the engagement

Our last day of touring was March 26th in Rockville, MD. The next day, which was also Chris's birthday, we drove back to Staunton where the theatre is and were going to go into residence the next week. That night we went out for birthday dinner and totally exciting birthday grocery shopping.

That night I was standing in the closest looking for something (or maybe unpacking? I don't know exactly WHY I was in there) and noticed that it was 11:59pm. I said, "Oh, it's the last minute of your birthday! Happy birthday!!!!" I continued doing whatever it was that I was doing and after it turned midnight I said, "Aww. It's not your birthday anymore. Did you have a good birthday?" He said, "Yes. Because I got to spend it with you."

I was like, "Oh, that's nice.... but we spend every day together."

But then Chris hugged me and said how happy he was to be with me and how he wanted to marry me and if I wanted to marry him. I was like, "of COURSE I do." And he was like... "so... WILL you marry me?" And I said, "Are you seriously asking me right now?"

"Yes."

"You're REALLY asking me? You're ACTUALLY proposing to me?"

"Yes. Will you?"

"Well... I mean, yes! Should we change our status on facebook?"

Chris said how he didn't have a ring yet but he did have something else. The "something else" was this little book, "A Lovely Love Story." This book is amazing and everyone who has emotions should love it. We both cried a little and then talked about a ring. We looked online at how much they cost and how much we HAD and decided to go to Zales the next morning.

When we were driving up there Chris said, "Now let's not be hasty with this. We can look around at the other stores before deciding." And I was all, "I know!" but we sure did chose pretty much the first ring we saw. It mean, it was in our price range, it wasn't too big (I'm afraid of big diamonds. I didn't want anything bigger than .25 carat and even THIS terrified me) and it came with diamond coverage. We paid in cash with exact change (THANK YOU, LEFT OVER PER DIEM!!!!) and then we said goodbye since my fingers are small and I needed it resized.

That afternoon the theatre threw the company a pizza party and I pulled our friend Ben aside. We decided not to tell anyone except Ben until we got the ring back because everyone would have been like, "Lemme see your RING!" and I would have had to say, "It's... uh... not here..." But, as Ben was leaving town before we would get the ring back, and we love him, we decided to tell him. He was THRILLED and we hugged and he just couldn't believe it. I emphasized how he couldn't tell anyone in town and as we walked back to Chris, who was standing in a group of people, Ben said, "Congratulations on a fourth tour. I am so happy for you to be back." And then they hugged and I said, "AWWW! BOYS!" and giggled a lot.

NO ONE WAS ANY THE WISER!!!

I only had the diamond card (featured in the picture above) for a little over a week. I looked at it several times a day and each time I would ask Chris if he SERIOUSLY wanted to marry me. Zales said the latest the ring would come back was April 12th but on the 6th I called them and they said it was ready. The next morning we picked it up and I have been starring at my hand since that moment.

When we got home from the store I told everyone I could find at the houses and the theatre. I tried to do the thing where you don't say anything but keep gesturing with your left hand until they notice... but NO ONE NOTICED. Half the time they'd look RIGHT AT the ring and not get it. The next day we had a company meeting to greet the new residence troupe and I told everyone there right after I introduced myself. I said something along the lines of, "Hi, I'm Alisa and I'm in the touring troupe... and WHY IS MY LEFT HAND SO HEAVY????? OH, it must be because Chris and I are ENGAGED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

I was able to keep this ridiculousness up for about a week, until the end of the engagement party Ginna and Ellen threw us. I still ask Chris if he still wants to marry me and if he was serious in the first place, but I think I have calmed down enough to live a normal life.

I'm still starring at my hand, though.

the story of our love is so hilarious

Chris and I originally met in 2002 when he was a grad student and I was an ungrad at Kent State University. The first time I remember ever actually interacting with him was when I asked him if his friend Adam, who was my monologue coach, would like one of those posters with the entire text of a Shakespeare play on them. He said that they've both always been fascinated by them and that yeah, he thought he'd like it. I decided to get Adam the poster of The Merchant of Venice because he was going to be in it that year.

Later that year Chris and I both took a musical theatre dance class and we were also both cast in Kent's production of Guys and Dolls (me as Agatha, him as Nathan Detroit). I was in my first semester of being a musical theatre major and I was so shy I hardly knew (or spoke to) anyone at school. Suffice it to say Chris and I did not know each other. He knew that I existed on this planet and I knew he was "the funny one" of the grad students who performed in G&D with a broken hand. We were probably at many of the same parties and obviously in the same room at the same time but I was only brave enough to speak to one grad student and that was Cliff.

