We weren't planning on getting engaged this weekend. I'd been looking at rings for the past week but hadn't found anything that fit within Syd's very vague "vintage" parameters. Two days previous, I'd been chatting with my mom on the phone, and said there wasn't any chance it was happening over Christmas. I hadn't found the right ring yet, and, anyways, I wasn't that cliche. I reassured her it would happen in 2016, but didn't have a time table.
On Christmas Eve, Syd and I had to run some typical last-minute, gift-related errands, but started off by stopping by a vintage shop to check out their ring selection (Syd and Kathi had scoped it out previously). We never made it to the rest of the errands.
We left with a ring, picked up some prosciutto (long story) and bubbly, and headed over to Armitage Bridge, a peaceful, riverside hangout on the edge of town that we'd frequented and taken pictures at on almost every trip we've taken down to Eugene over the past four years. We were giddy, almost dangerously light-headed, and, shortly thereafter, engaged.
So we hung out down by the river, drank champagne, ate prosciutto, laughed a lot, talked (after laughing some more) about how exactly we were going to break the news to Jed, Kathi, and Sam when we get back home from "shopping", and then used a couple rocks as tripods and took some grainy 35mm b&w photos on the Nikon f100 that I had brought along shopping for no particular reason.
It was a perfectly memorable, enjoyably comfortable, and appropriately spontaneous day for the both of us.
And in that vein, Syd and I just wanted to take a moment to thank you all for the multitude of notes, comments, well-wishes, and congratulations over the past couple of days. It's humbling and invigorating, and we are so thankful for each and every one of you lovely humans and your part in our journey through this beautifully unpredictable life.
