I'll Marry The Shit Out of You: An Engagement Story

Now that a date is set (May 12, yes, THIS COMING May) and it's really sunken in, I think it's time to tell the story of our engagement.

John and I both took an extra day off for a nice, long fourth of July weekend. He spent the first half with his family and then came down to Sea Isle for Sunday through Tuesday.

I called him on Saturday afternoon and he answered with "Hey there..." I was immediately suspicious of this atypical greeting and the conversation that followed a little strained. After hanging up, I told my dad, "Something's going on, something's up."

"Why?" my dad asked.

"John said 'hey there,' when he answered the phone," I told him.

"Oh, God, this is bad, what are you gonna do?" my dad replied before rolling his eyes and going back to his book.

I found out a few days later that in fact John had been in the middle of telling his family about his plan to propose when I called. I felt somewhat vindicated in my reaction to the "hey there" and will forevermore think something is cooking if I get that greeting.

The next day, John came down and we had a normal day at the beach and night hanging out at the house with my family. On Monday, John asked if we could go for a ride around the surrounding towns so he could see some of the places he visited as a kid. We drove around Avalon and Stone Harbour and I asked him what they'd looked like in the seventies. I believe his answer was "go scratch."

As we drove through Sea Isle, I pointed out the church I'd always wanted to get married in. He pulled over and we jaywalked over and went up the steps to try the doors. The church was locked, apparently praying on federal holidays is frowned upon. That didn't stop me from pretending to walk out of the doors holding a bouquet above my head. John grabbed my wrist like a referee proclaiming a boxer victorious after a knock-out. I imagined how great it would be to do that for real- walk out of the church with John I mean, not knock someone out, although that would be pretty cool too.

The rest of the day was normal, we had dinner with my family and then John suggested we go down to the beach early to claim a spot to watch the fireworks. I thought nothing of it, especially since one-on-one time can be tough to come by at the beach house. We went down and started smoothing out a blanket in the sand. As I learned later, John had planned to propose right then, but a family with a bunch of "rotten kids" set up next to us and ruined the moment. I, however, was completely unaware of any sort of moment, I was just trying to anchor the corners with flip flops.

Our spot established, John walked down to the water and I followed. I stopped short of where he was because if my feet got wet then the sand would stick to them, and I just wasn't in the mood for that. I told him so, not realizing his plans were once again being thwarted. He came up to where I was and, apparently was about to go down on one knee when I turned my head and saw my family and, in John's word, started waving my arms like a chimpanzee to direct them to our blanket. I started back up the beach, leaving him with his hand in his pocket, toying with a green velvet box wondering when he'd ever be able to get rid of it.

John joined us on the blanket and we settled in for the fireworks. The Sea Isle fireworks seemed to have been set off in reverse, kicking off with a fantastic, grand finale-like display and getting progressively less impressive. This made it hard to tell if and when they were ending. We lingered, watching the amateur fireworks being set off by individuals on the beach and looking to see if neighboring towns still had some firepower left. Eventually, my dad said he'd seen enough and was going back to the house. My sister and her boyfriend agreed and they all left. My mom, however, hates to miss any sort of pyrotechnic display. We once stood in a Target parking lot for a solid 20 minutes watching a smoking car. She finally realized it wasn't going to burst into flames and walked dejectedly back to our car.

She stood in the sand, turning back and forth to try to catch the best that both the north and south had to offer. Things were starting to slow down, but she just strained her eyes to try to see further. I, on the other hand, was ready to get going as I was getting eaten alive by mosquitoes. I told John and he said he just wanted five more minutes of fireworks and then, I imagine, stared my mom down, hoping to telepathically tell her to give up and go home.

The message was not going through.

She was too busy searching out any remaining spark. "I think there are some more a few blocks down."

"No, Mom, I'm pretty sure that's someone trying to light a cigarette a few yards away."

"Oh, well, it's still pretty."

Finally, after I again complained of mosquito bites, my mom looked down at us said she figured she'd go back.

"Yeah, we'll meet you up there in a few minutes," John told her.

He looked over his shoulder a few moments later, as he planned to get to his knee and saw her there, lingering on the path over the dunes, gazing skyward, zippo flames reflecting in her eyes and he waited a few minutes longer.

"John I really have to go, I have bites all over my legs," I told him.

"Alright, I can take a hint, let's go."

I stood up and John turned onto his hands and knees to gather up the blanket, then just stayed there on his knees. I looked at him with a "let's go, guy!" look and started to walk past him to get my flip flops. He caught my hand and as I looked back, he said "well, since I'm already on one knee..."

I looked and he was, in fact, on one knee. However, sinc John has a long running and well-documented reputation for jokes, pranks and all around teasing, I replied with a very romantic "shut up." Then I saw that he was reaching into his pocket.

I had a basic idea of what the girl is supposed to do when the man she loves gets down on one knee and produces a ring, but when it actually happened to me, it didn't even cross my mind to give him my left hand, cover my mouth with my right and weep prettily; I'm not even sure weeping prettily is something I'm capable of.

Before he could even finish what he was saying, I leaned over, threw my arms around him and buried my face in his neck saying "Really?! For real? Seriously? Right now? This is really happening right now?!?!"

"You have to let me say it, give me your little hand," he told me.

"Oh right, ok, here, umm ok, ahhh."

"Will you marry me?"

"YES, Yes yes yes yes!!!!" I collapsed back into the face-in-neck position.

