Thursday, February 12, 2015

Chalice of Destiny, Or My 2014 Bucket List.

Friends, when you get engaged, things get weird. I was driving to school the other morning, and that horrifically cheesy song Marry Me  came on the radio. Not only did I not change the station, but I found myself unwillingly enjoying Patrick Monahan's crooning. It was scary.

That being said, I am finding myself alternating from floating around in a love-bubble, to avoiding wedding planning of any kind, to sneaking onto Pinterest during my cognition class, to remembering that I'm a grad student taking over 17 credits in a professional program this semester. It's a crazy time.

To begin, it turns out that as school gets more difficult, the less I can write. I would like to follow-up on The Great 2014 bucket list.  Let's just day I got 3/5 done. Which is a 60 percent, and would still be passing if I were in an undergrad program.

As a general rule, I try to avoid any sort of direct reference to my dating relationships. I feel like those relationships were private and that it would be crazy/disrespectful to discuss them overtly in any public forum... But baby-girl is engaged now.

I mostly want to talk about the last item on my bucket list, #5. Which, to be completely fair did not come true. I didn't find Mr. Right. He was there all along. #IKnowICanBarelyStandMyselfRightNow

Ok kids, let me take you on a journey of love.

The year was 2011. I was limping around because of a knee injury and struggling to put in my contacts. The ward (congregation, if you will) of young single adults I was in was beginning this thing called "The Chalice of Destiny". This was a desperate attempt to get us to all start dating each other. This Harry Potter-like goblet of fire was intended to set up dates with people whose names have been entered in. I put in my name to go with one guy. My friends put in my name to be with the one guy. And I was actually starting to date the one guy. But, weirdly enough, I was instead setup with this other person, the Now-Fiance. At the time I was highly suspicious, because Now-Fiance's roommate was in charge of the setting up. I knew. We went on our Chalice of Destiny date and had a blast.

Unfortunately, because of various reasons (we can just say that because of other guy) the timing was... off.

Now-Fiance went his way, I went mine, but we stayed friendly. Especially when it came to wishing each other happy birthday on Facebook. Because of school and such, we were in different states for 2 years up until August of this last year.

Fast-forward to this last September. One day I receive a Facebook message (yes, a Facebook message) asking me out to a football game. The rest is history.

Except for the engagement story. I have to tell you the engagement story. To start it off, I've never wanted a proposal surprise-attack (meaning I've never wanted someone to ask me without discussing it first. It happens.). To ensure this, I made a list of very specific places I could be proposed to. Mostly these are places from Northern California, which is over 800 miles from my current location. This was about 78% a joke, and as Now-Fiance and I became more serious I amended that list to be more reasonable. But, Now-Fiance wanted to make sure my conditions were completely met. So, he bought a secret flight out to Northern California to make sure we hit every place on my list. Ending it all on a proposal on a misty beach where we were alone with the waves crashing in. It was unreal. To end the night, I got to celebrate my engagement with my parents. Pretty much anything and everything I'd always wanted.

I have been amazed at how things worked out better than I could have ever imagined. And I had no idea that such a perfect person was there all along.

Me with a seconds after being proposed to beach crying face

#ImSorryIStillCanBarelyStandMyselfRightNowButBeingEngagedBringsOutThisWeirdSideOfYou