Somewhere I Have Never Travelled

Travel is not new for me. I’ve been to a fair number of places in the world, but this whole wedding thing has definitely been a different kind of journey.

Before I go on, I have to say that I am mondo excited about the wedding, but what I am most excited about is starting a life together with Mr. Canary. It's not that we don't already have one, but in our seven years together, we've never lived together or had a real domestic life. I guess I'm looking forward to "nesting." :)

We met literally on the first day of college. Me: New York city girl with a lot of 'tude. He: Boston boy from the 'burbs, wearing Teva sandals and khakis. We bumped into each other while I was trying to escape my assigned "orientation group" who at that point was discussing high school activities that included making Hitler hand puppets out of paper bags. I spotted Mr. C, who was standing in the middle of the vast football field (where they were hosting orientation activities) beside a friend (a guy who lived on my floor with whom I had more than three conversations in a span of week, therefore, he was definitely a friend by college freshman standards). Mr. C really stood out because he is 6'5". I think I sprinted over there out of desperation... anyway, that's how we met, strolling around the silly freshman orientation fair together. We had our share of freshman stupidities those first few months... OK scratch that... the first year was pretty much a giant snafu. But after countless snafus, we survived and are still happily together!

When we got engaged, Mr. C was living in Boston and I was living in Seattle. Before I left for Seattle, we invested in our first apartment in an up and coming hip New York neighborhood together.

On February 16, while I was back home in NYC for Chinese new year, Mr. C proposed in our future 'hood, which has a fantastic view of the Manhattan skyline. It was perfect. It was the culmination of our entire relationship in one night. Literally! Mr. C planned the whole night perfectly. He had asked my parents' permission beforehand. I know it's old fashioned, but anyone who knows my dad, knows he is very traditional. He had a good heart-to-heart with both parents, which really blew me away since I know the language and cultural barriers were a huge obstacle for both sides. So here's the play-by-play...

Mr. C had gotten me tickets to the opera at The Met for my birthday the previous December and knew I would be home that weekend.

The weekend of February 16 rolled around and so did a bad storm in New York. Jetblue canceled all their flights (including mine from Seattle), I was almost stranded in Seattle and would have unknowingly missed Mr. C's perfect proposal! But Papa Canary was in the know and offered to help pay for the only ticket available on another airline, just to get me back in NYC in time to meet Mr. C for dinner and the opera.

Mr. C was driving down to New York from Boston and we had dinner reservations at Riverview which is this lovely stylin' restaurant right by the piers. We chose dinner in Queens because we didn't want to have to rush and drive into Manhattan during rush hour. For the special occasion, I get all dolled up-- after all, it was my first experience at the opera. Mr. C looked smashing in his suit. On the way to dinner, Mr. C mentioned that he still had the ticket from our "first date," which was our school's mixer on some Odyssey cruise. Pretty lame, but Mr. C and I got to know each other pretty well that night. He also asked me to check for something in his glove compartment and out pops the little Spongebob finger puppet I bought him off the street in Soho. Spongebob is our guilty pleasure and special thing. Mr. C and I watch it after particularly grueling days at work and it's hysterical! Don’t knock it til you try it!

Anyway, we finally get to the restaurant and it's butt cold. Mr. C parked about a block away from the restaurant. As we walked toward the restaurant, I snuggled up next to him for warmth, but he scooted me to the other side. I also noticed that he kept clutching his left coat pocket, but didn't think much of it. When we got to the restaurant, he didn't want to check his coat and suddenly realized that he left his wallet in the car. Random, but we were seated and ordered our meal. After, Mr. went to his car and came back carrying a gift bag. Of course, I was an eager beaver and immediately started to tear into it, but he asked very nicely that I waited until after dinner. I pouted, but gave in. Though throughout dinner I couldn't help wondering what was in the bag. Finally, dinner was over and Mr. C told me that I could open my gift. I found a small box of chocolates from his hometown candy store for Valentines Day and a lovely box housing a photo album.

I opened the album up and it was actually a scrapbook. Now, pause for a moment... Mr. C does not do anything remotely crafty. He's a fantastic writer, but when it comes to artsy stuff... he's just at a loss. The poor guy can't even wrap square box without air bubbles popping up. Seriously! Anyway, Mr. C had put together this amazing book that was a chronological narrative of our relationship year-by-year up to the present.

The scrapbook/album cover

The pages alternated with photos, narrative, and song lyrics.

One of our favorite songs, "This Must Be the Place" by the Talking Heads

I was trying to digest every page without tearing up and finally felt my heart stop as I get to the last page...

After reading the last page, I looked up and he asked while smiling, "Shall we?" The smart ass in me wanted to pipe up, "But it's so freakin' cold!" Instead, I said "Sure!"

We walked arm-in-arm outside and it was icy and super windy. We made it about 100 feet before Mr. C stopped me and started talking. He told me about how he had talked to my family, how far we'd come to get to this moment, and the strength of our love... and finally asked, "Will you be my wife?" He was on one knee (on ice!) and pulled out a red leatherette box with gold detailing, before even seeing the ring, I blurted, "Is that a Cartier box!" Oh... sometimes I want to slap myself! And Mr. C laughingly responded, "Yes." he opened the box and it's the most perfect ring ever. The perfect fit and the shape. I was so overjoyed that he knew me so well. Mr. C and I never went ring shopping together, nor discussed the type of ring I wanted or liked. He shopped all by himself. I couldn't have picked a better ring. He told me to, "Go ahead, put it on!" It was just too perfect!

The view from the proposal site on a cloudy day. It's magnificent when it's sunny.

The best part was that we still had the opera that evening. We had great seats and Mr. C and I spent the night gushing and stealing kisses. The opera, La Traviata, was also amazing and piqued our interest in going to more. But the highlight of course was the proposal... which has led us on this brand new adventure together... somewhere I have never travelled.*

Mr. C knew that I am a packrat and love memorabilia and thought that I would love some sort of keepsake of the night (from the scrapbook, to the opera program and ticket). How did your fiance make the proposal special and personal?

* [somewhere i have never travelled] is one of my favorite e.e. cummings poems. You can read the whole thing here.