The Luckiest

It's been a crazy couple of weeks. Some very high highs, a couple of not-so-wonderful lows. But the highs have definitely been great, so that's what I'm going to focus on today. I have just resigned myself to the idea that the next three months will probably be a succession of these highs and lows in greater concentration than in previous times of my life. But it'll be better in the end.

Anyway, to list ... highs.

-Have never lost my ring.
-Glen got a Pell grant and is now debt-free!
-Went dress shopping for a few days and bought a gorgeous dress (and glen is feeling tortured because he can't see it until june 11th).
-The rash on my forehead (which accompanies one of the lows, but skipping over that) is slowly and steadily improving and fading.
-Mom met Glen and approved. (there was no doubt about that happening.)
-Have told and re-told the proposal story to great effect.
-Made a trek out to GJ for the weekend and got to see lots of family.
-Made enough Thai food to feed about thirty people (and there weren't 30 of us) and didn't have to chop the jalapenos or the onions ... thank you, sweetie.
-Hot tubbed both nights in GJ. Beautiful. (and thanks, camille and brad)
-Drove around Colorado National Monument on a practically perfect day.
-Jimmer broke 50 points. (focusing on the good game, not the game that made me want to tear my eyes out.)
-Slept on about a quarter of a king-size bed.
-Had multiple people comment on how thin I am. (was i fat before? ... don't answer that.)
-Was with Glen for two full days straight and didn't get anywhere near being tired of him.

All in all, I'm a pretty lucky gal. Still lots to do (more than i realize, i'm sure), but feeling good and happy. Hooray!

-Me

"Tristan and Isolde were lucky to die when they did. They'd have been sick of all that rubbish in a year." -Robertson Davies

Northbound Train

I have a feeling that my regular readers are people who have already found out the news in various other ways ... phone calls, facebook, word-of-mouth, etc. However, I probably should cover all my bases. So here goes. Drumroll, please?

B-d-d-d-d-d- ... (how would you "spell" a drumroll, anyway?)

I am engaged!

(commences dancing, leaping, and general revelry)

And now comes the proposal story, for those of you who have inquired. For those of you who already know the story, or simply don't need/want to know, you may cease reading from this point on, if you so desire. (hyphenated sentences represent megan's inner thoughts.)

Friday night I arrived at Glen's apartment so we could make dinner and do our usual Friday-night-stuff. He immediately said, "Hey, let's go for a walk while it's still light outside. The sun's going to set."

--raises eyebrows ... "a 'walk', huh?"--

So we headed out into the chilly February evening (about 6 o'clock) and walked over to a footbridge at the Provo River fairly close to Glen's place.

--"a bridge? does he know about me and bridges?" harking back to the "anne of green gables" movie (if you pick it up at 9:30, you'll reach the relevant scene) ... to answer that question, yes, he did. esther was kind enough to inform him of that humorous and silly 'fantasy'--

We stood looking at the water, when suddenly, over the din of the rushing water below, I heard strands of music wafting in the air.

--"North and South??? ohhhhh, corny, sweet, and here it comes." megan begins to laugh.--

Ended up that the cord connecting his mp3 player to the speaker was a little faulty, so the music was crackling. He ended up pulling that out of his coat pocket and handing it to me to hold so the music wouldn't keep cutting out and he could actually kneel and pull out the ring. (which is b-e-a-utiful.)

--"wow, this is really happening!" still laughter, kind of welling, but no tears to ruin my make-up, thank goodness--

He asked the question, I (obviously) said yes, and the rest is history. So, completely unexpected to me, I laughed through a good part of the proposal. Hardly poised behavior. But fortunately, Glen loves and knows me well enough to know that I wasn't laughing at him and wondering, "What in the heck are you thinking?"

I spent the rest of the weekend wearing out my phone, which has never been put to so much use the entire length of my ownership thereof.

But it was worth it.

Oh! And when I actually can find a decent camera that will actually manage to get a good shot of my ring, I'll post pictures of it. Unfortunately, my camera really stinks.

-Me

"In Hollywood a marriage is a success if it outlasts milk." -Rita Rudner

Hello, I Love You, Won't You Tell Me Your Name?

