The Proposal (“Not The Movie, The Real Thing!”)

Synopsis: “This is the happy end result of a heck of a lot of planning! But how did it all come together? Here’s one ‘movie’ blog that’s stacked full of spoilers for a change…” (Rated PG-13; 2 years, 7 months)

BACK-STORY – After a year plus of dating, Adi came to the realization that Boaz was simply not going to propose until after he finished with his exhausting nursing school program. Did SHE need him to wait until he was no longer a student? Nope, but he would not/could not be swayed! So the target of December, 2012 for his graduation was set as vague “not before then” engagement period!

As time passed by over the next year and a half, every nosy neighbor, pestering friend and questioning acquaintance would ask the same question, “So? When are you two getting married, what are you waiting for???” and everyone would get the same response, “Not until after school, sometime soon after graduation”. And all the geese and hens would cluck away with their two cents of why he shouldn’t wait, and what they thought of the timing. But still, he would not/could not be swayed! So the target of sometime after December, 2012 for his graduation was STILL his timing.

As graduation was finally approaching, nudging family members continued to come up to the happy couple, and say, “What’s the delay, when are you finally getting engaged?!” And he continued to answer, exasperated, “As I’ve always said, sometime after graduation!” And in spite of the opinions yet again impatiently thrown back in his face, he could not/would not be swayed!

DECEMBER – Graduation

Finally, Boaz graduated from his exhausting nursing program, and not a day passed before countless friends, acquaintances, neighbors and family members each individually clucked, “YOU’VE GRADUATED, SO WHEN IS IT HAPPENING?!” to which Boaz answered, “As I’ve always promised, sometime after I graduate it will happen”, and in spite of the lack of satisfaction this answer continued to emit, he could not/would not be swayed….

But this time, the wheels in his brain had begun turning, and he had quite the challenge before him: How can someone create something as important and memorable as a proposal, but make it an actual surprise when it’s being brought up continuously day after day? If every day is naturally suspected as THE day that could be IT, then how do you get around those expectations? If every big, fancy moment is seen as a possibility of being THE MOMENT, then how do you not see that moment coming a mile away – especially if you’re considering a grand gesture?

Boaz thought and thought about this, but no solutions were coming to mind. Propose at a fancy dinner since she’s such a foodie? Nah, she’ll suspect every fancy dinner, plus he’d rather find something more inventive. Do it on a hike somewhere, since she loves hiking so darn much? Maybe, she wouldn’t see it coming since he isn’t much of a hiker, but he imagined two things that could be improved from this:
1) An activity on a day that wasn’t something  just one of them enjoyed.

2) He had started to get an image in his mind of someone filming the experience so it could be captured forever, and imagined his dear friend Mike doing so since he often had a camera in tow and it would not create suspicion at any given moment. (This idea would end up happening, but needed to be adapted since Mike could not be there.)

So he continued to try to come up with ideas that could be surprising, grand gestures, fun, memorable, filmable – and wait a darn minute – with friends so there could be immediate celebration afterwards. And come to think of it, the idea of friends being there could add to the surprise of it all, because he liked to organize large group activities anyway, he was finally onto something!

A few days after graduation, while walking with his friend Cindy to his parent’s house for a graduation lunch in his honor, an idea suddenly entered his head: “Wait a minute, wait a minute…what about The Amazing LA Race?! I’ve been wanting to organize a group event to go compete on it ever since we did the last one, and she KNOWS about that, in fact she’s EXCITED about it. What if I incorporate a special clue into the day which leads her to the ring?!” There were a lot of kinks and details to flesh out, but Cindy enthusiastically responded, “I don’t know if you CAN pull this off, but there’s no question that if you do it’ll be AMAZING, and she’ll never see it coming!” That was all the support Boaz needed, as he was on his way to doing what he does best: ORGANIZING. He was going to organize the HELL out of this one, it was going to make every other event he’d ever put together look like anarchy in comparison!

Boaz called Bob Glouberman on the phone, owner of The Amazing LA Race. (Note: The Amazing LA Race is not affiliated with the television show, and is a very well organized day of running around parts of Los Angeles trying to solve clues and competing against other teams in this extravagant scavenger hunt.)

Boaz had told Bob in the past that he was looking forward to organizing this event for his friends, but this time needed to know if his idea could be done. Speaking on the phone for a while, Bob was thrilled to do it, they hatched a plan, and Boaz finally knew how he would be proposing to Adi, sometime in January!

December 26 – The Accident

A week later, while on a short, relaxing vacation, Boaz and Adi were 5 minutes away from Hearst Castle when CRASH, a car accident on the highway! At first it seemed as nothing was hurt but the wrecked car and their vacation plans, but soon they found out that Adi had sprained her neck, and for the next 4-6 weeks could not hike, exercise, lift things, or do anything that could delay the recovery of her injury. The idea for the proposal would have to wait until she could physically be active again. Unless it shouldn’t wait…Boaz had to decide if it would be more important to do things sooner, and forego the extravagant idea, or wait an extra few weeks and pull of this grand scheme? Ultimately he decided that the last thing Adi would want is to have Boaz down on bended knee while she couldn’t bend her own neck to see him on the ground. The proposal would wait, and she would be healthy!

JANUARY – “So Adi, when do you think you’ll be able to finally do The Amazing LA Race again? You know I’ve been wanting to plan this for a group of us for a while…” She would check with her doctors and physical therapists, and they gave her a green light to hike and do the scavenger hunt starting in early February. The date was coordinated for the race, same as any other event Boaz had ever set up, and the invitations went out to friends and family. Although this time Boaz suggested, “Maybe for this event let’s not do a Camp Boaz event but invite a whole bunch of targeted friends; we don’t want it to get out of hand…if it works out well we’ll know we can do it for Camp Boaz next time.” Okay, they both agreed. And important friends and family would now be invited to the big day.

After sending the invitations out, Adi’s best friend Maddy (confusingly rhyming names) was not going to make the drive down from San Diego, so Boaz had to crack the secret and make sure that this one friend would make the effort and make the day even more special. (Please note: Boaz was not going to tell every single friend who said no WHY he wanted them to change their minds and say yes. This idea was not going to be pulled off if too many people knew the secret, so sacrifices needed to be made and certain friends and family who would later exclaim, “If you’d told me what was happening I would have been there!” would simply have to understand!)

February 10 – The Big Day

This was it! The big day…time to get to the beach and trust that everything planned with Bob would go smoothly. Only three friends that day would know what was about to happen: Cindy who was with Boaz for the inception of this idea (seen being choked in the photo above), Maddy who was brought down from San Diego to be there for the big event (seen in the photo above doing the choking), and Adam who Boaz trusted with his acting and poker playing background to be a plant on his team on standby in case things needed to be manipulated a bit along the way (seen above contorting his body like a bizarre Cirque du Soleil performer). NOBODY ELSE. (As you can see in the photo, this day was about fun, silly competitive gaming, and everyone was ready to have a great time!)

Everyone gathered their individual teams, and team BAAAM! (Boaz, Adi, Adam, Andrew, Marni) was ready to win!

The game took them around the Santa Monica Pier, Venice Beach and all over the area trying to figure out one thing after the other. You need to understand something about Adi at this point in the story: she is not a competitive gamer. This had always been a point of contention between herself and Boaz. They would sometimes play Hearts or Spades with friends, and Boaz would slam the cards on the table when he would lose, while Adi would shrug her shoulders indifferently about winning; this frustrated Boaz on a regular basis as he wanted some competitive spirit from the person he was trying to play with! Well, something strange happened for the first time that day: Adi competed. In fact she got so into the spirit of trying to win this game, that she was clearly far removed from suspecting a thing. Boaz knew his plan was going to work! Much of the day was actually spent sprinting around and trying to be one step ahead of the other teams which were usually neck and neck. In fact, it was this new-found competitive spirit that almost became the undoing of the plan itself!

The game was ending, but nobody could know which clue was the last one. This was where Bob and Boaz had devised a strategy to split up Team BAAAM!, thus getting Boaz alone with Adi for the final ruse. The plan was that instead of crossing the finish line as the other teams would do, their team would be given another clue of two “random” envelopes, simply numbered 1 and 2. And Boaz would know to take envelope #1, with Adam there to help ensure that Adi, Marni & Andrew wouldn’t take it instead. What Boaz didn’t take into account was how Adi would react…

The Proposal

EXTERIOR – SANTA MONICA PIER

Boaz grabs envelope #1, Adam takes envelope #2. Boaz is relieved that part is over.

BOAZ

Okay, you guys, this one says, “X marks the spot on the top of the Ferris Wheel”, Adi, let’s go to the Ferris Wheel!

Boaz takes Adi’s hand and tries to dash off. Adi releases Boaz’s hand and instead grabs Andrew forcefully.

ADI

Andrew, go with Boaz to the Ferris Wheel, I’ll go with Marni and Adam and do envelope number two!

Andrew shrugs his shoulders, and goes to Boaz, who has a look of exasperation on his face.

BOAZ

No, Adi, you come with me, it’s just two tickets for the Ferris Wheel, the other one is for three people so you should come with me.

Boaz says this knowing that his logic isn’t quite making any sense, and throws Andrew back to the others and takes Adi’s hand again.

ADI

This is a bad idea, Andrew is much better than us, so he should go with you!

Boaz looks at Adam, hoping, praying that the former actor can improvise some solution to this logical point Adi is making, but to no avail. Andrew returns to Boaz, passed back and forth like a rag doll.

