spoiler alert: i said yes.

well, i don't know if i told you guys but i got engaged. it was all very boring and i did not squeal at all or have a ring fashion show. i did not do that at all because i'm calm and classy and not at all overreacty. always. anywho, here's the story of chuck and becky and our new bundle of joy.



(feel free to skip reading and just study the picture. it's pretty, very accurate.)

   

i should write this while it's still fresh in my mind. for the beautiful children we will no doubt have (no jinxing, universe, i will murder you).

i feel like now i can write this, like now it's all real. of course, it's always been real. living with your best friend for 4.5 years in a committed relationship is real. wondering if this is all going to mean anything is real. and yet, i don't think it could have happened in any other way and really, i would not change anything i've done.

february 18th, 2006 i met the man i'm going to marry. we met online because we're very hip and up to date and i'm very awkward. i was on a dating website and winked at a cute boy with a cute smile. he very quickly responded and set up a date.

we decided that we were going to meet at starbucks. when i arrived, he was holding the door open with a huge smile on his face. i immediately melted. four hours after we had sat down, we realized four hours had passed. we had talked about everything. i found out so much about him and the conversation flowed easily. it felt right.

we ended our conversation because i was house sitting for a friend and had to make my way 30 minutes in the other direction. he said we could meet after. he said he would come meet me at her house and we could hang out. i melted.

so, we watched shitty tv for hours and he kissed me when it was time for him to go home. my first really real kiss. i melted.

the beginning of our relationship was a whirlwind of emotions and love and lust. it was the most awesomest thing that had ever happened to me. i was immediately in love. over the next four years we got to know each other. he was my very best friend and he cared more about me and my feelings and my intimacies more than i had thought possible.

it wasn't always good but as i read somewhere and heard from other successful couples, you'll have problems in any relationship, the ones that work out are the couples who are willing to fight for it. and so over the years one or the other of us has fought for our love and fought for our relationship.

on august 30th, 2010, four days until my 29th birthday, he had been texting me all day, where do i want to go to dinner. tonight? i asked. yes, tonight! somewhere nice! he replied. why were we going "somewhere nice" is this my almost birthday dinner? i assumed it was because we would be leaving on a plane to montana the day after my birthday (a friday). we should go now, on a monday, somewhere nice. he kept suggesting nicer and nicer restaurants, me all the while trying to talk him into something more laid back. we finally settled on fogo de chao. we had actually gone there for my last birthday, it was practically a tradition.

when he arrived home, i was halfway dressed in my pretty birthday outfit. he took a shower and when he was halfway dressed, i had my top on, a short dress i would pair with tight fitting jeans, he had jeans on, with no shirt, he came out of the bedroom with both hands behind his back. i giggled and got ready for the awesome conclusion to my birthday presents. he had already given me a sewing machine and a book.

"choose a hand," he said. "right one!" i yelled. he pulled out a book, the book that had just been released a few days prior, the book i had been eagerly awaiting as the conclusion to a trilogy and as the ultimate vacation reading. it struck me at this point, that this birthday was perfect. my mother used to play the pick a hand game with birthdays and i always loved it in that groan-when-it-happens-but-hey-you're-getting-presents sort of way. my strategy for this game has always been choosing the right hand every time. it works if they really want to give you a present. so when he kept his hands behind his back i said, "right one!" again, and again, a book came out. another excellent book i had been wanting to get but had never gotten. score for becky!

when he kept his hands behind his back still, i had not an inkling what would come out this time. i had wanted both books, they had been on my list that he had asked me to make, but what possibly could be left? a true surprise! my favorite! so when i said, "right one!" again, it was the perfect moment of anticipation, a million things running through my head, but he surprised me once again by pulling out a small wooden box with a shiny, sparkly ring inside and knelt before me.

it was beautiful. perfect. stunning. i, of course, got a little teary and launched myself off the couch and into a bone crunching hug/kiss combination. once the ring was on my finger, i began my interrogation. "so THAT'S where you were last friday!" i said in a calm and controlled voice at a perfectly normal volume. he had gone to happy hour with his office mates last friday and had come home neither smelling of bar smoke nor in a typical happy hour silly, jovial mood.

then he told me his story. the ring had arrived on thursday but his car died on wednesday and we picked up his car on thursday night. then on friday when he was finally able to pick it up at his aunt's house, he went to my parent's house (to ask for permission from my scary father) only to find nobody there. they had gone over to the neighbor's for dinner and didn't come home despite him waiting for over an hour. luckily, i had to work that saturday, so he went over to the house again and encountered my father.

he said he pulled up and my father was in the garage. he had the ring with him, as proof, i suppose. he asked my father if it was ok and then, as answer, my dad got two beers from the barn refrigerator and toasted to our love. except they didn't toast, i'm sure they just stood there looking out into the field. *single tear*

now, i'm not that big of a fan of my father but he wanted to do everything right and when he told me he asked my father i burst into tears because, then i knew just how serious this whole engagement thing was to him. the kind of serious that he asked my father, who has a cannon, two safes full of guns and countless garage implements with which to kill him, serious. that's a kind of serious i didn't know anyone was capable of being about me.