This Move is Officially Happening...

Last week was a banner week in our household! We started off the week by getting engaged on Sunday, and, by Thursday, we had gotten a condo!  Add to it some slight movement on the job front, and it made for a great week.

To be honest, I was not completely stressed about our housing situation in Chicago.  If I needed to move to start a job, I knew that I had a couple of great friends that I could crash with for a couple of days while I tried to find us an apartment.  However, I feel SO much better knowing that there is a place that will be ours as of July 1st!  As opposed to the job search process, which has been long and drawn-out, the housing search happened at a lightning-fast pace.  We had narrowed it down to one neighborhood that we wanted to target, based on proximity to public transportation, overall feel of the neighborhood, etc.  Dan was able to see a few buildings in this area during a neighborhood housing tour that was a part of Admitted Student Weekend.

Based on the research we had done and the buildings Dan had visited, we were primarily considering three buildings.  On Wednesday, we had our real estate agent go and look at a place for us, and we made a split-second decision to go for it after seeing the pictures that she sent us.  Our plan all along had been to have either one of our friends or Dan's sister go and see our prospective homes before signing a lease, but we soon learned that we were going to need to move more quickly than that, requiring us to place all our trust in our agent to get a sense for these places {this is not a good feeling for a control freak like me!}. We raced to get the application completed on Wednesday afternoon and evening, and found out late on Thursday morning that we got the condo!  It was such a whirlwind, and we certainly got ourselves worked up about it, but I am so glad that everything turned out okay.  We are very excited to move in!

I found out in the middle of last week that I got an on-campus interview for a job that I am very interested in, so I will be heading to Chicago next week.  I am both excited and nervous, since the job-related component of this move is what has stressed me out the most, both from income and healthcare perspectives.  I so badly want to have that nailed down so that I can truly enjoy my remaining time in DC and not need to stress out about my employment prospects.  I will keep you all posted!

I would be remiss if I didn't talk about the aftermath of the engagement.  It has been a huge adjustment to refer to Dan as my fiancé, and I have certainly slipped up more than a few times.  Everyone has been so sweet and curious to hear about the details, and I think I have the story memorized at this point!!! We are not moving forward on any major details yet, although I have started brainstorming a guest list, as that will affect the types of venues we are able to consider.  We got to see several friends over the weekend who hadn't seen us since the engagement, so it was really fun to share the story with them.

In general, it was just a perfect weekend! Dan and I got to spend some quality time together, and, very importantly, we spent a LOT of time outside, as the weather was absolutely gorgeous!  Dan, Molly and I went to a Nats game with Dan's dad on Saturday, followed by a great late afternoon/evening on H St. celebrating our friend Alix's birthday on a rooftop.  On Sunday, we went to the Air & Space Museum, which Dan had never been to, and I spent the afternoon with my dad at the outdoor pool that they belong to.  We grabbed dinner with my parents at Blacksalt on Sunday evening {seriously, mouthwateringly delicious fish!} and got to catch up with them post-engagement {they had not seen Dan since then}.  It was a beyond perfect weekend, and this upcoming one will be one of our last in DC, as we will be out of town at weddings the following two weekends.  Exciting times! It is finally feeling like summer, and I think going to Jazz on Friday will make it feel like the official start of summer for me!!

Our Proposal Story

'Hold the phone! When did this happen?,' you may be asking yourself.  I have written pretty openly on this blog over the past few months about hoping for a proposal, and I feel so blessed that I am actually sitting down to write it now {since, let's face it, my productivity at work this week has been completely shot}.  So, let's start at the beginning, a very good place to start:

We went to my aunt and uncle's house in southern Virginia from early Saturday morning to Sunday morning.  We had an awesome time hanging out with my family, including two of my aunts, my uncle, my cousin, her boyfriend and roommate, and my parents.  I continued my annual Memorial Day Weekend tradition of getting sunburned to a crisp, thanks to this exceptionally long winter we've had {and a subsequent lack of Vitamin D exposure}.  At the end of the day on Saturday, I went up to the house to take a shower, leaving Dan and my dad alone on the dock.  A part of me thought that Dan could be discussing marriage with my dad, but I didn't want to get my hopes up.  After my shower, I walked back down to the dock and switched places with Dan, who then jumped in the shower himself. I hadn't been seated for a minute before my dad looked me in the eye and said very matter-of-factly, "So, Dan was talking to me about asking you to marry him." 

"DADDDDDDD," I groaned, "you weren't supposed to TELL me that" {all of this while laughing}.  My dad felt really bad afterward, especially after my mom chided him for being clueless.  What can I say? I'm obviously the man's first child! I wasn't actually angry at all, because of the fact that Dan and I had discussed marriage so extensively.  We proceeded to have an amazing dinner.  Picture this: a screened-in porch to protect us from bugs and a large, family-style dinner with lots of laughter and great conversation, all taking place mere footsteps from the river.  It's like a story written in summer heaven.  This is not at all relevant to the proposal story, but it just speaks to my perfect summer evening: being surrounded by family and friends, enjoying yummy food and lots of stories and laughter, preferably in close proximity to a body of water.

