The Engagement!

Wednesday, May 28th, 2008: A day that I will never forget, and one of the best days of my life, by far. This is the day I was arriving in Paris, France, which has always been my dream since I started taking French with Madame Schumacher as a freshman in high school. We (my friends Mike and Phil and myself) arrived at our hotel in Paris, Act V, on the street (or rue, in French) Monge. It was a small, cozy place that oozed French hospitality.

I excitedly stepped inside the red carpeted lobby and began to look around. I loved it immediately. One of the first things I spotted was the bar, and to the right of it was an area with teapots. On the teapots it said, Maison Richard, or "Richard's House." I took a picture because it reminded me of Rich, and my heart sank that he was not here with me to share in this incredible experience. I would be seeing him for our conference on Saturday in Istanbul, but because this trip was planned after he had already made his flight arrangements to go to Istanbul, he told me he was unable to change them. I knew Paris would be great, but not as great as it could be without him there by my side. We headed with all of our luggage up to the second floor of the hotel. Mike tried the key in the lock, but it wouldn't work! We jiggled and twisted and turned the handle each in turn, with no success. Mike suggested it was locked from the inside. I thought we maybe had the wrong key. We pushed and pulled until finally Mike went to go check in with the front desk about the key. I heard the phone in the room begin to ring, and thought it was strange, but didn't think on it too much. Phil and I explored the next floor for a few minutes, and then came back down. Finally, the key worked in the lock, and we stepped into our room with our bags. It was a small room, with a full bed in the center, and a small twin bed to the right. Lamps were on the wall, and directly in front of us were large glass doors covered by curtains, which led out to a balcony, apparently. Phil headed right for the balcony, and stepped outside into the sunlight. "Shelly, you need to come see this view!" he said. I didn't need convincing! I hurried over to the balcony. I could see a railing in front of me, and also noticed how narrow the balcony actually was. Phil stepped back into the room as I stepped out onto the balcony. Before I could even cast a glance at the view, I turned to my right, and to my surprise, Rich was there! He was dressed in a suit, and was wearing the biggest smile I think I have ever seen on his face. Before I could even get a word out (and bursting with questions), he dropped down on one knee, opened a little ring box, looked me in the eyes, and said, "Will you marry me?" I was so excited and ecstatic, I blurted out, "Yes!" and ran to give him a hug.

Apparently, Rich had flown to France the day before, without even having a place to stay! He begged the lady at our hotel to stay the night, and she let him. I was so impressed that he had worked all of these things out so well, and in secret! He then had to get up early, shower, make the room look like it was never lived in by cleaning it and making the beds, and moving all his stuff out to the balcony. He then waited out on the balcony and watched for our arrival. We were late, so he began to pace in his nervousness! He had also made a videotape of the entire experience, which is not only amazingly sweet, but incredibly hilarious. It basically documented this entire adventure, from before he left for France, to the arrival in the hotel and his worries of what was taking us so long. He always practiced saying "Will you marry me," in French many times ("Veux-tu m'epouser?") but was so nervous when the time actually came that he forgot how it went! It was okay though, because the English version worked just fine! Mike and Phil were in on the whole thing, and my sister knew about it, but I am so happy that nobody spilled the beans. Rich had also gone to the flower market and bought me a bouquet of roses. They were really beautiful, but I failed to even notice them in my excitement! They were sitting on a table inside the room, near to the balcony. The card attached said, "Because I love you" (Parce-que je t'aime). Awwww!

To sum up, I could not have wished for a more perfect way for the engagement to happen. Rich flew to France by himself to make sure that everything would be as close to perfect as it could possibly be. It was romantic, it was amazing, it was beautiful, and it was (and is) the story of a lifetime. I am so excited for what is to come in the future, and I look forward to sharing the rest of my life with the most amazing man in the whole world--Richard Alan Pezzillo, Jr.! We have a tentative date set of Saturday, May 22, 2010, so mark it on your calendars, and we will keep you posted!