Puddles’ Weekend Adventure! The Book
Here's a copy of the book I made of my trip to Toronto. You can probably figure out where the story corresponds to the last few blog posts.
Here are some photos that my brother took of the finished product. I used Blurb's BookSmart® software to make the book and ordered two copies, one for keeping, and one for viewing. It does a pretty good job and there are a lot of options at your disposal to make a pretty professional-looking book. Not bad, huh?
Puddles’ Weekend Adventure – Part 4
I had over a month left until the proposal. The most difficult task now was to keep it all a secret from Olwen. My main concern was with her parents since they're the ones that I probably would have the least control over. It turned out that leaks were coming out elsewhere.
After I picked up Olwen from the airport, we headed over to NewGen, my church fellowship. I had to give Olwen back her car, so I had her drop me off at the fellowship. We were hanging out on a couch when Christine spotted Olwen and walked up to us. She welcomed Olwen back and asked about her trip to Rwanda. And that's when she said, "Wow, you guys have been doing a lot traveling. Nolen just got back from Toronto."
She did not just say that.
The first thing that went through my head was how the heck did she know about my trip. No matter, it was damage control right now. I knew Wayne was in Toronto at the same time as I was, and it would've been possible for Christine to confuse two great ridiculously good-looking guys, right? I gave her my cocked-eyebrow look and replied calmly, "No, I think you have me confused with Wayne." Problem was, Olwen said the exact same thing as I did at the same time, so it looked like both of us were trying to cover up for me. So I knew that she knew something was up. From an outsider's perspective, it didn't seem like a big deal, but I was close to sweatin' it.
Olwen headed home soon afterwards, and I went over to Christine to point out her slip. By then, others had arrived for NewGen, so I didn't want to draw attention to myself. "Hey Christine," I whispered to her as she writing on a whiteboard in front of the room, "Olwen wasn't supposed to know I went to Toronto."
"WHAT? OH MY GOODNESS! I DIDN'T KNOW! I'M SO SORRY! I'M REAL SORRY!"
I guess you can say it went something like this:
That wasn't the only slip up though. Before she had left for Rwanda, she noticed I had a page of West Jet, an exclusive Canadian airline, up on my laptop. When she asked me why I had it up, I replied, "Huh, not sure."
Ugh, lying FAIL. I'm not very good at lying (which might not be a good thing depending on which way you spin it), and it doesn't help that I date a gal with a built-in Phony Baloney meter.
The hinges nearly came off the weekend before the proposal. My cousin Mark came up to visit from the Bay Area. His sister just got married in September and was holding a wedding reception for all the Portland relatives, so he wanted to check out Seattle the week before the banquet. He had also wanted to visit Vancouver since it was only a couple hours drive. (My brothers also came up to visit as well, but what they were really doing was taking all the stuffed animals and the mascot suit which had just been finished.) While in Vancouver, my brothers, Mark, Olwen, and I had dinner a restaurant owned by a friend of Olwen's family (we'll call him "Uncle"). After dinner as we were heading out, the owner was chatting with Olwen in Cantonese. I was unable to understand them, but I noticed a confused look on her face. As we were walking to the car, I asked her about what they were talking about to which she replied, "I'll tell you tomorrow." Things didn't sound good.
The following day, there was a dinner at my place. After everyone had left, Olwen and I were doing the dishes together. "So you want to tell me about what Uncle talked to you about yesterday?"
"Oh yeah," she said. She paused for a moment. "Did you invite my dad over for Thanksgiving?"
"Um... I don't think so." (I'm still a terrible liar).
"Cuz he was asking me why I wasn't having dinner with my dad. He said my dad was in Vancouver that day."
Gulp.
I was trying to deny, but it was too late. The original plan was to have her parents fly in to Vancouver and have a family friend from Seattle, Uncle Silas, pick them up. Uncle Silas would then invite Olwen and I for dinner on Monday where her parents would magically surprise her for her birthday. Right after we finished washing dishes and I was escorting her to the car, sure enough, Uncle Silas called Olwen. She chatted with him for a couple minutes obviously confirming tomorrow night's dinner. She gave me that "I know you're up to something" look as she was hanging up. And that's when Uncle Silas called me, who assumed that I wasn't next to Olwen. I tried to casually walk stroll away from Olwen as I talked, but it further confirmed to Olwen that something was up. Afterwards, she left for home, and I was left frazzled and hoping that she wouldn't further figure out my plans.
