The night I will never forget

It has finally happened. I finally asked Jennifer to marry me. And more amazingly, she said yes! It only took me 6 months to prepare for, coordinate, and try to keep it a secret.

I know that many people come to the decision to get married via rational conversations (“Hey – what are you doing for the rest of your life?” “I don’t know, how about you?” “I don’t know…wanna get married?”), oopses (“Ummm…honey, we’re going to be parents, and momma’s gonna kill me if I have a baby before I’m married…so…”), and, of course, jumbo-trons.

I knew from the beginning that the jumbo-tron was right out. And the other two options didn’t really appeal to me, so I chose the road less traveled, and went for a romantic weekend away from all of our daily stresses. We would go to Vegas. For those of you who know me, this isn’t the one in New Mexico. This would be the real thing. On top of that, I would do one of those things that they tell me is very atypical of guys…planning.

So, at Christmas of 2009, while my family was opening presents, I mentioned the beginnings of a plan to my parents and sister. I wanted to propose to Jennifer in Las Vegas, and I wanted them all to be there, along with both of her parents. As soon as I told them, it suddenly became very real to me. This was the woman that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. Which leads us to another of a guy’s worst fears, commitment.

Due to conditions beyond my control, I was not really able to set things up with her parents until the end of April. After a weekend of almost mentioning it to them (always to be interrupted by something or another), I finally got some time alone with her father. It is amazing how much terror one single person can inspire in any other single person. Especially when that other single person is me.

The conversation was something like this:

Me: “Um…uh…Do you think that you would be able to travel on the weekend of June the 11^th?”

HD (Her Dad): “Maybe, why?”

Me: “Well, I thought you might want to come with us to Las Vegas”

HD: “What’s in Las Vegas?”

Me: “I kind of want to ask Jennifer to marry me…and I think that she would really like it if you guys were there.”

HD (smiling…with a real smile, not just a ‘I’m laughing to be polite’, but a real smile): “I’m sure that we can find a way to be there. (pause) Las Vegas…In June? You know it’s going to be hot, right?”

Me: “Yep, but I’m sure we’ll be ok.”

Fast-forward a couple of months (ok, to Friday, June 11^th, 2010). The ring has been purchased (a one karat round cut classic solitaire on yellow gold, for those of you that need to know), reservations have been made, and I have put my time in at seat 14 C. We have now spent one night at The Hotel at Mandalay Bay.

My family was given free reign of everything between the Luxor and the Bellagio, while we are off to Fashion Show Mall and the shops at the forum. We spend almost the entire day going from store to store, trying some things on, buying others, and in the end, return to our hotel. At this point, it is 5:00 and dinner is at 6:30. My job is to keep her in the hotel room until I get the text message from my mom saying that everybody has met up, and there is no chance that we will cross paths on the casino floor.

While she is in the shower, I use the opportunity to come up with a lame excuse (‘I’m hungry’... If you knew me, you would know that it isn’t that far-fetched of a sentiment) and head down to Fleur de Lys to let them know that when we arrive, they should seat us even though there are only two of us, rather than all seven.

After returning to the room, I wait, and wait, and wait…is this even on? and wait. Crap. 6:25 and nothing. I guess it is time to go, and I will just have to hope that we don’t run into anybody. Just to make sure, we take the roundabout path. Phew. Nobody there.

As they take us to our seats (I reserved the wine room overlooking the dining room), I walk up with my heart racing, and my hands in my pockets. On the one hand, I hoped that if I held my phone that would make it vibrate and tell me that everybody had arrived. In the other, the little drawstring pouch with a ring inside of it, drawn as tight as possible so I won’t lose it.

We climb the stairs, and my heart beats faster. As we arrive in the wine room (with a 12,000 bottle capacity), we are left to ourselves. Just me and Jennifer, the woman that I want to spend the rest of my life with. Well, it’s now or never.

Me (turning her so that she knows to look at me, rather than through the wine): “While we were shopping, I really realized that there is one thing that you are missing.”

Her: Speechless

Me (Now taken the pouch out of my pocket, and realizing that I cannot open it): “Crap…why does this always happen to me?”

At that point, I finally get the ring out of the pouch and take a hold of her hand, positioning the ring about an inch away from her finger.

Me (quietly): “Will you marry me?”

Her (I am hoping that she hadn’t heard me, because she isn’t saying anything).

Me (Still holding the ring, waiting for an answer).

Her (Eventually): “Aren’t you supposed to ask me something?”

Me (Phew…she just didn’t hear me): “Sorry, must have been too quiet. Will you marry me?”

Her (Sliding her finger through the ring): “Yes.”

Then, of course, we kiss, hug, and just hold each other.

While all of this was happening, I apparently received a text from my mother.

After waiting a few seconds, and we just kind of look around the restaurant.

“Well, you should probably call your mom.” Even though I knew that she wouldn’t answer. At that point, I figured that I should call my parents, just for show. Although, even though it was for show, I sort of expected that somebody would pick up. First, Mom. Nothing. Then Dad. Nothing. Finally, on calling my sister, somebody picked up. It is in my conversation with my sister that Jennifer realizes that both of our families are right outside, and on their way up to the restaurant.

