Diamonds Are Forever

For you fellow reality TV junkies, don't get fooled by the title of this blog. I'm not talking about Lakisha's "American Idol" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7KdrjUWA14 performance.

No, instead I'm talking about the real forever diamonds... of the engagement ring type.

It was last Saturday, St. Patrick's Day, when this all took place. I'd just gotten dressed from having showered that morning. Leisurely I sat at my computer, puttering around to kill time, when Eric (my boyfriend) came upstairs to say "come downstairs, I have a surprise for you." I appeased him with a "yeah, I'm coming" response and went back to my emailing and other random internet stuff.

Fifteen minutes later, seemingly ticked that I hadn't come downstairs yet, Eric made another attempt. This time I conceded and followed him down the stairs.

We stopped at the bottom of the stairs and he pointed to some flowers he'd moved from one vase to another one by the front table. In my head I'm thinking, "this is the surprise that pulled me away from making my Spark People www.sparkpeople.com entries?", but really what I said was: "Oh, they look good there, but now the other vase is empty." Yeah, I'm heartless.

"No, I have another surprise," he said, leading me into the kitchen. There I saw a demi bottle of Moet & Chandon http://www.moet.com/html (the makers of my most favourite champagne, White Star, which Eric informed me a week or so before had been discontinued). There were two glasses already poured, their tiny bubbles bursting as they reached the top. Eric, being the sweetheart that he is, explained that he'd bought the small bottle so that I could try White Star's replacement.

Side note: This all made perfect sense, since he'd been making random visits to the liquor store all week in preparation for our ensuing St. Patty's Day celebration with a bunch of friends.

Eric toasted "to us" and I immediately drank (gulped) to that. It was a very sweet surprise, and I would have been quite content had the surprise ended there. But it didn't...

"I have another surprise for you," he said, pulling out a pizza box shaped box. I knew inside was a large cookie from Treats, because I had presented him with a similar box just a month before for Valentine's Day. I thought, "how sweet, he bought a St. Patty's Day cookie as a dessert for the party." Really, I'm usually not this gullible.

I opened up the box and inside was a giant shamrock-shaped cookie that read in green pipe-icing: "Will You Marry Me?" THUNK - that was my jaw hitting the table. I didn't quite grasp what I was reading. I'm a slow reader and all, but I had to re-read those four short words over and over again. So much so that I had to be prompted by Eric's "turn around" whisper in order to twist my body and see that he'd been patiently waiting behind me on one knee with a ring in one hand.

THUNK - that's me practically fainting to the floor.

I immediately gave him a huge hug, while tears started to fall down my cheeks. It was moments later when I realized I hadn't answered him, so I blurted out "OF COURSE!!! I don't know if I said yes yet or not." He confirmed that I hadn't said anything and slid the ring on my finger.

It's now my sixth day of being engaged and it's still so overwhelming to me. I think it took three days to really sink in. I've never been one for fairy tale weddings or mushy stuff. Ask anyone who knows me, I'm a typical stone-faced tomboy in many ways! I never thought a size 5.5 ring could make me feel so overwhelmed, but it has.

Eric has surprised me in so many ways, not just with the proposal but also with meeting and exceeding my expectations on an almost daily basis. I've truly found my "forever" and am now a proud owner of my very first diamond because of him.

And the list goes on...

If you're anything like me, you like lists. I make lists of everything. I even make lists of lists. But do you know what I'm really searching for? A book list.

You know, a list of books (non-fiction or fiction) that people recommend as good reading.

I just read Dead Metaphor's blog (http://meladuck.blogspot.com/) about her latest book adventure, which sparked this entry.

I've always had a passion for book lists. When I was younger I wrote into the New Music to get a list of favourite books of musicians. I started reading the Vampire Chronicles because of Sting. Too bad I didn't like the books, but the list was still a great source of finding the next book to read.

Right now I've got JPod by crazy Vancouverite Douglas Coupland (http://www.amazon.ca/jPod-Douglas-Coupland/dp/0679314245/sr=8-1/qid=1170358657/ref=pd_ka_1/702-1437083-2824849?ie=UTF8&s=books) on the go. And I'm about to crack the cover of a very interesting (insert sarcasm and eye-roll here) non-fiction piece , Agile Project Management.

If anyone out there has a list of "must reads" out there, please send it my way!

Downward Dog

Without giving away the story, the subject of this particular post was the last line in Dan Brown's "Angels and Demons" - the first book in a series involving symbologist Robert Langdon.

I read "Angels and Demons" (to hereon out be referred to as AandD) with the expectation that it would far surpass "The DaVinci Code" - a book that I thoroughly enjoyed and found difficult to put down.

Everyone I talked to (or didn't talk to) commented on how much better a book AandD was than DaVinci. My boyfriend exhalted that it was a much easier and exciting read; a woman who was waiting behind me to fill up her water bottle at the fountain at the gym even mentioned in passing that it was such a good book and much better written than DaVinci. What better endorsement than by my gym-going, yoga-loving passer-by. Actually, as I finished the book I could understand why this AandD lover held the book in such high regard... read on and you'll see why.

By this stage I was about 30 chapters in and thought, "what are you people talking about?" At this stage AandD was dragging; it was paining me to read yet another chapter about antimatter and physics. Yet, being the type of person who must finish a book once she starts, I read on and on.

Luckily, much to my surprise, the book actually started to pick up! It turned into a really entertaining novel; I was reminded of how much I liked Dan Brown's writing. I got to a point where I could no longer put the book down. I was reading instead of watching TV, reading instead of playing video games, I was even reading between plays while watching the Seahawks' games! I was on a mission to finish the book by the New Year.

Unfortunately, that "resolution" didn't pan out. But I was set to finish it as early in the New Year as possible. So, last weekend I hunkered down to read the few remaining chapters. Again, I was excited, reading through and beyond the climax of the story... "just a few more pages and I'll be at the end!" An end I was eagerly anticipating, wondering how the story could be wrapped up in a few short words.

But then, as the murder mystery wound down, it turned more and more into a love story (something that those close to me know I despise). The love story became sickeningly full of flirtatious innuendoes. It appeared that I wasn't the only one having troubles predicting how the book would be summed up... apparently Dan Brown faced a similar dilemma.

I neared the last page, still heavily involved in the love affair between Robert Langdon and Vittoria Vetra. Feeling dirty and uncomfortable, I was hoping for some new plot twist to let me escape from the mushiness of it all. Then it came (pun intended), "You've never been to bed with a yoga master, have you?" Aaaaaackkkkkkk!!!!

This is the end of the book. This is the end of a book that had my imagination roaming parts of Italy I never thought to imagine? This is how all unanswered questions are going to be summed up? This is how American symbologist, knower-of-all-things-Illuminati is going to end his journey?! Blech!!!

I love the imagery that Dan Brown paints with his written word, but visualizing Vittoria Vetra's yoga moves on Robert Langdon was a visual I could have done without.

Thanks Dan.