The next night, we met up for dinner with Uncle Silas and family. As they were sitting themselves and greeting us, her parents came through the door, right on schedule. During the dinner, they told Olwen that they were in town for her birthday, but since Olwen and I were planning on going to Portland on her birthday, they wouldn't be able to join us and would instead head back up to Vancouver to catch a cruise to Victoria Island. That could work, right? At least, that's what I hoped. Afterwards, we brought her parents bags to her house where they were planning on staying for the next few nights. We chatted together that evening, and I even swapped jokes with her dad. Olvie was also online that night and we were able to see her dorm room through her webcam via Skype.
I'm going to go personal for a second, just because I feel it's worth mentioning. It might come off sounding cheesy, but I don't care. This is my blog anyways 
. As we were wrapping up, Uncle Rex asked me if I needed prayer for my current situation. To be honest, I wasn't expecting that from him, but nonetheless, I was very appreciative. To pray and fellowship with Olwen's family felt really special. The fact that her parents were concerned for me on a spiritual level furthered reassured me that I was marrying the right woman not to mention the right family. I don't necessarily believe in the concept of marrying "The One," but I do believe I made a REAL good choice after 16 months of dating.
Anyways, the next two days flew by quickly, and Wednesday was almost here. The stage was set: her parents were here, I had the ring, the stuffed animals and the suit were in Portland. The only thing that was missing was Olwen and I. Everything has been building up for the last two months, and tomorrow, it was all coming together.
Next up, the proposal!
Puddles’ Weekend Adventure – Part 3
I got about 5 hours of sleep that night. I usually have a habit of hitting the snooze button a dozen times before I get my day started, but I resisted and got up. It was around 9am EST, and no one else in the house was up yet. Candy had instructed me the night before about how to let myself out in the morning. As I was making my way to the garage, I bumped into her mom in the laundry room. She smiled and said something in Chinese that I couldn't understand. I tried to act natural, smiled, and mumbled something incoherent as I headed to my car. I guessed she figured I was one of Candy's friends.
Before I left on the trip, Maurice told me I needed to get oranges and "herng peen cha", jasmine tea, for the parents when I show up. I'm not sure why, but he's more Chinese than I am, so I took his word for it. I knew of a 24-hr grocery store that I came to on my last visit called Metro, and last night, Phil showed me the location for specialty tea shop nearby called TenRen. I arrived at TenRen first, but they weren't open for another 15 minutes, so I went to the Metro first. Originally, I had planned to buy some navel oranges, but I wasn't sure how much. I knew "8" would be a symbolic number in Chinese ("ba" which sounds like the word for "prosper", "fa"), but for some reason, I thought it wasn't impressive enough. So I looked at the other fruits and saw the smaller Mandarin oranges which were a similar price per pound (or kg since we're in Canada). I don't know what compelled me, but I thought about buying 88 oranges. (On a side note, I would hear about "88" when referring to Chinese weddings akin to the character for "double happiness," ?, which is made up of two copies of "joy", ?.) I thought about it for a moment, since 88 oranges is a LOT of oranges. But considering I'm in Toronto... by myself... with a stuffed bear... to ask her parents for permission to marry her... which I will... in a stuffed bear suit... I figured I shouldn't be batting an eye at getting 88 oranges. So I loaded up the cart with nearly $40 worth of oranges, put them all in one of the suitcases, and made my way to the tea store. My purchase at the tea store was more modest with just one box of tea. While I may be crazy enough to buy 88 oranges, I ain't buying no 88 boxes of tea!
Olvie had called me the night before on Candy's phone about my arrival time, and she told me her parents were going to be there when I arrived. I parked down the street from the house and walked to the front door with Puddles, the tea, and the suitcase full of oranges. I was expecting to have one of her parents open the door, but it was Olvie who greeted me with the family German shepherd, Jen. Her dad, Rex, was taking a nap, and her mom, Polly, was on her way back from running errands. She slipped me into her dad's office where I waited until she got her parents together. After about ten minutes of waiting, Polly got home and Rex was awake from his nap. Olvie gathered them outside of the office and told them that her special friend was here. She then called me to come out.
When I was emailing Olvie before the trip, I told her to tell her parents that a friend was coming over to visit, but it would be someone they wouldn't know. Olvie was going to school further north in a town not as populated with Chinese. So when she told her parents that a friend was coming, she described him as a "friend/potential boyfriend who could be black." (Olvie, sometimes you leave me speechless.) So when I came out of the office, both parents had scowls on their faces which quickly changed into smiles and hugs when they realized I wasn't the black boyfriend Olvie was talking about. In the office, the three of us talked for about a half hour about my plans to marry Olwen. We discussed everything from the wedding date to the where we were going to live as well as my career goals. At the end of the discussion, I was happily granted permission and received the blessing.
