August 14

Top Ten Most Important Facts About My Engagement Story
(Click on the pic to see it zoomed up and in close.)
(Sorry my fingers look so chubs in this picture--I took this tonight after my run so they are all pumped up.)
(Also, I'm going to try not to gross everybody out like I did a few posts back. But believe me.......I could....you all have no idea how gross I can be....)
(Yes, that was a threat.)

1. David did not use roommates, video cameras, scavenger hunts, blindfolds, balloons, or goldfish to ask me to marry him. He didn't hide the ring in my food, he didn't light candles, and he didn't line the walk with rose petals. It was simple, surprising, and legit. Thank goodness.

2. Earlier that morning, I got a $75 speeding ticket for going 87 in a 75 zone. David was in the passenger-side seat.

3. He proposed under a vast and clear mess of stars, and we were sitting on my Anasazi wool blanket that I always keep in the trunk of my car. (To my fellow TrailWalkers: Best blanket stepping EVER. Someone mail me a Making of the Marriage Engagement bead for my remembrance pouch.)

4. He had already asked my dad in secret. He got his phone number after adding Nick as his Facebook friend.

5. For my Layton, UT, friends: he proposed at Fernwood in that area by the castle, if you can believe it. Ten years ago I had a Young Women's pre-Girls-Camp activity in the very spot and went home with stinging nettle all over my knuckles.

6. The stones are emeralds--I didn't want a diamond (no offense to you diamonders out there.....it just isn't a good fit for me, and David didn't particularly like them either). David picked the ring out on his own, secretly, craftily.

7. Emeralds are my birthstone.

8. The first postcard I ever got from David had a P.S. that mentioned if he were a girl, he'd rather get an emerald or a ruby engagement ring than a diamond. That was before we were dating. In fact, it was mere days after I had broken up with my former fella. ......Sly dog.

9. I haven't told this to David yet, but I secretly love that my ring reminds me of Lavar Burton's eye visor from Star Trek: The Next Generation. Haha, I hope I can say that and not have it detract from how beautiful I think it is and how undeserving I still feel about owning it. I never knew a ring could carry such weight--I am surprised at how happy I am to feel taken, to have dibs called on. I am oddly in love with the outward symbol of dedication and commitment. Forgive me for saying two horribly nerdy things in one bullet, but I feel like wearing the ring gives me +25 protection and +10 luck and +50 charisma. Look, I'm not a gamer. I just know the general drill of it.

10. I said yes. The date is the 14th. August. Bountiful Temple. Reception in Layton. Be there. I'm trying to track you all down to get addresses. You can email me your address now, or wait until I call you. If you're peeved like a buzzard that you are finding this news out here and not through a personal phone call, listen, Bub: I am literally, right now, sitting on one hundred essays to have graded by the end of the weekend and I am drowning in the waters of work and appeasing my mom by saying "yes" to all of her various wedding planning ideas.........sheeeeeeeeeeesh. I haven't called a soul. Forgive. Forgive. Let live.

Ha! I digress. I said yes! I said yes! That is the meaning of all this! High falutin' rooty tootin' jingo jangin' shim sham jimmy shimmy doo dah day. How the hells bells did this all happen so fast?!

Soon to be a Grover,
Em G.

This Darned Color Scheme

I can't for the life of me figure out what colors I want this blog to carry. Nothing matches the header photo and while I want the subject matter of an upcoming post to be sunshine and cheer, the colors I keep picking are all dark and misty. Until I figure this out, I refuse to write my next post. That, and I can't find my camera, which I need.

All this is to say stay tuned. And sorry it's so dark in here.

Undercover Super Sleuths

Every early morning, a faceless team of student employees unlock my office, take out my trash and recycling, and vacuum the floor. I occasionally consider what these groggy unknown undergrads must think of me, if they think of me--if they've guessed my age or my temporary status at this university. I feel I ought to leave apologetic explanatory notes about why I'm leaving my office in the state it's in, why I have countless candy wrappers strewn about the desktops and cluttering around the floor where I've missed the garbage can (sometimes these missed wrappers get taken with the trash anyway, other times I show up the next morning and see my trash has been taken out but my missed wads of gum wrappers or Hershey Kiss foils have been left spitefully, shamelessly on the floor around the can).

