A Fairy Tale

A year ago yesterday, Dr. J and I went on our first date. We had been talking on the phone for hours for a little less than a week, and I was looking forward to this lunch with him. He was incredibly nervous (although it didn't show to much), but by the end of the day, we both knew that there was definitely something unmistakably magical between us. Although Dr. J and I generally remember the 4th of August (the first day we met), August 9th is our true "anniversary" date--it was the day we knew we were a couple. We had a talk not too long ago about if in the future we should "celebrate" the 4th or the 9th and decided on the 9th. So it was good to have Dr. J in town for this special day. His schedule has been busy this week with dissertation stuff (or so I thought), so it was nice to get our celebration started with a nice dinner Tuesday night (recipe to come B*). I had picked up a bottle of Reisling and also baked a lil chocolate cake, so Dr. J was surprised when he got in Tuesday night. We laughed and talked and danced together until the wee hours of the morning.

Yesterday morning, we were a little slow getting started--we actually slept for a while which was good. We danced to the anniversary song and got out and ran a few errands. We went to see Ricky Bobby and laughed as loud as we wanted because we had this big stadium theatre all to ourselves (it was about one in the afternoon). Our plan was to catch an early dinner at the first restaurant we ever went to here in New School City (a beautiful place on the waterfront). But right after we left the movie, a huge thunderstorm came up. It was pretty bad and delayed our dinner plans an hour. Fortunately, the restaurant screwed up our reservation time (they had us down for 7:00 instead of 6:00) so we when arrived, we were actually on time. Dr. J and I had a wonderfully romantic dinner--just like our first time there and the rain looked like it was going to let up, but it only did a little.

So we had a bit of a quandary. Our first visit to this particular restaurant was followed by a walk on New School City's famous downtown waterfront area. I really wanted to go down and sit at the pier so I said let's go anyway. It really worked out that it was raining because that kept the tourists away. It is a beautiful spot on the water where it is normally hard to get a seat (and it is a covered area so it was dry where I wanted to sit and look at the water). So although Dr. J was acting a little agitated about the rain, we finally got a parking space and got settled downtown at a nice spot on the water. The rain also meant that there was a cool breeze, so we just cuddled together and talked about what a great day and great year we had together. We were just floating in our own sweet confessions of love as Dr. J began to tell me how he wished the night could end--with our favorite group singing to us:



As we talked about how wonderful that would be--a perfect ending to our day, Dr. J began to deliver for me a beautiful poem about how much he needed me and loves me. When he finished, I was (I thought) floating as high as I possibly could be at that moment. It was just so wonderful to be sitting in the middle of a beautiful night with the man that I love by God's big beautiful ocean. And as I was all caught up in the moment, in his love, in the night, Dr. J suddenly dropped to one knee and asked:

Mon, will you marry me?

My mouth dropped open--I think I actually first said "shut up" because I couldn't believe it. I was in complete awe as I began to laugh and squeal and kiss him and say Yes YES YES!! as he slipped the most perfect ring in the world on my little little finger. It is perfectly classically me in every way:

I LOVE the details of the ring--I keep finding little things about it that I love:

And man it is hard to show in a photo, but this lil bling bling sparkles--it is just perfect for my little hand:

Dr. J knows he could have given me a rubber band and I would be happy, but it is so nice to have a man in my life who not only loves me right, but also knows me--knows my taste and knows how to make me grin like a giddy schoolgirl. We laughed, we cried, we just had a wonderful night out on the pier and of course, it stopped raining as we sat there. That gave us a chance to walk around downtown, make important phone calls, and duck into a nice restaurant for a little Riesling and dessert. We came home and danced some more, and in the surprise of the evening, I had forgotten to give Dr. J his anniversary present and card--which he enjoyed very much.

It was a day I'll never forget. I feel like a princess, and I'm not coming down from this cloud for a while. I can't believe so many things are happening in my life right now--I feel so lucky--so blessed. I never thought I'd be here. But it feels great. It feels like a fairy tale and I love it.