Thursday, December 14, 2006

party places

so any ideas for other party places in nyc? cause this galapagos place is nice. nice and expensive. so we're looking for a more mello smaller place.
and yes, we did find some stuff at gaiam that is more or less reasonable. nice nice stuff.
anyone still readin this? or am i blogging to the thin air?

Monday, December 11, 2006

registration

so i certainly wasn't aware of many things around this whole marriage business (and i do mean business), but one of the many ramifications that took me by surprise of me asking arts to marry me was this whole registration thing.
so apparently, not only do people like to give wedding presents, but they also like to give engagement presents! which means that if we want to receive things we actually want, we have to register now. not later. which means right now we're trying to get that done at a few places so that we and our friends/family can be happy.
yesterday we went over to crate & barrel, the old wedding standby. we had heard stories of champagne, scanner fun, and general merriment. of course, it was not that. the scanner only took some inputs, and the folks there were nice (especially the woman who also does work with the AMC), but it was highly underwhelming. even the much hyped booklet was not known to the workers at c&b or available there.
we've also put our name into the system at justgive.org, rei, gaiam. haven't added anything to rei or gaiam yet, and gaiam yet, but stay tuned. anyway, all too much consumption in my book, but we've agreed to give 10% of all cash gifts to charity, and since justgive let's us give to good places, i'll be happy to spread the wealth that way.

party part2

so our friends over at galapagos haven't got back to us yet. so if you have other suggestions for other party places in nyc, please let us know.

Wednesday, December 6, 2006

party!

the parents of art have graciously and generously offered to host an engagement party for us! we're thinking feb, nyc, galapagos . . .
we'll see if it all works out, or if we have to go somewhere else. but it should be a fun party. maybe even an after party if we all still have energy . . .

Saturday, November 25, 2006

comments from friends . . .

Wow! Awesome! Who knew you had all this passion and romanticism roaring around inside you. I'm glad A is able to let it free! Congratulations to the both of you. I've never read a blog before and I have no real idea how it works but I'm glad that yours is the first one I've ever encountered. Thanks for sharing the news!

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Je suis tres content d'avoir de vos nouvelles. J'ai fait beaucoup de tentatives avant d'avoir de vos nouvelles. Je souhaite vraiment le meilleur dans car you deserve that. Vous êtes des personnes biens cela me fait plaisir d'être parmis vos amis.

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You're such a copy cat. I can't believe you took mine and s's idea of a blog and totally copied.. heee heee! (I'm aware that every engaged couple does that, no worries).
CONGRATS! It's awesome. From one true romantic to another, let me tell you the truth: it just gets better. :)

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Soungalo - Congrats dude! I must admit that I was hoping you'd get married in
South Africa in 2010 right before the world cup...that would've been a nice
trip.

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E & A !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yay!
I have to say that the very first time I saw you guys
giving each other puppy-dog eyes in the middle east
I commented to W that you were perfect for each other.
When you moved in with each other i commented to SK.
(i think - or maybe it was junjun)
that I hoped you would get married - i figured you were headed that way anyway.
ha! I love being able to say
"i told you so!"

best friends ever

it has been so fun to read all the responses from our friends to the emails that we sent out announcing our engagement. so much fun that i'm going to repost them here. i'll take out your names of course, but this whole thing is just so much fun to share!

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

comments

hi all -
thanks so much for all your calls and emails. it has been wonderful to hear all your thoughts, support, stories, and love.
thanks to j & b for dinner last night. awesome stuff! great to have gourmet cooks as friends!

also, i heard that some of you were having trouble commenting on this blog, so i turned off the members only silliness. now you and all your friends can leave us silly and meaningful messages without having to give google or blogspot or anyone else your info.

thank you!

Sunday, November 19, 2006

yeah! morning after the proposal sunny day bliss! Posted by Picasa

open thread

if you have any questions, feel free to post them as comments here on this post and we'll answer them in comments or in new posts!

Art's version of how it all went down!!

The only thing I knew about this part of the journey was that I had a dream on Thursday night that Entertainment and I were getting married. Like many of my dreams go, it was very vivid in color and image, many scenes overlapped and in retrospect are a complete blur.

On Friday morning all I knew was that it was our love that permeated the dream. I woke up, told entertainment about it- he made some comment in fear that I knew too much......ha!

