Two years ago today I asked Kennedy to give me a tour of our San Francisco home. We had spent the past ~2.5 years making something magical together. Having viewed the place at night, we found it and all of the moving mirror walls a bit weird, but in the “we love it and we’ll take it” kind of weird.

First to view the place, first to apply, it was our home by December 2017. Slowly and artfully we transformed weird into something spiritual - a home beyond where you sleep, it was a place to dream. We painted, colored, and wrote poems almost daily for years. We explored the world. We explored each other.

Then, came COVID-19. January speculation on Twitter turned to near mayhem by February. On February 29th, 2020 (Leap Day), we held our last party at home nicknamed “BAEview” by this point. Half IRL and half remote, it was a great event but everything had clearly changed. This was the last time we saw many of these friends, physically at least.

These changes led to the beautiful Saturday, April 4th, 2020. All I remember is it was sunny foggy day in San Francisco. It was our 35th day of shelter-in-place. We spent the morning sewing the BAE logo in leather on to Kennedy’s jean jacket and bird watching through the myriad of windows our home provided. Only days earlier we made the emotional decision to leave San Francisco as nomads.

Turning on my phone’s camera, I hit record and asked her to give us a tour of our home. Planned but not scheduled, Kennedy delivered an eloquent address our home deserved. Around 32 minutes later, I propped the camera up on our mantel as she neared the end. I asked to join in as a tour guide. A package had finally arrived that morning after months of design. It was a ring made by my friend, Kim Ries Whittington signifying K’s love for the ocean and my love for green sapphires - thanks “Romancing the Stone”!

“I have something for you,” I said, handing her a little wooden box with a crystal on it.

“Look at that” - a moment of surprise.

“Will you marry me?” - the reason I was now on one knee.

“Mm-hmm.” Translation? She said yes. Happy engagement anniversary, bae.

A reflection

Two years later, I sit on our ‘70’s purple mohair chair in Bed-Stuy writing this tribute. Rewatching Kennedy’s tour, I was caught by a creation we made together that week. It was a poem we co-wrote on our mirror.

“Icarus’ mistake was aiming for the closest star and thinking a star was the only destination because light is attractive but the darkness is yet to be explored.”

Happy engagement’ versary BAE. Let’s keep exploring.

The poem was minted in 3 parts as NFT #47, #48, and #49 using Words, a simple ERC721 that allows you to mint strings of text that are stored on-chain.

Read more about our 2020 engagement here.

Then, check out our The Ultimate Tech Guide to a Virtual Wedding Fit for 2020.