How this whole marriage thing started...

Gather 'round children, it's time for a story. The few of you that haven't heard the story of how Jeff proposed to me are in for a treat.

The day was Wednesday, June 6th, 2007. Jeff and I had flown in to New Jersey that day and took the train in to Manhattan to meet up with the family. We were all there visiting for Jeff's solo art show at the Fuse Gallery in SoHo. Which was awesome, but is not the point of this story. You can check out the details of the art show on Jeff's personal blog: http://thurnobulax.blogspot.com/ Back to me. I mean, us.

After dropping off our bags at the hotel, Jeff's parents and aunt and uncle (Dick and Linda) took us to Little Italy for dinner at probably the best Italian restaurant I've ever been. And I've been to Italy. We had a fantastically long and yummy dinner and then took the subway back to the hotel which was in the Times Square area. Jeff and I planned to continue our night after dropping the parents off and wanted to return to Little Italy but the subway gods were against us. We were stuck in Times Square and I was literally dying of thirst. Wine and lots of salty pasta will kill you. Slowly, but still. All I wanted to do was find some bar and have a cold beverage. Jeff had other plans.

So unbeknownst to me, as I'm pointing out suitable establishments that could help me quench my thirst, Jeff was evaluating each one for its appropriateness in proposition ambience. As you can imagine, none were looking too hot. So we continued searching the streets, me growing increasingly cranky because Jeff was being too picky over where we would have our first New York beer. So I thought. I voiced my crankiness to him and he said he'd promise we'd get something to drink... right after we see the NBC building! Which is right down the street! My brattiness got worse as I was led down the street to go check out some boring office building. We got to the street corner right before the building and Jeff started fidgeting. I asked if he just wanted to stand there and look at it from across the street or if we should actually cross. He responds by putting something in my hand and saying "Got you this." This is where it gets embarrassing, although we're going to go with "funny" from now on. You see, Jeff tends to do just this every once in awhile. He will pretend to hold my hand, only to deposit trash in it and will then walk away quickly so I then have to throw it away. He cracks up everytime. So this time, when he put a DIOR DIAMOND RING in my hand, I thought it was New York City street trash and compounded with my current brattiness, I threw it down on the ground and scolded him "GROSS JEFF!". He squeals and dives for it after it clinks down on the street several feet away from us and MERE INCHES FROM THE SEWER DRAIN! I'm not understanding why he's doing a little panicked dance over this piece of trash so I look at him like he's crazy and slowly back away. He tells me "You don't understand what's going on right now!" True. He has to say no more as he shows me the ring (while gripping it very tightly). And then BAM! We're engaged. :)

So how about some pictures to illustrate the story a little bit? Here is our street corner, 6th and 49th, across the street from the NBC building, and just up the street from Radio City Music Hall. Kind of a weird place to get engaged, but it was actually a quintessential New York City street corner, which made it perfect.



Here is a picture of the sewer drain the ring almost fell in:



Yikes! On to a happier picture... Jeff and I a few days later at our corner:



And lastly, for those that haven't seen me since the trip, here is a picture of the coolest engagement ring on the planet, the Dior Oui ring. Gorgeous.



Such an amazing day, trip, person, and love. I'm so lucky.