best of luck Shir. We are here. Hundreds of hands, reaching across the pond, giving you the support you need.

Wow. You really are all hands.

I feel really odd telling the "how it happened" story when Shir is dealing with this, but I have a feeling she will be mad at me if I let that stop me, so...after reaching through the internets to give her a hug...here's the basic story of Friday into Saturday from my point of view.

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Drew and I have been talking about getting married for a long time, and one of the things I have always told him is that I would wait for him to ask, officially, to know we could share our plans for the future with our friends. We had a conversation along these lines at dinner Friday night; little did I know I would get my answer (or question?) so soon.

I was utterly exhausted Friday night and knew I would have to get up for graduation on Saturday, but I'd made plans to have a girls' night and didn't want to back out. When only a few of my girlfriends turned out to be free, we decided to make it a coed girls' night (what, that's a thing), so Drew and our friend Jeff were planning to join CJ, Cricket, Becca, and me. No one was free until late, though, so the "party" wasn't going to start until 10:30 or 11. We got home from dinner around 8:30, which is when Drew apparently made the infamous proposal.

But I'd thrown my back out, so I decided to take a bath, and then I was so tired that I thought I needed to take at least a short nap if there were any way I would make it through our gathering. Little did I know the furor these innocent choices would cause!

By the time our friends left, it was nearly 2 and I was BEAT. As you all know, I didn't even turn my laptop or my iPhone on throughout the night. After ironing my graduation robe, I went right to bed and was asleep in minutes. Poor Drew! I have to give him credit, though--he didn't even give me a hint that anything was going on.

My alarm went off around 7:30 the next morning, and I sleepily followed my morning ritual of reaching over to grab my phone and check my email before getting motivated to shower. I don't usually check the board in the morning because the phone is too small to read it easily, but I popped into the facebook ap and saw a curious update (omnis', of course): "[omnis] is eagerly awaiting the result of the vote in 'Lightbulbs.'" This was followed by comments from many of you, including, "HOLY SHIT IT'S KILLING ME" and, suspiciously, one from Drew: "Leave it to me to pick the night she hasn't touched her computer since 9 PM and is now getting ready to head to bed."

I had a pretty good guess at what had happened at that point, so I stumbled (yes, in shock) over to B'czy and read all of it...and then all of lightbulbs...to the point that I posted my answer, leaned over to the sleeping Drew, and told him he was the biggest dork in the history of time and I loved him very much and yes, would marry him. He sort of smiled and snorfled in his sleep, which I interpreted as joy at my response.

I then had to get up, shower, and GO TO GRADUATION, which was really not the easiest thing in the world given my state of mind. I kept checking all the wonderful updated on the board and in my email box throughout the day, and I felt very loved.

So...there you go! How it happened from my perspective. Thanks again for all the love, loves. I can't imagine a better proposal, a better community, or a better husband-to-be. Yay!

You really are all hands.

And brownies.

I have a feeling she will be mad at me if I let that stop me

That's true: I will have to pause from grieving to read that extremely cool story from your PoV. So, all good.

And brownies.

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As for the PixDesigns. Aw! And yes, I have bookmarked all the posts (proposal, acceptance, and PoV) Hopeless romantic.

Off to bed for me. I have to work tomorrow. Wheee!

The kitchen is almost clean enough to bake. Hmmmmm.

Nah, dear. It wasn't a request. But thanks. And good night.

And yeah, Kristin, I read it. It was a wonderful account-of-things. Thank you.

You know, if there is a God, they have some freaking sense of humor.

I went to photocopy some papers, to burn time until my bus will leave. On the radio: Circle of Life.

Yay timing.

Off to my parents.

(((Shir))) Oh, honey - I'm so sorry for your loss. And I think the library impulse is a lovely one, actually - it's such a great thing to have books that a loved one has loved. I have a book of poetry and a Complete Shakespeare that belonged to my maternal grandfather, whom I never met, and it's a lovely connection.

As Tara said, No. Yes. It's always sudden.

You know, I kept saying that the other week, and trying to explain that The Body was just insanely good, and scarily on the ball, and non-Buffista-type people were just looking at me like I was from Venus.

sighs

Pix, I loved getting to hear your side of things!

I love that Kristin responded on the board before waking Drew up. Appropriate, right?

I can't imagine a better proposal, a better community, or a better husband-to-be. Yay!

You realize now the two of you have to adopt all of us, right?

{{Shir}} our sympathies and much comfort to you and your family.