from the "Vows" section of the NEW YORK TIMES

From this past Sunday. "PB" from Manlius, NY, commented on women who plan weddings without a prospective groom:

Oh those blasted fairy tales filling little girls' heads with romantic nonsense.

In reality, you can start out as a princess, get married, and end up sitting by the fireplace in rags at the end of a drudge-filled day.

Women, come to your senses: Plan on not getting married, and then see if anyone is good enough to convince you otherwise.

If I were writing a guide for girls, I would want this in there.

That said, there have been three things this week that brought tears to my eyes in a good way. The first was that Budweiser Super Bowl commercial with the foal. The second was a story that pushed my buttons but is eluding my memory at the moment. The third was Rosalie Randomsky's writeup of Rajeev Kaul's proposal to Gitika Ahuja:

Soon after they began dating seriously, Mr. Kaul, who plays guitar and keyboard and a D.J. and producer of electronica and lounge music, was intrigued to learn that Ms. Ahuja's late father had been "really into music, like old Indian music," with one exception -- "What a Wonderful World," as sung by Louis Armstrong.

Mr. Kaul proposed to her in Hawaii last January. She had been there with her family. After her family left, the couple hiked down muddy, slippery trails to Secret Beach, whose proper name is Kauapea Beach, on Kauai.

"It's super-secluded," she said, "very 'From Here to Eternity.' "

Mr. Kaul had brought his guitar and as he tuned it, he told her he had learned a song just for her. When he told her it was "What a Wonderful World," she said, she immediately looked upon it as a thoughtful gesture marking the fourth anniversary of her father's death, which was the next day.

After he finished, he told her he had played the song for a different reason.

"I already got your mom's permission to marry you and I played this to get your dad's permission," he said. He then got on one knee.

This entry was originally posted at http://zirconium.dreamwidth.org/39253.html.

WTA notebook: Maria Sanchez / Midland challenger

Wednesday: Maria won in singles and lost in doubles; both matches were on side courts, so no stream for me. I watched part of the Taylor Townsend/Sachia Vickery match. It was amusing to hear the commentators kind of knocking Sachia's defensive (aka counterpunching) style early in the match (along the lines of not having offensive weapons, especially compared to Taylor) but later praising it for its consistency (as it became increasingly likely she was going to win in straight sets). The gist of the narrative by the end was that consistency trumps having a lot of choices but (1) not choosing the right one and (2) not turning to Plan B when (1) keeps happening. (The funny thing is that I saw Sachia hit more winners than Taylor, but my attention was split 85-10-5 between cooking dinner, peeking in at the match, and trying not to trip over the dog.

Today: Watched a little bit of Sanchez-Duval. It was mostly baseline rallies, but when I checked back in later in the second set, Maria hit the 2nd and 3rd of three volley winners in a row.