It's finally happening!

After a days-long text conversation, we arranged to meet for brunch at a vegan place that Sunday morning. It was a cold, gloomy, rainy day. I walked up to the restaurant with my bright orange-patterned umbrella, blissfully unaware of how much my date hated oranges. We ordered bowls piled high with tofu, which Evan valiantly struggled through, and talked nonstop. By the time we were ready to leave, the sun had come out, and we went outside so I could pet a dog. I complained about my hands being cold, he offered to hold them, and the rest is history.

We ill-advisedly decided to fly to Boston in the middle of December for a romantic couples' weekend. The night before we left for our red-eye flight, we had a double date with Zach, the best man, and his girlfriend Rebecca. We both decided it would make much more sense for me to stay and for us to leave for the airport together that morning. We left at 3:00 Wednesday morning for Boston, came home that Friday night, and had all my things moved in by Saturday afternoon.

I spent the morning in scenic Laurel, Maryland showing Evan around my childhood stomping grounds. We walked through an abandoned golf course, almost crashed a funeral, and bought apple pie cheesecake from the Amish. That afternoon, we went to Annapolis and spent hours wandering through the city, stopping to buy a postcard for our "adventure box." We took a water taxi to the Chart House pier just before the restaurant opened. As we stood on the docks, looking out over the harbor, Evan started talking about us. "Leading up to when we first met, I refused to settle for anybody who wasn't exactly the person I was looking for. When I met you, not only did you check all those boxes, but you also embodied all the intangibles I never even knew to look for, much less thought I'd find in my person. I've loved you like no other, and you've loved me with that same exponential love in return. So, on that note... Erin Parker Kelly, will you marry me?" Before I knew what was happening, he was down on one knee with the ring in his hand. I was so anxious and excited I forgot how to make words happen: "Yes, I'll marry you, dummy!" was what I eventually managed to say.