Got married. World didn't end. Go figure.
At 2:00 pm Eastern Daylight Time on Friday December 21, 2012, my world passed into a new era as I married the woman that I love. For the past eleven years, though there have been times when we were apart, she has always been in my heart and on my mind. From the moment I met her - smiling at me cheerfully as she bounded off to go swimming on a chilly November morning in 2001 - I knew she was special and that I wanted her to become a part of my life.
We had our ups and downs, as all couples must do. There were breakups and make ups. Distance made things difficult at times, but in 2007 I was finally able to move to Maryland and soon we were back together, this time for good.
In February of 2008 we took a vacation to St. Thomas. If you've never been there, downtown Charlotte Amelie is filled to overflowing with jewelry stores, and most of them have somewhat aggressive salespeople. She didn't have any problem rebuffing their advances while she shopped. At one particular time, one of the sales people said "you should look at a nice diamond ring," and she, without missing a beat, pointed at me and replied "talk to him about that." So I took note.
The next jewelry shop we went in, the saleswoman said, "what can I interest you in?" Or something to that effect, so I immediately spoke up and said, "well, she says I should be looking at diamond rings." My girlfriend blushed and said "Oh he's just kidding." And I looked her in the eye and said "No, I'm not." And that is how I proposed.
Well technically it took her a few more weeks to say yes, and I didn't actually buy her a ring for another week or two after that, but it makes for a good story.
For five years now we've been living together and waiting for "the right time" to get married. We had the idea that we were going to have a big - or at least moderate-sized - wedding where all our friends and relatives would be there, and we'd have food and cake and booze and music and the whole thing. Well, I don't know if you know this, but planning that is hard. And doing that is expensive. So we put it off for five years for financial reasons - in 2008 I had to replace my car, in 2009 she had to replace hers, in 2010 she got laid off and has been bouncing from one contract job to another ever since (side note, she's got a federal contract now and it's working out, we're hopeful it will turn into something permanent). Before we knew it, five years had passed and we were still engaged, still waiting for the perfect time.
We went out to dinner with her parents one day, at a diner where they go frequently and know all the staff. We were introduced to the waitress and when she saw the ring and asked if we were engaged, my girlfriend's father said, "Oh yes, for many years now." We all had a good laugh, but I think we both took the point.
We've been talking a lot about it lately - about how the perfect time was never going to come and if we wanted to do it, we had to just do it. So in November, she suggested that we wait until the end of the world, and get married that day. December 21, 2012. It was perfect.
So we invited only our parents and tried to keep it as secret as possible to prevent any potential meddlers from trying to guilt us into doing something bigger. We went to the Justice of the Peace, said our vows, had a nice dinner and some bubbly, and that was that. And the world didn't end.
For those of you who were hoping to come to the wedding, we are still planning to have a big celebration in the summer, (May or June, most likely) and everyone will be invited to that. As soon as we have a specific date and location, I'll let you know. We really do want to celebrate with all our friends - it is important to us both and we hope that you will all still come and share in our happiness.
We just wanted to get the paperwork out of the way.
We had our ups and downs, as all couples must do. There were breakups and make ups. Distance made things difficult at times, but in 2007 I was finally able to move to Maryland and soon we were back together, this time for good.
In February of 2008 we took a vacation to St. Thomas. If you've never been there, downtown Charlotte Amelie is filled to overflowing with jewelry stores, and most of them have somewhat aggressive salespeople. She didn't have any problem rebuffing their advances while she shopped. At one particular time, one of the sales people said "you should look at a nice diamond ring," and she, without missing a beat, pointed at me and replied "talk to him about that." So I took note.
The next jewelry shop we went in, the saleswoman said, "what can I interest you in?" Or something to that effect, so I immediately spoke up and said, "well, she says I should be looking at diamond rings." My girlfriend blushed and said "Oh he's just kidding." And I looked her in the eye and said "No, I'm not." And that is how I proposed.
Well technically it took her a few more weeks to say yes, and I didn't actually buy her a ring for another week or two after that, but it makes for a good story.
For five years now we've been living together and waiting for "the right time" to get married. We had the idea that we were going to have a big - or at least moderate-sized - wedding where all our friends and relatives would be there, and we'd have food and cake and booze and music and the whole thing. Well, I don't know if you know this, but planning that is hard. And doing that is expensive. So we put it off for five years for financial reasons - in 2008 I had to replace my car, in 2009 she had to replace hers, in 2010 she got laid off and has been bouncing from one contract job to another ever since (side note, she's got a federal contract now and it's working out, we're hopeful it will turn into something permanent). Before we knew it, five years had passed and we were still engaged, still waiting for the perfect time.
We went out to dinner with her parents one day, at a diner where they go frequently and know all the staff. We were introduced to the waitress and when she saw the ring and asked if we were engaged, my girlfriend's father said, "Oh yes, for many years now." We all had a good laugh, but I think we both took the point.
We've been talking a lot about it lately - about how the perfect time was never going to come and if we wanted to do it, we had to just do it. So in November, she suggested that we wait until the end of the world, and get married that day. December 21, 2012. It was perfect.
So we invited only our parents and tried to keep it as secret as possible to prevent any potential meddlers from trying to guilt us into doing something bigger. We went to the Justice of the Peace, said our vows, had a nice dinner and some bubbly, and that was that. And the world didn't end.
For those of you who were hoping to come to the wedding, we are still planning to have a big celebration in the summer, (May or June, most likely) and everyone will be invited to that. As soon as we have a specific date and location, I'll let you know. We really do want to celebrate with all our friends - it is important to us both and we hope that you will all still come and share in our happiness.
We just wanted to get the paperwork out of the way.