How I Acquired my Superbowl Ring

I couldn't care less about professional football.  College football is an obsession.  I went to the University of Texas and I bleed orange, but the NFL?  No thanks...

However, on February 1, 2004, the Superbowl was held in Houston, where Steve and I lived before we moved to Austin.  As the big game was in our fair city, we decided that a party was in order.  After all, never mind the football game, it's a good excuse to get together with friends, eat junk food, drink and laugh at great commercials...not to mention the halftime show.  That was the year of Janet Jackson's highly controversial "wardrobe malfunction."  So, we invited all of our friends (who also couldn't care less about pro football), fired up the grill and set in for a long night of cocktails, grazing and socializing.

My now-husband seemed unusually anxious about people arriving on time.  He's English and punctuality is highly valued ...but seriously, when in Rome (or Texas, rather)...
Our friends know that we're not sticklers for start and finish times on our parties.  We like having a house full of friends, so I assumed he was just looking forward to having everyone over...but seriously, calm down!

Then halftime came...
Now, I'm a very observant person.  Little to nothing gets past me, but I was completely unaware that my then-boyfriend, now husband had disappeared.  I was also completely unaware that he had relinquished control of the grill (highly unusual!) and our friend Louis had taken over.  Not only that, I failed to notice the bottles of champagne that had been carried into the house.  ME, overlooking the presence of champagne in the house?!?

The bedroom door opened and my husband emerged...wearing his tuxedo!  I can't describe the feeling in my chest and the butterflies in my stomach.  Could this be it?  Why else would he be in a tux?  He'd faked me out once before...taking me to the restaurant where we met, saying things like, "Don't get lobster tonight.  You'll get your hands all mucky," then standing up, bending on one knee and saying after a pause, "You dropped your napkin!"  Seriously...I was so disappointed and almost angry!  But here he was, standing in our living room and wearing a tuxedo during the half time show of the Superbowl.  He approached me, kneeled and asked me if I'd be his wife for the rest of my life, presenting me with an engagement ring that he had designed with an independent jeweler.  A study in platinum and diamonds which I wear proudly on my left hand.  He did it entirely on his own.  The only input from me being, "Emerald cut, and no yellow gold."  I found out later that the ring had been in the house since late November.  It was February, and he decided that day to pop the question with all of our friends in attendance.

The champagne flowed...I called my parents and my sister.  It was then that I found out he'd asked my dad's permission two weeks earlier!  Mom cried...

We were all completely unaware of Janet Jackson exposing herself...until the end of the game.  I can't tell you what one advert was about, but it was the best Superbowl ever.

This year, we'll watch the game together on a much quieter scale.  Wings, fries and drinks, just him and me in our home in Austin.  I'll weigh ten pounds more tomorrow morning from grazing and drinking.  We normally eat quite healthy, but this is a special occasion.  After all, one MUST have football food on Superbowl Sunday!  I still couldn't care less about pro football, but the Superbowl will always be an event to be celebrated.

Steve and I were married on June 25, 2005, 4 1/2 years ago.  We've been together for 9, and it's been 6 years since he placed the ring on my finger.  If it's possible, I love him even more than I did then.  My girlfriends dubbed my engagement ring the "Super Ring"...and it is!  It's fantastic.

So...that's how I acquired my Superbowl Ring.  I didn't even get tackled...except by my girlfriends wanting to see it!!