Form, soldiers, form! Look to your butts and take good aim!

This LJ title brought to you by Tennyson.

A big, big thank you to everyone who wished me birthday greetings and congratulations on me leveling up to engaged status. (insert FF victory music here) It was an amazing day yesterday, and what amused me most about all the replies were the ones that basically went, "it's about fucking time!" Cell phones and house phone was going all night, and I managed to get my mom and my sister bawling over it. I win.

Honestly? April and I have been together for so long now that it seems like the formal process of engagement and marriage seems like exactly that--a formality. Why go through all that pageantry when both of you already have such a strong, loving relationship? To me, the ring I got for April is just the tiniest fraction, the tiniest representation of my love for her. But, friends, family, and co-workers like visuals, and so, now there's the proof. And you know what? I love the fact that my future wife likes jewelry with colors. My wallet thanks her immensely. Her mother can't believe that April doesn't like diamonds, but then again, April is as far away from the stereotypical woman as you can get.

And I couldn't be happier.

We'll return to more birthday and engagement stuff later. For now, onto the rest of last week.

I finally got paid for some photography work, and I was throughly pleased. As I may have mentioned in the last post, my boss asked me to take pictures of Schenectady's annual 15K road race. So I did, and they came out absolutely great. Now, my boss told me that he'd reimburse me for film and developing costs. However, he was so taken and so pleased with the work I did--the film and developing came to $45. He gave me a check for $75. And that made my day. Made me feel very proud. He's submitted a few pictures to New England Runner magazine, and if some of my pics make it, then I will begin seriously spreading out and sending pics to other magazines.

Dan H. has been the guest of the week, so it seems. Always great to have him here, he's been here since Saturday afternoon, and will be leaving tomorrow when we leave for Cape Cod.

So, back to yesterday. April took me to Red Lobster, and I had the Ultimate Feast. YUM. Red Lobster, it seems, is the only place I can eat seafood off-Cape and not be horribly biased and already be pre-disposed to not like the New York swill. One of the things I miss about the Cape is the seafood. Regardless, great food. Now, I was planning to propose to April after I opened my gifts. And so I did. I came into the bedroom, sat down next to April, and proposed to April in my usual asshat way--beginning with a line from the British comedy, Red Dwarf.

Brian: (walks into the room and sits down next to April)
April: (clackity clackity clackity)
Brian: A question for you. Given that God is infinite and the universe is ever expanding... (fishes out the ring) will you marry me?
April: (melts, starts tearing up and says yes)

And that was how I did it. Now, GETTING the ring in the apartment without April knowing was a trip. Needless to say, it was a nice blend of espionage, scheming, and plotting with a friend. That's the short version, I know, but it's nearly 1 AM and I've got a 4-hour drive to Cape Cod tomorrow. Maybe I'll give a full rundown sometime after Thanksgiving.

Birthday haul:
--Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles (Wii, I'm gonna need to get the Wii Zapper now. Not required, but it'd feel that much more fun)
--Garrison Keillor's new book, Pontoon
--a titanium spork
--some nice sweaters
--$25 online gift certificate to B&N
--$75 birthday money

Some final notes: keep givine me character suggestions for the contest! I've received a pathetic amount (thanks to those who have submitted thus far!), and it looks like when NaNo ends, I'm going mining for characters again. Speaking of NaNo, current word count: 38500/50000.

Hope to see some of my Cape friends this weekend!!!

Thanks, everyone.

Nighty night, all.