Our Engagement Story: May 14th, 2009

My then-boyfriend, Joe, and I had planned a long-weekend trip to Sonoma Valley, California, with a departure date of Friday, May 15^th (the day following my birthday).  Since I had been involved in designing my engagement ring, I was fully convinced Joe would propose in wine country.  On the morning of May 14th, I went to work just like any other day.  We had dinner reservations that night at Geja’s, so by 5 o’clock, I was brimming with excitement for our fondue feast!  I speed-walked down Jackson to the Red Line stop, descended the stairs, and to my dismay, found an acrid, smoke-filled tunnel with a rail-train car on fire!   Thinking quickly, I decided to cross over to Van Buren and jump on the Brown line instead.  The train was packed, but at least it was not on fire!   This was turning out to be a hairy commute, but I was only running behind schedule about 15-20 minutes.  I called Joe to say it was going to take a bit longer to get home, but I assured him I would be quick to get ready for our 8pm dinner reservations.  Without incident, I rode the Brown line to Belmont and transferred to the Red Line.  The Red Line platform was packed.  Initially, I wondered if service was affected by the rail-car on fire at Jackson, but then I looked around and discovered I was in a sea of CUBS jerseys!  Apparently a day game had just let out and there were Cubs fans commuting home.  Luckily I found a seat on the packed train and we continued North on the Red Line.  At Addison, there were more delays as more fans piled on the train.  The last delay was an inebriated CUBS fan (bleeding profusely from the eye due to apparent fist fight), who happened to jump on my train car, as cops were searching the platform for “someone who had caused a disturbance”.  

A normal commute home usually took about 35 minutes, but after all of these unexpected delays, 2 full hours had passed and I still was not home!  When I finally walked in the door, I thought, "Wow, the fondue place must be dressier than I thought since Joe is in a suit".  I was frazzled and knew I had to get ready for dinner quickly…but that was going to have to wait.  During my crazy commute home,  Joe had been waiting at our Edgewater apartment, dressed up in a suit, with 2 glasses of Gloria Ferrer champagne poured, and our song (Al Green "Let's Stay Together") playing over and over and over again.  He proceeded to pull out a white box from behind his back and it hit me what was happening!   Joe opened the little, white box and an LED light magically lit up a very stunning, sparkly, engagement ring (this box became known as “The Ta-Da Box”). 

Of course I said “Yes” and then we began texting the world to let everyone know we were officially engaged.  Looking back, I’m grateful for the unusual commute home since our engagement story is truly stamped with the details of our Chicago lifestyle, but for the record, I have never experienced another commute home like that!