An evening at Red Lobster

On Thursday night, I got a chance to officially meet the mastermind behind Red Lobster’s food, Chef Michael LaDuke. It turned out to be a quiet dinner for three bloggers (of which Jennifer is much more prolific than I am, but I got to go along as the plus one), two publicists, and one head chef.

I had never been to Red Lobster before meeting Jennifer 3 and a-half years ago. To be honest, I never really wanted to go to a place that my dad often referred to as the “Red Blobster”. On its own, that was generally enough to turn me off to it. But, when you pair that with remembering commercials that prominently feature fried shrimp, it was just never somewhere I really wanted to have a full meal. However, I thought I would give the dinner, and a trip through the menu, a try.

So, we battled through a Thursday night rush hour to get down to Bloomington about 10 minutes early and were taken to a table with the chef. While the other bloggers arrived, we had our chance to get to know Chef Michael. At this point, it is still the usual “Where are you from?” (Orlando, but born in upstate NY), “Where have you cooked?” (17 years at Disney, and now 5 at Red Lobster), and “Do you have a family?” (Married, with 1 boy and 1 girl). By this time, everybody had arrived and we were ready to begin our dinner.

We started with one of the oldest items on the menu, the Lobster Pizza. Overall, this dish was pretty good. Pizza crust, lobster meat, mozzarella, tomatoes, basil, and, the most important to me, a squeeze of lemon juice. I say that the lemon was the most important because when I got a bite with the lemon juice, the pizza was very well balanced. However, when I took a bite that didn’t have the lemon juice, it was way too salty for me.

Our second dish was the first of the entrees, the Maui Luau Shrimp and Salmon, which, Jennifer and I agreed was probably one of the best dishes we had. We received one filet of salmon, and one skewer of shrimp, both brushed with a sweet and spicy sauce, and then cooked over the ever-important wood-fire grills, which are now standard at all Red Lobsters. This was served with grilled pineapple, broccoli, and the wild rice pilaf. I was perfectly happy with the amount of spice that was in the dish, at least when I used the Thai chili sauce that came with the dish.

Our next dish was the Mango-Jalapeno Shrimp Skewers. These were served with lightly battered onion rings, which I found myself returning to throughout the rest of the meal. There were only two issues that I had with this dish. 1 – I couldn’t get the shrimp off the skewers (possibly a user malfunction rather than a food malfunction) and 2 – I could barely taste the jalapeno, so to me, it was just a sweet mango shrimp dish. In all fairness, it was still tasty, but I was hoping for a bit more heat. Of course, from everything that I can tell, I like food a little spicier than the average American, which is who the cooks at Red Lobster are cooking for. When you are cooking for two million Americans per week, it is probably best to shoot for middle of the road.

Next came the one dish we tried for anybody who doesn’t care for seafood, the Maple-Glazed Chicken. This is one of the newer additions to the menu, which was developed based on Chef Michael’s love of maple syrup. Again, it was served over the wild rice pilaf. I was definitely able to taste the maple in the dish, but often I couldn’t taste very much cherry, even when I would have a bite with an entire cherry in it. The dish wasn’t bad, considering that people don’t go to Red Lobster for the land animals.

The final entrée was the Wood-Grilled Tilapia with Spicy Soy Broth, which was served with oven roasted fresh asparagus, tomatoes, and red onions. And, of course, some more rice pilaf. This was another pretty strong dish. The soy broth had just a hint of wasabi, which gave it a nice little zip. The vegetables were cooked just right, and the whole dish came together nicely. This dish cost $17.99 and was the most expensive dish that we had that night. For me, that is the upper limit of what I am willing to spend on dinner at a casual chain restaurant. However, it was not the most expensive thing on the menu.

We did have 3 desserts, which I will mention briefly, but not go into much detail about. They were the Chocolate Chip Lava Cookie, the New York Style Cheesecake with Strawberries, and finally the Chocolate Wave (a large slice of chocolate cake). All of them were good, but I did have a bit of an issue with the lava cookie and the chocolate wave. They were HUGE!We had some interesting conversations throughout the night, and the overall health of Americans came up now and again. One of the things that Chef LaDuke said was that “We can’t change how Americans eat. They will eat what they want to”. Which is fine. I, however, believe that he is trying to change how Americans eat. They have recently put in wood-fire grills to all locations. That sounds pretty healthy to me. Also, he mentioned that the menu was down to 18-27% fried now, which is down from previous years. Portions of the entrees were a good size, but not obscene, by any stretch of the imagination. But then to unload these huge desserts came as quite a surprise to me. On the positive side, it sounded like that might be changing in the near future, but we will just have to wait and see.

Overall, my experience at Red Lobster was not at all what I was expecting, and I will probably start to consider it as a possibility for a casual dinner. If you want to find out what Jennifer had to say about the dinner, check out her blog at: http://www.aselfconfessedfoodie.com