Or 'How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love The Pamfer"!

Right, so the story of Shakal and I's engagement. A lot of people have wanted to know about this since I mentioned it. So I'll try to get all this down without skipping the amusing details.

Sometime I think back in 2008, I decided it was time that I tried to take the next step and ask Shakal to marry me. So, I started looking around at what I could do to manage that. Basically, I looked for engagement rings, and immediately felt all my dreams collapse through the floor. Since, here was something I knew nothing about, and definitely did not seem to have the money for.

So, I figured, the ring is just a symbol right? Maybe skip it. Well, that idea didn't go over well when I floated it while asking some folks for advice, and I was quickly shouted down. Clearly, I was going to have to bow to tradition or shit would hit the fan. At the same time, there was damn sure no way I was going to be able to afford anything like I saw in jewelry stores, especially without Shakal finding out what I was doing.

Cue me finding Dragon Weave Jewelry.

Just what I needed, beautiful jewelry that seemed to speak to me more than some simple highly conductive and polished metal. These rings had some really nice designs, and I'd be able to more easily pick one up on the sly. A real life saver! (Seriously, this company does awesome work. Go give them your business!)

Anyway, now I had the ring, and I needed to figure out the right time to do this. I figured that since the anniversary of our meeting was a good time to do it, I started planning for March. This was back in November. Needles to say, I've never been good at keeping secrets. And I was only marginally better at this one. Since I knew I'd never last on my own, and I needed to bring someone in on this, I turned to Rikoshi, a really awesome writer fox friend of ours.

So, with Rikoshi to gush at, I set about my plans for a romantic dinner on a Sunday in March. The idea was that we go out to eat, enjoy ourselves, and when we come back, I would propose! Down on one knee, fireworks, all the romantic stuff! Of course, anyone with a military education knows what they say about plans... To quote old Ike Eisenhower: "Plans are worthless, but planning is everything."

So I waited, and waited, and waited and waited... And the day came! I talked to Rikoshi early that day and informed him that it was time, and he helped psych me up to take on the challenge of the day.

And like so many other things in life, nothing went quite as expected. For one thing, we ended up canceling our dinner out. I forget why, but we just ordered the food and picked it up to go. I really can't remember why. But we took the food and came home and ate. Afterward, I headed into the bedroom to retrieve my promised ring for him from the hiding place I'd been storing it. He walked in, I don't think I had called him, I think he came to ask me something. Either way, I did the whole romantic bit! Dropped to one knee, proclaimed how much I loved him and how important he was, and asked if he would do me the honor of marrying me!

And...

Well...

He froze.

It's like he suddenly got the blue screen of death. Well, shit, this wasn't going right at all... had I screwed this up?

After a bit, still silent, he kinda slumped back against the wall, like he'd been punched. And I started to panic.

"Shakal? Mate?"

He didn't say anything. He kept on not saying anything. Just kinda staring blankly ahead. After a bit, he sorta seemed to recover and stood up, looking out of the room. He still hadn't said anything though.

He remained in this frozen, semi-catatonic state for only a minute or two perhaps. But for me it felt like an eternity! He finally seemed to recover and gave an affirmative to the question, and I finally relaxed. I was really scared I had totally screwed this up forever! And his completely catatonic response didn't do much to help...

Eventually, we both recovered. Me still quite a bit faster than him, but eventually he figured he better tell someone, so he called up Rikky. Whose immediate response was 'What did you say!?' which caused another mini-freeze up, which was adorable.

Anyway, it's an amusing story now, and my first introduction to Shakal's normal panic reaction, which is this adorable blue screen of panther doom. I've also since learned to work around it where necessary. Sadly, the panther doesn't react well to shock. Still, I love him very much, and as soon as we get somewhere where we can be married, we will.