17 years and counting

Tonight, the 33rd day of the counting of the Omer, is the 17th anniversary of my staying up all night, burning a pile of torn up paper in my dorm room in NYC with Barbara B and others, while waiting for Ari to call me back from wherever he was that night. "A little birdie" let it slip that Ari had driven up to Boston to get something and would be back in the morning.

Indeed, at 8 am the next morning, Ari showed up to my dorm room, and came to my bedside with a bag of mint milado pepperidge farm cookies, and offered me a cookie.

"I don't want a cookie," I announced honestly. It was, after all 8:00 in the morning!

"Just have a cookie," Ari pleaded!

We went back and forth until finally it hit me what he wanted. I ate a cookie, he ate three, and he lifted the little white cup to expose the next layer of cookies. "Have another cookie," he demanded.

And what do you know, there were no more cookies! Only a small black cloth box. Inside was the most beautiful antique diamond ring I had ever seen.

Right there, with me still in my pajamas and in my bed, and my roommate in her bed, Ari proposed marriage to me. And I accepted.

I still remember my head dorm counselor (and at the time, one of my closest friends) sending me a message when she heard the news: Mazal Tov, you are on probation - no guys allowed in the rooms!

17 years later, tonight, my groom and I signed a bunch of contracts written in Hebrew, making us the legal owners of 638 meters of Israeli soil.

Now I gotta go design a house to build on that land.

Mazal Tov! Bli ayin hora! Poo poo poo!

To many more...

P.S. Check out Ari's blog, I'm sure he's written something poetic about tonight!