Right after he graduated Chris moved to Virginia to work for the American Shakespeare Center and I worked the summer of 2003 at the Huron Playhouse. I went to school for one more year and then moved to Los Angeles in September 2004 to be with a boyfriend I had met at Huron. Things were okay for a while but a little over a year later I was moving back to Ohio in tears. I started school again in the spring (Terri Kent was nice enough to just let me back in to the BFA program) and was cast that summer in Porthouse Theatre's 2006 production of Jesus Christ Superstar. Chris had also recently been dumped (apparently I stopped trying to mince words) and came back to Ohio after 3 tours with the ASC to perform in Our Town and JCS at Porthouse. I remember looking at the cast list during the last week of school and thinking "Chris Seiler.... I remember him. I think I want to know that guy this year."

My parents had recently just moved to Huron, Ohio (where my infamous love affair began) and I spent the months of May and June basically doing nothing but once in a while trying to learn music for the summer. When Porthouse rehearsal started and I moved back to Kent to live with 3 of my best friends (not to mention the fact that nearly ALL my friends were working there that summer. It was wonderful) I was significantly less shy than I was in 2002 but moreso, I had learned how to handle being shy in most cases. P-House always had this Thursday night bowling thing and the first Thursday I was there I re-introduced myself to Chris. I told him we were in G&D together and that "I was the girl who carried the sign." He remembered the sign... he seemed confused of who I was, though. Later he said that this was because I was wearing my glasses that night. A few nights later we happened to both be at the same place during the fourth of July and he said that he completely remembered who I was (now that I had my contacts in). After that day we started one of those ridiculous, flirty friendships where you constantly tell each other you hate them but still go sit next to them and talk to them as much as possible.

I didn't know that I LIKED Chris until July 14 or 15. My friend Allison Nacht was listening to Alanis Morissette's Under Rug Swept album and the song "21 Things I Want in a Lover" came on. I decided, after having been in 3 really crappy relationships, that I needed to get my priorities straight and made my own list of 21 things. Things on this list included:

• Lover of Maps
  
• Not socially awkward
  
• Very nice
  
• plays guitar
  
• Scripps Spelling Bee enthusiast
  
• Interested in what I do
  
• Animal lover

....among other things. After I had finished making my list (during rehearsal) Chris Seiler walked by and I asked him if he liked maps. He said something like, "Why, yes I do. Blah blah blah... I was on tour for 3 years.... blah blah blah... we had to use a lot of maps in different states... blah blah." Whatever, the rest didn't matter. He liked maps. That's all I needed to know.

Over the next, well, apparently TWO days (summer stock theatre throws you into a time warp. everything seems like it happened in 2 weeks even if it happened over the course of an hour) I would occasionally ask him if he did or did not do or like whatever thing was on my list. Chris met 17 of the 21 things! I didn't even make this list with him in mind. I didn't even know I REALLY liked him until July 16th. I told all my friends that I did on July 17th and on the 19th I made my friend Jessie ask him for a ride to the theatre and to covertly let it slip that I liked him.

I figured I had nothing to lose in this situation since he would be moving at the end of the summer to NYC but I still wonder why I didn't just say something myself instead of making Jessie tell him like we were in elementary school.

Anyway, Jessie, after unsuccessfully trying to bring UP the subject, in panic mode, at the last minute, blurted out, "I THINK MY ROOMMATE LIKES YOU." Chris smiled and said, "who's your roommate?" She said, "Alisa Ledyard. Do you know her?" he said that of course he knew me and then paused for a couple of seconds and said "Well, maybe I like your roommate, too." After this the conversation gets sketchy but I do know that Jessie told him that he SHOULD like me because "[she's] well read and well written"--a line I told her to say. Chris had no idea what this meant exactly but I know that later that night he told our mutual friend Adam about the situation and that he thought it was great.

BACK TO ME. So, I was sitting at my grandma's house doing laundry when Jessie called to tell me what happened. I started speaking in my really high, nervous voice but I was thrilled. The next day I reverted back to a 5 year old and could barely look at him, let alone talk to him or even stop giggling for 3 seconds until our lunch break at rehearsal. Finally, I went to where he was and said, "So. I assume you know what was said last night."
"Yes."
"(ridiculous giggling) I feel like I'm 5 years old."
"Why?"
"Because I made my friend tell you.... what she told you. And now I can't stop laughing."
"Well, you know I hate you, right?"
"Right."
"So... do you want to go out sometime?"
"(teeheehee) Yes!"

And then we did. And then we fell in love. And then we were in a long distance relationship for a year before I, too, got a job with the ASC after graduation and we both went on tour, the contract for which ends in a little over a month.

The story of our love amazingly comes full circle. I had completely forgotten about the poster I gave to Chris's friend, Adam, until this past summer when we were in rehearsal for our shows. The touring troupe of the ASC performs 3 shows in repertory for a year. Our shows are The Taming of the Shrew, Henry V, andThe Merchant of Venice. Both of our biggest roles are in Merchant which is only funny if you think back to the first interaction I had with Chris in my life---asking him if he thought Adam would like a poster of the entire text of The Merchant of Venice.

It's not, you know, AMAZING or anything... but I think it's nice. :)