A year ago...

My pwesh ring

...today I woke up engaged to the man next to me in our tent. He proposed a year ago last night. We were camping at Bahia Honda State Park in the Florida Keys. I had just taken my qualifying written exam for grad school and was preparing for my orals in a few days. I was really stressed and decided to take two days to forget the world or else I would give myself an ulcer.

The campsite

That friday night we went to the Winn-Dixie supermarket in Big Pine Key and bought a steak, some zucchini, and lettuce. We went back to our site and I grilled the steak and zucchini and made a big salad out of it. We topped it off with whiskey and cokes with lime.

I was pretty exhausted from a week of exams already and not understanding if my boyfriend at the time was acting normal or if I was just agitated at everything. I went to wash dishes and he hounded me up to the faucet. I mean he was REALLY annoying. Dishes were washed and he wouldn't let up. We eventually settled in for the evening with our chairs poised towards the surf and I started stargazing. He was rummaging around in the back of the car forever . I was fed up with his nervous actions by this point and had some strong drinks made by our chairs. I was hoping he would get really drunk and chill out. He was so bad I had considered drugging him so he could go to sleep.

Imagine how bad I felt about my "scheming" plans when he finally stopped rummaging at the back of my car and walked up to me. I don't remember what he said, I was kind of trying to ignore him at that point. Well he popped the question. One knee in the sand. I said "oh my god" like a million times and finally said yes. It was pretty dark where we were so he gave me a flashlight to inspect the ring. Puh-leeze, I didn't care.

Yep, that's a newly engaged woman there

I was shocked I was given a diamond though. I told him on one of our first dates I didn't want a diamond (blood diamond AND mining waste issues) but he found one from an estate sale that dates back to the 1920s. So he bought it. It fit really snug that night because we ate some potato chips on the way down to our site and my sodium intake was high coupled with me starting my period. I was retaining a lot of water and I thought the ring looked like a tight band around a plump sausage on my finger. LOL! I told him never to propose to a woman just starting her period again.

Me at lunch in Key West the next day... less salt, etc.

So we kissed. He stopped being weird. And we were totally twitterpatted the rest of the weekend.

Amazing lightning storm later that night