I'm sorry that I haven't had a chance to update this space for several days. A big change has been brewing in my life for some time now and events over the weekend formed a big step in making that change occur. Dealing with all this has drawn my mind away from mundane tasks like diary writing.
First, let me start off with the big news: I have obtained an engagement ring, and plan to formally propose marriage to my girlfriend sometime in the next few weeks.
The plan to get the ring was supposed to be fairly straightforward. Girlfriend S. wants to have her grandmother's engagement ring from the 1920's as her engagement ring. Seeing it now, I can understand why. It's platinum or white gold from a well-known jewelry maker with a substantial diamond and plenty of art-nouveau detail on the setting -- in short, far better than anything I could probably find in a store right now with plenty of sentimental attachment besides. This ring was in the family safe deposit box with the rest of her late mother's jewelry. To get it, I needed to ask her father for it, and he would give it to me. After that, I would take it to a jeweler friend of the family. He would clean it, size it properly, and strengthen a shank weakened by years of wear. I would then surprise her with a formal proposal at some point.
The actual execution of this plan proved to be more complex. I finally screwed up my courage enough to approach Girlfriend S.'s Dad and Stepmom on Sunday to declare my intentions and ask for the ring. That went reasonably well... but S.'s Dad didn't know which ring in the safe deposit box was the ring in question. Furthermore, rather than saying "we can go later this week and try to figure out which ring it is", he, being the good but inscrutable man that he is, said that he wanted to take Girlfriend S. to the bank with him so she could get the ring herself. This spoiled plans to a certain extent.
As a side note, I should point out that all this occured shortly before Easter dinner. After asking for the ring, I then had to try to deal with this experience while in the presence of about a dozen people who will now become my in-laws in the not-so-distant future. I spent much of the dinner drinking wine and trying to get past feeling shell-shocked because I finally asked for the ring.
Sleep on Sunday night proved impossible to find. This was not because of any sense of panic or misgivings about proposing marriage, but rather just because I knew it represented a major turning point in my life. The experiences I guess I can relate it to best are those like getting on a plane to travel to the other end of the country to attend graduate school, and then moving away after finishing grad school and taking my job. My heart just wouldn't stop pounding and my gut wouldn't stop churning just because of all the excitement.
Barring a few bumpy parts in regard to obtaining the ring, the rest of the experience was rather positive. Girlfriend S.'s Dad and Stepmom have been nothing but encouraging and seem glad to have me. Girlfriend S. is also fond of saying that she doesn't doubt that I truly love her -- dealing with her father like this is more than proof enough.
Now we need to think about wedding plans... and that is probably going to constitute several journal entries entirely over the next few months.
said drgeek
on 2003-04-22 at 11:42 a.m.
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