Quiet weekend in Lake Wobegon, as they say. We had a nasty ice storm here yesterday. Started out with rain, then switched to sleet, then back to rain again. By 4:30 yesterday afternoon, I had a major limb (6+" in diameter) down blocking my front door. I called my landlord and he said he'd have someone out to look at it today, but so far, no one. So I spent yesterday doing laundry, research for my coursework and putting up a couple of Christmas decorations. Watched a little TV too...everything low key.
Today was more of the same. Met H2B for lunch; went to the hardware store for a sturdier snow shovel. I love my local hardware store! It's the only place I know where I can buy a snow shovel and a cookie press! Returned home to chip off the ice on the front walk and then spent 2+ hours making Spritz cookies. I haven't made those for 20 years! It felt good to do something like that in the spirit of holiday traditions...made me think of my sister. I don't think I'll ever be able to bake a batch of Christmas cookies without thinking of her.
The weather has turned bitterly cold here. We are supposed to be down in the teens tonight. That is not like our typical early December weather. All I can think right now is how badly it is going to suck at the bus stop in the morning! It feels more like mid-January weather! Nothing like some below-zero windchills to wake a body up in the morning!
I think it's time to pack it in for the night. The cold weather is sapping all of my good intentions for the rest of the night (that and spending 2 1/2+ hours baking cookies!).
I love my H2B! He has a blog, which I read but don't post to. He knows I read it and he's cool with that. His last post was a commentary on his upstairs neighbors fighting. He was thinking back to the way it used to be for us, and the way it is now...he wrote this little nugget:
"In the year we had been apart, she had learned how communicate more effectively, to analyze her own behavior before analyzing mine, and all kinds of neat relationship tricks. I'm sure I learned some things too, but they must have been pretty subtle because I couldn't identify a single thing I changed about my own behavior."
Wow! Of course I had to chuckle at this because he keeps talking about how much I've changed, and I really see myself as the same person I've always been at the core. And of course, I've talked about how much he's grown and changed! ROFL! This is so sweet and so funny and so poignant. I am such a lucky woman!
And yes, I'm hoping to get him on this board sometime to start posting. I think his insights as a WAW returned would be positively invaluable.
Good to see that you're posting about your sitch again.
Of course you made the successful list!
You impressed me from the start by your willingness to consider H2B's maleness as merely s/t different rather than s/t pathological.
I'm glad that you are steadily growing, changing, adapting, and enjoying the various experiences of progress in your life and sitch. Amazing, and well deserved.
Thanks, FL/G! It feels good to be back on the board. I'm hoping to post the engagement story this weekend...it's quite a story; he's quite a guy; I'm quite a lucky woman!
We've moved from looking at St. Augustine to something more over on the other side of the state...say the Port St. Joe area. Any suggestions?
Last summer, a group of us had decided to attend a story-telling festival at the end of July. It is an annual event sponsored by the local library in Clear Lake. H2B and I are members of a organization which specializes in public speaking; many of the friends we know live across the state and are members of this organization. Many of our local friends are members of Toastmasters and we often make road trips together for various TM-related activities.
About a month before the trip, H2B decided he would write a story for the group to give at the festival. He followed the traditional fairy-tale storyline, so the characters included a princess and four frogs, all with different personality traits and interests. The story was narrated, so the characters really didn't have much dialogue.
The basic story was that each of the frogs were going to try to court the princess, impressing her with each of their unique interests and skills. No one else from our group of friends was volunteering to play the part of the princess, so I volunteered. H2B and three other male friends played the four frogs. The way the story was supposed to end was that the princess was not going to choose any one of the frogs, but would stay friends with all four frogs and bring them all back to her castle.
The morning of the story-telling, we went to a local diner and did a brief run-through...something this group never does...we always skip the practice and normally just shoot from the hip. This should have been clue Number One.
After the run through, we hopped in our cars and headed for the city park by the lake where the festival was well under way. We spent a little time blocking off the stage, and then split up to enjoy the sights and sounds and smells. My friend Steph and I spent some time walking through the artisan booths admiring the wares. The agreement was for each of us to be back at the tent stage by 11:30, where the next round of story-telling would begin at noon.
H2B and friend D were a little late arriving at the appointed time (make note of this fact...a side story). Two individual stories were presented before our group. I was starting to get a little nervous about all of this...you all know I'm a bit of an introvert, while H2B is an extrovert.
Our group's time came; I doned my princess hat, and the others put on their frog masks. We worked our way through the story/skit, with our narrator. When we got toward the end of the story, the four frogs were supposed to rejoin the princess (me) back on stage. However, I found myself hearing our narrator (gf P), reading something different from what H2B had written and from what we had run through earlier in the morning. Rather than all four frogs returning to the stage, just H2B returned. All I could think was, "Hey, this isn't in the script!"