Anyway, Dan and I got on the road relatively early on Sunday morning so that we could enjoy the day in DC.  When we got home, Dan ran to Whole Foods to "pick up beer" while I showered.  When he arrived home, I asked which kind of beer he had gotten, and he was nondescript, answering simply, "a wheat beer", which is unlike him {he usually tells me exactly what kind he has purchased}.  He had carefully orchestrated our plans for the evening, having made a reservation at Zaytinya, one of our favorite restaurants and one of the places on our bucket list {although, at this point, we should rename it the "to do again" list}.  Typically, when we're making a dinner reservation, we'll pore over Open Table and make the reservation together, but he insisted on doing it.  He also suggested, before we left for dinner, that we grab dessert afterward and walk over to the Tidal Basin.  I was starting to get seriously suspicious at this point, because the guy is NOT a planner.  This seemed a little fishy…

We had a wonderful and delicious dinner {seriously, I have never not left Zaytinya without a happy tummy} and headed to Red Velvet to pick up cupcakes {our first choice, Crumbs, had already closed for the evening}. We walked over to the Tidal Basin and looked out onto the Jefferson Memorial as we inhaled our cupcakes.  The weather was perfect, not yet hot and humid enough to be truly oppressive, and the sun was threatening to begin setting. We sat on one of the park benches and just talked, and it was so lovely to be taking in my favorite spot in all of DC with my best guy.  There were a lot of people around, and Dan only increased my suspicion by looking several times in either direction.  I was onto him at this point! When it became clear that there was not going to be a break in the crowd, he suggested that we walk over to a slightly more secluded area so as to "get a better view."  It was there that he told me how much he'll always love DC because it is where he met his wife, then launched into a list of things he loves about me.  He dropped down on one knee and produced the most beautiful ring I have ever seen, asking me to marry him.  I was crying, so made the poor guy sweat it out for a minute while I composed myself, before answering, "YES!" as enthusiastically as I possibly could.  The next few minutes were filled with kissing, hugging, marveling at the ring, and staring at each other in disbelief because WE WERE ENGAGED! It was the most perfect, special proposal that I could have asked for, perfect for our relationship and the type of people we are.  We couldn't stop smiling, the biggest, goofiest smiles you've ever seen.  We hopped in a cab and headed home, where Dan produced the bottle of champagne that he had picked up on that Whole Foods run {in his defense, he did also buy beer}.  Being that we are in our interim apartment now and have very minimal kitchen supplies, we chilled the champagne in a kitchen pot with an ice pack and what little ice we found in the fridge's ice-maker.  Yay for resourcefulness!!!

We took our time and enjoyed our champagne before calling our immediate families to break the news, which, we agreed, was perfect, allowing us some special time to ourselves before letting the world in on our little secret. The timing could not have been more perfect, because, since Monday was Memorial Day, we had an entire day off to get in touch with friends and family and just enjoy our new engagement.  Our loved ones' responses were wonderful, as were our friends' reactions when we called them the next day.  From the time that we started telling people our happy news, we were completely floored by how wonderful and supportive everyone was.  We are so humbled by the truly incredible people that we have in our lives, and it has been such a blessing to share this time with them.  While we will not be getting married until summer 2016, after Dan graduates, we couldn't be more excited for this next phase of our lives, and everyone's enthusiastic support has made the post-engagement glow last.  It still doesn't feel quite real sometimes, although it certainly helps to look down at my gorgeous, perfect ring as a nice, shiny reminder.  He did an amazing job picking it out {with a little help from Pinterest and what turned out to be a great guess when it came to my ring size}, but I told him that, while it is the most breathtaking ring I have ever seen and was exactly what I wanted, I would have been happy with whatever he got me, because it would be from him.

To wrap up this epically long post, I just want to take a moment and acknowledge how lucky I am to have ended up with a guy like Dan.  I have to, first and foremost, thank my best friend, Molly, for inspiring me to create a Match profile, because, without her encouragement, I probably never would have met him.  All of this came a few months after a painful romantic experience for me, and joining Match provided me with the perfect kick in the butt to be open to meeting someone new {so, in a strange way, I am grateful that I had that experience, however much it may have sucked at the time}.  From the day I met him, Dan has been such a positive light in my life - sweet, generous, funny, supportive, smart, and very handsome - and being with him has made me strive to be the best version of myself.  They don't say that girls tend to marry men who are like their dads for nothing, because I can absolutely see all of my dad's most wonderful qualities reflected in Dan.  I could not have answered any more enthusiastically when he asked me to be his wife, because he is the person that I want by my side for all of life's many highs and lows.  While I am obviously excited to plan our wedding {which I have been planning in my head since I was about five years old}, I am just relishing in this little moment we have going on here, because it is so, so special :)

Right after it happened! So, so much happiness :)