THE Question and other events!

Hello all!

Until recently, I had been feeling a bit like a track stuck on repeat. Talking about the adjustment from Tanzania only entertains me for so long. I feel like college is a more recent memory than Peace Corps at times as mentally I'm very much back in the states. I had a conversation recently with another volunteer who is still in the country via Facebook and we were discussing how weird it is to change places. She feels as though America is just a dream while I sometimes think Tanzania was a figment of my imagination. I never thought being somewhere for so long could feel so unreal. An interesting dilemma.

As I'm sure you are all aware, my life here has been moving along quite smoothly! I returned just in time for Halloween, Thanksgiving, Hannah's Wedding, a conference for Katie in San Francisco, Christmas, a trip to Chicago, New Years, Vail, and applying to graduate school! So by the time I realized I was back in the states and needed to do things, it was mid-January, at which point, it was time to pick up where I left off.

I knew when I left that things were likely to undergo a sort of 2-year pause and come back quickly when I returned. Day-to-day things have mostly followed that script although I have noticed a few central changes. But that's not what you want to hear about...

To spare you the unimportant parts of the process, I spent about 5 weeks figuring out the jeweler I was going to use and ordering the ring. It was a setting from a website that my jeweler suggested I look at since he was able to order and produce the ring in about a week. I got the ring on Friday the 10th and had already called her dad the Wednesday before, setting up the weekend.

February 12th was the day we started dating back in 2009 in Ithaca. Whether or not that would be verified by any of our friends, I don't know, as many of them might say we were dating up to 3 months before. Anyway, after spending our first two anniversaries apart, anniversary number 3 seemed like the right time to take the next step.

We started the day off by traveling to a home and garden show in Omaha. Katie and I have always enjoyed looking at options (and planning at least 32 variations) for homes and spaces so it was a fun way to start the day together. After a quick lunch downtown, we went to the Omaha Zoo because a previous trip 3 weeks ago had us leaving with a membership. We walked around the gorilla exhibit for a while which incidentally has some of the monkeys we would see in the rainforests around Tukuyu in Tanzania. Additional benefits of our membership include free IMAX movies which got us 2 tickets to a screening about the Grand Canyon (cool flyovers but a weak storyline). Afterwards, we walked through the Jungle building and headed down to the giraffes. Fortunately, the room only included a small group of people who were on their way out, and so, snatching the first time we were alone all day, I pulled out the box, dropped to one knee, and proposed in front of a group of curious young giraffes.

As you already know, she said yes! Which was followed by a surprisingly demanding period of frantic phone calling and congratulations. Perhaps we should have expected it, but calendars were apparently open and ready to be filled in next to the phone of just about everyone we called (for the record, we still don't know, although I can say don't worry about keeping space for it in summer 2012. Sorry guys!) Finally, about 2 hours later we were able to have our anniversary dinner at a local Greek restaurant.

Now, things are back to normal. The ring is a 1/2 size smaller and we're bouncing date ideas around. Valentines Day was spent with a couple friends and a six-pack so nothing terribly exciting. I was accepted to Minnesota and am waiting on Washington, Wisconsin, and Illinois-Chicago for decisions. No one has offered money yet so in reality no one has said they really want me yet. But I'm still optimistic!

My life is moving forward (actually quite a bit more drastically than I had realized before writing it down) but I'm looking forward to it. I'm not sure what I'll be doing in a couple of weeks, let alone in 6 months or by my wedding day, but we'll get there!

San Francisco:

The Ring: