So, my mom has been dating this man for over two years now. Recently, they’d been talking about getting married and have been checking out rings and eventually found the one ring (to rule them all, etc). It’s gorgeous. It’s got these bright, sparkling diamonds and has these curves along it that resembles the architecture of Rivendell, from Peter Jackson’s make of Lord of the Rings.
I knew the proposal was coming soon. Then at the end of December last year, just before my friend and I went to pick up our best friend from the ferry, my mom said her and her boyfriend were going down to the beach, which is one of their favourite spots. When she said that, I thought, “It’s going to be today.” but didn’t say anything because, after all, that is their favourite spot so of course they go there sometimes.
So my friend and I were at the mall near the ferry, waiting for the ferry to get it and I got a text from my mom that had a picture of her hand with the engagement ring.
I screamed and started jumping up and down. Everyone in the store stared.
But, yes, my mom is engaged, and I will be her maid of honour.
It’s going to be a small wedding, just me, my soon-to-be stepsister, and of course the bride and groom. I guess you call that eloping. Mom says she’s already done two weddings and is ready to just be married without a whole lot of fuss and stress. After listening to my friends’ stories of wedding planning, I think that is a great decision. We have a huge family and if you invite some people and not others, everyone gets all hurt and offended.
The plan is to get married in Hawaii, just us four for about a week, then after the ceremony, my stepsister and I head home while our parents stay for another week on their honeymoon. I’m excited; I’ve never been to Hawaii before. I hear they have these trees that when the branches grow long enough to reach the ground, they grow into the ground and become the roots and then another tree grows out of those roots and I really want to see these trees. And I have a whole bunch of bathingsuits that never get worn and now I’ll get to wear them out and apparently the water is actually warm there (I live in Canada, so the water here is always cold).
I’m also excited to help my mom shop for her wedding dress and to go bridesmaid-dress shopping with my stepsister. At first, Mom was kind of dreading wedding dress shopping because she’s not at her ideal weight and doesn’t know what she wants, but she got moved into a different department at work so she’s no longer under the rule of Hellbitch and ever since that she’s started losing weight with little effort. Over the summer, I’m planning out some little exercise classes I can do with her to help her gain muscle tone. Now that she’s recovering from her accident and I’m out of school, we should be able to do this.
And now that she’s lost enough to fit back into her old jeans again, she’s cheered up and I showed her some pictures of what’s out there for wedding dresses and now she’s starting to look forward to the dress shopping.
The excitement doesn’t end with Hawaii, either. I’ll also be getting my own place, since Mom will be moving in with her husband and his daughter. Mom’s fiance has his own home, which is beautiful and close to Mom’s family and friends, which means if her aging parents need any help, she is nearby, which is so important to her. His house also has the mortgage entirely paid off and there’s a garden in the backyard. We haven’t had a backyard for like a decade and Mom’s wanted a garden for ages.
I’m sooooo excited about this. At the end of this year, I will be twenty-five and I feel like it’s time for me to get out on my own. I already have my own dishes. I’m looking at IKEA furniture. Mom’s letting me have our flat screen TV, since her fiance already has a TV that’s even bigger. And her fiance’s offered me his kitchen table and chairs, since Mom will be moving ours in there. And it’s a great set, I’ve never seen anything like it: It has cats embroidered all over the seats! I love it.
And I’ll be able to move close to work and school again. Two years ago my mom and I moved so she could be close to work, so I’ve had to commute for work and school. I’m glad we moved out here, it was the right decision, but at this point the drive is killing me. It takes up ten hours a week, which is ten hours that could be used to do all the studying needed for a 3-credit course and this summer, some of my shifts will be split over the day and I don’t want to be stuck at work for twelve hours when I only am working for eight of those hours.
Being close by means I’ll be able to get more involved in work, take a few extra classes to work towards my black belt, train for tournaments, and maybe even one day certify as a judge or instructor. Plus my boss is working towards full-time hours for me. And it looks like I’ll even be getting my own medical plan, which is great because I’m aging out of my parents’ plans in the coming months.
Oh, and I got a dollar raise, which is awesome.
And in other news… On Christmas morning, I got a text from my best friend. A text telling me she’s pregnant! Which means… I’M GOING TO BE A GODMOTHER!!! Which is so cool, because my best friend’s mom is my godmother and now my best friend’s child is going to be my godchild!
Me and our other friend have taken it upon ourselves to help this child become as geeky as possible. The plan is to start with a full Lord of the Rings (extended edition, naturally) movie marathon this spring and then we’ll be making all kinds of references to Tolkien and the MCU and Jacques’ Redwall series. I mean, the kid won’t realize they’re geeky; they’ll just think that this is what all the cool people do. But, yeah, we are super excited about this.
Baby is developing nicely. Very active little thing in the ultrasounds. He or she should be due at the end of this summer, so I’m planning to stay with Bestie’s family around her due date so I can be there with them at the hospital when the baby’s born. This’ll be the first time I’ll actually be present at the hospital at the time of the birth, and this girl is more of a sister to me than my own blood family, so this is super exciting for me. So excited.