Quarter 2, 2013: Part Two

We left the museums and drove back along main street, along the other side of the lake to Glimmerglass State Park. Last year, at graduation, my class and many of our parents had a barbecue there, and that shelter is where we headed. We pulled in to park, Mr. C mentioned I probably didn't need my purse, and then grabbed a backpack out of the trunk of the car.

We got out of the car and walked a bit around the side of the lake until we found a beautifully secluded spot with a picnic table and an amazing view of the lake. We sat down, and after a minute Mr. C reached down into his backpack and pulled out a scrapbook. To preface this, we have been together now for one year and seven months. His first message to me was on October 11th, and we became an "official" couple on November 5th. On November 20th, we took our first trip together down to Washington D.C. In February, we went down to New York City. While we were there we had a couple of glasses of wine and he, a bit tipsy, confessed that he knew then how he would propose to me.

Me, with what is now the most precious thing I have: The Scrapbook

It turns out that, beginning with that trip barely a month after we'd met for the first time, he began saving the evidence of our relationship; tickets, museum admission pins, receipts, menus, all sorts of things. Last summer, while I was in Nebraska, he convinced some of our friends to drive down to Cooperstown to take pictures to use in the scrapbook, that far in advance.

So that brings us to the present. He put all of these beautiful memories and mementos together into one book. Our first Valentine's Day I left him post-it notes all around his room telling him why I loved him, and he not only kept them and put them in the book, but wrote response notes and used them as the anchor throughout the book. I could go on and on and on in detail about every amazing page of this scrapbook, but I will instead show you a few of the highlights. 

Page one of the scrapbook, the transcript of our first conversation together. Reading this, and the other messages we sent at this stage, I am so happy with how genuinely "us" it all is. We were very much ourselves, right from the start. 

This is the page for the second half of our first date, when all of my classmates crashed our date :) The most wonderful piece here is the picture in the far left. It is a screenshot of our friend K's phone the night of our first date. It might be hard to read, but the text from Mr. C read's "Ok this girl is awesome." K got that text message and decided to save a screeshot of it. How wonderful is that?

Turning each of the pages was turning to another part of our relationship. Graduation, travel, all of the amazing things we've been able to do so far. I realized that we were near the end of the book, took a deep breath, and finally turned to the last page.

Mr. C untied the ring, set the book aside, and knelt down on one knee in front of me. He took my hand, and asked me to be his wife. I think I said something along the lines of "yes please" and we just stayed there, holding onto each other with our faces next to each other for awhile. I realized it probably wasn't super comfortable for his knee, so pulled him up onto the picnic table with me. That's when we walked through the book together, this time with him telling me the background and work he put into each one of the pages. Seriously, he put so much thought into it.

Once we'd pulled ourselves together a bit, we made sure to document the occasion properly.

Pardon the freckles, but I love this picture. You can see just how gorgeous the lake was, plus my amazing new ring :) And really I kind of love my freckles. When my grandpa saw my grandma across a room for the first time turned to his buddy, and said "I'll take the one with the freckles." 

Once we'd taken plenty of photos, we loaded back into the car and headed back home. We called my family and let them know the good news (which they all knew already, bah!) before we got home, vegged for a few minutes to take the edge off of a busy day in a lot of sun, and changed quickly for dinner. We headed to one of our favorite nice restaurants, Provence. Our dear friend Lady A had called them and ordered us a bottle of wine, which was waiting for us at the table. We had an amazingly delicious meal. If you're ever there, always always order the risotto. We've had a couple of the different ones, and have never been disappointed.

There was one more piece that all together made the day really one of the most perfect ones of my life. Mr. C has been saving a bottle of wine (a 1995 Bordeaux) for a few years, just for this occasion. We opened it, a bit apprehensively at first, but it was quite nice. Very leathery, with a very interesting mouth feel. It really was a wonderful way to cap off an amazing day, and the start of this next piece of our lives together. 

Quarter 2, 2013: Part One

So, as of today, Mr. C and I are engaged. I had a hunch it was coming today, as he took the day off of work and was very concerned about the weather. All of my suspicions were confirmed last night when Lady A came over to take me to the craft store, and instead took me to get my nails done so they woul look pretty. That's another story for another time, but it meant I knew what was coming. It also meant I had the chance to run to Kohls to pick out a cute new outfit, which you'll see in the photos tomorrow.

A little sign hanging in the lady's room at Doubleday

We drove over to Cooperstown, home of my alma mater (is it still an alma mater if it was for grad school?) and the location of our first date. On the way down, we finished off the audiobook for the first Harry Potter book, and then we both had the little flourish at the end stuck in our heads. We kicked off the visit with a trip back to Doubleday Cafe, home of our first date, as well as a few other good memories.

On our first date, our next stop was the local pub Cooley's, where we were crashed by my fairly ineberated classmates and friends. As we were there at just before noon today, we decided to pass on the beer and just stroll by. Turns out my favorite restaurant in Cooperstown, Depot Deli, relocated to prime downtown space. The owner saw me walking by, recognized me as an old favorite, and came running out to say hello. Reminded me of why I loved living in a small town. So, passing the pub, we instead stopped at a new frozen yogurt place and split a Red Velvet/Chocolate with strawberries and brownie bits. We also stopped off at Stagecoach Coffee and picked up a cup o joe for Mr. C, then wandered down to the lakefront park to just sit and enjoy being together there for awhile.

View of  "Glimmerglass" from the lakefront park

After we finished off our snacks, we drove over to the house that I lived in when Mr. C and I met. My old landlords are basically my surrogate aunt and uncle, and so we dropped in on them and caught up for awhile. It is always so wonderful to see them, and I'm so glad we were able to catch up with them.

Once we'd said goodbye, we drove over to the museums. We hadn't been to the Fenimore in awhile, so wandered through some of their new exhibits. We especially enjoyed the highlights from the American painters. We also made a stop at "our bench", where we have planned several of our trips together. We still haven't managed the last one we planned on the bench (to Montreal) but now we're also planning our trip to Disneyworld :) We finished off our time at the art museum with a glass of wine on the veranda, which was very very nice. The weather had said it was supposed to storm all day, and instead we had lovely scattered clouds and bursts of sunshine.

We finished off our wine, made a quick duck into the library to check out my first ever exhibit, then dashed over to the Farmers' Museum for a ride on the carousel. It is one of my favorite things to do, and Mr. C always puts up with it. I ride Merry the Labrador Retriever, which leaves Mr C on Benny the Brook Trout. He rides along with a smile on his face, and I even got a kiss mid-ride :)

Tomorrow...the rest of the story!