storytime

I'm getting married in exactly one month! (Thanks to Will for emailing me this morning and reminding me - ha!) I know this is exciting news for everyone, possibly just because you're tired of hearing about wedding things all the time and keep thinking "When will it ever end?!" Answer: probably never. I just really like weddings. But the percentage of the blog that wedding matters take up will be seriously reduced - no fear.

I feel like this one-month countdown is as good a time as any to finally document our engagement story...before I forget it (KIDDING). I think the most that I could muster at the time was a bunch of exclamation points, so some expansion might be good. Also, I just love remembering it.

March 12 was a very good day. After months and months of snow, rain, and no sun, it was one of those very early spring days when the sun finally comes out and bravely tries to wake up the hibernating world. The kind of day where you're peeling off layers in the sunshine, then piling them back on when a breeze (that is still unmistakably wintery) comes along. A perfect day to finally leave the couch and go adventuring on Roosevelt Island.

Roosevelt Island is one of our favorite places in DC. We first visited it years ago when I came to see Will on a fall break. It's an island in the middle of the Potomac that has been preserved in its natural state - save for a courtyard in the middle with fountains, bridges over the river, and an alarmingly big statue of Teddy Roosevelt. I ignore the statue, and focus on this, generally:



Will had packed a picnic that appealed greatly to the German in me (meaning: crackers, salami, cheese, and clementines), and with that in a backpack and his hand stuck tenaciously in his pocket, we clambered about the island for awhile, enjoying the sun and the birds, who were testing out their songs after their flights home. We took our time, and eventually found a huge fallen tree to sit on. We talked, we ate, and he read aloud my favorite poem, Little Gidding. [Once upon a time, over four years ago, he had read me the same poem on Hillsdale's campus, when we were just beginning to suspect that we might possibly be in love.] Then he handed me a note...a delayed Valentine's love note that has now joined the stack of love notes accumulated over the years. I'm keeping the contents of the note to myself, but when I finished reading it I looked up, and he, with the most wonderful smile on his face, edged off the tree and onto one knee.

There were tears. There was laughter. Apparently, there were lots of "yes's", though I don't remember them, and had to ask him ten minutes later if I had ever said yes. It was the most perfect day...though I suspect it might be rivaled by a day one month from now. But it's very hard to imagine anything better.



We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.