I've never had a better or more important blog topic. I'm just hopeful that I don't screw it up. Last Saturday (August 11th), Monica and I got engaged. In the interest of keeping our relationship out of the "public eye", I haven't had a lot to say here in cyberspace in the past year or so about things related to us. This post is mostly for those of you that we don't see often. It's also a way to just remember what happened and to thank some people who were involved. Having labored long enough on this preamble, let me get down to it.
Our StoryThe whole thing kicked off on August 10th at around noon. A couple of months earlier, I had arranged a Southwest flight to Cleveland that got in about 3:30 in the afternoon with a return flight that got me into Chicago at 8:30 in the evening. I hoped that this would work with Monica's parents for dinner. Thankfully, it did. It would have left my plan in some dire shape if it didn't. I called two weeks prior to set this dinner up. It wasn't a surprise as to why I was there, but I still felt like I needed to see them in person. We went to Corleone's in Parma for the excellent food and airport proximity. I got there a solid hour early and had a great time in the bar telling the staff (there was no one else around) all about what I was doing there (I made the bartender cry) drinking Labatt Blue and some Cabernet. The food at Corleone's was off the charts, though I only ate about 50% of my meal. I was doing a lot of talking. After securing the parental blessing (phew!), it was back to the Chi.
I made it back to Chicago in time to see Addison Lane play at Goose Island. Monica's brother is a guitarist in the band. The show started late and I was able to make it in time. Monica believed that I was with my man Dan and some old Accenture co-workers all afternoon and then in a skybox at the White Sox game in the evening. I got this on the calender in back in late May, so this was quite believable. A string of calls and text messages at the right times kept her from knowing the truth. When I showed up around 10:30 (thanks for the ride Nicole!), I talked about how "wasted" I was from the Sox game a whole lot. I tried to down a few quick beers to make this believable. Apparently, it worked out.
The next day started off a little bit scary. I was under the impression that Monica and I would just meet up for our dinner plans with Dan and his newly pregnant wife who were allegedly visiting from Milwaukee. Monica decided though that she wanted to hang out at my place in the afternoon. I was planning on having the whole day to organize everything and wrap up details. Since this didn't happen, I kicked into overdrive. I had to drop off a few items and make a few phone calls to tie up some loose ends. Monica came over in the afternoon and as Dan and his wife were "staying with us", I picked up an Oberweis Key Lime Ice Cream Pie and we spent a solid 90 minutes cleaning up the condo.
We got in the car for our dinner which I had just told Monica that day would be at Bistrot Margot. We barely made it into the cab when Dan called me (I had emailed him a script earlier in the week) and said that his wife was feeling nauseous and they likely wouldn't be able to make it to dinner. I jacked up the volume so Monica would overhear. He would call me back or text me though and tell me for sure. We, thankfully without too much of a conversation, decided to just go on to the restaurant. They seated us upstairs in a smallish room separated from the rest of the restaurant. They sat us at the back of the room with Monica facing the room and me across the table from her. Dan sent me a text a few minutes later to tell me to "go ahead and eat" and that we could meet up later.
Monica and I went about our meal as any other. I struggled to decide on a salad for about ten minutes which was a little odd. There were four choices. I was a little nervous about everything working out. We set about talking about the other people in the room. Two gentleman in the largest party had the same shirt on. The two Pakistani girls to my left, Monica was convinced couldn't be sisters. I was adamant that I thought they were. As we wound towards dessert, there was a sudden noise as a glass of ice hit the floor. Suddenly the rest of the patrons in the room all stood up and left the room quickly. Monica wasn't sure what was happening. She thought there may have been a fire alarm or something that she missed. I just sat there as she asked what was going on. I simply replied with "I don't know" and continued to sit a few more seconds before finally admitting that I did in fact know. From there, I dropped to one knee and asked her to be my wife. I said a little more than that, of course.
I really surprised her and I could tell and she was really in shock. She did manage to get a "yes" out though and get the ring on to her finger.
After we were officially engaged, everyone in the room came back in. We had twenty friends and friends of friends that Monica had never met in total. We all shared a champagne toast after I gave a little speech and then I introduced everyone. This was really a lot of fun. About 30 minutes later, I had Monica blindfolded and on our way to our next stop.
After the restaurant, we went to a rooftop in River North. My friend Nicole lives in the building and Monica had never been there. We had a table for two waiting for us with candles, a bottle of Dom Perignon on ice, and an amazing view. We spent a little over an hour drinking champagne, talking, and then making phone calls to our parents and a few others at the top of the theoretical phone tree for such an event. From there, we spent the rest of our evening at the Peninsula hotel with Brangenlina and even more champagne. It was without a doubt, the best night I've ever had. It would be impossible to be any happier. Even as it was happening, I couldn't believe it. Looking back now, I still can't.
We both owe a lot to many people for helping us out in one way or another with making the evening so memorable. I'm going to name a few of them now. Many thanks to Nicole Passaglia for the use of her rooftop, her transportation, and innumerable other logistical concerns. Many thanks go out to Natasha Kontny who was the restaurant captain, her parents, and her boyfriend Clint Larsen. Many thanks to Nate Kontny also, for getting this party in the fold. I also wanted to thank Jose Gonzalez who wore a cowboy hat and boots. The other two at his table, Josh Sager and Shira Ellenberg were incredible also. Josh won the most dedicated award for actually growing a mustache for the event. Monica saw him at a bar for about 30 minutes one night and he wanted to make sure there were no issues there. Shira wore a full sari ensemble which was much, much different from what we saw her in on the same night we saw Josh. Amazing job guys. While I'm here, thanks go to Akash Pathak for getting this lot together in the first place. Kiran Karim and her sister Naz were "the sisters" mentioned above. They came through despite attending an engagement event for my man Amir Nasim earlier in the day. Amir gets extra kudos for getting them involved. Nikh Rao came up with a huge party and also snapped the pictures you see with this post. He was a real rockstar. He's also one of the guys wearing matching shirts but we won't hold that against him. Much love goes out to the "Rao Crew" of Lance Kirshner, Amanda Hazelip, Smita Mokshagundam, Ben and Betsy Keller, Corey Smith (the other matching shirt guy), and Rao's roommate whose name I can't remember at the moment. DB was amazing with his phone call despite feeling under the weather at the time. He came through huge. To everyone that kept this secret (even from your spouse, in some cases), tried to locate diners, or even just provided encouragement, thank you so much. There are too many of you to name but you know who you are and I love you people.
