She had originally approached me for store-maneuvering advice; I gave her what my three-week old perspective could give in such a situation. Then she told me to keep quiet.

A whole week, she made me wait.

Then the others knew so suddenly that there was no time for me to even relish in my prior knowledge. That’s how these things go, though. Engagements are so full of perspective and love that each individual story holds significant value. There’s her story. Then his. Then her father’s. And her mother’s. His parents’. Her grandparents’. Her little sister’s. Then there’s mine. Her twin. The girl quietly keeping significant news under wraps for a week.

A whole week.

I haven’t blogged about this here yet, because I’ve been so busy with it: I have a new “part time” job at a fine Jewelry store here in Delaware. They hired me for my personality and graphic design skills, not because I’m oozing with gem-knowledge. What color is a citrine? It’s been a month now and I still don’t know without looking at all of them together.

The twin and her beau came into the store to get some advice on a diamond ring and a few short days later they came in to look at some loose diamonds. Surprisingly finding something they liked that evening, they picked a setting and scheduled to have the diamond set and the ring made. The Twin, after telling me to keep quiet about it all, bowed out of the equation; The Beau was to take over and prepare a proposal.

I was fortunate enough to be in the store when the diamond was being set. And with the hesitancy of a new employee pushing her boundaries, I asked if I could take a photo of the work being done. I’m so glad I documented this; The Twin will cherish these photos for a long time.

Here’s The Beau, waiting patiently for his engagement-instrument to be cleaned and polished.

The ring:

Before The Beau came into the store, I was so excited I needed to know what time he was coming by. The following is our text-conversation:
Me: What time are you coming by the store?
TB: I called and your boss said come by in 2hrs.
Me: So…3:30ish? I’m too excited to wait patiently.
TB: Maybe like 3:15. Me too.

The Beau told me he was to propose that evening. I guess The Twin was expecting him to wait a week or so; he wanted to catch her off guard. He would pop the question that evening after she came home from work.

Which I thought was going to be around six but in all actuality, she wasn’t scheduled to arrive home until eight. When I got home from work I thought they were already an official to-be-wed couple, but my dad, who had discussed this with The Beau earlier in the day, informed me that I would have to wait a wee bit longer.

I had been anticipating this for a week now; my parents had only known for a few short hours. Sufficient to say, I was starting to get antsy. Freaking out, is really more like it. So I decided to continue documenting it all. Here we are waiting “patiently”:

Then the phone rang. We all rushed to it to see who it was. Then walked away in defeat. Yep. I took a photo of that too. That’s how excited I was.

In a bout of miss-communication, we finally called them and congratulated the newly engaged couple and made plans to go out to dinner. At 8:30pm. I decided to forget the two slices of pizza in my stomach, the packing and gift-making that needed to be done that evening and go with them. Your twin sister only gets engaged once.

Here we are in the car.

I told you I was antsy, right? Yeah. I just snapped photos all night long. Hellos. Dinner. Proof of dinner. The ring. The chamange. I got it all and therefore will bore you with it. Why? Because I’m still stinkin’ excited for them.

Congratulations to The Twin and her Beau. It was a privilege to hold this in for a week.

A whole week.

Things have been a bit quiet here. And for good reason; I went on vacation. A vacation from my “vacation”, if you will. I took a road trip up to Central New York for a bit of reunion. I spent four-ish days with dear friends.

This is from just after a lovely overland hike, complete with trees covered in snow:

This is what happens when the girl with the camera gets sassy:

I didn’t take many photos; I spent most of the time enjoying my friends without the pressure of capturing the memories in data-form. We hung out, we hiked, we cross-country skiied, we prayed, we witnessed miracles, we celebrated the dawning of 2010 in a truck, we celebrated Texan 2010 an hour later, we lit a Christmas tree on fire.

And it was great.

Happy Valentine’s Day!