i believe the term for this is all the nauseating details.

well, my babies. you probably thought the wedding of the year was going to be william and kate's. turns out, it's going to be mine.

(though i have yet to receive word that someone has found my likeness on a jelly bean. these things take time, i suppose.)

this is how it all went down.

friday was the one-year anniversary of when AWD and i met. and, if you will recall, we met on a bike ride. so, we decided to go on a little bike ride to mark the occasion.

i will do full truth here and tell you that we were running super behind schedule and we were supposed to be somewhere later that night and i didn't think we had time for a bike ride so i was in kind of a cranky mood. sad, but true.

so, of we went on a (very) little bike ride just down to the edge of our neighborhood. we stopped at a little park and sat down on a little bench and talked for a few minutes and then AWD said, "will you marry me?" and because i love him so dearly, i said, "yes! i will."

he cried, i cried.

then i wished i was wearing more flattering pants.

then, because i liked the sound of "will you marry me?" so much, i asked him to ask me again.

i said yes the second time, too.

and that was that.

i am sure i will have a lot more to say about all of this as time goes on, but for now i will say this.

i feel lucky and blessed and ever-so-grateful that AWD found me and picked me and that now i get to be with him for the rest of forever. he is a fit for me in ways that i could never even have imagined were important, and that now i can't imagine living without. it feels totally normal and easy to be with him now, and i suspect that, although hard things will certainly come into our shared life, it will be normal and easy to be with him for always.

the only weird thing about it is that this is it. it's done. this is the end of the line. though i suppose it is also the beginning of another. i don't feel like i spent my single life pining away, living "plan b" or feeling disappointed at the way things had turned out for me, but i would be lying if i said i didn't have moments of wondering if there was a person somewhere in the world who would just like me best and stick around for a while. it took a long time for my carefully protected and mended heart to really trust AWD when he said that he was playing for keeps.

but he is and i am and here we are. to eternity and beyond. and it feels pretty good.

as for the ring (this is for you, kate), i am sporting a $15 stand-in until the real ring is ready. at which point i have been promised a third proposal (third time's the charm?). seems like a pretty good deal. and i promise to post pictures then.

because i am definitely not posting pictures of me in those pants.