Finally Athena Said, "Yes!"

=) =) =)

Well, that about settles it. She agreed to marry me, though we're going to have to talk to our families about when the marriage can be/should be. My family, of course, is pretty much completely open; my mom can take a few days off work, my dad can do the same without needing permission, my grandmother is unemployed (and unemployable) and my brother is smart enough to be able to take time off school at will. At least a few days. The rest of the family... not sure if they're interested in coming other than my Aunt Ruth.

HER family, on the other hand, actually have normal jobs. I think. It seems like it at least. I really should pay more attention to her family, especially as they'll soon be my family, too. In any case, my family will be fine as normal and hers will have a fit.

I realize I haven't told most of you about her... but that's kind of how I do things. I don't have any need to proclaim my relationship status to the world, especially over something like facebook. But this is getting serious, so I might as well get serious about it and tell everyone. HAHAHA... ok, I won't be that serious.

"Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue," sings Dean Martin. That about covers it. Except that she's actually 5'1" and her eyes are brown. (I think... if I'm wrong, I'm going to get hit. Again. (She already hit me once this post... I'm supposed to say she's 5'2".))

We met back in 2000 in New Hampshire at a store in the White Mountains after Andrew Merlina and I finished out History Day gig in D.C.. I noticed Athena buying the cutest stuffed raccoon in the world. (Maybe I thought it was cute because she was cute, but we're not going to go there... ducks from another whack.) Anyway, we talked briefly, I got her e-mail address (what's the use of a phone number?) and we went our separate ways. On random chance, I e-mailed her later than summer. (As most of you know, I almost never get around to e-mailing the random people I get e-mail addresses from...) We've been talking off and on ever since. Time and relationships flowed on, passed on, and recently we've been in intimate conversation for much of the day over Skype and/or AIM. We decided to try going steady and enjoyed it so much that we just decided, "Why not? Tie knot." If we're going to have kids, it might as well be in wedlock given our country as it is...

OK, it wasn't that simple. I proposed proposing propositioning her and got slapped. Not hard, but her words soon cleared up any misunderstanding between us, "I'm not a whore." Then I recalled that "propositioning" someone doesn't have the best connotations nowadays. The next day, after building up my courage (it didn't have to build up for long... I'm used to people abusing me for making light of serious situations, or saying "But I just met her!) I replaced "propositioning" with "to," and the response was much more position, "Like Hell you will!" and hit me lighter than before. Since I go to Caltech and she was a student at MIT, I figured that she enjoyed Hell, ergo I should propose. Apparently she didn't want me to apply my usual literalistic (or figurative) interpretation to twist her words to whatever I wanted them to mean. Whack. Like a good puppy, I took this as a form of attention, the best thing in the world! But until she actually said, "Yes!" I was not going to risk her fury... if she were to find out from our friends that she and I were engaged.

I clearly had to bring in bigger guns. How to gain enough leverage to get her to say, "Yes!" was the primary question on my mind. Problem solved: "Hey, Athena, do you like chocolate?" Celebration cut short. Rub hurt arm.

When I finally sighed with well-practiced spontaneity "I think I'll stop bathing for a while..." three days ago, she rolled her eyes and groaned. Yesterday, success at last! And it was as romantic as I could have wished:

"Fine. I'll marry you. Go take a shower -- you stink."

=) =) =)

^.^

Woot.

Though how she could smell me from so far away is beyond my limited comprehension...


I'll talk more about her later... it's time for me to celebrate again! Nothing like DDR with eight people on two pads... (the short people can't be in back.) Except maybe square dancing in a library.