So as of Saturday afternoon, a week prior to our official 2 year anniversary, Alison and I are officially engaged. We went out to Montauk for the day and I popped the question on a pretty rocky beach that is, technically, the eastern most point in the state. More importantly, it's pretty and it has a neat light house and this early in the year it isn't completely swamped with tourists.

We haven't set a date yet, and we've got some creative budgeting to do to make it happen as we'll be fronting the bill for this ourselves, but that's okay. It'll come together at some point. All we know at this point is that we want to do it in Coney Island because it's kind of 'our spot' even if it is becoming yuppified in the worst sort of way.

After beach combing for a bit we did some shopping. I picked up the newly remastered 2 disc release of the Beastie Boys' Check Your Head, DVDs of One Armed Swordsman, My Young Auntie, and Poor Pretty Eddie and the Blu-ray release of Hellraiser. Nothing says romance like Jewish hip-hop, kung fu and Clive Barker but this is my way and Alison not only accepts my quirks but compliments them somehow. It's the fact that we can find this kick ass mix of sweet and romantic and culturally rad and interesting that makes our relationship strong, even during tougher times, of which we've thankfully only had a few (and none of which were direct results of either one of us - so there!).

We spent the night in Riverhead, a nice enought town that I now know has an aquarium - next time we're going to visit. We had a nice dinner and a couple of drinks at a decent Irish pub/grub joint on Main St. called Digger O'Dells that's definitely worth checking out if you make it to the area before retiring to the room to watch TV and zonk out. I attempted to have a nice relaxing swim but this plan was thwarted by the most obnoxious group of pre-teen screaming girls you've ever met in your life. Apparantly, according to the 'parent' who was chapheroning, it's ok to jump in the pool six inches from a complete stranger if you're on vacation, and if that stranger gets irrate, he's being a jerk. I'm comfortable in that role and I hope those brats drown, or at least wake up with water in their ears.

Getting back on topic, so yeah, we're engaged and it feels good. It feels right, too, both in terms of timing and logistics as well as solidity and true love. I really can't think of anything to complain about right now. Not anything that matters at least. Life is really good, and that's a wonderful feeling.