In the spring of 1995, my sister and her boyfriend were engaged, set to be married on August 19th of that same year. Their wedding plans fell through, but Susan and I had been living together for a couple of years by then and since all of our family in Chicago had already made plans to come to Oklahoma on August 19th we decided to get married on that same date.

All of this happened before I officially proposed.

When I was a kid, my parents would hide our Easter eggs the night before Easter after my sister and I had gone to sleep, and would make a list detailing where each egg was hidden. It’s a good system, one that prevents a forgotten, smelly egg from being discovered later in the spring.

Or summer.

The night before Easter of 1995, Susan and I sat down and colored eggs. Later that night I hid them in really hard to find places around the house. I then made a list of fourteen clues to help Susan find them the following morning. The final clue ib the list suggested that she go back and read the first letter of each clue. The first letter of each clue spelled out W.I.L.L.Y.O.U.M.A.R.R.Y.M.E.

It was perhaps not the most romantic of proposals, but it was definitely my style.

Here we are twenty years later, still coloring and hiding eggs.