about gum in a parking garage

On December 31, 2008, Aaron and I went downtown with some friends for New Year's Eve. We explored an empty, underground parking garage under the Raleigh Convention Center/Marriott. It is randomly located below this glass box on Fayetteville Street. It has three levels, and the bottom one was COMPLETELY empty! We strolled around and decided it would be fun to play laser tag on roller blades or something. While down there, Aaron tired of chewing the gum I had given him. So he put it on a pillar.

This Level p1 pillar is now of some significance to us. We had just started dating a couple months before Aaron put his gum on the pillar. New Year's Eve was the first holiday we spent together. And by then, we were pretty much already decided that we were going to be together forever, even though neither of us said it out loud yet!

We went back a few times to check on "our gum" in that next year.

In August 2009, the gum pillar was again part of a very significant day...our engagement day. On the day we got engaged, Aaron sent me on a scavenger hunt all over Raleigh to different important places and people in our relationship. The gum pillar being one of those places. You can read our entire engagement story from both of our perspectives at our other blog.

See the gum?

After that day, we didn't go check on the gum for a long time.

Since we've been married, we've gone to check on it a couple times. We always get a little nervous that it won't be there anymore!

Last Tuesday night, we were with our friends Renee and Derrick downtown. We had a nice dinner then decided to walk around. We came upon the glass box and decided to go check on our gum. It's a little scary now because there is a sign up that there is a fine for trespassing, and when you get down to level p1, it is full of empty cop cars!

We quickly found the pillar, and sure enough, there it was! After almost 4 years, it still looks the same! I sure hope they never demolish that parking garage!