Happily Ever How?

Since announcing the engagement, I've noticed a few questions that I get asked a lot:

1. How did you guys meet?
2. When is the wedding?
3. How did you propose? Did she see it coming?

Well, today, I've got internet access while I'm doing my laundry, and this is as good a time and place as any to put answers to those questions all in one post! Sure, it could be that I want to post something and am drawing a blank on anything else to post, but... I doubt that.... =D

How did you guys meet?

      Actually, it's all Jim and Wendy's fault. Jim and I used to work together out at The Hotel, and formed a pretty solid friendship. When he moved away to live with Wendy, we maintained our friendship by hanging out at least once every few months -- whenever I could get up to their area for a day or three.

      Some time during all of this, Jim and Jynni started talking again, after a long time apart. In May of last year, one of my visits coincided with one of her visits, and I got to meet her and her then-roommate. We exchanged Facebook info and numbers since we got along, and then Jynni and I proceeded to talk as often as possible for almost two months. I fell hard, that's for sure. We were talking before we went to sleep, with me calling to wake her up for her graveyard shift job before I went to sleep, and her calling to wake me up for my swing shift job before she went to sleep.

      Then, I took the plunge. We arranged to both take a vacation and spend the week with Jim and Wendy (her dad and his wife), and began dating at the end of July. After an awesome week together, we both went to our separate homes, knowing we were committing to a long-term, long-distance relationship.

When is the wedding?

      July 19, 2014. When we started planning, she asked if I wanted a July wedding or a December wedding. I said December, and she promptly told me I was wrong. After a logical explanation on her part, we agreed to a Saturday in July, and due to family birthdays/occasions on my side, we decided that the 19th was the best Saturday to have it.

How did you propose? Did she see it coming?

      She didn't see it coming, and I proposed in a wholly nerdy way. I bought the ring almost a month before I went over there, and spent the whole time trying to think of a clever way to do it. We'd both talked about wanting to get married and have a life together before, so I knew that this trip over there would be the perfect time to do it.

      I was hanging out with her while she was smoking (and her daughter was asleep in the house), and she was talking about ideas she had for when we "eventually get married". I excused myself, went back in the house, and got the ring out of my laptop bag before coming back outside to join her. She raised an eyebrow at my quick trip in to the house, and I sat down on the couch (in the carport) in front of her.

      "Jynni, I've been trying to think of how and when to do this for weeks. I want to make it memorable and didn't know how, and realized today that there was no time like the present." Following that line, I got off the couch, got down on one knee in front of her, and pulled the ring out of my pocket. "I can't imagine my life without you and your daughter, and I would love for you to be my companion as we travel through time and space. Will you marry me?"

      Like I said -- pretty nerdy, right? She came close to tearing up and was completely surprised by it, and said yes. I know I'm a spaz for referencing Doctor Who in my proposal, but I got her addicted to the show, and for us... it made sense. Now, we're planning a Doctor Who-influenced wedding, complete with TARDIS blue as our main color.

All of time and space is ours, and I can't think of anyone I'd rather explore it with than her. I love you, Jynni. :)

To the Danger Room, my X-Men!

"I can't decide what's worse: having a forum but nothing to say
or having something to say but no forum."

-Lorraine from Late to the Party

This is really the only quote that fits. I've had internet for about a week and a half, and also haven't blogged in almost that long. I've just had little to nothing to say, so here's the low-down on what's happened lately:

• I'm currently in Olympia to see Jim & Wendy, and to make a short stop at Danger Room Comics, one of the best comic shops I've dealt with
• Speaking of Danger Room Comics, I've started the Sympathy for the Devil blog! If you haven't checked it out, it's for the DC Comics character Blue Devil, because I think he's awesome, and previously had next to no representation online!
• WORKING MY ASS OFF (figuratively)
• Exercising by HIKING MY ASS OFF (not quite literally yet)
• Reading because I just started a free trial of Amazon Prime
• Writing and researching articles for a local free monthly paper, to get some exposure
• World-building and writing Who Killed Hermes?

There's probably more stuff to mention, but it's midnight while I'm typing this up, and I've been up since 6am -- after having only gotten 4 1/2 hours of sleep last night. Really, I'm surprised that I can words together string to coherent make sentences.

Oh, yeah, I should probably mention the whole "having internet now" thing.