BOAZ

No, this is a Ferris Wheel, I want to go with you to the Ferris Wheel, not Andrew. I’m sorry if that’s selfish, let them figure out their clue and we can do it ourselves for once!

Adi glares at Boaz, and reluctantly takes his hand and heads off toward the Ferris Wheel, shaking her head in the knowledge that this was a terrible strategy to beat the other teams who are close behind.

ADI

This is a long line at the Ferris Wheel! What  if we’re wrong? We’re wasting time, the other teams will catch up!

BOAZ

I’m sure this is right but I can call Bob and tell him where we are and his answer should make it clear if we’re barking up the wrong tree.

Boaz calls Bob Glouberman on the phone.

Bob, it’s Boaz, we’re standing in line at the Ferris Wheel and it’ll take a while to get on…just letting you know.

BOB

Sounds great, good luck!

Boaz hangs up the phone.

BOAZ

We’re clearly in the right place Adi, we just have to wait.

Adi looks over her shoulder nervously, scanning the line and the crowds for other competing teams.

ADI

Why isn’t anyone else here yet? This makes no sense!

BOAZ

I don’t know, let’s not look a gift horse in the mouth.

Text message from Andrew asks if Boaz and Adi are done yet, and that he, Marni and Adam are at the finish line drinking beers along with some of the other teams which have finished.

ADI

What?! Why are they and other teams finished, how could they be done if we’re not?

Boaz, not anticipating this situation, thinks on his feet.

BOAZ

Oh, I bet I know what’s going on. You remember how the last race finished and there was a bonus clue at the end for just one person who did something special? I bet that we’re doing that bonus right now….maybe that means we’re in first place!

ADI

Oh, that makes sense, I hope so!

They finally get on the Ferris Wheel, and start looking for the answer to “X marks the spot on top of the Ferris Wheel”.

ADI

Where is it? I don’t see anything yet!

BOAZ

I don’t know, keep looking in and around the top, we’ll figure it out I’m sure!

ADI

I can’t find anything, this is why I told you to go with Andrew, you never listen to me!

BOAZ

I’m sorry, maybe that would have been smarter, but I wanted to go on the Ferris Wheel with you. We’ve never been before!

ADI

Ucch, we’re gonna lose, I can’t believe this…

BOAZ

You just look out that side and I’ll look out this side and we’ll see if we can find it somewhere.

Adi doesn’t look the direction Boaz needs her to. He can see the big red X in the sand below in plain sight, but she refuses to look that direction and keeps looking INSIDE the gondola of the Ferris Wheel instead. Finally, just before Boaz is about to point it out to her himself…

ADI

There it is! I see it!

BOAZ

What? Where?

Adi points at the big red X below.

ADI

Right there!!!

BOAZ

Oh, you think that’s it? Yeah, it must be. Great job! I told you we could do it ourselves!

They high five. Boaz gives a huge sigh of relief…the end is near!

After another ten minutes or so the ride ends, and Boaz & Adi run down to the X in the sand, where two young ladies, hired by Bob for this ruse, are sunbathing. In the middle of the huge red X, there is a shovel.

SUNBATHER/ACTOR

What is this thing? We’ve been wondering all day!

ADI

Oh, we’re playing a game, a big scavenger hunt, and this is all part of it!

SUNBATHER/ACTOR

That’s so cool! Do you mind if we film this?

ADI

No problem, go right ahead, it actually might be fun to get it from you later if you don’t mind!

Unbeknownst to Adi of course, that’s why these “sunbathers” were there. They were hired to guard the area, and film the incident. Adi shovels and shovels, until she hits something solid.

ADI

I feel something! You shovel some more and I’ll dig it up!

Adi and Boaz get on their hands and knees, and Adi pulls up a treasure chest. Adi is excited that they are clearly about to win the game! She opens the chest and there’s…a second treasure chest! So she laughs, and opens that one…and suddenly she freezes, mouth agape, as she sees a ring box within. Boaz switches to one knee, opens the box and speaks.

BOAZ

Adi, you have waited such a long time for me, and I love you. Will you do me the honor of finally marrying me?

Adi sobs, whimpers, and beams ecstatically. She reaches out her sand-covered hand. Boaz slips the ring onto her finger.

BOAZ

That’s either a ‘yes’ or a really polite ‘no’!

ADI

Yes of course!

Adi and Boaz kiss, thank the actors, and make phone calls to family members. After 20 minutes or so they rejoin the rest of the friends and family who are waiting impatiently for them to return from their slow finish to the game. Adi extends her left hand as they enter the room.

ADI & BOAZ

Surprise!!!

Oh, and one unplanned thing that capped the day off? Their team actually came in first place! Adi would go home with a ring, and a medal! Boaz got to go home knowing that his job as an organizer was thankfully, well, well done.