My Love Story (Part 3)

After we reunited, things went really smoothly from there.  A year from the date of our “second first date” was the day that Brian proposed. 

It would make for a cooler story if I was completely caught off guard and surprised by the proposal… but truthfully I had a hunch that he would do it that evening. 

He told me a few days before that we were going on a surprise date to celebrate our 1 year.  On the evening of our date Brian took me to several places that were special to us over the past year of our relationship.  At each place he gave me a hand-written letter that described his memories of our time there and how he felt.  It was really cool to revisit places that were part of our history as a couple.  He figured out the exact date that we had visited each place and included it in the letters.

The last place we went was a bench in Covington that was right across the river from the city.  We had been there before during the summer when it was warm, but it was FREEZING that night.  We sat on the bench in the cold and he gave me the last letter.  It said something along the lines of “I don’t remember the exact date that we came here for the first time, but I will always remember when we were here on February 15, 2013, because that is when I asked you to marry me…”

Then, he got on one knee and gave me the most beautiful ring in the world.  And of course I said yes. 

We’re getting married on September 28 of this year… which is only six months away!  The wedding planning is well underway and I’m really excited about how it’s all coming together. 

My Love Story (Part 2)

See Below for Part 1

One night the following February, I was out with some friends, including Brian’s roommate at the time, Caleb.  Caleb had tried to get Brian to come along that night, but he decided to stay home.  Caleb told me to text Brian and tell him to come hang out, because he seemed to think if I invited him, that Brian would come. 

Normally I wouldn’t fire off a random text to someone with whom I had a brief and unsuccessful dating stint… but I’d had two drinks, which is all it takes for me to lose my radar for awkwardness.  So, I told Brian to come hang out, and shortly thereafter, he showed up.  Things got a little weird after that because our friends didn’t stay too much longer after he arrived… so then it was just me and Brian… Since I was the one who had invited him out, I was now tasked with hanging out with him one on one. 

I figured I’d stay another hour or so, make some small talk and then leave once an appropriate amount of time had passed and Brian’s trip to the bar wouldn’t be considered a waste.  However, once we got to talking, we started to have a really good time.  We stayed there talking til about 2 or 3 in the morning.    

When the night ended, Brian asked if I wanted to give things another shot, and I agreed to give it a try.

So we started going on dates, and I was determined to give the relationship an honest effort this time around. Within the first month or so that we started dating again, we had a string of odd little “signs” if you will, that seemed like the universe was affirming our relationship.  The first was a photo from our first date the previous year.  Children’s Hospital was hosting their Celestial Ball again that year, and they chose a photo of us to use on their advertisement.  It was a really terrible photo of both of us, but it was kind of cool, that right when we got back together a picture of our first date from almost a year prior began circulating the internet.  I had all kinds of people call me to say they saw our picture on the ad. 

In addition to that, we had an unusual number of people stop us on the street or approach us in restaurants to tell us what cute couple we were (this no longer happens to us! lol).  We had a lady come up to us one night when we were out to dinner and tell us that we reminded her of her and her husband when they first started dating.  When we left the restaurant that night, we walked outside and saw the brightest shooting star I’ve even seen… and we were downtown- not a prime spot for stargazing.   

It was a string of things that sound kind of silly, but at the time it kind of freaked me out.  Looking back, I think it's kind of cool.

My Love Story (Part 1)

Since my blog audience consists of about three people, you all already know that I got engaged a couple weeks ago! 

I wanted to blog about our story, but writing it all down in one post seemed really daunting.  So, i decided to break it up into segments.  So, I present to you... Part 1:

One night, almost two years ago, a guy I barely knew asked me to a ball.

He left me an adorably awkward voicemail.  He explained that his name was Brian and we had met the previous week while out with mutual friends.  He said he got my number from our friend Jessica and was wondering if I’d like to be his date to the Children’s Hospital Celestial ball.  His company did business with Children’s and he explained that he had two tickets and that he’d like to take me with him.

I was actually really confused by his voicemail. And pretty sure he had the wrong person.  There were two Kristens in our group the night we met.  Brian and I probably exchanged less than 10 words that evening, so I was pretty sure I was not the Kristen he intended to ask out.

I called my friend Jessica to see why she gave him my number instead of the other Kristen. She said that Brian asked her for the number of the blonde Kristen (the other Kristen was brunette). We had another blonde friend there that night… although her name wasn’t Kristen, I figured that was probably who Brian intended to ask.  I was certain he wanted the number for the blonde, or for Kristen.  Not the blonde Kristen.

This left me in an awkward situation because I had to return his call and wasn’t sure what to say.  After some thought, I decided a ball sounded fun (who doesn’t want a good excuse to dress up?).  So, I called him back and accepted his invitation.  I was still halfway convinced that he’d arrive to pick me up and realize he had the wrong girl, but I knew if he was a gentleman he wouldn’t admit that, so I thought I would have a fun night at the ball regardless.

Turns out he had the right girl, and we had a really fun night at the ball. And a few decent dates after that… but then it kind of fizzled out.  If you asked him today what he thought of the early days he would say I gave him “the big middle finger”… figuratively, of course.  But really I just thought he was taking forever to make a move and I was playing hard to get. 

So, after those 5 or so dates, we didn’t really talk for about 7 months. We awkwardly avoided each other when we crossed paths at church or with mutual friends…