Rules of Engagement

As of March 18, 2007, Claire Anne S. Miranda is off the market, boys! Hehehehehe. I'm engaged! I'm engaged! I just cannot contain how elated I feel. I look at my ring and I just love how they sparkle. I've worn rings on my left ring finger before but this ring just feels so different. It's amazing how different it feels mainly because of what it stands for. It's a symbol that this man sees how valuable I am to his life that he is not willing to wait and risk losing me. For the first time of my life, I feel like I'm the one being pursued.

The proposal wasn't a storybook one. There were no romantic candlelit dinners. No string quartet playing in the background. No overly creative schemes to hide the ring and eventually, present it. It happened after a big snow storm that hit Fort Drum where we were left stranded in his room in his military base. We were watching Clint Eastwood's Dirty Harry movie and I was wearing a hoodie, jeans and sneakers. Then we got around to talking about surprises and just out of the blue, he just brought out a little, black box. I even had to tell him, "Wait! You have to kneel first!" Now I know why he told me not to go snooping around his room when he was answering nature's call. He knew I liked to open drawers and look around. He presented me the engagement ring with the matching wedding band to which I commented, "I'll just take one for now."

But in its simplicity and ordinariness, lies its beauty. It's a reflection of how a marriage should start : a very humble beginning with loads of humor and the promise that from that moment on, things would just get better and better.