This is the box that contained my engagement ring.  When I was 21 I lived in an apartment on 23rd and Locust with a friend.  We would often sit on the stoop with our neighbors and hang out.  Every once in a while we would see this guy walking his giant dog and we started to become friendly with him.  Well, I started to fall in love with him from those early conversations but just didn’t know it yet!  One day in July of 1998 my neighbors were having a party that spilled over into our apartment.  I noticed from my ground floor window that same guy walking back and forth (I think he was trying to find his car).  I said to my friend “If that guy walks by one more time, I am going to invite him in.”  Well, he walked by and I stuck my head out the window and said “Hey, we are having a party, want to come?”  Two minutes later we were on my couch chatting when Craig Mack’s Flava in Ya Ear came on my little CD player.  He looked at me like “is this your music?” and I guess that was the moment we really fell in love.  Fast forward to the year 2000: we were living together in our first little house in South Jersey and driving home from the Philadelphia Film Fest and Bob was driving the car.  He was complaining of a stomach-ache and I was concerned when he pulled over and jumped out so I didn’t even think about the fact that we were on that stoop at 23rd and Locust.  I was approaching him to see what was going on when he pulled out the ring and asked if I wanted to marry him.  Now we walk by that stoop many times a week on our way to and from our daughter’s school and I think I must tell her that story at least once a month.