first merried christmas

a little over a year ago, on the 19th of december, the fancy campus to campus bus Z & i were slated to take from NYC back to ithaca was delayed. so we took our sweaty and gross selves (we had been wandering around all day with our luggage) into the nearby algonquin hotel for some cocktails & cheesecake. we were seated, to my delight, right in front of the famous round table. i was thrilled to finally be in the algonquin--sitting so near to where the literati of the 1920s once drank and coined famous phrases.


amidst our murderously expensive cocktails (i had the dorothy parker), Z & i started joking about engagements. then there was a sudden & small black box being opened. there was a ring & stillness. there were electric shock-waves which made me miss everything Z said. and, just when i thought the moment couldn't be more ridiculous & us, Z reached forward and pulled an egg from my ear. yes, ladies & gentleman, an egg. (important note: pulling an egg from an ear is a famous magic trick--one which i had previously & strangely exploited in a description of the qualities of my future perfect mate. as in, i said, i will marry the first man that can pull an egg from my ear. i wanted to find someone who was both smart & whimsical. the whimsy, of course, would be proven by his skills as a magician. all this would have been forgotten, had my friend J not reminded me of it at our MFA final reading, just two days before i met Z for the first time).

so Z asked me to marry him. and he proved his seriousness with an egg (it was wooden, a real egg would have been hard to come by). and because he is actually a skilled magician, he only had to practice this trick, not learn it (i mean seriously, how did i find this man?!). & i said yes, of course! the ring he gifted me was designed by iosselliani (found at honey in the rough) and is an orange garnet, flipped upside down and protected by an intricate gold dome casing. it is totally punk rock. and there isn't a girl in the world with this same ring.



so there we were, engaged in new york! our bus was delayed another whole day (meant to be?!) and the city coated itself in quiet-whites. we called our parents. we stole a fork to mark the moment (my mom stole a soup spoon on her first date with my dad). we booked a room in a sweet hotel. and then we spent the night on air (& eating the best hamburgers of our lives).

amidst the rushing around and traveling this december, we didn't get to spend much time anniversary-ing. it's hard to believe this was already our first married christmas/hanukkah together. so i just wanted to take a minute to say, what a year! here's to a whole new year and new surprises! may all of us have more whimsy in our lives! (for the record, Z surprised me again at the wedding by pulling an egg from my ear after we had our first kiss. it was perfect. and we were a bit less grimy & winterized in those photos!).