l’événement sacré

I am engaged. Yesterday morning I proposed to Diane and she said yes.

The proposal itself was a long time coming. I purchased the ring before we left for the beach several weeks ago and about drove Diane crazy taking my time to actually ask the question. But I trust that it was special to her. I had gleaned from various conversational tidbits that she wanted to be “claimed” publicly, so I endeavored to include her family as much as I could, especially Luke, who I thought should see the event even if he didn’t know what was happening at the time.

Luke’s incident that morning turned out to be the only snag of the whole ordeal. Diane’s parents took him out to breakfast early, after which I swooped by the house and took her to another breakfast place. The meal was good and remarkably long. I took my time, waiting for Diane’s parents and siblings to finish their breakfast and make their way to Tanglewood, a large local park, also one of the locations visited on our first date. They arrived and set themselves up near the lakeside spot I had chosen. They were up the hill, out of sight but documenting everything as Diane and I arrived. I didn’t wait long; we walked down to a bench by the lake and after a short speech I asked her. She was very happy and said yes. The family burst out of the woods and congratulated us. Luke, however, was less than content, having done a faceplant onto concrete near the restaurant and ending up with a very bloody nose. I was very impressed and appreciative that the family continued and made it in spite of that incident. His nose is still a little crusty today but overall he’s none the worse for wear.

I had been planning the event for about a week and a half, had everything set up, but was still very nervous the day of. I told Diane later that in spite of the fact that we had been talking about our long-term plans for months and were very committed to each other from the get-go, the question still feels very much like that–an open-ended question, no matter how much of a forgone conclusion it may pretentiously feel like beforehand. But she said yes, and I am overjoyed she did. We are betrothed.