It was a sunny Sunday afternoon in mid-May, 2009. Ananda and Susan had plans to attend a wedding in downtown Toronto that evening. Earlier in the weekend, Ananda had casually said "Oh, well, I'll come to Toronto a bit early to give you your birthday present" -- since the busy couple hadn't gotten around to that yet!
Early in the afternoon, Susan's doorbell rang. Unbeknownst to Susan, Ananda had enlisted the help of his trusty roommate and co-collaborator, Dave, to come to her house, drop off the present and some balloons at the door, ring the doorbell and run away. A good plan -- dependent only on Susan's attention and the doorbell actually working -- one of which failed miserably. (There is still a raging debate as to which.) After trying this doorbell-ringing business several times, Dave finally had to call Ananda -- who pretended to call Susan from just outside the door, saying "Where are you? I keep ringing the bell and you're not answering!"
Finally, Susan answered the door, to find a bunch of balloons and a gift, and no Ananda anywhere in sight. Where could he be? She scanned left...scanned right...and finally decided to open the gift and the card.
The gift was a GPS, turned on and pre-programmed to direct her to a mystery location. The card suggested that she get in her car and try the GPS out.
So...she did...kind of maybe perhaps thinking something was up at this point. The GPS, speaking in a flawless British accent, directed her to a park close to her house, familiar to the couple from many picnic dates early in their relationship. In fact, it directed her to a specific parking lot within the park -- one spot of which was decorated with another bunch of balloons.
Susan got out of her car. She was wishing she'd worn something slightly nicer than the black t-shirt, torn jeans and flip-flops in which she'd left the house. She followed a trail of single balloons from the parking lot up a hill, to a single park bench looking out over the lake towards the skyline. A third bunch of balloons was tied to the bench, and -- poof -- just as she approached, they detached and floated up into the clear sunny sky.
On the bench was a black journal, tied with a simple white ribbon. Inside the journal was a message about our lives being a story -- of love, adventure, trial and bliss -- that had not yet been written.
On the next page: the ring, in a box, nestled in a hole cut deep into the journal's pages; and a simple question: "Will you write it with me?"
At this point, Ananda appeared -- dressed in his best suit -- got down on one knee, and asked Susan to marry him!
And of course, she said yes. :)