Well, this post is meant to demystify some of the more irregular corners of my office. If you nameless, faceless student employees are reading this, I am the woman who owns office 294C in the Joseph F. Smith building. And while I'm sure you are all too tired to give much thought to anything while you de-bag and re-bag and shuffle out again, maybe this post is dedicated to the one of you who still carries fond memories of the Hardy Boys, of Nancy Drew, of Rocky, of Bullwinkle, of Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?

DEMYSTIFICATION #1: The Secret of the Pillow and Blanket Next to the Temple Bag

Possible Explanation: Sis. G. might be a spiritual hobo who sleeps in her own office and goes to shower in the Hart building while the morning crew takes out the trash. She obviously has a cheap standard of fake Navajo blankets likely bought for seven bucks on the side of the road just outside of Flagstaff, AZ. There are bits of this blanket stuck in the wheels of her chair at her desk from which we may deduce that she tries at times to sleep while reclined in her very uncomfortable and not-even-really-all-that-rolly rolling chair.

The Truth: I have never spent a full night at my office. Sometimes I take naps. I was taking a nap in my not-even-really-all-that-rolly rolling chair the day the tassles jammed up the wheel, forcing me to cut my blanket free. Sometimes I'm here real, real late and I pretend to fall asleep with my pillow and blanket, but I've never been here past 1:00 a.m.

DEMYSTIFICATION #2: The Case of the Broken Lamp


Possible Explanation: Sis. G. gets angry: glass-breakingly angry. Or she is highly creative and enjoys the light cast by broken slabs of milky glass from a blue-sky/transparent-cloud light bulb. She's obviously embarrassed or guilt-ridden from the busted up lamp because she hides it behind the file cabinet where she also hides her burned CD spire. Possibly there was a bar fight in here. Possibly Sis. G. is a victim or predator of domestic violence (Is it domestic if it involves a household appliance? Is it domestic if it happened in an office? Does it make a difference if there is a cross-stitch on the wall?).

The Truth: I love this lamp too much to toss it and so I'm not sure what to do with it or if it is replaceable/fixable. The story goes: I was participating in a Scary Story Swap via Skype with a tall, dark, handsome, faraway fellow who eventually broke character and spat something surly but witty at me, causing me to react with a typical too-loud laugh that resulted in me mule-kicking my leg into the lamp (I had it on the floor next to me for the extra-spooky effect) which subsequently shattered on the berber carpet. This made me laugh harder. I was going to superglue it all together the next morning, but the faceless morning crew must have thought I had missed the garbage can again and threw away the largest and most important glass shard for me. A hex on them for going the extra mile!

DEMYSTIFICATION #3: The Unsolved Mystery of the Old Man Kicking a Can

Possible Explanation: A grandfather?

The Truth: Behold, the finest picture of Ernest Hemingway ever taken, the old surly scoundrel. Jen, Trev, and I discovered it during a Steinbeck field trip to Ketchum, Idaho (where I am heading tomorrow for the English faculty retreat....aren't you all jealous). The museum curator gave us permission to take it off the wall and make nice copies of it on their own printer/copier machine. In retrospect, I can't believe they let us do that. I really can't. No copyright? Really? I'm pretty sure Ole' Samuelsauce still has his hanging somewhere in his office as well. I raise my cup of nostalgic spirits to ye olde thymes.

DEMYSTIFICATION #4: Cracking the Flower Bouquet Riddle

Possible Explanation: Whoever she is, Sis. G. is loved and loved a lot. Somebody romantic is in her life and the love is heavy duty enough to drop a wad of cash on some pretty exotic looking flowers which just happen to include snapdragons and tiger lilies. Did the fellow pick these flowers carefully, asking the ladies at the flower shoppe what might be done with these select names he had heard his girl mention in passing over the weeks as flower favorites? Does Sis. G. keep them on her desk because she can't bear to always be pining for them at home? Does she keep them here by her napping blanket and pillow because she knows they will keep her in her office longer, doing more work because she is accompanied by a small garden plucked by her lover vicariously from long-distance for her 27th birthday? That the flowers are emblematic of all things to come, to work hard for, to make proud of? That to gaze on the vibrant oranges and muted purples is to gaze on "I love you" objectified, florafied? That to press fingers against the cheeks of the yellow snapdragons to make them "talk" is to hear the words: "I pay attention to you; I listen to and remember your likes and your dislikes; I intend to make you happy whichever way you show me"?

The Truth: Yes. Story checks out.