Clare-Dragonfly

So I was totally going to write about Becka's birthday party this weekend and how awesome it was (it was awesome) and how cool her friends are. But now I have another story to tell.

After the party, I went home with my boyfriend, Daniel. He was planning to visit this week anyway (we live about three hours apart) so it made sense for him to take me home. We've been having a lovely visit, naturally, though I was very tired on Sunday from staying up all night at the party! Today we decided to go to the park--we'd planned to at some point and last night he said he wanted to go today, so we did. I gave him my stuff to hold onto while I drove, naturally, since what else is a boyfriend for?

When we got there, I put on my little backpack that I use to carry stuff when doing serious walking (as opposed to wandering around a mall or something). It was wet, and I discovered my water bottle cap wasn't on all the way and was leaking. I found this very odd, as I was sure I'd put the cap on all the way, and as I was pulling out my things so they wouldn't get too wet I said to Daniel "You didn't mess with the water bottle, did you?"

He said, "No, all I did was put that in."

The thing he indicated, and which I next picked up, was a small, black jewelry box. Inside was a ring.

I think I just sort of stared at it for a few seconds, then I kissed him. He said "That's an engagement ring." I said "I know." He said "Will you marry me?" and of course I said "Yes." Then we kissed a lot more and he put the ring on my finger. It has a square cut emerald in the middle, with a white sapphire and four tiny diamonds on each side, with a white gold ring. It looks just right on my finger.

He'd apparently had a plan to get down on one knee in a particular spot on the creek, but when we got to that spot the bank was washed out and there was a tire sitting in the middle of it, so he decided it was okay that I'd found it in such a random and silly manner. And really, I think the random and silly thing suits us.

We have lots of plans to make now, of course. We're not really sure where exactly our lives are going to take us in the next few years. He's still finishing school and thinking about the Peace Corps, I'm thinking about teaching English in Japan or just getting my teaching certificate. But right now, we're really, really happy.