On Friday February 2nd, 2007, Paul proposed to me and I said, "yes!" The story is contained here and it's pretty long but also incredibly romantic. Enjoy!
The day started off with a puzzle. It's a tradition Paul and I have when we plan special date nights. We send each other cryptic messages with clues about when and where to meet. Paul sent me the following clues during the course of the day:
| When | Where |
|---|---|
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| Show clue | Show answer | Show clue | Show answer |
I arrived at King Street at 5:30 and Paul was waiting at the newspaper vending machines for me. He was clean shaven and wearing his contacts. All he had told me about this evening was to "dress warmly" so I had on many layers. We began walking towards this beautiful horse drawn carriage and I asked incredulously if we were going on the carriage and Paul said, "yes."
We took a wonderful ride around Old Town, Alexandria. So many people stopped and watched us. A number of them said hello and asked if we were having fun. We talked for the entire ride and enjoyed the surprisingly mild night. The carriage ride dropped us off after 45 minutes at our next destination.
Dinner was at Thai Old Town, the restaurant where we had our first date. The hostess led us to our table, which was the table we sat at on our first date, and there was a gorgeous long-stemmed red rose waiting for me.
This is when things start getting weird, although I don't know it at the time. Paul leaves the table with "stomach problems" and is gone for a really long time - so long that our food comes and there's no sign of him. Just as I was starting to worry, Paul shows up and we begin eating.
We're having really nice conversation when Paul jumps up and runs away from the table claiming more "stomach problems" but comes back more quickly this time. We proceed through dinner without any more mishaps, although Paul tells me I should save room for dessert.
As we leave the restaurant, Paul goes to the bathroom one more time and we head out into Old Town. Just as we step outside, I hear singing and Paul leads me over to Market Square where there is an a cappella group singing for me! They sing a number of songs and then stop. Paul turns to me and says, "I have something to ask you!"
He takes out a white box and opens it. Inside, lit up, is a ring (*)! Paul says, "Rachael, will you marry me?" I say "Yes!" and the a cappella group bursts into song. The group, Almost Recess, was fantastic and offered to sing at our wedding! It was perfect.
After we said goodbye to Almost Recess, we had a little interlude before going on to the next event. Paul shows me a Polaroid of my bike and tells me he wanted to incorporate my bike somehow, since cycling means so much to me, so he brought "bici" along! Then he brings out another box and asks me to present it to him. This box had a piece of yarn in it that I had given Paul a couple of weeks earlier when he complained at a family dinner that he didn't know my ring size. I took a piece of yarn and tied it around my ring finger to give him as an approximation of my ring size.
Then it was my turn to surprise Paul. I brought along the card I had given him for our 2 year anniversary in November. I had signed the card on the back: A plummy rear. At the time Paul asked me about it and I downplayed it, telling him that I liked his butt. In truth, the phrase was an anagram appropriate to the evening's proceedings and brought the card out and asked Paul to reconsider the phrase in light of recent events. He didn't quite get it, which was only evident later on in the evening when I had to explain it to him!
After our interlude, we went to the pier in Old Town where there was a boat waiting to take us on a trip up the Potomac. Now this is the reason Paul had so many "stomach problems" earlier in the evening - the people running the boat weren't sure the could do it because of bad weather earlier in the evening. So Paul kept getting and making phone calls to try and get everything to come together. Ultimately they decide they could make it, so Paul was extremely relieved and the evening could go ahead as planned!
Our captains, Eric and Lisa, were a trip! Lisa is such a character and we had an awesome time chatting with her and Eric. Turns out Lisa is an actress on the side so I asked her a ton of questions about the movies she's been in (Boy of Pigs is in post production - she plays an evil nun and is credited as Laurel Astri) and the people she's met. They were so fun to talk to.
The ride on the river was so nice - there was a massive flock of seagulls that rose majestically out of the water as we glided up the Potomac. We saw NRL and the monuments and the Kennedy Center. It was really gorgeous and dead calm. Paul commented that it was one of the rare occasions he was happy it was windless!
The boat dropped us off at Washington Harbor in Georgetown, where a car and driver were waiting to take us to The Melting Pot, home to many important early dates that Paul and I went on. We had cheese and chocolate to cap off the evening. Our server took a picture for us and presented it to us in a frame with a balloon and some fondue chocolate.
After dessert, the driver took us home, where Paul had a couple last surprises remaining: 1) he took down the curtains in the living room that I hate and 2) he had strewn rose petals on the bed and presented me with a fabulous present, since my birthday is on Feb 7th.
It was a completely magical evening - everything that I could have hoped for and more. It was so special. Paul incorporated things that were really important to him, to me, and to the both of us. I couldn't have asked for a better story to have for our friends and family and a memory to have for always. I'm so happy and excited about us starting the next chapter of our lives together and am thrilled to share this happy news with you.
* Just kidding! The ring in that picture is a cubic zirconia Paul got for me as a joke. He actually knit a ring for me as a stand-in until we could go shopping for one together. Here's a picture of it in the light-up box Paul made. Back to story