I first met Liz on the Sunday afternoon of August 16, 2015 at the Connecticut Street entrance of the Washington National Zoo. After I had been hired to work full time at the start of 2015, finally ending my long job search, my next big "search" was on the online dating scene. I spent more than eight months going on unsuccessful first dates, racking up about a dozen of them in total. Not a single one resulted in a followup meeting or a second date. I was honestly getting pretty tired of buying a nice dinner for people that I would never see again afterwards. Liz was another individual that I met online via the OK Cupid dating app, and our first meeting had been delayed due to the fact that Liz was moving back to the Washington DC area from upstate New York, as her graduate studies took her to the small DC campus of Cornell University. Liz suggested that we meet for the first time at the Washington Zoo, which was within walking distance of the student center where she would be living and teaching. I drove down into the city to the zoo that day, not really knowing who I would be meeting or how my life would change as a result.
It was a blazingly hot late summer day, and Liz later told me that it had been a mistake to do the uphill walk to the zoo. We were both uncomfortably warm from the heat and Liz tore open a blister on her foot from all the walking, which needed to be bandaged while we were at the zoo. But despite those less-than-ideal conditions, we hit it off and had a wonderful time together. A zoo really is a great place to meet someone for the first time, as the animals provide a natural starting point for conversation. This is especially true for animal lovers, and we had both established that we shared a passion for animals of all sorts. At the end of our two hours at the zoo, Liz trusted me enough to let me drive her back to her building, and we were planning for a second date a week later. I would visit Liz almost every single weekend for the next two years until we were finally able to move into an apartment together in May of 2017. Long before that point, I knew that Liz was the only one for me, and that we would eventually be married to one another.
I had thought about different places to do the engagement proposal itself. One thought was to propose on a trip to New Zealand, where Liz had spent a study abroad semester during her time as an undergraduate student. I thought that would be a magical place with a lot of personal meaning for Liz, but we weren't able to line up the time or the cost to pull off such a large trip. Then Liz had a business trip that took her to China in January 2018, and we were thinking about setting things up for me to travel along for part of that voyage overseas. If I could set things up to propose while we were visiting the Great Wall, that would also be spectacular and memorable. However, those plans didn't wind up materializing, as I had a separate work trip at the same time, and Liz would end up having little time for sightseeing on her own work trip. I decided that it was better to aim for something closer to home, and the place that had the most romatic symbolism for the two of us was the Washington Zoo, the site of our first meeting. I would bring Liz back to the spot where we first met and propose to her there.
The logistics of this were a bit on the tricky side. For starters, getting the ring proved to be a dramatic story all to itself. Liz had more or less told me exactly what she wanted for an engagement ring, a light blue sapphire on a rose gold band, and I had the ring custom designed from an online vendor. The ring itself was beautifully made, but this vendor screwed up the shipping aspect royally. He actually sent me the WRONG RING, as I ended up getting a wedding band intended for a woman in Canada. This poor woman was getting married in less than two weeks, and when I emailed the vendor to ask what was going on, he frantically replied back telling me I needed to send the incorrect ring in the mail right away so that it would arrive in time for this wedding north of the border. Then I had to print out a shipping address for the wrong ring, spending a whole Saturday morning running back and forth between UPS and the US Postal Service as each of them tried to avoid responsibility for sending the package, and pull all of this off without letting Liz know that I was ordering an engagement ring. It was quite a dance back and forth but I did manage to get the correct ring and keep the whole thing a secret.
The Washington Zoo holds an event called ZooLights every year in December, a nighttime festival where the whole place is decorated with colorful lights to celebrate the holidays. We had gone to ZooLights the previous year and I didn't think it would be too hard to get Liz to go again. I kept nudging Liz and suggesting that we go again, and she kept saying no, not knowing what I had in mind. Then there was also the time that Liz suggested that our parents come with us to ZooLights, which had me kicking myself while quieting shooting that idea down. Under normal circumstances that would have been great, but not this time! Finally we agreed that we would go on a Friday night right before Christmas and I knew that this had to be the right moment. I wanted to do the proposal before the holidays began so that Liz could show off her new ring to the family and friends that we would be seeing over the next week. It was now or never.
We ate dinner at a Belgian Restaurant called St. Arnold's Mussel Bar located just up the road from the zoo. I had the ring with me and avoided getting nervous by simply not thinking about the upcoming proposal at all. After dinner, we parked in the rear lot at the zoo and walked through the ZooLights festival. I've put some of the pictures from the event on this page, and it really did make for a beautiful display. The zoo doesn't have any animals out for this event due to the winter season and the nighttime conditions, but the lights themselves are colorful and dazzling. There were a lot of people at the zoo too, including many families with their small children. I was nudging Liz with reminders of our first trip to the zoo as we continued walking up towards the front entrance, and we were reminiscing about that first date. When we finally did reach the front entrance, I pulled Liz off to the side so that we were out of the way of the other pedestrians. I told Liz that we had first met on this spot 2.5 years earlier and that she was the center of my whole world; I never wanted to be with anyone else, and I asked her to marry me.
Liz was completely and utterly stunned by the proposal. She was not expecting it at all and spent the next few minutes in a daze, needing to sit down on one of the park benches to gather her breath. I took this as a sign of a proposal well executed. 
After the initial shock wore off, Liz was absolutely delighted and almost giddy with happiness. One of the best parts of this evening was getting to walk back down to the parking lot, passing all of the light displays once again, with Liz and I arm-in-arm together sharing the special moment. There would be time to start calling family members and friends when we made it back to the car, time to start thinking about all of the wedding planning that would need to be done in the upcoming months. But the time spent walking back through the lights was just for the two of us, and we would always have that moment for the rest of our lives.
Here are a few more pictures of the engagement ring itself, with Liz modeling it on her finger next to our Christmas tree, and then our dog Sidney unknowingly providing a fluffy white backdrop as he slept on the couch. Liz received dozens and dozens of compliments on the ring during the holidays, with all of our friends and family wishing us congratulations and good luck. As I write this in 2018, we're currently in the early stages of those wedding preparations, looking at venues and caterers and all of the fun stuff that goes along with planning a big event. While the road ahead won't always be smooth, we'll be there to tackle it together, whether it's something as large as a wedding or as small as what to watch on TV.
In August heat, the small seed was first sown.
Two strangers meeting, their hearts aflutter
With the deepest hope that each would be shown
Their one true love, with no need to stutter.
The bud took root and soon it had sprouted.
Through fine dinners and board games and laughter,
The pair grew entwined and never doubted
Each had found a kindred soul thereafter.
With time, a comely rose replaced the seed.
The couple, now united mind and soul,
Joining together without further need
In sacred union matrimonial.
Our love has bloomed into a fair bouquet,
Dearest Elizabeth, my finance.
For the love of my life, Happy Valentine's Day 2018! 
