Getting Engaged (One Year Ago)

Matt bought my engagement ring the day after Valentine’s Day. I knew he was up to something that morning, because he borrowed his roommate’s car and he was really excited. Matt can’t keep a secret, but somehow he managed to not tell me that he bought a ring that morning. I just figured that he just looked at rings or something. I did not think he was crazy enough to buy one.

We had been officially dating for 2 ½ months, and while we were talking about getting married, I didn’t think he was going to buy one yet!

The rest of that month and most of the next I pushed that more to the back of my mind. I was busy with school and had different things I was going through. Matt on the other hand was acting kind of funny. He kept randomly saying, “You should let me propose to you” and other such statements that I dismissed airily. The most memorable of these was when we went snowboarding at Sundance in February. As we broke through the cloud layer into the sun at the top of the ski lift, he said, “This would be such a romantic place to get proposed to. “ “No.” I responded; “Not yet.” Later on, I was feeling cold, so Matt lent me one of his jackets with the caution not to open one of the pockets. I didn’t think much of that either.

In March, we were walking to Macey’s when Matt made one of his usual comments. “Do you even have a ring yet?” Matt smirked and shifted uncomfortably. “You do?” I exclaimed, “Where? At your apartment?” Matt shook his head, “A little closer than that… near my kidney actually.” At that point, I realized he was wearing the same jacket as when we were skiing; in fact, he had worn it a lot recently. This brain-damaged man of mine (his words not mine) had bought an engagement ring a month earlier and was carrying it in his pocket just in case the occasion presented itself.

Even so, I still made him wait another week. Then one morning I called him up.

“Hi!”

“Hi”

“Do you love me?”

“Yes.”

“Do you still want to marry me?”

“Yes?”

“Do you want to propose me now?”

“…uuuh are you serious? I’ll come right now!”

5 min later I got a phone call…

“Oh wait! I have physics.”

So I waited an hour and did my homework.

Matt showed up, asked somewhat incredulously if I was serious, read me a picture book, got on one knee, turned bright red, got the wrong hand, got the wrong finger and asked, “Will you marry me?” I said “Yes”!

We informed our families and within 17 min my mom was knocked on our door. Wedding plans started just then. It was a great day, and by the end of the night, we were full from Macaroni Grill and happiness.

One hour after I said yes!

My ring

That was one year ago today. How amazing that one word could change my life.