We met playing Scrabble online. I didn't know her gender for some months, and assumed she was male. A unique way to start a relationship -- I liked and respected her tremendously, long before any inkling of thinking of her as a partner could have surfaced -- and longer still before we ever met and I found out how absolutely brilliantly adorably smart, fun, and cute she is.
No, wait, did I say cute? She's tough as nails, tough, I say
We haven't shared much (hardly any) of our journey publicly. I am 3 years divorced; she is just divorced, after a long estrangement. We both have teen children. We live 450 miles apart. Becoming committed to each other, nurturing this relationship across the miles and with complex and often worrying constraints, has been a journey, with pains and bumps and doubts and incredible highs. This fall she took back her maiden name; saw her children off to attend their father's remarriage wedding ceremony; started wearing my ring. She has done it with smarts and grace and impeccable principles, while enduring her own secret sauce of anxieties, demons and insomnias.
I think today -- every day -- that I must be the luckiest person alive, to have found the person I think we all dream about -- that person I think we all find, at least in part, in anyone we love -- the person who fits, who mirrors and sparks and thrills and prods. Sharpie takes my breath away every single day, with a look, a joke, an idea, a story, a game -- or simply by being there. With me! She chose me. God.
Right now the date is July 7, 2007; but I think we are looking for ways to move it up. Not easy decisions: big questions loom about jobs, moving, kids... but today we are free, engaged, ecstatic... and every step is worth it.
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
Posted by Tante Shvester (Member # 8202) on :
Mazel Tov!
And by the way, I think that Sharpie is the coolest name ever. (It is her pen name).
Posted by Kwea (Member # 2199) on :
Good for you, I hope it works out well. Posted by HollowEarth (Member # 2586) on :
Woot.
Posted by firebird (Member # 1971) on :
Congratulations Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on :
Congrats!
Posted by quidscribis (Member # 5124) on :
Yeeehaaaaaaaw! Congrats! Posted by Raia (Member # 4700) on :
Congratulations, to both of you!
Posted by Bob_Scopatz (Member # 1227) on :
Congratulations!
Posted by Dan_raven (Member # 3383) on :
Congradulations, best of luck. You deserve it.
Posted by John Van Pelt (Member # 5767) on :
Thank you thank you thank you, to all.
Sharpie looked at my post last night and said, "now I'm going to have to post."
She is a woman of few, but choice, words.
Posted by Bob_Scopatz (Member # 1227) on :
Many of them with triple word score, from what I hear.
Posted by twinky (Member # 693) on :
*disqualifies JVP from the Six Rejections game*
Posted by imogen (Member # 5485) on :
That's fantastic!
A big congratulations to both of you.
Posted by ElJay (Member # 6358) on :
Yay! Congratulations to both of you!
Posted by Sharpie (Member # 482) on :
He's not the luckiest person alive -- I am!
Don't worry; I won't get sappy But BELIEVE me, I could!
I'm very happy. Very. (Except about the fact that I'm packing my car to head back to Virginia and won't see him for at least 10 days. Thank god for modern communication technologies.)
Posted by ClaudiaTherese (Member # 923) on :
Congratulations!
Posted by ludosti (Member # 1772) on :
Wonderful!! Congratulations you two!!!! Posted by Vána (Member # 6593) on :
Congratulations!
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
Wow, what great news! Congratulations to both of you!
Posted by mackillian (Member # 586) on :
Posted by T_Smith (Member # 3734) on :
Congratz, guys!
Posted by Sterling (Member # 8096) on :
Congratulations. Love is a wonderful thing.
Posted by divaesefani (Member # 3763) on :
Yay! Happy!
Posted by Anna (Member # 2582) on :
That's great! Posted by John Van Pelt (Member # 5767) on :
Thanks again for all the happy replies.
I updated my blog(s) with a post very similar to the one that started this thread, and my parents replied there with their congratulations.
This was interesting/unusual/odd in two respects: first, they already knew about the engagement, and have for some time (although certainly 'going public' was an important step, and I intended it to be seen as such); second, I am fairly sure it is the first time they have ever commented in a blog or forum of any sort, for any reason!
My mother is 'of an age,' and would rather pen a note on monogrammed paper than send an email, even for something so trivial as a thank you or a schedule update, let alone regarding a major life event. For her to have responded 'in kind' here was very, very endearing.
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