We both stood up and hugged for a long time.

"You mean it?" he asked. "You'll really marry me?"

"I'll marry the shit out of you," I answered.

And I will.

Deep Thoughts

You know your life is great when the first words you hear when you wake up in the morning are "I love you."

It's A Boy!

After what seemed like a flash to me but I'm sure a long road to my sister in law, I now have a nephew!

Little Samuel Thomas was born on June 14 at 6:06pm after 24 hours of labor. Though there was a long build up, I still managed to be late. I left work just as they were taking Christine in for a C-section, but between a stop at a florist, that was, of course, closed and traffic, the big announcement had already happened by the time I arrived.

I wanted to be surprised, though, and hear it from Matt whether the baby was a boy or a girl. Andrew met me in the lobby of the hospital and went into the little shop with me so I could get flowers. I picked out an arrangement and when I brought it to the counter, I asked if I could add a balloon. The lady asked if the baby was a boy or a girl. I told her I didn't know yet. The other employee started sifting through the balloon selection. "I don't know if we have any ambidextrous ones," she called over her shoulder. "They all either say boy or girl."

Andrew and I looked at each other and had to immediately look away to make sure we didn't burst into giggles. I said we could skip the balloons and paid for the flowers.

We went up and I heard from Matt that it was a boy and heard from my mom all the other details.



They had already taken Sam to the nursery so we went down to look at him while Christine finished in recovery. My first glimpses of my nephew were wonderful, but after the first few minutes, we started to hear a woman in labor down the hall. It was not like what you see portrayed in movies or on TV. It was much, much worse. A nurse actually walked by and said "I'm sorry if you guys haven't had kids yet, it's not always like this."

I tried to block it out and concentrate on Sam's little toes and the way he kept pushing his tongue against his bottom lip. It would work until I'd hear "GEEEETTTTT IIIITTTTTTT OOOOUUUUUTTTT UUGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!"

Shortly afterwards, they brought Sam and Christine to her room so she could nurse him and after a while, we got to go in and see Christine and hold the baby. Between having a perfect little baby in my arms and the door closed to outside noise, I was able to forget the horrific shrieks I'd heard and enjoy meeting my nephew...and relishing the knowledge that the most difficult thing I'd gone through to get to hold a baby in my arms was sit through Blue Route traffic.

How Can I Have S'more When I Haven't Had Any Yet?

In the latest episode of "I'm how old?", I burnt my lip tonight. How? By trying to scrape (with my teeth) the leftover bit of melted marshmallow off of the metal fork that I'd just held over an open flame to make a s'more.

Good Morning, Sunshine

This morning when I got up to go to the bathroom, I got really freaked out because I thought my pee smelled like skunk. Then I realized it was just my neighbors indulging in a wake'n'bake.

Random Life Stuff

Our landlord likes to eat on the run. He once showed up at our door balancing a full plate of food with one clean and one dirty air filter, announcing himself with a call of "Maintenance!"before going to change our air filter. That's why I'm not more suspicious about the quarter watermelon wrapped in aluminum foil and unopened can of cranberry sauce that are sitting on the sidewalk next to my front steps.

Within a three-day span I was mistaken for a married woman and a high school student. Someday I will figure out the right combination of hair, clothes and make-up that makes me look my actual age.

John and I were sitting at a bar in Toronto having a drink and a guy leaned between us to pay his tab. When the bartender told him the total, the guy shouted "EH?!" After trying to perfect the quintessential Canadian sound all weekend, this was like a golden goose being placed before us, on the bar. John and I immediately looked at each other and basically high fived with our eyes.

Baby Face

A couple weeks ago, I met John in Clearwater, Florida for the weekend since he was already down there for work.

It was so nice to escape just for a brief time and feel some sunshine (through a shield of 70 SPF of course) and walk on the beach. Late Friday afternoon, after sitting on the beach for a while, we walked up to the pool bar to get a drink. We sat on stools among all the people in Phillies shirts and hats who had just returned from a spring training game.

Before the bartender even approached us, I heard people talking about Sea Isle City and my ears perked up. No one even knew what Sea Isle was when I mentioned it in North Jersey, so hearing it mentioned all the way in Florida was exciting. A girl was talking about a bar she liked and the guy she was chatting with was trying to remember the name of the place he would go for pizza late at night...

“It’s on a corner, it's brown, you have to walk up steps to get there...”

“ANGELO”S!” I screamed as I leaned across John toward them, almost falling off my stool in my attempt to be the first to buzz in with the correct answer.

They acknowledged my answer and we exchanged brief pleasantries but then it was time to order a drink.

The bartender came up and asked what we wanted. I asked for a strawberry daiquiri, since it seemed like the most appropriate thing to drink while sitting poolside.

“Coming right up,” the bartender replied, picking up a cup. “But could you just raise your sunglasses quick so I can see your face?”

“No problem,” I said, and lifted my large glasses.

She squinted in the sun, looked my face up and down, put the cup back on the bar.

“Uh, yeah, I’m going to need to see ID.”

I didn’t even pretend to look in my bag, I knew my ID was up in the hotel room.

“How about a virgin strawberry daiquiri?” I asked.

“Sure, sorry, you know, it’s just spring break and all,” she explained.

They say the eyes are the window to the soul. With my sunglasses on I was getting served, with my sunglasses off I was a minor trying to pull a fast one. I guess my soul must be about nineteen.