I wasn’t having the best of days yesterday. I threw on some sweat pants and an old camp counselor sweatshirt and headed to my 8 a.m. class exhausted. What made it worse was halfway during work (which is immediately after 3 morning classes), I realized my carrots had wilted in my lunchbox. If you didn’t know, I’m currently a blogger for HerCampus.com and SEL
F magazine’s “Lose the Freshman 15” program and without my snack, I was short on calories for the day. Aka. By the time I got home…I was dying and half asleep.
So as I made my Kashi frozen dinner, I called my mom around 5:00. But mid-convo I had another call come through. DeDee, who doesn’t usually call at this time, was on the other end with what sounded like incoherent sobs. All I could make out was that she wanted to stop by, so I immediately ended the convo with my mom and started picking up around my apartment.
But… she happily came to the door– nothing wrong with her at all– and smiled while handing me a clue:
“Where is the absolute first place you go when going on a road trip with Addison.”
I just looked at her. “DeDee…I have no idea what this means. I’m hungry and lightheaded.”
My initial thought was the bathroom (which Clayton agreed with me!), but it turns out it was the car. DUH. And Oh! His keys were magically on my counter.
“You might want to change,” DeDee said. She recommended a dress. I knew something special was happening (thanks for helping me not get engaged in a sweat suit, DeDee!).
We went to the car which had another clue which prompted me to to go to his house to look for the clue behind his Link shield which he keeps mounted on his wall (from Ocarina of time). The next clue told me to go to the game room where we first met, but being tired and hungry, I didn’t want to drive.
Luckily, his roommate volunteered (or so I thought) and he drove me to the Student Union where I found the next clue stuck to a dart board with a dart. Now…this clue I totally didn’t understand.
“I’m in need of a good scratch, but I don’t itch. When you find me, you can’t scratch me.”
Huh? So I called up DeDee because I figured she had some doing with this and begged for some help. Eventually she helped me realize that it was referring to scratch off tickets (which Addison won’t let me buy lol). She suggested
that Shinners (the roommate who drove me) knew where to get a good one.
So we drove to Hess where I went into the gas station where my friend actually was working (fun fact: He wasn’t in on it at all. It was a coincidence entirely!) and he and his coworker both said in unison, “Ask your driver. But don’t scratch it.”
SO I asked Shinners. Yup, in on it the whole time. He pulled out the clue with a scratch off ticker from his glove compartment. This clue said:
“If Boone had a Hollywood sign, it would go here.”
I thought I knew exactly where that was, but before I could ask Shinners to take me there, Clayton runs out of the gas station shouting, “Out of the car, Nikki! You’re coming with me!”
So we got into his big truck and he drove me up the mountain where lo’ and behold. ANOTHER CLUE! Now, this clue was extra exciting:
“Ok…it’s time to get serious. Where would your perfect engagement take place?”
THE GAZEBO ON RIVER STREET! So we hurried along only to find— Clayton’s girlfriend and my friend Megan. Talk about let down (sorry, Megan!)
Her clue confused me too. At this point, my tummy was really rumbling so my cognitive skills were not entirely up to par:
“Tomato, Minestrone, chicken noodle + Michael Scott.”
Huh? They weren’t going to help me this time and I had to guess for myself. I thought maybe I had to go to my brother’s house since his name is Michael Scott and he makes Italian food.
Wrong. Luckily they helped me out when I wanted to go there. Turns out it was a re-bus to mean: Soup– Office. Ah-HA! The Supervisor’s office in the student union.
Yup, taped to the supervisor’s office door. This clue really threw me through a loop. It basically told me to go to the sex shop in Boone?!?!
Yeah…this had to be someone else’s idea. Addison won’t even look at that place when h e drives by it. Maybe they were trying to throw me off? Megan sure was trying to throw me off saying that the end wasn’t what I was expecting and she was going to laugh. I figured she was right. Shouldn’t get my hopes up, after all, he already faked me out once.
So Megan drove me to Night Secrets and there we found the happiest, beaming cashier lady ever. She hands me a clue and says, “You’re a lucky lady! 
Congratulations!”
I smiled. Immediately Megan says, “Congratulations for what? Getting the clue right?” At this point, the cover was definitely blown.
The clue was “Where did we go for our first fancy date. Hint: Meow, Meow, Meow. HOT!
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof! We saw the play Cat on a Hot Tin Roof! Time to go Farthing Auditorium, but Megan refused to take me. Then we turned a corner and there was Kyle! (Another one of Addison’s roommates and a good friend of mine). He happily drove me to Farthing but as we’re driving down Rivers St., I turn and notice Addison sitting in the Gazebo!!! Turns out, he thought we were in front of him and DeDee, but they were actually in front of us!
We go to Farthing and at the box office is another clue: “You know Charles Wilkes? You haven’t seen him in a while. How about a quick trip?”
DeDee pulled up behind Kyle (turns out my brother was supposed to be the last driver but couldn’t make it at the last minute) and she was like “Hey! Where you headed?”
And I was like, “DeDee! I left my phone at home so I don’t have Charles’ number!”
“That’s okay! We’re BFFs and I’m going there anyway to pick some stuff up.”
Yeah…right.
Charles is my brother’s old roommate who also works at the student union with Addison and me. He actually moved into Addison’s old apartment— where we had our first kiss.
Charles happily gave me the clue. It said something like: “Remember that perfect proposal spot? I think you may have forgotten something back there…”
So DeDee drops me off at the gazebo on Rivers Street— and there he is. Addison was sitting there with a long stem red rose. He gave me the rose and said, “I just wanted a unique way of asking you to dinner.”
…..Wait. What?
And then he goes on and on about how for the past three years we’ve made so many memories and how he just wanted to remind me of some of the places that were special to us—- the game room for where we met, the top of the mountain for where we sit at night to watch Boone light up while 
eating fast food (I asked him about the sex shop and he said it was definitely not his idea. It was a ploy someone suggested to throw me off (don’t worry mom!)).
Honestly, I don’t remember too much about his speech because I was getting freaking excited. I do remember one part though because I interrupted him.
“And I just can’t grow old with you.”
“Wait….what??” I stopped him.
“Huh?”
“You can’t grow old with me?”
“OH! OH! I can’t WAIT to grow old with you. WAIT WAIT!”
Lol. That’s my man.
Finally he was like, “Actually…this is more than just dinner. I have a question to ask you.”
And he got down on one knee and asked.
I honestly couldn’t say anything except nod like a fool. Finally I just kissed him and then was able to mutter, “YES!” Just then, I heard cheering behind us. Some of our friends who were involved were behind us….including our photography major friend Nikki LaFaille who happened to take pictures during the whole thing.
I loved everything about my proposal and I love how Addison (w/ DeDee’s awesome coordinating help) got all our friends involved because honestly, our friends mean the world to us and without them, we would have never even won our ring. Like Addison said, our friends really do mean a lot to us in our relationship. We’re so thankful everyone of you guys!
I’m still on cloud nine and really exhausted still! Can hardly sleep! But I am sooooo thankful to Simon G. Jewelry for helping us with our Perfect Proposal. AND I am so stoked to be the Future Mrs. Miller!
Small things. Big dreams. 