If You're Engaged, Where's You're Ring?

People I just met are surprised to know I am engaged, because :
1. they say I look like I'm 12 years old (okay, 13, if they want to be generous), and,
2. they don't see my ring on my finger.

Rey gave me a beautiful emerald-cut engagement ring when he proposed, which I hardly ever get to wear. The nature of my profession (and my compulsion to change gloves two or three times per patient) plus my dabblings at the research lab, predispose the ring to damage if I wear it everyday. I found that the glove material got caught on the ring everytime I de-gloved, and I lived in perpetual fear that one carcinogenic chemical or the other would come in contact with my ring and ruin it forever. The other alternative of taking the ring off, and then putting it back on after I'm done working, is a pretty big hassle, not to mention asking for trouble when I misplace the ring altogether.

Rey understands (and told me the ring is mine to do as I see fit). Besides, it saves him the trouble of having to look for the ring if I don't wear it often. Case in point: This winter, on one of the rare days that I WAS wearing it, it got caught in my winter gloves while I was taking them off, falling from my finger and dropping to the ground, which was covered in ice. We both nearly had a heart attack, but Rey found it on the ground (by his car's left rear tire, thank God). Did I mention that he was trying to parallel park (and I was standing outside the car) when this happened? Picture me screaming, "Stop, STOOOP!!! I DROPPED THE RING!!!!!!!!!"

Gulp.

When Will You Get Married?

This is one of the cool applications/quizzes that I found in Facebook.

It will ask you a series of questions about yourself, and use that information to predict when you will get married. I found this a few days after we've set the date, and I did the quiz for fun. I was curious to see how accurate it was.

The result:

It was off by a couple of months, but it's okay. It was close enough for me.

Magallanes Church (St. Alphonsus Mary di Liguori Parish)

Most likely the church:

Click here to view map
Magallanes Church

Getting to June 20th

Setting the date to June 20, 2009 was a huge decision in itself. Rey and I were set on an April or May wedding. I've been signing my posts at Weddings-at-Work with April/May 2009 as the target wedding date. We really wanted May, because it won't be too hot for people who are flying in from Canada, and still have nice summer weather (to visit Bora). Thanks to my quirky schedule, we had to pick a date in June.

Since we had to pick one at random, I wanted to consult a feng shui expert to make sure we pick an auspicious date to get married. Then we decided not to, and so we were deciding on one of the Saturdays in June: 6th, 13th, 20th, 27th. June 6th conflicts with another event, June 27th is a little too late. June 13th -- I told Rey I wasn't really looking forward to celebrating our 6th (or 7th) year anniversary on Friday the 13th. So June 20 was our only choice.

No, wait a minute...we can have it on the 18th (which would be really the perfect date for us, except that it falls on a Thursday). At this point, Rey was pretty much resigned: "It's up to you, hon."

And my Mom and our coordinator, Jody (both voices of reason) were advising us that a weekend wedding is much more convenient for everyone involved.

In the end, we settled on June 20th. Finally.

(Chinese New Year's Resolution: We promise to be more decisive in the future. Really.)

Uh, Actually...

...the countdown should have started almost one year ago. Rey proposed in February 2007. I was really surprised, touched, and speechless. It was totally unexpected, and very, very sweet. :)

I came from a conference in Chicago, and I was coming home to an upcoming midterm examination that week when I received a call from Rey. I was immediately worried, because he was calling at an odd hour of the day (odd for him), but I told myself he was just confused by the time difference (Chicago is one hour later than New York and Toronto time). He told me he was going to New York, and that he will pick me up from the airport.

Hu-whaaat? That was my reaction exactly. I was happy to see him (we hardly get to see each other in the winter, so this was an unexpected surprise), but I also had Fundamentals of Oral Epidemiology waiting for me at home, and a debate on childhood obesity later that week. To this day, I don't know why I did it, but I asked him if he could delay his visit for two days, just enough time for me to finish the Epi midterms (I figured I could wing the debate, or cram for it later...:p).

Long story short, he came to visit right after I finished the midterm, and we were happy to be hanging out with each other again.

The next day, when I got home from school, dead-tired and grumpy, all ready to pass out, when Rey surprised me with his proposal. I was happy, scared, happy, surprised...but all I could think of at that moment was it felt very right and very, very natural. Rey told me later he was worried that I would say no (the thought never crossed my mind, though). I will save the story of how he ACTUALLY proposed for the wedding (I don't want to spoil the story for the guests, although some of them may have heard us tell them about it before).

Instead of preparing for the debate, we ended up going to dinner at Black and Blue. Later that night, we called my parents to tell them the news.

And the next day, Foni (one of my classmates, who is from Greece), saw the ring and went:

"Celle? Are you engaged?!?"

And the rest is history.


(P. S. The class debate went well. I got a good grade in that class.)