Now I Can Safely Spill the Beans

Erich proposed to Caroline over the weekend! She said YES!

I had no idea if he'd sent her a link to my blog, but I wanted to wait until the coast is clear before I mentioned anything here...

I'd posted this twice before, because three weekends in a row I thought it was *the* weekend. Erich kept saying "next weekend" but he never said the actual date. He proposed to her last Saturday, which was his birthday.

So, what's below was actually written on Saturday, October 4.

I was given word on Tuesday (Sep 30). I was pulling my hair out that afternoon, trying to get presentations done, make some headway on this Psychology paper, and was mired down on issues with graphics and logos and stuff that was pretty much out of my immediate control. And I was famished... I needed to get out of the apartment and away from all this stuff!

Then the phone rang. It was Erich, calling me down to the Vancouver Club, one of those posh exclusive clubs with a membership fee akin to a golf membership except... without any golf. But the fees are similar. (I mean, at least with golf, there's an activity!) Ross and Lee have had a membership for years and years, so I've been there a few times, but not with Erich, who is the only other person I know with a membership. So, I headed down there... it was "wine night," i.e., wine at cost, so how could I say no???

Anyway, after making myself look presentable, I made it past the guardians of the Vancouver Club (not unlike Cheers, "where everybody knows your name"), found Erich, and he broke the news: they were going to Banff this weekend to celebrate his birthday, and he's going to propose! This is big news! I've known Erich for over four years, and I've met a couple of his ex-girlfriends... suffice to say, Caroline is definitely the only one I could see Erich marrying. Even a year ago, before he'd met Caroline, we'd discussed women at great length over the weekend of his 40th birthday, when I'd taken him down to Seattle as a surprise to see Janeane Garofalo at the Paramount Theatre. He'd broken up with Michelina in the spring, and I breathed a giant sigh of relief (a whole other story). But at the same time, at milestone ages like 30 and 40, I think people wonder about the emotional security they feel they are missing when they don't have that special person. I was 30, so I'd had those thoughts myself, but maybe not to the extent Erich was having them. It was a revealing weekend, because for the first time since I'd known him, I learned the entire chronology of his adult life. How often do you do that with your friends? It's a particularly strong memory, probably fuelled by the atmosphere and the vodka. We were in the Baltic Room and everything was red. People were streaming in, and over martinis I was hearing new details. It was a revelation!

Here's the link to the posts from that weekend, in which I don't mention much except a trip to the Seattle Art Museum, and how small our hotel room was:

Erich's birthday trip to Seattle

I'm going to Seattle again on Saturday, to see Michael Moore at the Paramount, but I don't think I'll be staying overnight. We're celebrating Maddy's birthday on Sunday, and I haven't seen the kids for nearly two weeks!