This is long-overdue, I realize. But I figured the Facebook version was largely sufficient for informing our general circle of our engagement; this post (like all of my posts, really) is, on the whole, for posterity (until the computing cloud collapses, of course. Then I'll just have my Microsoft Word archive copy).
So one weekend in October, Daniel told me we were going on three dates (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday). I had a little inkling of what this meant, and admired his ingenuity. Friday night, we had Thai in Coronado, and Saturday morning, we helped with distribution and cleaning up the children's room at church. Then picked up lunch and headed out to La Jolla. I was in a somewhat dour mood, having had a much larger than usual pile of newspaper articles to plow through before we could leave, and being just generally unable to relax and enjoy myself. Even the coffee we got didn't do much to alleviate my moodiness. But I gave it my best shot, and soon I didn't have to try to fake it.
We tiptoed among the tidepools. I was dressed like a Scottish highlander, so Daniel gallantly held my purse.
Last picture before we got engaged!
First picture after we got engaged!
Daniel proposed in quite possibly the most low-key way ever, rolling over next to me on our blanket in the park after our picnic lunch and grinning, "So . . . will you marry me?" Instantly, my moodiness drained away, and a flash of some of the most intense happiness I've ever felt replaced it. It was a little unreal, and it lasted for weeks. I can still channel some of the glow I felt.
Daniel, sweetheart that he is, had scouted out the area and found an alley where we could finagle some self-timed shots.
We're both wearing rings (Daniel's here was temporary; his real one came a couple of weeks later). We had previously discussed the diamond issue at length before deciding we felt most comfortable with something else, and so we found a white sapphire seller on Etsy that satisfied our ethical, economic, and aesthetic concerns. The final choice was Daniel's, and I think he did quite a good job:)
Our day was, adorably, a recreation of our first date, and we ended it at the first restaurant we ever went to together, a little Italian place in La Jolla. We spent the rest of the night making ecstatic phone calls and celebrating with our friends at a little party back at my apartment. It was fairly wonderful.
