Index

A whole day in witchy high heels on cement floors stomping around a convention center and I'm exhausted. Geoffrey and I have been playing telephone tag all day and now, late in the evening, I finally get to talk to him. And he manages to make me smile, he always makes me happy.

"I'm excited too," I whisper back.

A whole month into being engaged and Geoffrey and I manage to get engagement photos taken. For a while I thought it wouldn't happen. I wanted to spend an afternoon with a photographer outdoors somewhere and get a ton of pictures on DVD (that would then cycle through as my screen saver between now and the wedding - while I tried to pretend I was paying attention in class and not being silly). But getting a traditional photographer to give me all the pictures on DVD looked like it was going to be prohibitively expensive. Then a friend of mine recommended a friend of his, Corey Potter, who was just starting out as a photographer and would be willing to work with me. He was. He was willing to shoot exactly the pictures I wanted and give me high res files on DVD. Oh, and the pictures on his website were great. So we made a plan.

Thursday, October 23, 4:30 pm

"We need to go!" I'm fidgeting around my apartment as Geoffrey and T show up, just getting done with class. It's another 30 minutes before we find Corey and his wife, down by the river walk and ready to get as much done before the sun went down as they could.

The first set of pictures were fun. It was warm. T was jealous any time she wasn't in the picture and would often slide her "sit" over so that she was sitting at Geoffrey's feet. When we were walking from location to location, she would get beside Geoffrey in "heel" and use this to subtly bump me further away. It's a little strange to be messed with by a dog.

We started the second set of shots in Columbia's Vista and a flaw in my plan became very apparent. It was cold and I was in short sleeves. But not so bad that I couldn't deal with it. We took pictures. I started talking to Geoffrey during the pictures rather than just grinning at him. As the sun went down, I was often cuddled up close as much for warmth as anything. By the end of the evening, on the top of the parking garages downtown, trying to get a shot of the city lights, we were both so cold we were no longer being cute.

"See this picture," I show the pictures to my mother, shortly after Corey brought me the DVD, "In this one I'm chanting cold-cold-cold-cold-cold while hopping on one foot."

"Well it looks terribly romantic, he did a great job," she responds. "I don't know what I think about all these pictures of T, though."

"I like this one of us and T," I say, bringing up the picture of Geoffrey and I holding hands with T sitting between us, looking completely innocent of any attempts to bump me off the walkway.

"Oh yes," mom replies with a grin, "I like that one too." She takes two fingers and puts them around T in the picture. "Insert future grandchild here."

posted by Caroline 11/2/08 4:46PM instead of writing a report for Operations
Geoffrey attempted to change all references to himself to say "Unspecified Person" and all references to T to "Unspecified Animule."

Well - if you ever want to know how to torment your father - let me tell you that you succeeded tonight.

When we got home from Pat Bente's house, I had a voice message on my cell phone. As I listened to my mother convey with breathless excitement that she had just heard the happy news, I put the phone on speaker and replayed it for your father to hear. "Oh, the deed is done. Who else knows?" wondered your father.

I called grandmother and she told me that you had been at the zoo when the proposal came. She wanted to know which animal cage you were in front of - as if this would portend some fortune of your future married life. Not getting a confirmation from you that it was the elephant or tiger, she was speculating that monkeys would laugh and that wouldn't be romantic, I said the penguin exhibit would cause you to cuddle up close because of the cold, but your father said the rhinoceros (look up reason for rhino horn poaching if you don't get the joke).

She was excited, said you didn't have a date and had to go because she had to call her friends.

Grandmother had already called Nikki (so Larry, Emily, etc know) and Aunt Dot (so Kathy, Beverly, Rebecca,etc know) and Aunt Anne (so Brittany and Heath know). In other words, everyone you know in Greenville or the Duncan clan is yapping about the deal.

We came into the computer room - Dad to check his emails and me to shop. Your Father:" check facebook, see if she has changed her status yet, then I can tell people." Me: " Charlie she wants to tell people. Give her a day or two then you can tell others."

One minute later: " Can I call my mother and see if she knows?" Me: "NO, Caroline wants to be the one to tell people and I'm sure she will call Bama."

