The Engagement
On January 19, 1999 Michael asked me to marry him — and of course I said yes!
Part I: The Background
After dating for six and a half years (and after dropping many hints) I was convinced Michael could not surprise me when he finally proposed. But I was wrong. I was totally taken by surprise. I had been kind of hoping/expecting it over Christmas, but when that came and went I put it out of my mind for the time being (well at least until Valentine’s Day!). To put the whole event in perspective, here is some background. Things were getting really crazy, our real estate agent had called us the Wednesday before about a house in Somerville that although larger and more expensive than we wanted, it sounded wonderful. So that night we went to see the house and fell in love with it. We had been looking for months (because the rental market in the Boston area is completely out of control – especially if you have pets!) and this was by far the nicest we had seen. So we talked about it and the next day called the bank to see if it was feasible, and it was so we put an offer on the house – a low offer. Things were tense. Two other couples had bid as well – and our agent thought we were all in the same ballpark, so we upped it slightly and our agent gave the seller a big push for us and by Friday night we knew we had it! It all happened so quickly – in three days! This just reflects the pure insanity that is currently going on in the housing market. Plus this was January, if we were looking now (summer) the whole thing happens on the spot.Part II: The Big Day
But I digress, now back to our story. So after letting it sink in all weekend (and driving by many times to gawk at the house in wonder), we scheduled the home inspection for Tuesday morning. Once there, we spent about three hours following the inspector around the house, looking in every cranny, even crawling through a crawlspace under the attic eaves. Once done, we made our way outside where Michael and the inspector poked around the garage and checked out the roof. Finally, it was over (keep in mind this is Boston in January and this had to have been the coldest day of the year and there was snow all over the ground!). The inspector left and Michael and I stayed a bit to talk some of the inspector’s comments over. Then Michael got this funny look on his face and started talking about how much stuff was going on in our lives right now, he had just started a new job the week before, now we were buying a house and getting married. Of course I just gave him a funny look and said "We’re not getting married." And he replied "Do you want to?" And I still skeptical, said "Are you serious?" and he replied "Yes, will you marry me?" And I even still skeptical asked if he had a ring (just trying to verify this was real!). When he said yes and reached in his pocket to pull the ring box out, that’s when my heart started to pound and everything felt surreal and dreamlike, like this could not possibly be happening! But it was! And he proposed once again, I said yes, he put the ring on my finger, we kissed and went off to work! Because he had just started a new job he couldn’t take the day off!
The poor guy had actually tried to propose Friday and Sunday nights but because his friend Victor was holding the ring for him (so I wouldn't find it) it didn’t work out logistically. So he said he just couldn’t keep it in any longer, he just had to do it! He had actually bought the ring before Christmas but waited so he would really surprise me, which he did!And the ring is so gorgeous! It’s a round cut solitaire and is currently in a four prong white gold setting. Michael said he picked a very basic setting so I could eventually choose my own – because we have notoriously different tastes!
And that’s it!