How I Became Engaged...the second time...and third time....

Well, after such amazing demand....from like two people...I've bowed to peer pressure and am offering up the story of my engagements to Shooter.


Well, if you go here you'll be able to read, albeit briefly, about our meeting and eventual dating in a nutshell.


Shooter and I had been dating for about 8 months when he was laid off from his job and he stayed in town for a couple more months trying to find work. Eventually he decided to head back to Atlanta where a job was waiting on him. After about a month of long distance dating, I decided to look for work in Atlanta myself. After all, I'd always wanted to move to the big city and that was really the next step in my banking career. I had connections, so I used them to secure a position at a bank in Atlanta. I was set to move just after the first of the year. This was December 1998. I went to visit Shooter and his family over the New Year's Eve weekend and was also using it as an apartment hunting expedition. I found a nice, new place not too far from Shooter and was pretty darn excited. We went to Macon to visit some friends for New Year Eve and had a great time...this time I got a kiss...and a little more from Shooter.


Shooter and I had been talking about getting married and probably had even looked at a few rings. He was just getting back on his feet at his job, but he didn't want me to move to Atlanta and not have a real commitment from him. So, on New Years Eve, one year after the snub heard round the world, Shooter got down on one knee and proposed. It was so sweet, and honestly I don't remember much of what he said other than him wanting me to know he was committed to us.


Well, about a month and a half goes by and we're nearing Valentine's Day. Shooter plans for us to go up to Brasstown Bald which is a beautiful peak in the North Georgia Mountains. We have had fun going up there and hiking and just enjoying the scenery. Well, the day we have arranged to go turns out to be pretty crappy weather. It's raining and it's cold and it's foggy and it's just generally yucky. I was also getting over a pretty bad bronchial infection and was still coughing and snotty. So, I was pretty rotten company. I complained about why we couldn't have just stayed home and watched movies on the couch all day. I complained about all the random stops we were making. I complained about the rain. I complained about my headache and my coughing. I complained because I was tired. So...by the time we got to Brasstown Bald and drove to the top....I was complaining because it was so foggy and I couldn't see anything. It was pea-soup up there folks! You seriously couldn't see across the parking lot. Anyway, Shooter coerces me out of the car and is telling me that there's something over here that he wants me to see. I'm all like, what is there to see, it's all foggy and rainy and I want to go back to the car. He won't let me, insisting there's something important over on a bench by the restrooms. I dig in my heels and say, hold up mister, I'm getting over being sick and I really don't wanna die from pneumonia, okay? He's all like, well, just give me 5 min okay? Please?


So, I head over to the bench with him and expect to see the image of the Virgin Mother or something...but no....I sit and he kneels down in front of me. I'm still not getting it...I look at him and ask him what he's doing...he's getting his pants all wet and he'll freeze! Well, he pulls out that little box and it hits me like a ton of bricks. I've been a complete pain in the ass all day and he's been trying to find the perfect spot to propose...again. Poor guy. He was so torn up about where he was going to propose and what he was going to say and I was only making it worse with all my complaining. Well, after I saw that ring I completely forgot about the cold and the rain and the fog and my coughing and everything else. I was one of those girls who cries before she can say yes and the poor guy's left to wonder what's wrong and is she happy or sad. I finally managed to squeak out a yes which ended his torturous day.


See....Shooter's a saint. He put up with me vomiting (another story for another day), complaining, crying, threatening to move back home (yet another story for another day) and just generally being a pain in his butt. We've been together for over 10 years and it really doesn't seem like it. It's funny...just now we're finally hitting our stride...we've had our rough patches but have always managed to pull together rather than apart. He's my sweetie and I loves him lots. Especially because he put the toilet back in the bathroom last night! Woot!!! ;-)