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Sorry, guys.
But Myron Powell, 52, a self-confessed hopeless romantic, just raised the bar for the rest of you by pulling off a storybook engagement.
Rejoice women.
Because Esther Watson, 44, has proven that all those dates with all those Mr. Wrongs were worth it
All that time spent not settling, all those Venus and Mars relationship books she read, then hid; all of that hoping. It can end in finding Prince Charming.
Don't be too jealous of Myron and Esther just because their romance unfolded like a Meg Ryan flick ("Sleepless in Seattle," not "In The Cut").
Listen to their story. Share it with anyone who's endured years of dating. Tell it to the cynical on the verge of giving up the search.
Once upon a time, Myron and Esther were just two more profiles on Match.com.
Today, they're the couple who met on the Internet and became engaged Sept. 30 at the Jepson Center for the Arts, where they spent their first date.
On their three-month anniversary, Myron and Esther planned to retrace their exact steps from that first date, starting by going to the museum cafe.
Little did Esther know that Myron had conspired with staff to allow him to hang a special love poem he framed to identically match the other art in the cafe.
Esther and Myron were about to order the same meals they had that first time - roast beef on a croissant for him, shrimp salad for her - as Esther, ever the art lover, closely examined each piece of art.
"I said, 'I can't believe there is a love poem hanging here'' Esther recalls. "I was such a numbskull.''
Myron told her to keep reading.
Cafe staff, aware of Myron's intentions, had waited all morning for the moment. They watched as closely as chaperones (or Meg Ryan fans).
Within the poem ''Take a Chance'' by Ara John Movsesian, Myron wrote, "Will you, my sweet lady, Esther, my soulmate, take a chance and marry me.''
Myron says Esther squealed.
Esther said she heard the 15 or so other customers in the cafe cheer and applaud.
Somewhere in the blur, Esther said "Aren't you going to get down on one knee?''
Myron did.
Esther continued to ask "How did you do this? How did you do this?''
And then "I did tell you 'Yes,' didn't I?''
Myron pointed out she was wearing the ring.
Of course she had.
Who wouldn't?
There was Esther, in her hometown's new museum surrounded by the works of artists she's loved and studied all her life, being congratulated by cafe customers. She had found a man who not only loved her, but knew her well enough to pick the perfect spot to ask her to share their lives together.
A spring or summer wedding is in the works, possibly with the reception at, you guessed it, the Jepson.
What makes their story all the more remarkable is Esther, an emergency room nurse at Memorial Health University Medical Center, had given up on finding Mr. Right. She was dating simply for companionship.
Rather cynical for a woman so optimistic her personalized license plate reads: ZPTDODA after her catch-phrase: zip a dee do da.
But that's what happens, even to the most hopeful, when the pool of available singles without significant problems, prison records or odd piercings shrinks after the age of 35.
Myron, an architect at Georgia Southern University, was also weary of cyber-courting. He was about to call it quits before meeting Esther.
Both hate to say it, because it sounds so cliched, but on that first date they found their soulmates.
Esther was so comfortable with Myron that, from the start, she wasn't shy about asking him if they could pray over the meal.
That's sweet.
But thinking he was your soulmate on the first date? Come on, Esther. Did you really know right away Myron was The One?
O.K, O.K., three weeks into dating him, she knew.
We're talking about a man, after all, who made her ruby shoes.
The couple loves the song "Love and Happiness'' by Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris. It's about lucky pennies. Wishing wells. Rabbit's foot. Ruby shoes.
The song includes the line: "You will always have a lucky star. That shines because of what you are.''
Myron couldn't find a rabbit's foot. Too politically incorrect.
So ruby shoes it was.
"When a real man knows what he wants, he makes it pretty clear,'' Esther said.
Each had spent a couple of years in dating limbo after individual divorces.
All that time taught them a lot.
She knew not to play games. Not to expect a man to read her mind.
Not to waste time e-mailing Internet daters who postponed the first meeting.
As Esther says: "It ain't real love until it's in real life.''
She also learned not to date men with ''interesting problems.''
"I wanted a man with normal problems, like root canals or leaky faucets," Esther said.
Myron had learned a thing or two, as well.
To act once he found The One.
To believe in the power of ruby shoes.
In the promise of love poems.
To be what he is, a hopeless romantic.
Reach Anne Hart at 652-0374 or anne.hart@savannahnow.com. Read more of her Sunday columns at new.savannahnow.com/node/93615.
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