You Must Be My Lucky Star

No folks, that's not a Parisian brothel. That's our room from Engagement Weekend at The Madonna Inn. This fantastically gaudy hotel offers a couple hundred theme rooms—ranging from caveman-inspired digs to Barbie dreamhouse suites. It's sort of an amalgamation of Disneyland, Vegas and a time warp somewhere between 1948 and 1972. I loved it.



Velvet wallpaper. Shag carpet. Gold tile in the shower. Seriously, it doesn't get better than that. Or maybe it does... The hotel is known for having a "world-famous men's urinal." Yes, Mr. Wonderful discovered this fact on the website and apparently the bathroom is so popular, it's considered a landmark in San Luis Obispo. What's so great about it? It's an all-rock waterfall sort of setting with sensors that start the downpour as soon as a guy walks up to it. Of course, us girls all went into the men's room to check it out. Pretty funny.



The blue room above was where Mr. W's sister and brother-in-law were staying. Apparently it's the only round king-sized bed in the whole hotel. Lucky them, right? Another feature that all of us couples couldn't resist checking out were the front and back bidets that came standard on every toilet. Oh, and there was a dryer, too. I laughed hysterically the entire time I tested the features...and felt strangely refreshed...



The view from the hotel is quite beautiful. It's nestled right in the middle of rolling golden hills, so everywhere you look there is rugged, rural beauty. Throw in the heart-carved hotel embellishments, and you have all the makings of a romantic getaway destination. We were checking out the view when Mr. W surprised me, spinning on his heel to face me as we walked back toward our room, and saying, "I don't know where to do this." My heart stopped as he produced a box from his jeans pocket.



Of course, I immediately began to cry. He told me that he loved me so much and wanted to be with me forever (and there may have been a couple tears with that declaration, too). I think we said some other things. And then he asked, "Can I marry you?" I loved that he didn't say, "Will you marry me?" I said yes. We talked some more. He asked me, "Wait, did you say yes?" And I said yes again. Then I told him how incredibly thankful I was that I had waited 34 years for him. He was so worth the wait. When he opened the ring box, there was a rubber worm ring inside.



If you read frequently, you might remember that I told him I'd wear a dead worm on my hand if he gave me one. Well, he ran with that. So amidst my sobbing, I cracked up. I loved that he did this. He also had kleenex in his pocket—ever the planner. I loved that he did that, too. Thankfully, he had my beautiful ring in his other pocket and he quickly retrieved that after I put on my worm ring.

After all was said and done, I had no idea what to do. So I took a bunch of pictures. And we grinned at each other and laughed. When we walked back through the hotel and came down the stairs, there was a group of strangers on their way to visit someone. I couldn't help myself. "We just got engaged!" I blurted to them and stuck out my hand. They all cheered and said, "Mazel tov!" I laughed. And then started to cry again. Lots of happy tears that day...