The engagement story...and yes, this does involve food

So...yes.  Joe and I have fabulous news, which is that we're getting hitched!  Here's the full story, and yes, it does involve food.

It all started last December, when Joe first bought the engagement ring.  He was still unsure about when to pop the question, but kept it deep in his dresser drawer, unbeknownst to me.  Joe began to think that my birthday would be a great day to ask me to marry him, but he knew had to get permission from my parents first.  The Wednesday evening before my birthday (March 13), he summoned up the courage to call my parents.**  To his surprise, my parents told him that this was something they wanted to discuss in person so they could talk through it face-to-face.  Joe was terrified, but he spontaneously decided to take a flight out to Houston that following Saturday, and my parents agreed to see him.  Luckily for him, we were on a little "couple hiatus" this past weekend since we both had a tremendous amount of work to do (so he told me...but actually, he does have midterms this weekend, which added to the stress of asking for my parents' blessing and proposing to me!), so I had no idea he was even GONE!

**Note: Joe actually called my parents while on an evening walk with Sasha.  Usually, they're gone for about 10 minutes, but he didn't return home for about 45.  I was terrified!  Forty minutes into their "evening walk," I began to worry (to the point of paranoia) and suddenly imagined that he and Sasha were picked up on the side of the road and put on an ambulance stretcher headed straight for Atlanta Medical Center!  I began searching around parts of the neighborhood where they usually walk around and even thought about calling the police!  Luckily it didn't get to that point.  Boy did I feel silly after I found out the FULL story of what he was really doing!

During his 26 hour stay in Houston to get my parents blessings, my father, being the tough and protective parent that he is, asked Joe to make a case for why we should get married.  Joe confessed to both my parents how much we loved each other, how good we are together, and how well he promised to take care of me and make me happy for our whole lives, after which Joe received official blessings from my parents to get married.  Upon his return to Atlanta, Joe called me and asked me to come over for dinner the following evening...

...Fast forward to the evening of Monday, March 18.  I had a pretty stressful day, but was excited to spend a nice evening meal with Joe.  Immediately after walking into his apartment, I noticed things were strangely...cleaner.  The coffee table (read: dining table) had been cleared off, dishes had been put away...it was spic and span!  And there were beautiful candles laid out on the coffee table!  AND, I smelled Indian food.  Immediately, I began judging (you all know how judgy I am about my Indian food).  "Where did you get this food?" I asked.  He replied that he had picked up the food the night before from Chai Pani, a new fast food Indian joint in Decatur, and had a lot of leftovers to share for tonight's dinner.  "I heard that place isn't very authentic!" I replied.

I began to inspect further, lifting the covers off the saucepans full of food heating up on the stovetop.  I was shocked...this looked like Bengali food!  Traditional unripened papaya curry, ginger-spiced chicken curry...maybe I misjudged this Chai Pani place after all!

(*Note: I'm not officially disapproving of Chai Pani, since I have never been there.  Also, I would never bash a local restaurant on my blog.  My statements regarding Chai Pani are solely based on hearsay and I only included this detail to add to the story line.)

We sat down to eat, and from the very first bite, the food tasted like my Mom's cooking.  I kept exclaiming it over and over, too -- "Honey, this is just like my mom would make it!  So much ginger, the sweetness...the fresh papaya, so carefully grated..."  Then I had an idea.  "Honey!  I love this place.  We should go and have a sit-down meal at Chai Pani.  Can I borrow your phone to check out their menu?  Maybe the owner is Bengali.  Maybe I can talk to him so we can get a discount!"  Anyway, nearing the end of the meal, Joe asked me if I wanted some dessert.  I immediately assumed we'd be having ice cream, so I started heading towards the freezer to pull out the triple peanut butter ice cream (being Joe's favorite ice cream, he almost always has it on hand).  "No, no -- I brought some dessert from Chai Pani, let's have that instead."

Joe pulled out a traditional rice pudding (payesh) from the fridge.  Now, most of you know me pretty well enough to know that while I am extremely judgmental of food served at Indian restaurants, I'm even more critical of the desserts.  This is because Bengalis make the best sweets in India -- especially if they're milk-based.  And the rice pudding that's usually served at Indian restaurant buffets?  Awful -- usually soupy, thin, lazily made.  But THIS payesh, you guys.  It was full of richness and the rice wasn't falling apart and it was just pure love.  It tasted...again...just like my mother's!  That's when I KNEW I had to look up this Chai Pani place on his phone.  I tried to grab the phone from his pocket, which he subsequently blocked from my reach, and told me he had one more birthday gift to give me.

At that point, he gave me a card, which read "All you need is love. ~John Lennon" on the outside, and "All I need is you. Forever and for always, Joe."  Aw, very sweet.  I was sort of scratching my head at this point, wondering what I did to deserve all this special treatment!

That's when he noted that he had actually taken a picture with the chef at Chai Pani.  I mistook that to mean OWNER.  "Wow!!" I exclaimed.  "You had a picture taken with the owner?!  Let me see!"  ...that's when he pulled out his phone and showed me a picture of my mother and him together.  Boy, was I puzzled.  "Wait, was this from a few years ago when you visited Lake Jackson?" I asked.  That's when he revealed that he had actually been in Lake Jackson the past weekend.  I still felt generally confused -- almost like I was in a dream!

A few seconds later, Joe had me close my eyes and he handed me a beautiful ring box, which was...empty.  Well, that's only partially right.  It didn't have a ring in it, but it DID contain a sheet of Japanese grape candy (much like a sheet of pills, but with candy).  Each tiny piece of candy represented good luck in one single aspect of the consumer's life, e.g. dating, sports, shopping, studying, friendship.  The last candy, which had been uneaten, was labeled "marriage."

It turns out that he had bought this candy sheet the last time he was in Osaka for work, over a year ago.  He ate most of it, but left the marriage candy piece for the both of us to eat together when we were ready to take this step together.  It wasn't until I pulled out the candy sheet, and he explained its significance, that I began to gain clarity on what was happening.

Pretty soon after, Joe got down on one knee and asked me if I would make him the happiest man in the world.  And I said yes.  Then we giggled and danced around the apartment.

Yeah, I'm pretty lucky, aren't I? :)