Two minutes later: Your Father: " Well, Caroline will be excited, she won't think of everyone who wants to know." Me: "Charlie she is out to eat and at the concert. She hasn't had a chance to tell anyone." Your father: " I could tell George and Paula Kretchmar, she won't call them. Me: "Charlie, if you start calling, you won't stop and word will spread."

Three minutes later: Your Father: " This is monumental, I have to tell someone, pass the word, let it out. I'm about to bust here." Me: " ok - email Goo"

Your father is so excited he writes a 3 page email to Goo, who won't even get it until tomorrow, but he has sent out the missive and has a copy of the email in preparation for the time when he receives your permission to tell the world. He is more pumped than I've seen him over any history event. He has left the computer and is pacing between kitchen, TV and pool. I'll take him out to eat soon to distract him.

Me - I can't wait to hear all the details and officially welcome Geoff to the family. We're excited for you and this next step in your life. And please, call soon with permission to let it out. If he pops, it will be very messy!

Best wishes,

Mum

email from Judy sent 9/20/08 posted by Caroline 9/26/08 4:45PM instead of doing research for Marketing

He's still walking next to me. How am I supposed to change from heels into walking shoes if he's still talking to me? I apparently have a subconscious desire to impress this boy who has rambled on about digital cameras, his garage apartment, his dog and a bunch of engineering stuff for a while now and appears to have decided to follow me to work. Oh well, four blocks in heels won't kill me, will it? But why is he walking me to work? I say something about cookies to keep the conversation going. I like cookies. And I'm on solid footing talking about cookies. I'm not so sure about all this water-flow-modeling stuff. Cookies are a nice, safe subject. This guy is scary smart. Best to talk about cookies.

I keep thinking he'll finish whatever he's going to say, but it looks like he's going to walk me all the way to the door of the office. Which means he's probably going to ask me on a date. I feel all middle school. Except that won't do. I like Geoff, I really do, but I can't go on a date with him. It's a shame, if he doesn't ask, then we can go on being friends. But I'm scared if he does ask, and I have to say no, then will he stop talking to me? I don't want that. I'd better show some interest in water-flow-modeling...

Sure enough, out it comes. He's going to visit some friends this weekend, but has some free time Saturday morning and would love to see the zoo if I'd like to come. This isn't fair, I love the zoo. I love running around and taking a zillion pictures of all the animals. But I can't, I say, I agreed to go shopping with Mallory Saturday. It does sound like fun, though, and I do hope he checks it out some time. I smile sweetly and disappear in the door and make a mad dash to my boss's office.

"You will never believe, I just got asked on a date to the zoo by an engineer!" I'm obviously flustered. Which is why, a year later, when I tell my boss I'm now dating the engineer, she remembers the event very well and doesn't seem the least bit surprised.

Saturday, September 20, 2008, 4:15 pm

"Are you ready to go?" Geoffrey now, because I love saying his full name, looks ever so good in his suit and I can"t help but grin at him. "We're going to get bar-be-que!" He loves bbq. Me, not quite as much as he does. But I'm determined not to spoil anything and smile at him. I think he believes he's pulling one over on me. So we get in the car and chat all the way over to West Columbia where he suddenly swerves into the zoo. Click, this should be interesting. I had some suspicions, but his silly grin now is a confirmation. I start to get nervous.

He buys us tickets and we wander around the botanical gardens trying to point out elephant ears and roses. He's talking about engineering some water-flow-carp-pool thing. I'm beginning to wonder if my wedges are going to get caught in some of the thicker sand. We wander through all the little paths that in the spring would be impassable due to flowers and now, in late summer, are just green and you can read all the tags and inspect the leaf shape without the colorful flower to distract you.

Finally we settle down in a brick gazebo on a bench, Geoffrey sitting next to me while I look at the sky, the plants, anything I can see to distract myself from just looking over at him and grinning. From the sneak peaks I've seen of him, he"s grinning at me something fierce. It takes him three tries to get through the lead in, but finally he manages.

"So, I was going to bring you here to get to know you better," he has been refusing to take me to the zoo since I first turned him down two years ago.

"I'd guess you know me fairly well by now," I reply. I'm grinning at him, ignoring the hand fidgeting with something in his pocket.

"Well, I just have one more question..." he puts a small velvet box in my lap.

posted by Caroline 9/22/08 7:00PM instead of studying Management