Rings & Floods Surprise Liz

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It has been an interesting (great and ugly) start to my four day weekend.  I will start with the greatness, because the ugly stuff is oh so very ugly.

Yesterday was a lovely day.  Patrick and I went out to a late lunch at Harry’s Tap Room in Pentagon City.  I must interject here how much I love that restaurant.  It is a bit pricey, but frankly it has always been worth it.  From the food to the service to the atmosphere… I’m in love.  It’s now one of our absolute favorite restaurants.  And to think, it’s where the Ruby Tuesdays used to be in the mall.  Not something I ever expected.

Anyway, we had a lovely romantic lunch.  I had Ahi Tuna Tempura and a side of their “Farm to Table” wild mushrooms, accompanied by some great white wine.  Patrick had a bison burger and we closed the meal with some yummy after dinner drinks.  He had chocolate Port (which is amazing) and I had some sort of white dessert wine.  It was very good, but a little bit too sweet for me.

We shopped around the mall for a bit.  Patrick said he wanted to check out some video games.  I… decided I did not want to do that.  45 minutes later, we met back up and decided we apparently weren’t done with wine.  No, no!  We decided to trek over to Old Town to another of our favorite places, Grape and Bean.

We tried some different wines and had a cheese sampler platter.  Even Patrick has really been into trying different wines and such recently.  We talked about life, where we wanted to go and do.  Things we wanted to accomplish.  Who we wanted to go to the Super Bowl.  How Horatio (our pooch) is devious,  but we love him.  We capped off the evening with two flutes of Champagne.

(I should note that this so far is making us sound ridiculously snooty, and uh, yea… not.  Not even close.  We are strong supporters and patrons of bad karaoke, bad beer and dive bars. They’re our favorites.)

Afterward, it was about 9 o’clock.  I suggested we head home, but Patrick wanted to go down to the Waterfront.  This surprised me.  Patrick is not a fan of the cold.  Ever.  He loves winter and fall (favorite seasons of his), but the whole being cold when he could NOT be cold and indoors is not something he particularly enjoys.  It took a couple of minutes, but he convinced me and off we went.  I was excited. The Old Town Waterfront at night is just stunning.

We arrived, and the waterfront was, for the most part empty.  It was quiet and romantic.  We stood there for a little bit.  He hugged me from behind.  After a bit he pulled away and then he told me to turn around.

Patrick was down on one knee with this…

He asked me to marry him.

I couldn’t help but cry.  I’m a big weepy sap.

Patrick was never happy with how our engagement went down.  He always felt like he did me a disservice, because it was something completely unplanned.  He didn’t have a ring, etc.  (For me, he could have proposed with a tumbleweed, and I wouldn’t have even cared.)  We did end up getting me a ring, but he never felt it suited me.  It’s a guilt that had been eating at him for quite some time.

Oddly enough, I always kind of knew he was never terribly happy with how things worked out when he proposed back in April.  I didn’t know he was going to do something like this, though.  It didn’t feel less special because he had already asked.  Not at all.  So we cried. We kissed.  We hugged.  It was so picture perfect.

And the ring?  Holy moly, it’s wonderful.  I know, not traditional, but I just adore it.  And I’ve always loved rubies.  It’s just wonderful.  Here’s another shot of it.  It’s unique. It’s perfect. It’s me.

Oh, and when he went to go to “Game Stop” earlier that day to go check out “video games”?  He was picking up the ring from the jeweler, as it had been resized and was ready for pick up.

Sneaky!

It was an amazing day with an even more stunningly surprising ending.  I feel so lucky and blessed.

To celebrate, we got a drink at Fish Market (our wedding and reception venue). So romantic.

Then we came home.  We had planned to curl up on the couch with a bottle of Petite Syrah that we had gotten at Grape & Bean and watch a movie.

Well, we had a glass of wine, but we came home to yet ANOTHER flood.  Thankfully this one was not in our apartment, but the back area is a disaster, and it’s really rather worrisome.

While you can see the water in the photo above, imagine it’s more of a waterfall.  It’s awful.  Also note the falling insulation and the insulation that’s detaching.  That’s the back porch above our apartment.  The water is coming through EVERYWHERE.  We don’t know when this is going to be fixed.  I’ll spare you all the drama that’s going on, but yea, it’s just not a pleasant situation.

Anyway, today has been dealing with the busted pipe/flooding, and watching the Cardinals secure their tickets to the Super Bowl.  Now it’s back to the AFC Championship.

Aside from the burst pipe, it’s been a great weekend.

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Filed under Food, Life, Memories, wedding

Tags: apartment, engagement, engagement ring, family, grape and bean, harry's tap room, Life, old town, patrick, pentagon city, photography, relationships, wedding, wine