A week or two ago, my roommate had a friend with some issues where he was staying. She offered him our couch to crash on for a few days, and he decided to have his internet and TV service moved to our place so he didn't have to be without. When he left, he decided to leave it as long as we keep the bill paid, which my roommate is doing since she's working again. Essentially, I have internet again without having to pay the bill for it -- huzzah! Feels good, man.

Birthday week, baby!

It's a late birthday present from Jynni!

So, I've been kind of absent. Sure, there was the post on Friday, but that was totally a written-in-advance-and-scheduled thing of awesomeness! I've enjoyed doing the Fifty on Friday thing, and look forward to this Friday's, as well.

This weekend has been good. My bonfire on Friday night ended up being pretty "meh", but I cooked some steak strips in my homemade teriyaki marinade, and then Saturday was my birthday! I'm 26 now, hereafter (maybe) referred to as "closer to 30 than 20", and thank you everyone on FB and Twitter for all the birthday wishes. It was a good day, spent with Wendy and Jim, and listening to Jim sing and play guitar at an event he was hired for. I tried to get video to put up here, but that failed.

I tried to compensate for my camera's bad audio by getting it closer to the speakers, and put it too close. The video looked great, but the audio was so garbled that you couldn't understand even a little bit of it. Guess I'll have to get some video of him and Wendy practicing, or something!

"First night that we're a couple, and I'm sick." - @jynnigirl

Oh yeah. That happened, too! That's right, I'm off the market, and I know that there are so many people that are disappointed, but I'm pretty happy. Granted, it's only a day in, but she is able to match sarcastic comment with another sarcastic comment, and she makes me laugh.

Last thing that has happened lately: I have an opportunity for formally-published writing experience! Some of you might remember that being the biggest thing preventing my employment with The Daily Planet, but L. has approached me with an offer: she and I brainstorm ideas related to her work as a realtor, and I write the article (with shared credit) for a local free newspaper. Her business has a guaranteed spot with them every issue, so it's not just going to be a one-off article, either.

All cards are coming up "Justin" right now. I'm okay with that. :)

So, I was going to write a long, clever, story-like post. Unfortunately, it's going to be moved to another day, because I forgot to charge my laptop before I left for work. I have a whopping fifteen minutes of battery power left.

But I'm going to Shelton tomorrow, and according to Wendy, it's to see her and not Jim. Because Jim doesn't like me, now that I'm making fun of him. And he plans on calling me names while we hang out, which I'm looking forward to.

Okay, battery power's dying. Bye!

Wandering around Olympia

The following is a paraphrased version of a conversation on the phone and on Facebook:

ME: So, I'm going to catch the bus that'll get to Oly around 5 instead.

JIM: Hey, we have a horse thing that we've got to do, we should be back in Oly around six. If you wanna goof until then we can meet up?

ME: Sounds like a plan! I can troll around town for an hour.

What ACTUALLY happened was that I got off the bus in Olympia around 5pm, and walked around for a bit. I found my way to the only convenience store that I knew how to get to in that part of Olympia, only to find that it was closed. No coffee or energy drinks to help keep me awake... awesome.

At this point, I'd been up for almost a full day, minus a short half-hour nap before I went to catch the bus. Worked the previous night, came home and took care of laundry and house-cleaning, fought to keep myself awake until I failed. Woke up, caught the bus. Done.

So, I find myself a spot to perch at Percival Landing and write for a little while, until I'm so tired that I know everything is barely-readable crap... and looking back today, I was right. Then I browse around Twitter on my phone for a little bit, until I get bored. Hop back up, and wander around until I'm tired of lugging my duffel bag with me, and find a good place to sit (away from noisy skateboarders, this time). I watched an episode of Comic Book Men, read a little bit more of Way Of Kings on my Kindle, and just kept finding things to do

Not by any fault of their own, but it ended up being about three hours until Jim and Wendy could get back into town and pick me up, so all of us were suuuuuper tired when we got back to good ol' Drafty Meadows. I can't complain too much, though... I was under a covered area and didn't have to worry about the rain, I had ways to entertain myself, and I was sitting at the landing with a great view of the mountains until it started getting dark. Then, I kept myself amused with Castle until they showed up.

All in all, an unexpected-but-not-terrible way to start this few days out of town. Now, I think I'm going to go out and see the horses. :D