Great Stories Contest

In case you were not aware, Jake Box started a new contest...check out his blog to figure it out.

I have so many good TRUE stories that people can hardly believe are true. From Audio Adrenaline using my guitar on stage at a concert, to playing football with Jars of Clay 5 on 5, to being the head engineer for a national Warner Brothers publication (twice), to being in a band and selling 1000 albums and getting interviewed and played on the radio, to playing as the opening band for the Supertones and All Star United, to meeting Shaded Red, Plum, Shane Barnard, all of the aforementioned bands, and more. It's just too hard to decide which story to use. However, I think for my first official entry I'll go with how I proposed to my beatiful wife, Beth...

JASON'S OFFICIAL GREAT STORIES CONTEST ENTRY #1

It was getting close to our 4 year dating anniversary and she was sure I was going to propose on the actual day so I decided to do it about 2 weeks before, just to throw her off. It was a Wednesday and we were both at our respective jobs doing our every day routine...so she thought. I had taken the entire day off and had even contacted her boss a week prior to make sure what I was about to do was OK. About an hour or so before she was scheduled to leave for the day, I showed up in her office with my guitar. She worked around a corner so she couldn't see me coming. I just started playing my guitar and walking around the corner singing a song I had written for her the week before:
"Words to Say"
I searched my heart for words to say
That might explain just how I feel
It almost hurts to search so deep
When I've never felt this way before
You are the answer to my prayer

Cause you are more beautiful than I could ever know
And you are more precious than I'd imagined
Elizabeth, I'm in love with you

I took her to the car and blindfolded her. The actual destination was in the same parking lot of downtown Dallas, but I wanted to throw her off so I just drove around in a big circle for about 5-10 minutes. We ended up at a place called the Dallas World Aquarium. It's basically an indoor rain forest with monkeys, crocodiles, birds, penguins, snakes, fish, tons of wildlife and tons of cool plants/trees.

The coolest part was that we were the ONLY people in the aquarium other than staff. A normally crazy crowded place was closed for regular business and I had rented the place out just for us.

Outside we went to the penguin exhibit, and on the way back in we had to walk underneath the big aquarium arch (you're completely surrounded by water and you can see the fish, etc.) and in there was a diver who as we walked underneath held up a giant sign that said "BETH, WILL YOU MARRY ME?"-and then it had a "YES" and "NO" checkbox By the time she turned around towards me to make sure it was for real I was already knelt down with a ring in my hand. I proceeded to tell her how much I care for her and how much I love her, then with tears in my eyes I asked her to marry me.

Of course she said YES!

We walked out to the rest of the aquarium exibit and there was a table set up for two with a candle and a rose (yes, in the middle of the aquarium all to ourselves). We were served wine and bread. They brought the sign from the tank (it was in waterproof ink) out to Beth and handed her a marker to check the "YES" box! We ate our dinner surrounded by many tanks of exotic fish from all around the world! We were free to wander around the whole aquarium to see and go where we wanted! Dessert was a decadent chocolate cake with rasberries, blueberries, and blackberries and champagne!
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Beat THAT TRUE story!