the (not) proposal

I'll try and make this little story as succinct as possible.

From here on out, the fiance will be known as Mr. H.

The history:
Age 0 -15, we grow up in New Albany, Indiana ( a hop, skip and a jump away from Louisville). Age 15, Mr. H and I became boyfriend and girlfriend. Oh the days of passing notes and chatting on AIM for hours (mind you text messaging did not exist) have sadly passed. Age 15.3, Mr. H said the words I longed to hear "I love you" in an email. He had me from hello. Fast forward to age 17.5, Mr. H let adolescence get the most of him and dumped me for a girl in our senior year speech class. Bastard. We part ways (sort of). He chose Purdue University and I chose Indiana University. I see him from time to time (mostly because I started dating his roommate to spite him but that's another story for another day). We remain friends somehow through the years and continue our on again off again relationship. Age 22, we graduate and I go to work and he goes to grad school. Mr. H doesn't take our relationship seriously so I end it unofficially. Age 23, he finally gets it, straightens up, and we fall in love all over again. It's never been better. Mr. H moves back home to work in Louisville, while I go to grad school. Age 25, he proposes.

The proposal:
Mr. H and I planned a trip to New York and Boston over the Christmas holiday. Specifically we bought tickets to see our FAVORITE band (the best thing to come out of Louisville), My Morning Jacket, for their New Years Eve concert at Madison Square Garden. The concert was ah-mazing and lasted about 4 hours. We were dressed to the nines and decked out in glittery, lighted 2009 glasses that we bought off a street vendor. Just before the final song of the night, Mr. H grabbed my hand slipped a pear shaped diamond ring around my finger and proclaimed his love for me. However he didn't exactly "ask" for my hand in marriage so technically it was more like a demand rather than a proposal. But that's just a technicality, it was sweet and it was uniquely us.

Side note: Mr. H can be thoughtful when he puts his mind to it. He just contacted the artist who designed a limited edition poster for the New Years Eve concert and told the artist about our engagement. Low and behold, the artist is sending us one of the original test print posters (very rare). Now we'll always have a reminder of that fateful New Years night!

The aftermath:
Apparently, unbeknownst to me, my mother and his mother secretly helped him shop for an engagement ring. Well that was all it took for my mother to go into crazy hyper wedding planning mode. The night he took her ring shopping, she went to B&N and bought every wedding and bridal magazine on the rack. By the time he actually proposed my mother had accumulated 8 magazines, 2 books, a handpainted wedding martini glass and a wedding-themed Christmas ornament. Also when Mr. H and I returned from our East Coast trip, she had printed at least 100 pages of wedding-related material from the internet. Now I get 5 phone calls a day all related to the wedding. I've been tempted to pull my hair out, but have reconsidered when I remember that the wedding is 8 months away.

The planning process is officially underway.