Now I don't dream about marriage very much. In fact I never have dreamt of marrying anyone really, no fantasies, no bridal magazines hanging around the home. I've never really considered myself a woman looking for the perfect guy to sweep me off my feet.....
then Entertainment shows up...
We've been dating for almost 2 years now and in the past month or so our relationship has deepened and grown rich with questions and passions for weaving our future together....

I had no idea that Nov. 17th would be the day that this question would soar through his lips with such calm, such compassion, such authenticity.... and when I heard him speak what did I do?

I LAUGHED and LAUGHED and LAUGHED. I couldn't stop laughing! The laughing continued to roar out of me- my heart beating super fast and my breath quickening...wowow what a feeling!
Then he opened a square blue box with a beautiful family heirloom snug into the fabric..what did I do?..... I LAUGHED some more!

Finally I got the chance to breath and articulate something....I had kept my love waiting a long ass time! (I heard a 3 week wait runs in his family so 3 minutes- not too bad!)
I looked back into his eyes and told him that I didn't doubt our love and commitment to each other. I really never have since we've grown together over the 2 years. Yes, I 've doubted his ability to manage his hair and to remember to bring his lunch from home, but I have felt so confident that he is a most fabulous partner for me and me for him for a long while!
I mean come on- he gets me to do the dishes, to tighten the cap on the toothpaste, to clean my car...true signs that love has taken over significant slackings that existed in my character before (don't worry he will never make me a neat freak. It is simply not in my DNA!)

Okay okay so then I said YES!!! I told him that I would love to marry him!

He told me about the ring, which is absolutely beautious from the 1930's. It was his great aunts- thank you Aunt Lois!

We began to walk towards the theatre for an 8:00 show called Acoustic Africa with one of our favorite Malian musicians Habib Koite. On the way it dawned on me that other people must have been in on this surprise. I asked him, "do other people know?"

"Yes", Entertainment chuckled.

"Does my father know?", Arts asked wide-eyed.

"Well, last week I had dinner with your parents in New York", entertainment exclaimed with a big smile across his face!

I fell to the ground squatting in place- trying to believe the evenings happenings!!

So all who know me the next part is pretty crazy....
We went to the show and I had to SIT for 2 hours of this concert not much leg room!!
My attention was split between looking at my ring finger now adorned with such an amazing symbol of love, making eye contact with my FIANCEE, and hearing the most beautiful music.
I truly heard the music differently this evening. I could hear each instrument and each voice vibrate through my ribcage and spine. What bliss this is!?!!

After the show I proposed to Entertainment knowing I wanted to return the amazing question he asked me just a few hours ago...........

It is so exciting to share all of this with you..may our new journey of commitment to each other be lit and loved by all of you!!!

PEACE

the proposal - from his (entertainment) perspective

so, here's my version of the story. i think that arts is going to post her version as well, so we'll see if we're on the same page ;)

on friday, november 17th, i convinced arts that she had to ditch 2 sets of her friend's getting together. eek. tough to get her to come out on our date early enough for me to have time for all my plans. fortunately, one group of friends cancelled their get-together, and arts was able to beg out of the other without knowing how important it was to do so.

the plan (that she knew) was just to have a really nice date, and replicate parts of our first big date. that meant dinner at our fave mexican place in boston - tu y yo (which means "you and i" in spanish - which even i know) followed by a concert featuring habib koite. on our first date almost 2 years ago, we saw habib with his band bamada. this year, habib was part of a tour called acoustic africa with south african vusi mahlasela and ivoirienne dobet gnahore).

but this year, there was a wrinkle. in between the two parts of the evening, there would be a certain proposal.

the plan in action
the evening started out perfect. arts came by my office and i was ready to go. all dressed up for the show, looking good, ring in a deep pocket of the boubou. and arts had a great day, so she was in a great mood. nice.
we walked down to the restaurant, and got seated at the same table as on our first date. great!

got our food order in, a nice little half carafe of white sangria, and had a lovely dinner. soup appetizer, main courses, and some oaxacan hot chocolate for dessert. yummy. we had arrived just in time as the spot filled up with folks and there was a line out the door. i used that as a pretext for hurrying us out of the restaurant so we could "walk around" a bit before the show.

once outside, we headed across the street to a little park that i'd never explored before. we walked around a bit, up a little rise, past a marker (for a pickle !? factory) and then to an overlook beneath some gorgeous tall trees. arts asked if i wanted to keep walking, and i said, no. um . ..
and let it flow. and hoped that i'd say all the right stuff about our love, our partnership and my hopes for this to continue forever.

