Engagement

The past weekend was a busy one, with a lot of moving parts that had to come together just right. My plan was to take my girlfriend Shannon to brunch to celebrate a year of dating, and propose marriage right after. She was not aware of these plans, though she had a good idea something like that was going to happen this summer.

After a delicious brunch, I made some lame excuse about wanting to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue in the direction of the Capitol--something about wanting to see what the World Cup games schedule would be as announced at one of the local bars. Once the backdrop of the Capitol was in view, I did it, and the look of joy and surprise on her face was terrific. That wouldn't be the only surprise for her that day though.

My parents were in town, ostensibly to visit, and after the engagement was official Shannon knew that they were here to join us for dinner and celebrate. First though, we had snacks and white sangria on the balcony with them, where we visited and chatted about all the big plans coming up. We then dressed for a nice dinner on Capitol Hill, after which we would step into one of the bars to have a celebratory drink.

In the bar's downstairs area, we'd managed to round up a couple dozen of our close friends--some of whom came down from NYC for it--and again, she was completely floored. A night of visiting and celebrating would of course be hard felt the next day, but it was a joyous occasion and completely right--Shannon and I both value our friends greatly and it was important to have them there for it. And now, it just seems to be the beginning of the festivities, and I couldn't be happier.