So as it was circulated late last week, Neil proposed and I of course accepted. I always thought I’d be able to make a sweet post about this once it happened, but like me, you get my biting sense of humor and wit, so enjoy! We had an amazing weekend in Springfield with friends and good times and just celebrating our engagement. I have to admit, I don’t know if it’s all hit me yet. My mind is a complete jumble of thoughts, and I think more than anything it’s just in shock. You get engaged, this life-altering, commitment change, and you are now formally on the road to permanence and a lifetime commitment (or at least we think of it that way, because we’re only doing this once!) and…immediately after, you just kinda go back to life a bit. Obviously we have a lot of decisions to make, and a special event to plan, but after talk, we’re going to take the rest of March just to enjoy the fact that we’ve made this decision and are excited about being together forever. That and I’m finishing up one of my grad classes (the eight week Intro to Web), having my wisdom teeth removed, and going to Chicago on business. I’m excited to plan, but very very nervous. Not many of my friends have gotten married, and I therefore with the exception of family members (who all chose very small private ceremonies), I have NO CLUE what I’m doing, how to do it, …or frankly where to start. The best I can gauge is that you have to really look at the big fundamental politics first. Really, I’m this ridiculous, I drew a diagram and have slowly started writing out (using my masters education) a diagram and hierarchy of problem solving and critical analysis. I’ll keep this to myself for now, but I have a feeling you’ll see a lot more web/comics and roughly drawn out notes and diagrams, because me planning something girly ought to be the most hilarious thing most of you might see in this lifetime.
I’m in all honesty really really excited though, and honored. Honored that not only someone feels this way about me, but that it’s Neil, someone I pretty much…adored from the moment we met. I don’t fully believe in love at first site, but it was the most surreal bond and emotional connection I’ve ever experienced. He is so amazing. He is the culmination of every inspiration, admiration and quality I’ve ever been drawn to in humanity yet completely unique and a stand-out on his own. Our families love us and we are committed to being together and growing our relationship and bond to make each of our families stronger and long-lasting in the values and morality we cherish.
He proposed to me on the day before my birthday, because I had class I couldn’t miss. He took me shopping for new outfits, then we went to dinner at one of our favorite local restaurants Bangkok Garden. He seemed a bit out of the norm, and kind of nervous. Nonetheless, we had an amazing dinner (I love their Pad Thai!!) and when we left he said he was kind of tired. I suggested going home, but he said he wanted some coffee. Not willing to retort that we had coffee at home and we could go home and relax. We went to Kaldi’s up the block and ordered a coffee to go, and he insisted that we sit for a bit in the shop. After we started walking to the car and I asked where we were off to next. “wherever you want” he said. I said we could head home since it was getting late, and he said okay. I’ll be honest. I was really hoping to get engaged. I told my parents I was ready, and I hinted to him that I was kinda…on that track (because let’s face it, I’m not subtle but I’m also a hard core commitment-phobic, so this was all a big deal). We were driving home and I was kinda sad, and almost mopey. He had made a big deal out of saying he was excited for my birthday, and what we were going to do (his plans), etc. and it wasn’t that I was disappointed, or ungrateful for dinner and shopping, …but I kind of felt like it was ordinary compared to his boasting (don’t hate me baby, I love you!…and the whole night obviously). We drove home, and parked the Z, and started walking toward the department. Somewhat disappointed I said that I was ready for bed (it was about 9:30p). We walked in, and he, he didn’t look so good. He was kind of pale (yes honey, I know you are always pale), like he was when he got the flu and puked in the sink. He said somewhat abruptly, “I need to talk to you.” Somewhat bewildered I immediately (like me) went on the defense, “What? What’d I do?!” He immediately and very nervously (in my opinion) launched into this amazingly romantic (although I can’t remember any of it now) summary of our relationship, what he loved about me, us, and what he was really looking forward to in the future. Then…he dropped to one knee and pulled the burgundy box from his pocket. I, definitely almost passed out. I was SHOCKED. I don’t know that I even said yes, but I definitely accepted and couldn’t stop hugging him for about 10 minutes. I was a puppy. Then I turned total loser and took and posted about a million photos, stopping short of making him re-enact the whole thing since I didn’t get pictures of it, LOL.
On Tuesday, I’ll get the ring sized (its got a nice piece of yarn around it right now), and then I think it will all hit me. Right now I feel like a child wearing adult-sized jewelry. In a month, I’m sure we’ll really start hammering out some fundamental decisions of how we want this to work out. Till then, tentatively just block your entire summer of 2009, lol.
