all things mau

Ali and I had yet another bash this weekend, in celebration of Halloween. Our party theme; Zombie Prom. Complete with the cheesy Prom Photo area and Polaroid camera, Ice block shot luge, and Guitar Hero play zone.

But I had my own motives for such a party. I thought to myself

“hey self”

“yeah mau”

“What opportunity could you take advantage of, with 30+ of your closest friends gathered to celebrate death and booze?”

“hmmm…. how bout arrange an AA meeting?”

“no I was thinking you propose to Alison”

“Good call”

Well, this wasn’t completely out of the blue. I’ve been planning a proposal for weeks, but was having trouble finding that magic, memorable, mau-ized moment. But let me back up to the beginning.

Boy meets Girl in College on the ballroom dance team. Boy and Girl commiserate over how much they dislike the team because they’re too immature to admit how much we really like the ballroom dance team. Boy and Girl “hook up“ in Vegas after breaking Boy’s car. Boy and Girl’s events do not “stay in Vegas”. Boy leaves Girl. Correction, Girl leaves Boy. Correction, Boy and Girl aren’t sure where they stand. Boy begins career while Girl goes to Italy. Girl comes back to live in sin with Boy. Boy and Girl have a child and name it Suckatash, because she looks like a cat. Boy and Girl live in just about every subculture hood of Los Angeles collecting friends along the way as if they where a real life Katamari Damacy. Boy and Girl Careers blossom. Boy and Girl Love Blossoms.

Now you’re all caught up to Last Thursday. I played hooky from work and took a trip to downtown LA to browse the Jewelry District for that special rock. Ok, maybe pebble on my budget. Grain of sand really. The district itself can be pretty overwhelming. It’s like you’re in the streets of the futuristic Blade Runner somewhere between TJ and Beverly Hills and the main dialect is Japaspanglish. I had struck a deal with some of the rock people on Hill and 6th street earlier in the week with the help of some entrenched friends. Part of the deal was that I pay in cash. I’ve never walked 3 blocks with that much money on my pocket, let alone that close to skid row. Alas, I made it safely into the heavily guarded building at the expense of looking like a schizophrenic with turrets.

“I’m here to pick up a ring for Mauricio, well, actually, it for my girlfriend, or rather fiancé, well, not yet fiancé, but I’m picking it up cuz I was here a few days ago and I spoke to Elena who was very nice…where’s my mommy?…”

“Hi Mauricio, I remember you, It’s all ready, and it’s beautiful”

And it was. The gravity of what was going to happen in the following days fell upon me. It made me wonder how often these Jewelry guys watch people glow in a manner reserved for loved ones. It immediately erased this notion I had that Jewelry folk where cold money grubby shysters. I beamed at him. He beamed back. We drew closer, slowly. Then he asked for the cash. What a shyster.

The thing about having an engagement ring in your possession, is that once you have it, you want to get rid of it as soon as possibly. It’s a good thing there’s usually somebody in your life that will gladly take it off your hands. But what I mean is that, it’s really tough to hide it for multiple days. I found exactly 20 spots to hide the ring and exactly 20 justifications not to hide it there.

“I can’t hide it in my underwear drawer, what if she decides to empty the drawer and refold all my chonies.”

“What if there’s an earthquake and the cabinet doors fly open and the 10lb suitcases and sheets fly out revealing the ring”

“Tash will accidentally eat it there”

“I will accidentally eat it there”

I opted for behind a drawer, but checked on it every other hour.

Party time drew near. I knew better than test Murphy’s law and try to choreograph a specific moment to pop the big question. I told nobody of what was about to unfold, since my friends are not theater majors, and I would prefer people enjoy themselves the entire night, rather than waiting for a “moment. The unknown factor was a stressor, so thank dog for the Massets and Greenhecks co-producing the party. For some reason, I found myself relatively calm and relaxed after 3 beers and 3 luge shots, not sure why.

Around midnight, Kevin Hughes approached me.

“Mau, do you happen to have Michael Jackson’s Thriller?”

“of course I do”

“put it on and I’ll get everybody to do the music video Dance.”

“um… ok.”, -metaphorical light bulb- “OK!”

I pocketed the ring box, in my torn and bloodied zombie slacks, then, searched my itunes music library for “Jackson, Michael”. I grabbed Mel, my co-podcaster and fellow blogger and told her.

“Mel, sober up. I need you to be trigger happy on the camera as soon as this song is over”

“uh… ok”

I would have never thought what was to follow would leave a soft spot in my heart for zombies, Michael Jackson, and bullet holes. The commotion of the zombie dance drew the attention of the entire, normally partitioned 4 cliques of the party; The “Dance Floor”, The Deck, The Kitchen, the living room. With all eyes on the zombie gyrations, we danced our soulless hearts out. When the song ended, I grabbed Alison by the arm, interrupting her B-line for the shot luge. I did the ol’ drop of the knee and had to enunciate “Will you marry me” and shove the ring box in her face in order to overcome the noise. The awesome thing about huge moments like this is that they tend to overwhelm everyone, not just the recipient. Everyone reacted pretty calmly.

“oh shit!”

said the crowd.

“oh f#%k”

said my fiancé. It was all so incredibly romantic. Now I know I’m completely embarrassing my fiancé now by publishing her reaction. But the thing is, It’s so cute and endearing to me. That my friends, is sincere joy and surprise.

You can view the entire Photoset here.

The Following Workday, on Instant Message with Ben:

Ben: Dude, Saturday was pretty surreal. I dreamt that zombies where getting married.

Mau: Yeah, Alison’s Mom brought up a good point.

Ben: was dat?

Mau: “What’s it mean that you proposed to Alison with a bullet hole in your head”.

Ben: HAHAHA. good point.

Mau: I never thought i’d have a soft spot for Michael Jackson and Zombies.

Ben: Yeah, a soft spot right between your eyes.