The rest of the day was spent hanging out with Olwen's family, but not all at once. Jeremy, Olga's husband, wanted to play ball that night, so I wanted to spend the afternoon with the parents. Rex needed to drop by the office while Polly and I had a lunch of curry beef tongue and chicken bacon gravy over spaghetti. Afterwards, we traveled to Belfountain which is west of Toronto to walk among the fall-colored trees. It felt really special to be walking and talking with Olwen's parents especially now that I had gained acceptance into the family. Her dad also got a kick out of Puddles and even made me take a lot of poses he made with the bear. Eventually, the day was getting late, and we headed back to their house where I went to Olwen's room and filled two suitcases full of all her stuffed animals. After eating a quick bite, we said our goodbyes and I was off to basketball.
The night concluded with basketball, a pho dinner, and crashing at Jeremy's parents place. During dinner, I managed to contact one of Olwen's Seattle friends, Kitty, who had moved back to Toronto to meet us up at the house for a photo op with Puddles. Olvie also dropped by the house to visit and take back some of her stuffed animals I had accidentally taken with me. While I was getting all my stuff together for tomorrow, Olga and Olvie decided to go to town with my camera and Puddles. I've posted a couple here to show you what I'm getting myself into:
My flight was scheduled for 8am, which meant I had to wake up at some ridiculous hour. It was so early that, when I checked my email after I woke up, my sister, Dara, in Oregon had not even gone to bed yet. Even though it was super early, everyone still woke up to see me off; Jeremy's brother Mike even made breakfast for everyone. I packed my bags, bid farewell, and headed off to the airport to catch my uneventful flight back home. The rest of the trip went pretty smooth except for that I had a basketball scheduled in the afternoon. I ran into some traffic at the border, but I managed to get to the game right at the tip-off. Oh, and we won our game by the way 
.
On a side note, Olga mentioned that a local charity was recently robbed of all its toys. And here was me carrying around two rolling suitcases of stuffed animals getting ready to go on an airplane. That would have been for an interesting story at the airport...
So the hard part was finished, but there was still a lot left to do. I had the stuffed animals, but most importantly, I had the blessing. Olwen was going to be back the following week which gave me some time to coordinate and plan a couple more items. The target date was going to be on her birthday on the 25th, the day before Thanksgiving, almost a month and a half away, a lot of time for a secret to get out. I trusted he people that I visited so far, hopefully they would keep their lips sealed until the proposal.
Or do they?
Puddles’ Weekend Adventure! Part 2
My flight was scheduled for 1:30pm in Vancouver (YVR). I didn't want to risk missing my plane, so I woke up that Friday morning at 6am to give me enough time to make the drive (2-3 hrs), get through the border (who knows), and check in my bags and going through security (2 hrs before my flight). As I was getting ready to leave, I decided to document my trip and snapped a couple photos starting with the alarm clock. Then I thought, what if I make a documentary of Puddles going to Toronto instead of me? So I started taking posing Puddles and taking pictures of him waking up, brushing his teeth, checking his email, etc.; making it seem like it was Puddles who was doing the traveling.
Olwen had left her car with me while she was gone. I had been without a car for a couple months since my car got totaled twice while parked on the side of the road (that's for another story). So being the responsible boyfriend that I was, I loaded up two empty suitcases and my bags, filled up the tank, and took her car north. (On a side note, I had a feeling she might get suspicious of the extra mileage on the car. There was a Jiffy Lube oil change sticker on her windshield, so I knew she's probably has that in the back of her mind. To cover my tracks, I got the oil changed right before I picked her up from the airport.) I anticipated fighting through traffic and rushing to get to the airport, but I overestimated on the travel time and ended up getting to Vancouver around 10:30am. No rain, no rush hour, no cars at the border. It was the fastest drive to Vancouver I have ever had.
I went over to Yaohan Market to kill some time and grab some snacks from the Asian grocery store. Since I was doing the whole documentary with Puddles, I had to bring him along with me wherever I went. I was pretty self-conscious carrying a stuffed animal around in public not to mention taking pictures of it like he was my firstborn child. Eventually, I stopped caring and took the pictures anyways, even as I was pretending to have Puddles pay the cashier. And considering location, it also wasn't that awkward since I was in an Asian mall where it's not out of place for a dude to be holding a stuffed bear. I was just glad I didn't draw him pink. I also checked out Aberdeen Mall where I visited Daiso, a Japanese general goods store and took pictures with the stuffed animals there. I managed to get a couple shots before the employees told me to stop shooting.
