2005.06.14

and I know...that I am
I am...I am the luckiest

This past Saturday, June 11, marked one year since Amanda and I got together. We'd been looking forward to this for awhile, although we were both so busy at school we didn't really have time to go out and do a lot of preparation (gifts, etc.) for the event. I did sneak down to the shops at the bus station near the school and found some suitable items.

Although the actual date was the 11th, we actually got together on a Friday night after the college's firefly-watching vespers. This year, the firefly vespers was scheduled for the 10th! So we were both excited about that nifty coincidence. Unfortunately, the weather didn't share our enthusiasm, and it rained pretty hard all of Friday which forced the cancellation of the vespers. We did have a short(ish) worship program in the chapel, and the pastor here gave a talk about fireflies. Afterwards we had these popsicles encased in plastic that were quite good. Except I tried to prove how strong and manly I was by attempting to break the plastic open with my bare hands, which worked fine except I squeezed sticky popsicle sugar water all over the floor. D'oh! Stupid testosterone-induced bravado.

While we were eating the popsicles, a group of first-year nursing students cornered Amanda and began talking about how beautiful she is. I mean, of course she is, and it makes perfect sense that they'd be talking about that, but there WAS a history behind the whole thing. On Thursday I had to do the evening worship talk for the nursing dorm; it's a regular duty that all the Campus Ministries staff have to do once or twice a semester. I didn't know what to talk about so I asked some of the students the week before. They said "Talk about you and Amanda!" I never thought of anything better, so I put together a short overview of our relationship and presented it. I also included a spiritual application--that God wants us to live our lives fully so we should take risks and enjoy life. But I don't think they paid much attention to that. They were all pretty enthralled by my story of how we got together, and afterwards a bunch of them came up to me and said it was "sweet". But anyway, some of them were talking with Amanda after the vespers about my talk. One of the girls said she also wanted to find "a nice guy" and Amanda volunteered (!) our help.

Anyway, Saturday night was the Big Night. We got all dolled up like a right proper "date", I got flowers from the market here, and made a mix CD of love songs and/or songs we've enjoyed as a couple. I also stole Amanda's keys when she kicked me out of her apartment to get ready, so I pulled the car around and surprised her. We went to this really great Italian restaurant about 20 minutes from the college. Amanda had made reservations on her way back from the elementary school on Thursday. We've gone there semi-regularly so the staff kinda know us and they gave us a congratulatory cake all free and stuff. It was pretty keen. Plus Amanda got me some gifts, wrote me a note, and looked super gorgeous. That was really keen.

So yeah, one year is in the books. It has been absolutely amazing by any standard you care to use and I'm thankful for every day we have together. Next year, we'll be MARRIED. Wow. Who'd have thunk it?