My husband and I had been dating for about 9-1/2 months when he proposed. I kind of saw it coming, but even he was surprised at how, when, and where he proposed. He'd decided to propose a couple of days before he actually did, and he was trying to decide how to do it - romantic dinner out? weekend getaway? drop-poster in the student center?
One evening, we were walking over the Mass. Ave. bridge from Boston to Cambridge. We had been walking side by side, and suddenly he wasn't walking next to me any more. I turned around, and there he was, on one knee, holding out his brass rat (MIT class ring) and asking me to marry him. What could I say but yes!
He'd decided to chuck all the elaborate plans on the grounds that he just couldn't wait any longer to propose.
Of course, I couldn't actually wear his rat, as it was about 4 sizes too big. A week or so later, we went together to pick out an engagement ring, which unfortunately had to be sent off to be resized.
I announced my engagement to my sisters, and for the next several weeks (until the resized ring arrived) I couldn't arrive for a chapter meeting without being accosted: "Do you have the ring? Do you have the ring?"
Thanks to the MIT chapter of LXA, the Mass. Ave. bridge is marked out in Smoots (the bridge is 364.4 Smoots + one ear in length). So DH and I will always be able to find the exact spot where he proposed.
