My Proposal Story...

Elissa and I actually met in a Women & Gender Studies class at Sweet Briar College the 2nd semester of my Freshman year. I thought she was amazing and will readily admit to having had a crush on her. We debated things in class together, often on completely opposing sides. I was more apt to quote Wendy Shalit than Kate Bornstein. At any rate, it made for lively discussions.

Fall Semester of 2003, we both attended the Women & Politics Semester at American University in D.C. A.U. is where we became ready friends. We did everything together. We stayed up for hours just talking until we fell asleep on the sofa. We met each other for lunch every day. We vandalized furniture together. And we had a dedicated Face Mask Night. Every Tuesday was 'Face Mask Night'. We'd get together, order a pizza, rub mud all over our faces and settle in to dry. I'm not sure how it started or when we realized this was a Tuesday night tradition but there you have it.

This past Sunday (Oct. 18th), we had a supremely average weekend day. We met her father & step-mother for lunch, we went sofa shopping, E did work for school and we had dinner at O'Charlie's. When we got home, Elissa asked me if I'd like to put on face masks. This is a weekly tradition that has long since fallen by the wayside...it would be more fair to call it a bi-annual traditon now. Anyways, we had fun putting on our masks and were giggling and taking lots of pictures and just being silly. I glanced over at Elissa and realized that she was holding my ring! My beautiful ring!

She said simply, "I knew when we were first putting face masks on at A.U. that I loved you. And I love you today. Will you Marry me?"

And I said "oh wow! yay!!!!" Or something equally inelegant. :)

I evidentally teared up. Photographic evidence.