I spent a lot of my time upon graduating from college living and traveling abroad. When I moved back to Rockford in 2008 I reluctantly took a job at my dad's office. It seemed that no one was in the market for a sociologist at the time. The end of 2008 and beginning of 2009 were a confusing part of my life. I was used to a significant amount of freedom and a completely different lifestyle since I had been is Asia since early 2007. After battling with a great deal of culture shock and moving into a house with one of my good friends, my life started to feel normal again.
April 30, 2009 started out like any other day. Since the weather was nice I was looking forward to getting off work and going for a nice 3-mile run. It was 5:00 pm and I was anxiously waiting for the last patient for the day. I didn't want to waste a second of daylight! When Paul arrived at the office (about 4 minutes late) he had a lot of paperwork to update. Much to my annoyance he stepped outside to take a phone call in the middle of it (I found out later it was from a guy who was going to sell him a motorcycle... I'm happy that didn't materialize!). In the back of my mind my run was getting shorter and shorter... the distance faded with the sun.
Once Paul was all set and ready to see Dr. Dad, I mentioned that I thought Paul was cute. My dad and I are close so I thought nothing of it. It wasn't the first time I told him we had a cute patient. After that I left work and yes, I got my run in.
The next morning at work the girls kept telling me to check my mailbox. The mailboxes were a relatively new phenomena and I thought they were annoying. I never checked mine. After they hounded me for awhile I begrudgingly obliged. Inside I found a sticky note from Paul asking me to hang out. I was shocked and delighted. It showed guts leaving a note like that.
I found out that Paul's mom had come to the office after I left to help him pick out glasses. While she and my dad were catching up he happened to slip that I thought Paul was cute. He even asked her if Paul had a girlfriend (he didn't). When the door locked behind Paul and Momma B they had a short but direct conversation in the parking lot. She asked Paul what he thought of me. When Paul told her he thought I was cute and seemed nice she asked Paul what he was going to do about it. Paul took action. He walked right up to the office door, knocked, and when he found out I had left he decided to leave a note.
We had our first date May 6 at a local favorite, Der Rathskeller. That very same night he invited me to his fraternity formal.
We started looking for a house that winter and by the end of March 2010 Paul had closed on our lovely brick bungalow. As soon as I walked in the door I knew it was the house. Built in 1925, our home is full of not only character but also convenience. The location couldn't be more perfect (literally 5 minutes from everything important to us).
In fall of 2010 the girl I was living with got married so I moved in with my grandparents. I was getting wistful... I wanted to be married and living in the house I picked out with the love of my life. After our year and a half anniversary passed with no talk of wedding bells I started to lose hope.
Thanksgiving came. I was pretty upset with Paul. I wanted to bring him lunch on "black Friday" but he told me work would be too busy. He had never rejected a lunch proposal before. Mid-morning I was at the Y working out with my sister when I got a text from Paul asking if I wanted to go to Der Rathskeller for dinner that night. Paul told me his dad had given him a gift certificate that was going to expire so we needed to use it right away. When I told him that I liked the idea he responded that he had made a reservation. Rachel and I mused over this for awhile. Paul had never made a reservation before for anything. After careful consideration we decided it was because there were so many people in town for the holiday and it was bound to be quite busy.
Dinner was uneventful. I remember that Paul wasn't very hungry and while I was getting the left-overs boxed up he stepped out to "call his sister" (who we were supposed to meet up with after). After Paul took care of the bill he asked me if I wanted to walk out through the Biergarten... it was where we had our first date and it was all decorated for Christmas. Even though I thought it was an insane idea (I was barelegged on November 26 and it was freezing! Serves me right for being a leg showoff) I liked the sentiment of it. As we were walking to the door Paul asked me how long we had been dating... 1 year 6 months and 20 days... when we got to the table where we had our first date there was a vase full of yellow flowers (I just love yellow flowers). I asked Paul if they were for me, if we were celebrating some sort of anniversary or something... he told me they were for me because he was going to ask me to marry him.
Paul got down on his knee and the rest is history. It is all on tape thanks to a carefully hidden camera and some hard work by Paul's parents.
When we got in the car I tried to call everyone I knew and no one answered. Paul whisked me to his parent's house where my friends and family were waiting to celebrate the joyous occasion with us! A surprise engagement party on top of a surprise proposal was a lot to digest (in a good way).
I started wedding planning immediately. I knew I wanted to get married on May 6 since it was our anniversary and it happened to fall on a Friday. Luckily all the pieces fell together and I was able to pull my dream wedding together in just over five months. We got married at the same church my parents were married in 34 years earlier. Our reception was at the country club where Paul's grandparents had their reception 52 years prior.
When May 6, 2011 arrived I was completely at peace. I was finally marrying the love of my life. The weather was perfect and the day went off without a glitch.
Marriage is our new great adventure. No matter where this adventure takes us I can take comfort in the fact that every bump, twist, or turn life throws at me will be experienced with the love of my life... that no matter how mundane or exciting things are we will be experiencing things together. These moments, big and small, make up married life, and I cannot wait to live every second of it!
