::WE'RE NOT GOING TO THE CHAPEL, BUT WE'RE GONNA GET MARRIED::

(This post came from an email I sent to friends and family; if you didn't get it, and I know you, send me your email address! Admittedly, I might have it at work and not at home.)

One of the most-anticipated facets of the Pacific Northwest trip Austin and I just took was staying at The Kennedy School, a decommissioned elementary school that's been converted into a boutique hotel. It had a bar called Detention, a bar called Honors, a soaking pool, and hallways featuring 3-foot-high water fountains and photos of now-middle-aged alumni. The courtyard was a restaurant, serving microbrew beer and delicious burgers.

We stayed there on Thursday, the penultimate night of our trip. After a great dinner with an internet friend Andy (hi Andy!), Austin took the suitcases into the room while I parked the rent car (if there's anything I'd change about the vacation, it'd be getting over my cheapness and forking over my half of the $120 it'd've taken to add Austin as a secondary driver). He assured me I'd love the room. We walked down the hallway to The Music Room, our assigned place. Past an antechamber, we entered into a windowy room which featured a chalkboard along one wall, with stencilled lyrics and an old-school clock (or, actually, an old school clock) on the walls.

I experience blushingly grand emotions when I tell you guys that before I could put down my stuff, Austin knelt in front of me, grabbed my hand (and I do mean grabbed; I actually had to interrupt him while he gave me his speech to ask him to loosen his grip), and proposed to me.

We were in the Pacific Northwest, see, the home town of one of our favorite bands, Death Cab for Cutie. Where better to propose to me, he said, than there, because he first realized he wanted to spend the rest of his life with me about a year ago, when we attended a Death Cab concert at Stubb's in Austin. (Later, he let me know that the words that went through his head at that concert were, "You'd be a complete fool not to marry this girl.") So he asked me to open the little silver box, which I did, to reveal a lovely, asymmetrical, entirely unique platinum-and-crystallized-carbon engagement ring. I wrote "yes" on the chalk board. With a check next to it:


So! Wedding in October of 2007 (we admit that the availability of The Perfect Place will trump notions of setting a date at this point)! Woo hoo!

And, I've checked out the ring under a black light -- and wow, the diamond turns almost opaquely bright blue as it glows when exposed to UV. (You want photos? You know you do. Right here.)


Look for some Death Cab music at the reception!

P.S. If you want to see some photos of the Portland part of the trip, check 'em out
here. And browse about the other sets, too (Multnomah Falls, Vancouver, Astoria and Environs, Seattle, Oregon Coast, Capilano Suspension Bridge, etc.)!