The cat’s out

We’ve been making our calls, e-mails, and text messages about our news today. I told two of my best friends over Google Hangout about our engagement (after about 20 minutes of trying and failing to get Skype three-way calling to work — God bless technology… or not), and today at work was a huge frenzy with telling colleagues and sharing the story of Chris’s proposal over and over again.

It’s a weird feeling, honestly, to be sharing stories about our engagement and proposal. Over the years, I’ve gotten so used to listening to other people share their stories and tell me their wedding dates and locations that I never really thought about how I’d feel doing what they are doing. It’s a bit tiring, but it’s actually fun to be sharing good, happy news and to see people light up when I hold my hand out or tell them that I am engaged.

When the proposal happened, I barely even looked at the ring that was in the box that Chris opened. I was just so shocked and excited about the event itself – his surprising me as always, getting down on one knee, and asking me to spend the rest of my life with him. As cliche as it sounds, it felt magical to the point where the memory of it is just a huge haze.

Before Chris, I always had a dream of what my engagement ring would look like. I had already chosen my ideal setting, diamond shape and size, and metal. I said in my mind years ago that this is what I wanted. It’s a very girly thing to do, but I always thought about it. But when he proposed, all of that just disappeared, and I suddenly found myself not caring at all. The ring he chose for me is not that old ideal of mine, but it’s what he picked out for me, thought I would love, and is the symbol (thanks, DeBeers) of his love and this moment in our lives. I’m completely smitten with it. A good friend of mine asked me if I was planning to add a halo to the ring because she remembered it was what I had said I wanted. Though I appreciated her remembering and wanting for me what I said I’d wanted, even just the thought of changing this ring made me cringe a little. I don’t want to change anything about this ring or that moment in our life ever.

I’m so lucky I found someone as amazing as Chris to spend my life with. Though we’ve only been together for 2.5 years, we’ve known each other and been friends for six years now, and he has become someone who knows and reads me so well that it’s mind-boggling that anyone can understand another person to the depth he understands me. The things that other people find puzzling or odd (or even terrible) about me, he has embraced and finds endearing. He defends me aggressively and personally gets upset and angry for me in ways no one else ever has. He knows my parents and their personality quirks inside and out and can predict all their reactions to everything. He can even read my friends and make predictions about them before I have even had a chance to think about them. He is constantly surprising me and showering me with love and affection, even when I do not always want it (I do not like to be licked. End of story).  And he’s preserved Ed in our lives forever in the most heartfelt ways that bring tears to my eyes.

With him, my life has been the happiest it has ever been. And I think Ed would agree… even if he is no longer with us on earth. I wish Ed were here for me to tell him the news, but I know for sure that he is watching over us and smiling with joy in his eyes, elated that his little sister is engaged.

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