Since I didn't have any idea where else to go, I headed to the airport. I parked the car, took the shuttle, and checked in my bags. I was still carrying Puddles with me, but it felt even more awkward than before since there were a lot more people as well as security guards who were looking at me. I could almost feel all the staring eyes and weird looks from everyone as if I was having some serious issues (not that I didn't have any anyways). I was also getting bolder in my picture requests by going up to some of the shops and employees around the airport. Most of them turned me down, but I got a few that were nice enough to play along.
I stayed at my gates for a couple hours, checking my email while chatting with my bros and enjoying an ice-cap from Tim Horton's. I was pretty excited about the trip and even a little incredulous that I was even going through with this, but I relishing every second of it. The intercom then announced my flight, and I was on my way to Toronto.
The 6-hour flight didn't feel all that long. I spent part of the flight explaining to the gal sitting next to me why a grown man was carrying around a stuffed polar burtle like a security blanket. She was pretty cool in that she didn't try moving to another seat or avoid making eye contact with me, but she was pretty excited about the master plan. We had a good conversation for a good portion of the plane ride, and I told to check the website when it was all said and done. I forgot her name, but if you're reading this right now, let me know in the comments. On a side note, while I was working on the t-shirt, she was watching The Proposal, which, for you non-chick-flick fanatics, is a movie about a Canadian marrying an American. How ironic.
My phone had been turned off since I crossed the border in Vancouver, so whoever knew I was coming wasn't able to get a hold of me. Earlier, Waiki let me borrow his suitcase for the trip but needed me to drop off some stuff over to his mom's place in Toronto. The plan was for me to drop off the stuff at her place and then go meet Candy and another friend of Olwen's, Phil, at their worship practice at a sister church. I've been to the church before on my last visit, but I had no idea what Waiki's mom's place looked like even though Waiki had sent a detailed email to me with maps and the works (sorry, Waiki, but that's too many words for me to handle). After landing and getting my rental car, I followed the GPS to the designated address. The building I came to first kind of looked like an apartment, but there was a sign next to the building that read "Church." I thought that was kind of odd, so I thought she lived in the other apartment buildings in the back. Since I wanted to be cheap and not use my roaming minutes, I kept my phone off and tried to find her apartment in apartments behind. I went up to one of the apartments and found her last name in the directory. After making a couple calls to the name and getting yelled at in Chinese, I finally decided to turn on my phone again. After getting a call from Waiki's mom, I realized that she was the the first building I arrived at earlier. I dropped off the stuff, which turned out to be a bunch of board games, and was on my way to my destination.
The church wasn't too far away, and by that time, it was cold and wet, just like Seattle. I knew that there were still people there by a few cars left in the parking lot. I rang the doorbell and was greeted by Phil, who was pretty surprised when he saw me. Candy had only told a few people that someone was visiting Toronto but didn't say who it was. I was a little surprised that he was able to recognize me since I had a shorter haircut since the last time I saw him. We went into the church where we waited for Candy and several others, including her boyfriend Donny, to wrap up practice. Afterwards we headed over to her house where she called a few more of Olwen's friends, Darrin, Johan, and Theresa to come over. We hung out for a couple hours talking and taking pictures with Puddles before I had to get to bed. I was planning on meeting Olwen's parents late morning, early afternoon, but I still needed to get their presents before I came over and needed my sleep.
I stayed in the basement that night and I took a couple moments before I went to bed to think about what I was getting myself into tomorrow. Honestly, I didn't know what kind of response I would get from her parents. I heard from Olwen before that her parents liked me, but there was a tiny bit of anxiety that I was only 99% sure they would say "yes" as opposed to 100%. To calm myself, I opened my Bible and read James 1:5, a passage that my Mom had shown me when I was a kid. I don't know why I keep remembering it, but it has always proved timely for me for a lot of stressful or significant occasions. I said a short prayer, took another picture of Puddles, and went to bed. Tomorrow was going to be a big day.
Puddles’ Weekend Adventure! Part 1
Hello, everyone! Many of you know by now that I have proposed to my girlfriend, Olwen, of nearly 17 months. I've thankfully received plenty of messages and Facebook postings from friends and family. Now that the holidays are over, I can start posting the details. I'll probably end up breaking the story down into parts for easier reading.
Now where do I start? Around August, I had made up my mind that I was going to propose to Olwen. We knew that we would eventually marry, and it was only a matter of time when I would pop the question. Even though she will be expecting a proposal, I wanted to catch her off her guard. I started brainstorming for an idea through the next month, but it wasn't until mid September that it finally hit me.