You know how sometimes it's fun to "people watch"? Not in the sense that you're staring at complete strangers and making them very uncomfortable, of course, but to just watch trends in behavior and such. I've never been much of a people watch-er, but goodness, when I do, I sure enjoy trying to figure out the relationships between the people. Dating, engaged, married, getting-away-from-children-for-a-night, older gents and ladies, etc.

Glen and I were given front-row seats to a VERY obvious first date yesterday afternoon. It was almost laughable to observe. Topics covered included family locations, favorite music, and my personal favorite in the thought-provoking-question category, "What class do you want to take that you haven't?" (answer: "martial arts" -- he's a keeper, honey)

I tried to laugh discreetly with Glen once I discovered what was going on, and I sure hope I was successful. However, I'm pretty sure that the girl was so intent on asking question after question that she wasn't paying much attention to the couple at the other end of the table ("the couple" being us). If there was something to be improved upon, it was the fact that the guy was hardly asking her questions back. We considered slipping him a note with that suggestion for about two seconds, but we refrained. However, if he's hoping for continual dates with the same girl, he's going to have to ask questions about her.

Ah, the world of first dates ... I don't miss it.

(and now i wonder if anybody was observing glen and me ...)

 Awkward first date? Maybe not.

-Me

"Don't accept rides from strange men, and remember that all men are strange." -Robin Morgan

You Make Me Smile With My Heart

Valentine's Day again. You either love it or you hate it. I guess I'm still on the fence. I mean, love is great and I'm all for that. But shouldn't you be using every day as an opportunity to express love for those around you? (deep thought, i know.)

But no matter what my thoughts are on the holiday itself, I'm looking forward to spending an evening with my fella. Years ago, my mom got a recipe for this delicious parfait out of The Oregonian, and it's been a family favorite ever since that time. This year was the first year I attempted to make it. Let's hope that it gets a good reception! (glen ...)

Looking over previous posts, I realized that last year I did not include a list of things I love, as in the years before (which i'm sure you allllll noticed). Seeing as how this is a gross violation of a blog tradition that I started three years ago, I must repent of the error and write out a list this year in an attempt to make amends. In this small way I can take steps toward a better and brighter future.

Here goes (in no particular order, for the most part):

Glen
My family
Blankets
My bed
Good oranges
Gal pals
Avocados
Cute shoes
Sappy movies
Warmer weather
Elinor (my piano)
Pretty choir music
My rice bag
Excellent books
Opportunities to laugh hysterically (even at myself)
Happy tears
Earrings

I'll stop there. Obviously some of those items are a little more frivolous than others, so perhaps I should clarify the type of love I feel for them. But I'm going to assume that you, my readers, are intelligent enough to distinguish between the real love and the mere infatuation with inanimate objects. ;)

Spread the love, everyone!

-Me

"I'm not a vegetarian because I love animals. I'm a vegetarian because I hate plants." -A. Whitney Brown

Let's Go, Girls

So -- people think that Mormons are weird. Well, quite frankly, I think everyone is weird in their own special way, not just Mormons. I will say that we are definitely different, a fact which made my mom laugh a bit when I told her about our "last roommate hurrah" to commemorate Lisa moving out. I mean, I think going out to dinner with friends is pretty standard when you're moving farther than two minutes away from them, and we did that Friday night. But Saturday morning is when we deviated from what other people may do. Lisa, Betsey, and I left our place at 7 a.m. to make a drive and go to the Manti temple. None of us had been to that temple, but it was a really beautiful place. And I didn't really think anything of it until I told my parents about it and Mom queried, "How many people do that as a last hurrah?" Good question, Mom.

The weekend before last I was also able to do some gal-pal activities because Glen was long gone (to vegas) and naturally that left me with lots of free time. Attending True Grit with Jen and Casey was pretty fun, especially at the parts of the movie that we all cringed at and wished later we hadn't witnessed. heh heh Then there was lunchtime with Becky (and consequently, noah) and to the Carl Bloch exhibit that evening with Esther. Gotta love my girls, and I do. It was nice to spend some time one-on-one with them (and then all together later that same evening when becky and noah dropped by my place).