Narrator/gf P said something else, and I thought the same thing again..."Hey, this isn't in the friggin' script!" Then H2B began to speak. He said, "Princess, the time I have known you has been the most wonderful time of my life. And while I might not be the strongest frog, or the smartest, or the most handsome, I promise I will spend the rest of my life making you happy." About this time, the light bulb came on in my head and I thought, "This is IT! This is IT!!!" H2B then got down on bended knee, reached into his pocket and pulled out a little box, opened it and said, "Princess, will you marry me?"
By this time I was in tears; he was in tears, still wearing the frog mask! Most of our friends were in tears. With no hesitation, I said, "YES!" He then stood up; we kissed and hugged. I whispered in his ear, "I love you! Please take the f*ckin' frog mask off..." Then I heard our narrator friend say, "This is real, folks...this is a real proposal."
Everyone started clapping; a few in the audience were crying.
The rest is a bit of blur for me; our friends re-joined us on stage; there was some group hugging and hand-shaking and back slapping. Our entire group of friends was in on this wonderful surprise, and they all were there to witness this public profession and declaration.
...Okay, remember how I mentioned that H2B and MF D were a bit late returning? Well, H2B and MF D had headed over to the pub across the street. Apparently H2B was feeling a tad nervous and wanted to steel his nerves, so they went to partake of a brief, adult libation to calm the nerves. After finishing is pint of ale, H2B headed for the men's room. As he turned to watch the door close, he noticed there was no door knob on the inside of the door. He did not immediately panic. He thought, "I'll just stick my finger in the hole after I relieve myself and jimmy it open." He washed his hands when he finished his "business", only to find there were no paper towels. So he proceeded to stick a wet finger into the hole where the doorknob should be and tried to turn...NO LUCK! He began to think of MacGiver and pulled out his credit card and tried to slip it through the latch...NO LUCK! The panic began to set in! He started thinking about the script, and which one of our friends would stand in for the proposal! Then he began to beat on the door with a fist, hoping someone would hear him...then two fists! Finally, another patron opened the door and said, "Oh...yeah...don't latch the door. The doorknob came off last night."
H2B was grateful. He returned to the table where MF D hadn't heard him, and they left to return to the park for the festival and the proposal...
And that is the story of how we became engaged, and how H2B was briefly locked in the men's room, and nearly missed his own proposal.
H2B loves a good story...and he got TWO for the price of ONE!
Congratulations! Just saw this - what an excellent proposal - wow!
I bow to his romantic prowess.
Very very good news to hear. I really enjoyed reading about your proposal - thanks for sharing this. Please share my congratulations to your fiance as well.
Thanks, FL! I will share that with H2B. He will especially be delighted that you "bow to his romantic prowess." He loves stuff like that; likes being a head of the pack, so to speak!
Not too much to add today. Thinks are pretty quiet in eastern Iowa. I survived the ice storm of last Tuesday; today we are getting snow, which looks like it just quit. I'll have to get out and shovel here before too long while I still have daylight.
H2B and I may go see a movie tonight. When the weather is cruddy, I don't mind keeping things low-key.
We are having some challenges deciding on where to go to get married. He hasn't liked any of my ideas so far, so it looks like FL will be out of the picture. I found an area on the Gulf which I really liked, but it doesn't seem to be exotic enough for H2B. My main concern is affordability at this point.
Okay, just spent an hour shoveling snow and chipping ice. Time to get back to the research.
I've been working on a big research paper which is due tomorrow night. I've pulled together some really awesome resources, and if I can get it to synthesize on the paper the way it is shaping up in my head, I think I might actually have something here that may be worthy of publication! Tonight I emailed my prof asking him for his critique of this possibility, outside of my grade. If I could get something published, that would be TOTALLY FREAKIN' AWESOME!!!
That, and the holiday prep, is why I haven't posted much lately.
Returned home to chip off the ice on the front walk and then spent 2+ hours making Spritz cookies. I haven't made those for 20 years! It felt good to do something like that in the spirit of holiday traditions...made me think of my sister. I don't think I'll ever be able to bake a batch of Christmas cookies without thinking of her. 
Nothing like some below-zero windchills to wake a body up in the morning! 
This is so sweet and so funny and so poignant. I am such a lucky woman! 
Then H2B began to speak. He said, "Princess, the time I have known you has been the most wonderful time of my life. And while I might not be the strongest frog, or the smartest, or the most handsome, I promise I will spend the rest of my life making you happy." About this time, the light bulb came on in my head and I thought, "This is IT! This is IT!!!" H2B then got down on bended knee, reached into his pocket and pulled out a little box, opened it and said, "Princess, will you marry me?" 