One night as I was driving home, I thought back to my Toronto visit last May. During my week-long stay, I slept in Olwen's room at her parents' house while she stayed in her sister's room. In the corner of the room was a variety of stuffed animals and toys she had accumulated over the years. That's when I thought, what if I brought all of those stuffed animals back to Seattle? And then I thought, what if I made a stuffed animal version of her favorite polar burtle, Puddles? She wouldn't see it coming, this could work!
There was a problem though. I had wanted to meet her parents in person to ask for permission. While it would enable me to go and retrieve the animals myself, I still had to make the trip to Toronto without Olwen knowing. Olwen and I talk just about every day, and if I had to be gone for a weekend, it would be near impossible that she wouldn't notice. That's when opportunity presented itself from an unlikely source.
During this time, Olwen was busy working on a project in Rwanda for a non-profit client. Her firm was responsible for designing a campus for an all-girls boarding school. The construction crew had recently begun breaking ground on the site and needed supervision from the firm. Turns out that Olwen was going to be sent over for a site visit for 10 days. That only gave me one weekend to work with. At first I hesitated at the thought of flying cross country by myself, asking her dad for permission, stealing her stuffed animals, and coming back without Olwen knowing. It was a daunting task, but the timing could not have been any better.
I emailed her sisters, Olga and Olvie, and told them of my master plan. I wanted to make this a surprise for the parents as well, but I need to make sure the parents were going to be there when I arrived. Olvie was at school and was going to visit home that the same weekend I was visiting Toronto. Since she was going to be staying with her parents, I instructed her to tell them that an unknown friend of hers was coming by to stay the weekend. I also emailed a good friend of Olwen, Candy, to let her know that I was going to be in town and needed lodging for the night.
Meanwhile, I was wrestling with the how to make the stuffed animal. I'm a lousy seamstress, and the last time I ever sewed anything together was a football I made in my Home Economics class back in 8th grade. How in the world was I going to get a stuffed bear done? I also asked others for any recommendations on a seamstress, but was unable to find anyone I could really trust. Meanwhile, I kept revising the proposal. I was contemplating bringing a stuffed Puddles with me to Toronto and having her Canadian friends take pictures with it. But that required having the bear done before I left, and that would be difficult and expensive to find a professional seamstress who could accommodate.
By now, my proposal involved a stuffed animal, a flight to Toronto, and a photo book containing all the pictures of the stuffed animal with Olwen's friends. The plan was pretty elaborate for what it was, but for some reason, I still felt something was missing. There had to be something more. Something else unexpected. Something totally ridiculous. And that's when I had my next idea: proposing to Olwen in a full-sized mascot suit of Puddles.
It's a pretty nutso idea, and, well, it's still a pretty nutso idea. So not only did I need a stuffed bear done by the time I leave for my trip, I also needed to get a mascot suit done in time for the proposal AND find someone crazy enough to get it all done in time.
Enter Sammy...
During a party I was chatting with Oliver in the kitchen corner, and my proposal plans came up. I told him that I was having trouble with the stuffed animal. He paused for a second, and then brought one of Olwen's friends, Sammy, who he said was a talented seamstress. I didn't have any other options at that point, so I asked if he could contact her for a favor. By then, I only have a week left until Toronto and time was getting short. Oliver also forwarded me a link to her portfolio which had a few decent pieces of work. Who knows, I thought, maybe she can help me out.
A couple of days later, I received an email from Sammy. I told her that I needed a bear, a bear suit, and have all of that finished by the end of the week and before the proposal, respectively. It was a tall order, and I thought it would be too much to ask last minute. She said she would work on it later in the day, but I was expecting the bear to be done after I got back from Toronto. Later that evening, I receive these pics:
"Holy cow, she's fast!" That was my first thought when I saw the pictures. My second thought was, "This plan can work!" Getting this bear done in time was cutting it close, but it was doable. There were a couple minor changes, but nothing significant. Sammy went right back to work, and by the night before my flight, she had it done . Here's the finished bear minus the red boots:
Pretty sweet, huh? I think that's an understatement. This bear is AWESOME. I mean, compare it to the original:
By Friday, the stage was set: Olwen was in Rwanda; my ticket was booked; my rental car reserved; and I had Puddles. I booked my ticket to leave from Vancouver (YVR) because it was cheaper than flying out from Seattle, so I needed to wake up early the next day to make my 1:00pm flight. I had a big day tomorrow and so far everything was coming into place. So far so good.
To be continued...
