# I'm engaged! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 22, 2010, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-engaged/547593 "2010-07-22T13:56:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2010, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-engaged/547593/1 "2010-07-22T13:56:18Z")
In the highly unlikely case that anyone here has been lying awake at night wondering about the outcome of this thread: “[Imminent sex after long hiatus. Should I lower her expectations in advance?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=541452)” you may be interested to know that the lady in question and I are now engaged to be married! It’s the last thing I would have expected a year ago, when I had concluded that I would definitely be alone for the rest of my life. (Not having any serious relationships for a couple of decades will do that to you.) As it happens, the lady and I met 30 years ago in college, but had not been in touch since. We reconnected and started seeing each other and it didn’t take long before things got fairly serious, as the other thread indicates. (I wrote it less than a month after our first date.) Things have gone very well since then, and on July 10, in the gardens of the Schoenbrunn Palace in Venice, I proposed (in a \*very \*romantic fashion) and was accepted. There are a million details to work out about the wedding, and combining two households, etc., but for now we’re both very happy. And let this serve as a lesson to other 50-something single people that miracles can happen! ---
**Author:** ![MoodIndigo1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e8c25b/32.png) [@MoodIndigo1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MoodIndigo1)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2010, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-engaged/547593/2 "2010-07-22T14:10:46Z")
Congratulations, and all the best to you both! That is indeed a remarkable turn of events. ---
**Author:** ![sandra\_nz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eada6e/32.png) [@sandra\_nz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sandra_nz)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2010, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-engaged/547593/3 "2010-07-22T14:58:23Z")
Fantastic! Congratulations to you both. ---
**Author:** ![PsyXe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/54ee81/32.png) [@PsyXe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PsyXe)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2010, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-engaged/547593/4 "2010-07-22T19:03:57Z")
Eeeeeep! Congratulations and that’s wonderful and have a great life together! ---
**Author:** ![pbbth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f9ae1b/32.png) [@pbbth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pbbth)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2010, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-engaged/547593/5 "2010-07-22T19:04:49Z")
Congrats! ---
**Author:** ![nicole1912](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/9de0a6/32.png) [@nicole1912](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nicole1912)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2010, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-engaged/547593/6 "2010-07-22T19:39:11Z")
Congratulations! ---
**Author:** ![Chessic\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2010, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-engaged/547593/7 "2010-07-22T19:53:06Z")
Read the title as “I’m enraged!” and when I saw the reference to “sex after long hiatus”, I didn’t think it’d end well. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2010, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-engaged/547593/8 "2010-07-23T03:11:03Z")
So, I take it the sex worked out okay? Seriously - congratulations! ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2010, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-engaged/547593/9 "2010-07-23T04:28:40Z")
Congratulations! You proposed in the gardens of a Viennese palace? That’s romantic even if you’re dressed like the canonical Ugly Tourist! ---
**Author:** ![Panurge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/fbc32d/32.png) [@Panurge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Panurge)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2010, 9:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-engaged/547593/10 "2010-07-23T09:39:40Z")
Wonderful. Congratulations! [What a beautiful place to propose.](http://images.google.com/images?hl=da&q=schoenbrunn%20palace&gbv=2&aq=f&oq=&biw=936&bih=956) Well done. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2010, 10:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-engaged/547593/11 "2010-07-23T10:31:42Z")
Wishing you luck in your new lives together. ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2010, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-engaged/547593/12 "2010-07-23T16:00:09Z")
Wow- good luck to you and the proposee (?) ---
**Author:** ![Misnomer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misnomer/32/14897_2.png) [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2010, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-engaged/547593/13 "2010-07-23T17:09:52Z")
Congratulations! 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![The\_Weird\_One](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@The\_Weird\_One](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Weird_One)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2010, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-engaged/547593/14 "2010-07-23T17:13:08Z")
Congratulations! Any chance we’ll get to hear the story of the romantic proposal? ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2010, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-engaged/547593/15 "2010-07-23T21:13:01Z")
Congrats! I remember your original thread and glad to hear that things are working out. ---
**Author:** ![lindsaybluth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/90db22/32.png) [@lindsaybluth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lindsaybluth)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2010, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-engaged/547593/16 "2010-07-24T23:33:04Z")
I remember that thread clearly! You kids sure do move fast ;). Congrats, and all the best. ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2010, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-engaged/547593/17 "2010-07-24T23:51:06Z")
> [@](#): > > …in the gardens of the Schoenbrunn Palace… I was so enchanted with the gardens, the Gloriata, and the woods behind that, that I let the tour bus leave me behind and I had one of the most incredible days of my life there. Vienna is absolutely magic! You could not have chosen a more romantic place than these gardens! Congratulations! There is a movie that is a biography of Strauss that ends with his looking out at the gardens from a balcony in the palace. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2010, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-engaged/547593/18 "2010-07-26T14:37:38Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > So, I take it the sex worked out okay? Well, I wasn’t quite perfect first time out, but she was patient, and I improved, and everything’s just fine now. > [@lindsaybluth](#): > > I remember that thread clearly! You kids sure do move fast ;). Well, actually, we knew each other in college, 30 years ago. It was a small college, but we weren’t particularly close friends then, and she was with her then-to-be first husband the whole time. So we were getting reacquainted last fall, not starting from scratch. Which helped a lot, I think. Even though we had a lot to learn about each other, we each had a basic picture of who the other was. It made the early stages much simpler and more comfortable. > [@The\_Weird\_One](#): > > Congratulations! Any chance we’ll get to hear the story of the romantic proposal? From my fiancée’s blog: > [@commasense's fiancée](#): > > Then **[commasense]** asked if I wanted to visit the Schoenbrunn Palace and its gardens and I said yes. We took the metro out there (having purchased our a 3-day metro pass in advance), and began to stroll through the very elegant Baroque-style gardens. As it was sunny and quite hot (the weather for most of the trip), he suggested we find a secluded place to sit down in the shade and I agreed quickly. > > We found a little hideaway corner down a short path – shady, with benches and tables. He said with a smile, “I’d like to recite to you some ancient scripture” – I was completely mystified. He then began to quote from one our favorite nonsense poems that we have teased each other about – “The Owl and the Pussycat” by Edward Lear. At appropriate moments, he brought out props – including a (stuffed and adorable) “piggy-wig,” a “five-pound note,” a little pots of “honey,” a “shilling” (from 1871, the year Lear wrote the poem) and then went down on one knee and lingered on the words “Oh shall we be married / too long we have tarried” – and out came a ring-box. Well, to put it briefly, dear reader, I consented, and was presented with a most beautiful and unusual engagement ring! > > Laughing and crying, we called his family and texted my own (I didn’t want to choose which child I contacted first) as well as our dear friends … (whom we were meeting in Budapest), and then strolled to a nearby café where we shared a small bottle of champagne. We took pictures of Schoenbrunn and the ring and then headed back to the main part of Vienna where we had a celebratory dinner in a little café! Thanks to everyone for the good wishes! ---
**Author:** ![Serenata67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/serenata67/32/10646_2.png) [@Serenata67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Serenata67)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2010, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-engaged/547593/19 "2010-07-26T16:05:22Z")
Congrats, congrats, congrats!!