Rubes of Engagement

I had seen the story in the paper about the eclipse, but since it was from one in the morning until five, I pretty much resigned myself to missing this one, but when I woke up and checked my phone to see what time it was, I had a text from a friend that said, "Lunar Eclipse Tonight;" it was 3:45am. By the time I took some pictures, drank some water and pee'd, I was awake, so I made some breakfast and coffee and watched the remainder of the eclipse until Lib woke up.

I tried to get her to come see the last tiny sliver of shadow at the bottom of the moon, but she was groggy, and whined, "I can't see. I don't have my glasses," immediately followed by "Why didn't you wake me up?" in an equally cute and pathetic voice when I explained I had been up for a while watching it.

I did want to wake her, but she likes her sleep, without which she cannot function. I would have liked to propose to her at four in the morning, but thought better of it; I didn't want her to be too groggy to remember it, besides we were planning to exchange gifts after work since we weren't going to be together for Christmas.

So I waited...until 5:30 am, and suggested we open presents, not expecting her to agree so quickly, but she did...then I had to get the ring out of the workshop in the basement without being obvious. The box was too big to hide in my pocket, so I abandoned it--I didn't need it--the ring would be fine in my pocket.

The ring: I had chosen the ruby for her ring because she likes red, and as a test I pointed out a ruby ring at an antique store to see how she would react--she loved it. When I mentioned the "engagement" word in tandem, she seemed excited, so I decided on ruby.

When I went to the jeweler, he had to have the rubies shipped over because they did not have loose rubies in-store--some jeweler! Actually, the jeweler was great, but I chose the wrong ruby. The red ones were too cloudy and one had an inclusion, so I went with the more fuchsia ruby, and two days later I freaked out because I wanted to get Lib a red ring, not a pink one. After one frantic email about needing a red ruby, the time line, and making it perfect, the jeweler overnighted some more rubies, and I made my third "Top Secret" mission an hour away to choose a new ruby, and it was perfect.

When I handed Lib her first present, I gave her an wrapped-up ornament--every year we commemorate the significant events with clay ornaments we make: this year was our house and our dog--I made her a small hand with red nails and a ruby ring with two small diamonds on the sides and a tag attached to the ornament that read, "Will you Merry me?" By the time she read the tag, I was down on my knee saying the words, and she was nodding her head yes.