Our Engagement: 8-2-2009

Greg asked me to marry him in Salem, MA at Harrison's Comics on 8/2/2009 in the exact spot where he first saw me exactly one year earlier.

EARLY DAY: Our day started out super fun. I woke him up with the song "Anniversary" by Voltaire. This song is beautiful.

Since we are learning Japanese together, I found him a card with the Kanji symbol for "Love" on it & gave it to him along with a Nintendo Wii & some Wii & PS3 points. He was psyched! Then I surprised him with a shopping spree for some new games. (The Wii, points, and most of the spree was paid w/ Target cards I earned from work merit rewards!)

He gave me a Nintendo DS & my own copy of Japanese Coach. We'd been sharing his copy. Also, he got me a girly shirt with glow in the dark skulls on it! I love that he knows & appreciates my quirky style. After his morning long gaming shopping spree, we headed to Salem for our day.

IN SALEM: The downtown garage we usually park in was full so we had to park quite a bit away (which ended up being awesome because I found a wine & pizza place I never knew existed. They weren't open though). I had no idea what he had planned so I didn't think anything about us stopping into Engine House Pizza for a while. I took FOREVER in the pizza place too. lol. I didn't want to throw out our last two pieces but he didn't want to walk back to the car (now I know why!) and drop them off. So I wanted to wait till I felt somewhat hungry again haha and then eat them.

Finally, we left. Then he REALLY wanted to go to Harrison's.

So, for the last few weeks, he's told me that one of my gifts was "location specific" and "had to be given to me in Salem". He also mentioned that a few of his friends thought I'd LOVE this gift. Sooo, I started guessing what it could be and I came to the logical conclusion that it was Sandman Bookends.

Seriously.

I devised this whole story in my head where he probably special ordered them at Harrison's or something and was taking me there to pick them up. I figured "his friends love comics, and they know I love Sandman so there you have it".

Yes, I thought my engagement ring was going to be ceramic comic book bookends.

Go ahead, laugh.

Lo, and behold, we entered the store and I dawdled much. I lingered near the "ceramic stuff I can't afford" cases for a while and wouldn't you know it, the Sandman bookends were gone out of the case. I SOOO thought I had him! ha! He kept trying to get me to go the back of the store and I kept stopping to look at stuff.

When we finally got to the back of the store where he'd first seen me a year ago, he stopped me there. He started telling me how this was the spot where his life changed forever, and...

...and, like typical me, not having a CLUE what he was getting to, I stopped him for a second to make a snarky remark about a guy in a Dr. Seuss hat who was walking through the Marvel aisle near us... "Hahaha look at that guy in the funny hat..." (yes, I feel terrible now for interrupting)

And then Greg just got down on his knee and told me it was also the spot where he wanted to ask me to marry him and proceeded to do just that. I almost fainted. I didn't even look at the ring for like 10 minutes. I just hugged him and said "yes, of course I will" and then I had to sit down.

And that's how I became engaged to the man of my dreams.

When I finally saw the ring, I was just so blown away. He picked it out himself and it's a stunning black diamond set in white gold with antiqued looking scroll work and smaller black diamonds all up the band to give it extra shiny. :) I have to give him sooo much credit for picking the ring I am positive I would have picked also. It's like he just read my mind.

He went and got us some water and we both sat on the floor in Harrisons. I was shaking, and shocked. As I said to my brother when I called to tell him, "I didn't know! I thought I was getting bookends!!" (another quote I will never live down). Eventually we collected ourselves and after some calls and texts to friends and family, we headed out.

On the way out, I had another total *us* moment. We were walking past the Pocky (Japanese wafer candy) display as I was saying "Greg, I will always love you and cherish you...and holy crap! Is that *Banana* Pocky?!" (So sue me, it was a new flavor, I got excited. We just can't have romantic conversations, Greg & I. LOLZ).

After purchasing the banana Pocky, we went to the Cave Bar* to get some champagne. It was the worst (but best!) champagne I've ever had. :) We toasted our future together.

**so the Cave Bar has had like 4 name changes in the last year. We went there on our first meeting and almost every trip since. We like it because it's dark, has stone walls and kinda looks like a cave. We don't know what it is actually even called these days.

After the bubbly, we wanted to get some pictures taken of us in Salem on our engagement day. Since neither of us brought a real camera, we figured the best way to go about achieving this goal would be to go get pictures of ourselves done at Salem Vintage Photography. That's why our engagement pictures have us dressed like pirates. It was the only access to a real camera we had. Now you know...

After the pics, we rushed over to our waterfront dinner. We ate at a place called Captain's and it was delicious and perfect. They sat us upstairs in a practically private, dark candlelit room. We could see the water but we were far away from all the other people.

Perfect.

After dinner, we decided to just walk around and enjoy the ambiance of Salem at night. Lit up trees line the walkway from Fool's Mansion to Harrison's. We'd stopped in Fool's Mansion as well earlier, another frequent stop when we're in Salem. Fool's is where Greg very sneakily got my ring size out of me a few months ago. Fool's seels goth clothing and jewelry and we'd been looking at some of the kitschy goth rings and he "wanted ideas for christmas".

We ended our perfect night at the Gulu Gulu cafe, eating the rest of our banana Pocky, sipping wine and absinthe on the patio and talking about our future plans. And enjoying the happiness.

We took that Monday off as well, and just enjoyed a relaxing day at home, not being at work.

August 2 2009 was a perfect day/night and I'm still in shock that I get to marry the man of my dreams... considering that when I first saw photos of him I used to tell a few of my friends I thought I did not stand a chance with him.

Guess I was wrong about that AND the bookends. ;) I'm not a very good guesser, am I?

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Links:
http://www.harrisonscomicsltd.com/ Where we met. Where he proposed. Where you can buy the latest issue of Jack of Fables, a custom Venom bust & and an assortment of plush toys from Labyrinth all in one transaction.

http://www.foolsmansion.com/ Where I'll probably end up buying my wedding dress!

http://www.gulu-gulu.com/ The best wine cafe in Salem and the only place I know of in Salem to actually be served absinthe. I know! Only one place in Salem of all places... They have a lovely patio and are right across from Harrison's

http://www.capts.com/ Go here. Eat the filet mignon.

http://www.salemsvintagephotography.com/ Join our crew, mateys. Or at least look like yeh did. ;)