Wednesday, February 4, 2009

The story of how we met, Part 3

Picking up from the somber point I left you with....

In the end, I decided I couldn't break his heart, not when he was away at war. That's just wrong. Common sense told me that all I was feeling (and not feeling) was due to absence. God knows I still loved him, but I had forgot what Jon had brought into my life. So I decided to give the relationship a second chance before killing it. I knew things wouldn't get better if we were still living apart, even though he would be back in the States, so I decided to move to Arizona. Call it dumb, call it risky, call it whatever you want but I felt it was necessary for the survival of this relationship. I was at my breaking point and knew I wouldn't be strong enough to endure more long distance. I was so sick of that! That doesn't mean I wasn't scared. I felt it was incredibly risky, dedicating myself to this move when I was feeling so unsure about this relationship. I put all confidence in the fact that when we were together in the past, it was like nothing I'd ever experienced, and I wanted to see if it was still there.

As you well know, it was. When Jon got home, it was as if we were picking up where we last left off before he left. All the emotions resurfaced and, once again, I was unable to keep myself away for very long.

I've already wrote about Jon's knack for hiding things, including the engagement ring. I never did get a real proposal, though. On our fourth anniversary of dating we were getting ready to go out for dinner. There were no plans, no reservations, and I'm not a high maintenance girl so we decided to go to the Chinese buffet in town. He insisted that we open each other's presents before leaving. I had just got him a Bluetooth headset for his cell phone so he could talk on the phone while he was driving around the post. I already knew he got me something from Tiffany's after spotting that little blue bag earlier, but I was totally caught off guard when I opened it and saw the ring. 

"What is this?" I asked him. After all, he didn't get down on one knee and say something like "Tania, you are the most amazing woman I've ever known and I can't imagine not having you in my life. Will you marry me?" 

Instead, he says "You know what it is. Do you want it?" 

Now I was trying to get something out of him, understand, so I asked him again what it was. He answered my question with the same question, "Do you want it?" We went back and forth that way for a little while until I finally gave up and said "Yes, of course I do!" During that whole ordeal he was acting all shy and nervous, which I thought was really cute, so I let him slide! 

After all that he tells me "Now you can just tell your friends I took you out for a hot air balloon ride and proposed to you that way."

"Uh-uh," I said, "you should have done that if that's what you want people to think. Nope, everyone will know how you proposed to me!" And now that includes my blog readers :)

We got married May 5, 2007. Here are a few pictures from that day. 

Not too exciting a story, but it's ours. I'm looking forward to more memories in our future together. And that all starts on Sunday when he comes home!

5 comments:

loqi said...

"Not to exciting" - eh, whatever! Um, don't you think there's a reason why I haven't spilled the beans about how LT proposed? :-p (To answer the rhetorial question, yes, there is a reason, and it sounds a lot like your proposal. :-p)

And who cares about exciting? I find what you did to save your relationship *amazing* - I don't think I had the confidence in myself or my feelings / memories to make any big moves without a big old SPARKLING COMMITMENT from LT. Plus look how long you survived the long distance thing? If my math is right, it was longer than the the 3 years and 2 months that LT and I are currently at. And I hear you woman - SO SICK OF THE LONG DISTANCE!

Yay love story. Thanks for writing the whole thing. :)

Somebody's Princess said...

Super sweet story! I think there is something equally profound in the everyday and in say, the prop of hot air balloons. Your pictures from the wedding are so cute, and I love the red dress you wore!

kd said...

I love your story! There were no actual words to my proposal, so uh, yeah not exciting here either!

As for your pullup, if you can do 25 at 40 lbs assistance, I firmly believe you can do at least one unassisted! Go try it! That's how I got mine--just testing out how far I could pull on my own! I am going to try 2 today (if I am not totally smoked at the end of the workout).

Rae said...

Tania I'm so glad you got around to writing this. It seems like after sophomore year, we saw each other only sporadically so it's a treat to read about this time fo your life.

i'm so glad that your Jon is coming home soon! hooray!

jlc said...

I tagged you in my blog!! :)