New Beginnings

New beginnings are always exciting, and I'm thrilled about this one. Some things only happen once, and this once was one of those memories that will ever live up to the expectations, hopes, and anticipation that came before.

Saturday in DC was a very rainy, cold, and somewhat dreary day. It was very fortunate that Sunday things turned around. I told Abby Saturday night that we ought to check out the sunrise from the Lincoln memorial. My cousin Warren might not know it, but his trip to DC turned out to be very fortuitous in many ways. We toured the monuments of DC at night, while he was here on a one night lay-over. The guard at the Lincoln Memorial raved about sunrise, and we decided way back then that we would come back and check it out someday. So, it wasn't a big surprise to Abby when I proposed we check it out that Sunday morning. It looked like it would be one of the last warm mornings of the year, and the weather just might cooperate.

Not wanting to give anything away, I played it really casual about the whole thing, as if it was no big deal. After dropping Abby off at home that night, I had more errands to run, just to make sure everything was just right. Somewhere around O-Dark hour of the morning I woke up and made us some breakfast, packed the blanket, and a big thermos of hot chocolate, and then headed off to pick Abby up.

While we were just sitting there eating breakfast, I remarked that it was already mid November, and that we'd miss the traditional Chipman "Let the Magic Begin" party. That's my mom's way of kicking off the Christmas season after Thanksgiving, and it's always a lot of fun. This year we'll do it via video teleconference, since we're all apart. At any rate, I made some off-handed comment that maybe we could have our own "Let the Magic Begin." It seemed appropriate for the morning, but I wasn't ready to spring the surprise, so I just let it go at that, and we finished our breakfast while we waited for the sun to actually rise.

We had the whole place basically to ourselves, and the guard was right, it is amazing to see the sun rise over the Washington Monument. I waited until just as the sun peaked over the horizon, and then, as we talked about how beautiful it was, I said, "You know what would make this even more perfect?" As I took a knee and pulled out the ring I added, "If you said yes. Will you marry me?" I'm delighted to report that she answered "Of course!" So, with no further ado, may I introduce the future Mrs. Abby Chipman!