HUZZAH!

Friends! If anyone even cares, on July 19 in the Year of Our Lord 2008, I got engaged to one Jesse Van Warr. (cheers, applause, gasps, and gafaw)



Yes, the time has come. The days of the President Rosses, Eclipse acapella group members, snooty English men, Powerpoint Lightning men and even dark Tunisian strangers is over and gone forever. My heart is 100% smitten with the sweetest and most wonderful man on the planet, and now you can just consider me "Jesse's Girl."

I suppose y'all want to know how it went down. Well, I'll tell you. But first, you need to know that Jesse and I were set up on a blind date, and I was only going to "hang out with him until something else comes along." Isn't that terrible? I never had plans of playing him, but I figured we were just SOOOOO not M.F.E.O. (made for each other) that I literally almost dismissed him as the dashing white knight of my heart. But I guess it was actually my "meh" attitude that made me comfortable enough from the get-go to really allow Jesse to get to know me and I him!

We'd planned on attending the Shakespeare festival for months, but ever since about the end of June, I knew that I wanted to marry this boy. So although time and place were a surprise, I knew it was inevitable. Just like that Shakira song, but not really because that song is a sad one.

But on with the story. After watching a very well-rendered display of Cyrino de Bergerac, we tearfully left the theatre built in the likeness of the Bard's old Globe Theatre, and I noticed a fancy gift bag. Jesse says "let's take a walk." ha ha!

In the bag was a complete pirate getup, the patch, the bandana, even a knife and compass. Oh, and I had a scope in case I spotted land. I took off one heel so as to appear to have a peg-leg and I was informed by the Captain that we were to take a Pirate Treasure Hunt! It was so darling. So I had clues that took me all over SUU campus, each clue decorated with such detail and fun! Jesse admitted that his mom had helped him. Really, you have to see these clues, they were so ornate with stickers and cutouts and the like....

The best part was, of course, getting to the final destination, which was a small cooler and a blanket. I laughed the whole way through our treasure hunt, but when I got to the blanket and went to sit down, Jesse stopped me. He said, "stand right there...right there." Then he got down on one knee and.....well it's cheesy and sweet and wonderful. I cried. I cried a lot. It was like so many feelings of happiness and joy were busting out of me while a lot of fear was being dissolved in a bittersweet release. It was so apparent to me that this is the man I want to have with me through the fun and boring days, through times that are super wonderful, but almost especially the times that are hard and stressful. He is a calming, patient influence in my life, but he still "gets" me. He "gets" that I need ice cream every 4 hours so that's what he brought in the cooler. There was a pint of ice cream with two spoons for sharing. PERFECTION!