A Love Story

A week and a half ago, my boyfriend came home from work and gave me roses on our anniversary. Then he made me dinner: chicken and green beans, the meal with which he wooed me five years ago (it is SO GOOD. Tip for gentlemen: have at least one signature meal you can cook well to impress the girl of your dreams!)

While he was cooking, he gave me a glass of red wine and a cannoli to nibble, and we exchanged gifts. I gave him all three brilliant seasons of Arrested Development, because Gene introduced me to the show and because one of my favorite things in the world is laughing with him.

He gave me a vacuum cleaner!

That expression on your face was the one I was wearing too. "But it's a Dyson!" my boyfriend said proudly. I laughed, and told him I'd love watching him use it ;-)

We sat down to dinner, had some wine. My boyfriend kept checking his watch, and I assumed, since we were all dressed up and I looked all sizzling in my party dress, that we had a reservation somewhere. Then he said we should go watch the sunset from the balcony.

This is when I knew something was up :)

So we go outside, sip some more wine, and chat. And we watch what we can see of the sunset, which at this point of the year has retreated behind the edge of our building. (My boyfriend had not accounted for the seasonal rotation of the earth! But the sunset was there, somewhere.)

At some point, he brought up another balcony where, five years ago, he'd told me how lately he'd been smiling way more than ever before in his life. Why? Because of me, of course! Our first swoony kisses had ensued <3 We also saw a raccoon at some point that night, I believe, but I'm pretty sure it was before the kissing :)

Back to present day: my boyfriend told me that since that evening five years ago, he'd never stopped smiling. And he never wanted to. Then he got down on one knee. !!!

Not trusted with ribbon or rings!

For about ten minutes we were both a mess of tears, and laughter, and hugs, and kisses (somewhere in there I said yes!). He told me how he'd considered proposing by letting our cat Havarti wear my ring on a ribbon until I noticed, but scrapped that plan after remembering how much Havarti likes to eat ribbon (and anything attached).


I've never been a ring person, even said once or twice that I might not even want an engagement ring. My sister wisely advised my boyfriend (a year ago - girl can keep a secret!) on stones and settings anyway :) (thanks sis!) I cannot stop looking at it, and every time it annoys me by getting in my way when I am doing things with my hands, I am reminded that my best friend in the world wants to marry me, and I swoon all over again <3

When we were coherent again, my fiancé (!) and I called our respective parents with the good news. He told me the Dyson was a purposefully-unromantic decoy gift so I wouldn't suspect anything (ha!) And he told me again how much I make him smile.

I told him I'd keep him smiling if he kept me laughing :)