and

she

started

laughing.

really.

i kept talking, and she held it in, and then she laughed some more.

and then i showed her the ring in the box.

and then she REALLY laughed! (she says it was just laughs of pure joy). to me, it seemed quite joyous cause her eyes were telling me what i wanted to hear, but nonetheless, it was a bit offputting. but also good, because it meant that i didn't have to be 100% super serious either. i could laugh and not completely be nervous.

anyway, she came out of it long enough to say yes, and give me a big hug and kiss. YES!! she got the ring on (a bit big), and she loved it! it's not a typical engagement ring with a huge rock, but that's perfect by me, and i'd hoped it would be good for her. and thankfully, she loves it.

we talked for a bit, and then headed down towards the theater.

arts then asked, "does anyone else know? does my father know?" and i told her, that yes, both her father and mother knew. that i'd gone down to have dinner with them about 2 weeks ago. it was then that arts almost fell into a squat, laughing so hard and crying as well. when she got up, she said - i'm going to faint!
which she didn't do, and we did manage to fly over to the theater in time to get our seats just as the lights got flicked to signal 5 minutes.

amazing show, great artists, wonderful concept, great to see all the groups mixing and matching personnel. we could hardly sit still in our cramped seats in the balcony. exchanging looks and kisses all show. holding hands and squeezing about every 10 milliseconds. that concert was probably one of the most amazing shows i've ever seen. ;)

by the encores, we'd made our way down to the floor and were dancing with some (recently married) friends. the show ended, and a couple friends of mine were coming up the aisle towards us. they greeted me, and one of them (who didn't know arts) asked, "e - is this your wife?" arts jumped in and said "no, but he just proposed!" and thrust her left hand towards them. the two ladies and our other friend all jumped back in unison and screamed. lol.

a bit later, we spotted another friend, who had brought habib to providence last year for a wonderful benefit show for AIDS work in mali (GAIA). when i told her what was going on that night, she turned to face the back of the house and shouted out "these guys are getting married! he proposed to her tonight!" and we got a nice round of applause. we had some fun re-connecting with habib and the guys in his band (see pictures) and meeting vusi and dobet. i, of course, got words of wisdom from all the guys once they found out (and figured out) that we were just engaged. i had trouble explaining to them about engagement, but they got it eventually.
then our friends S and L and arts and I went over to johnny d's for a celebratory drink. a fun band was playing there, and we got to hear a couple songs before the set ended. then S and L left, and then arts turned to me and presented me with my grandfather's wedding ring (which she'd highjacked earlier in the eve) and asked me to marry her. nice. turnabout is fair play. and equality is a great thing. although she knew what my answer was. ;)

yeah! so a wonderful wonderful evening. and we're still flying, and not looking for a landing spot yet . . .

when are you getting married?

who knows!! we're having too much fun being engaged. we'll figure out all those little details later. just let us bask in this . . .
thank you! much love from both of us.




no words needed. just big ups to the folks at the coffee house. PERFECT soundtrack for this morning. thank you. p.s. - in the original video, arts is actually "on" with michael. so, she does have rhythm, thank you very much youtube!
looking back, i still think i did the right thing. wait. i know i did. :D Posted by Picasa
how do you spell "giddy"??? Posted by Picasa
the bling bling. family style. Posted by Picasa
more concert pix - our friend madou! thanks for the words of wisdom, madou, and can't wait to see you in mali. Posted by Picasa
the morning after. i'm just hoping she's not thinking "what did i do?!?!" Posted by Picasa
the happily newly committed couple with the legend of the balafon - Kélétigui Diabaté.
such a mensch he is!! and gets better every concert we see him at. Posted by Picasa
wow! vusi! the voice! the voice indeed. this man, as art said after we met him, was so present. so in where he was. wow. if you get a chance to see him, you must go. you'll recognize his voice instantly. Posted by Picasa

after the show . . .



arts looking pensive after taking in a whole lot of evening. note the signed photo from legend vusi (with legend nelson) in her lap. Posted by Picasa

11/17/06

Entertainment proposed that the Arts join in with the love for each and every epiosode to come!!!

11/17/06

the date that arts agreed to join entertainment forEVAH!!