really had nothing planned on Sunday and the emphasis on Gopi's birthday was all a decoy-- the hot air balloon had been booked weeks ago for Saturday! They got back to Palo Alto for dinner, and had a good time stunning their friends with their story.
