Musings of a Catholic metal head: Being Engaged

Warning: SUPER gushy post about my incredible fiancé and how much I love him, how good we are together, and various such related things. You may develop a brain cavity due to all the sweetness in this post. Read at your own risk.

Well, now that everyone officially knows I gotta say, it's fun being engaged. I'm getting questions about the significance of the shark, disbelief that this is my FIRST wedding, so many unsolicited opinions on EVERYTHING wedding related, and a lot of congratulations. It's funny, I once wondered why we offer congrats to people who are in a relationship or taking big steps in their established relationship. I didn't think it was such a big deal, right? I mean, people get married every day... some do it multiple times in their lives. Are "congrats" really necessary? Now I know the answer to that is a resounding YES! I'm happily collecting all the congrats people want to give me! It took me bloody YEARS to find this man! I waded thru the festering cesspool of online dating, fighting off the one-night-standers, the want-a-mothers, the you're-good-enough-for-nowers, being ghosted, zombied, and otherwise toyed with, swiping, fading, dating, losing interest, boiling hot one min then cool as a Wyoming February the next. I fumbled thru Bumble, tested the waters of Facebook dating, and even tried hinge- the app "designed to be deleted" from the makers of match.com. I had nearly given up hope of finding someone who would accept me for who I am, who wouldn't try to change me, who I could trust and love and build a life with. As a last-ditch effort, i downloaded 'coffee meets bagel,' my last effort before either paying for a dating service or going and adopting 3 cats! Then I found my unicorn... my cat dad, diesel mechanic, fiat driving, loki-esque, cheeky, adorable, handsome, considerate, amazing man. I really suspected such a man was a myth. But no, he is real and he chose me and I chose him and we shall be together for forever and a day.

For all that, I totally blank when someone says "so tell me about this guy!" Like... ok, he's 5'10" ish, apache, has amazing hair thats going salt and pepper, brown eyes that look into my soul, an adorable cheeky grin, sense of humor as twisted as mine... but I never think of it in the moment! Anyway, he's amazing and I'm gonna keep him.

Now the fun one. "This is your FIRST wedding!? How OLD are you??" Yep, I made it almost 4 decades before finding someone to marry. I had other stuff to do! I had jobs, I traveled to Europe, I taught in South Korea, I built amazing friendships, i healed from a lot of man-related trauma, I dealt with a lot of my issues and problems, and I focused on becoming the best ME I can be. The healing process took a while because when I would try to date I was grateful for any guy who showed interest and that wasn't healthy, so I'd end up hurt again and the cycle continued. I decided not to date until I was ready to get married and to date with that end in mind. It took me a while to find my man, but on the way I was honest and upfront about my intentions, my interest, and my expectations. I learned to be honest with myself and the guy I was dating. If they weren't honest with me, well, that's on them. I (tried not to) take it personally and just moved on.

The amazing thing about finding the right man is that all the things I was insecure about before are things that no longer matter. I can be myself around him. I can be moody, happy, goofy, hyper, calm, loud, semi-obnoxious, super clingy, kissey, jokey, serious, a little romantical... whatever and he doesn't mind. He's sooooo chill, it's almost scary at times. We complement each other very well. Every day I spend with him is the best day. Even if we are just being goblins at home. It's awesome. He feels like home.

Bite side

Other side

On to the weekend. It was so nice to see J&D at our favorite Mexican place on Thursday night. We split a guacamole and an order of brisket quesadillas and we all enjoyed some drinks. J and I went for their frozen margaritas and D got one of the BEST mojitos I've tasted. We got to dish and chat and it was a lot of fun. We exchanged gifts as well, and they got to see the new car.

Hehe... she got this for me back in July 😁🐙💀

Friday night was date night. We had dinner at a Mexican place in oak cliff (near downtown dallas) and then went to candlelight (a concert of horror movie songs) and decided to go to Plano for dessert.

Creepy sculptures in Plano. Turns out these creep my fella out like CRAZY.

Saturday we met up with his friends for lunch at a rotating sushi place, and then we went to hang out and they threw us an engagement party!

C&D were lovely hosts, S is sweet as ever, and I met E who was also super awesome. It was a nice day. We ended with Velvet taco and wandering around Barnes and noble. 😁

Sunday we met back up with J&D for brunch, which was lovely. We then went to Southlake so that I could drop by Lush for more shampoo. Turns out that Southlake was having their oktoberfest this weekend! So we wandered around oktoberfest for a bit and then ended up back in my place. After a super busy weekend we got into pjs and watched Little Shop of Horrors. It was a busy yet lovely weekend.