In other news: pink eye is dumb. I have never had it before, and two weeks ago, I woke up, feeling that my right eye was just ... watering (and other stuff, too, but we won't get into that) and it looked a tad irritated. By the end of the day, it was fully yucky. (nice vocabulary choice, huh? i'm soooo eloquent.) I think I washed every single cloth-like possession of mine in the next two days, as well as visiting the doctor, which I just love, to get some anti-biotic drops to clear it out. It made its way into my left eye, too, but it eventually decided to go away, which made me happy. I sincerely hope I never get it again, because it was a big fat pain ... and I am not an expert at putting stuff in my eyes.

Now we wait for the weather to warm up. PLEASE ... warm up.

-Me

"A hospital is no place to be sick." -Samuel Goldwyn

I Need My Kneaded Biscuits Plain

I've got a beef. It's a nerdy beef, but it's a beef all the same. And I'm going to write about it. Are you prepared? Okay, here we go.

I am occasionally "ashamed" of the fact that I tend to be a prescriptivist when it comes to how the English language is used (chiefly as regards its spelling, actually). Needless to say, my descriptivist friends all but call me a Nazi just because I dislike seeing a phrase such as "a lot" spelled as one word. Look, I understand that language has to be malleable. I don't want English to become a dead language thanks to a bunch of stodgy rules we've forced onto it. Besides, there are so many exceptions to existing English grammar and style "rules" that it would be impossible for me to keep track of them all, much less attempt to lump everything together in one "giant Jell-o mold." (gold star for who knows that reference.)

But I'm sick of apologizing for the fact that I enjoy correct spelling. Is it so hard to add an "L" and a space to the horrific and indolent "alright"? I know that "alright" has its defenders (and has for the last century), some of whom might be among my readers. But in my opinion, "alright" came about because people decided to justify laziness by saying they follow such examples as "all together" and "altogether". That argument holds no water, guys, because the phrase "all together" and the word "altogether" have different meanings! Not so with "all right" and "alright", if you ask me.

And thus is stated one example out of many lovely pet peeves I have acquired throughout my life, my study, and my work. (ooh! the serial comma in that list could spark another writing debate concerning style, but let's not go into that. i'm sticking to spelling nuisances for now.) Some of you may find it hard to believe, but most of the time I do manage to keep quiet when somebody misspells or misuses a common word. Maybe I should keep quiet more often than I do, but I used to be worse. Really. I don't wish to ostracize my friends and family by relentlessly correcting their spelling. (especially since i make mistakes, too.)

To the general universe, though, I beg you. Please stop making me feel ashamed for liking some rules, especially when it comes to spelling. Spelling used to be a strength of mine that I was proud of; now it seems to mark me as stuffy, pretentious, and old-fashioned. I'd like to be happy with my spelling abilities once more. Is there any way we can let me spell "all right" as two words without making me feel like a dinosaur for doing so?

Only an ELang graduate would giggle at this.

-Me

"A synonym is a word you use when you can't spell the word you first thought of." -Burt Bacharach

A Hazy Shade of Winter

Just in case anyone was wondering, I am alive. You can all return from the edge of your seats now.

I won't attempt to catch y'all up on the last month, because it would be an insanely long post, and I just don't have the patience. :) You can just assume that Christmas and New Years' and all the celebrating that went along with the holidays were excellent. (and you'd be right.)

Today I'm simply relieved that the glacial two weeks (or more?) we had here when I got back from Oregon are over. It really wasn't any fun getting up for work and scraping off the ice in 5-degree-weather ... every day for two weeks. Not that I ever thought weathermen were incredibly reliable, but I felt like they kept on predicting at-least-freezing temperatures simply to torment me. (oh, i'm sorry, do i sound like a baby? i don't care; it was TOO COLD!) The first day it reached 32 again, I was excessively happy. And "excessively" in this case is no exaggeration.

Now is the season for list-making: resolutions, places to visit, people to see, repairs to make, music to practice. It seems pretty daunting when I lay it all out at once, but I'll try to take one day and one goal at a time (maybe two goals if the first one isn't terribly difficult).

Today's Focus List: The Groceries. (quite possibly the most important list, period.)

-Me

"Canada is a country whose main exports are hockey players and cold fronts." -Pierre Trudeau