the best date post. ever.

well, this won't be the standard date night entry, but i have no idea how else to write it up ... so here's madison date night from december 11th, otherwise known as "chicago proposal night" ... read on :)

... so for those of you who don't know, jon and i have standing monday night date nights, so him... taking me out last night was nothing out of the ordinary. we had been talking about engagement, but, like any secretive boyfriend, jon has always refused to talk proposal details with me, so i've been in the dark as to the when and where ... he'd asked that i try not to think of every date night as a possible proposal night, so i've been trying REALLY hard to be calm about the whole thing.

so last week, he told me we were going to drive down to chicago for our upcoming monday night date night because he thought we ought to get outside madison just to change it up a bit. so yesterday, even though i had voices of "maybe we're getting engaged tonight, maybe we're not, but this does seem like engagement, but then again, maybe it's not," there wasn't anything bizarre about us going to uncommon ground (it's my favorite restaurant/coffeehouse/wine bar in all of chicago). it was where we first started dating, but we'd been there many times since that it wasn't out of the ordinary to go there.

jon had made reservations (for 4:30 pm which is crazy. no one eats that early in chicago), so when we got there i told him we didn't need to mention we'd made reservations because that would seem so weird when there were so many tables available. still, jon told the host casually that he had actually made reservations and the host replied casually and led us back to our table.

now uncommon ground has three rooms, one of which is used for small, intimate concerts, so when we walked in to that back room, it wasn't too bizarre that there would be white lights strung from the ceiling, and candles everywhere. but it was VERY different to have a beautiful bouquet of fresh flowers on one table and smaller, warmer candles on that table and the ones near that one, with their own flower arrangements as well.

the host sat us, and i remarked to jon how gorgeous the room was (all the while thinking, "be cool, mary. it might be, it might not be."). then the server came out with a bottle of pinot noir (we hadn't even ordered yet), followed by their gorgeous hummus plate. i told jon that he'd set the bar really, really high now for date night, and asked if it'd be okay if i couldn't ever match this. he smiled.

after the waitress left us, he said, i wanted to come back to uncommon ground because this is where we had our first date. i wanted to have the same wine, and the same hummus, but i want to do something different this time.

and then he walked around the table to my side, got down on one knee and asked me if i'd marry him.

i was speechless.

(that's a really big deal for me).

but when i found words, i said yes :)

we celebrated with incredible food and dessert and 5 or 6 staff members came in to congratulate us throughout our evening (our waitress was so wonderful ... she made sure to let the chefs know since they kept peeking through the kitchen door to see if jon had proposed yet ... yes, they ALL knew what was happening in that back room).

afterwards, jon planned for us to go to guthrie's (one of my favorite casual game-playing taverns) where he thought we could hang out, have a beer, and play cribbage (my new obsession). at that point i was, of course, happy just to be with him and celebrate just us two, but i was THRILLED to see a few of my closest friends arrive minutes later .. jon had called them much in advance to ask them to celebrate with us that night.

seriously, i am going to marry the most excellent man on the planet :)

it was an incredible night of being overwhelmed by the realization that i'd get to marry the person who's loved me better than anyone ever has. i feel pretty dang lucky.