We're Engaged!!!

I woke up this morning, and the ring is still on my finger.  Even after pinching myself, I realized I did not dream it; we’re really engaged!  I’ve been thinking and planning for this moment for as long as I’ve been thinking and planning my wedding.  My friend Claire reminded me of when we used to play wedding growing up.  We were four.  Needless to say, it’s been many years of dreaming.  I’ve known Brendan was the right person for me for quite some time.  We met 785 days ago at Butler’s welcome week for freshmen.  The event we attended together was called Playfair, and essentially, freshmen run around hugging, butt bumping, and other crazy things that are mildly embarrassing.  Most people do not meet their future significant other there.  I guess we’re the exceptions.  The best part of that memory is what Brendan was wearing – a polka dot hat, a neon shirt, striped shorts, and tube socks.  I’m glad we all know it’s what’s on the inside that counts.  Brendan’s friend Mark told him last night what a boss he must be for catching me during one of the first nights of school and asking me to be his three days later.  I’m pretty sure I was the one who sent him a text message telling him how much I like him, and I think we started dating because I sent him a facebook message saying it would be fun to change our relationship status.  Regardless, it’s ancient history now.  The past two and a half years haven’t been easy, but they’ve certainly flown by, and I couldn’t imagine my life without Brendan.  We’ve traveled the world together.  He was by my side every hour when I was in the hospital in London.  We survived being apart for eight months, and he was more loving and supportive than anyone else could have been when we found out Eric had a brain tumor in the fall.  I think my family and friends love him almost as much as I do.  Brendan is the most amazing person I’ve ever met, and I’m not just saying that because he’s my fiancé; I’m saying that because it’s true.  What’s also true is that we’re engaged.  That still feels surreal to say (or type); my friend Travis texted me and said the next time he sees me I will probably be a married woman.  First of all, when did I become a woman, and secondly, when did I become someone old enough to consider marriage?  I guess the second part happened in November.  Over Thanksgiving break, I was at Brendan’s house to celebrate with his family.  I broke the chain on a necklace he had given me for our two year anniversary in August, so we went to Macy’s to buy a new chain.  While we were there, he asked me if I would like to look at rings.  Me, being the neurotic, hopeless romantic I am, was overly enthused at the idea.  It was the first time we had ever seriously discussed getting engaged.  We walked over to the ring counter, and my heart skipped a beat.  I tried on one ring, and the man behind the counter helped me figure out my ring size, told us about diamonds, etc.  It was the only ring I tried on.  It was perfect.  Brendan must have thought so too because he went back a few days after Christmas and bought for me.  He didn’t shop around; I didn’t send him pictures or help him pick it out.  To me, the ring is the perfect symbol of what we mean to each other.  There is no other; once you know, you know.  This whole semester, I’ve been waiting for Brendan to tell me he knows.  Once we talked about it, I just knew it would be happening soon.  Since January, I’ve been dressing up on a daily basis, carrying a camera with me just in case, and other crazy things like that.  I have been anticipating being his future wife for what feels like forever.  I am crying writing this, thinking about the fact that it’s happened; I still feel so shocked.  On Wednesday night, I went to his room to watch The Office.  It’s a favorite of ours right now, and we seem to be watching it obsessively.  I fell asleep while we were watching it and didn’t wake up until the morning.  I was not wearing make-up, hadn’t showered, and had sweats on.  I looked fantastic.  I woke up to Brendan staring at me.  I asked him why he was staring, and he told me I look so beautiful when I sleep and he loves me so much.  I nodded and laughed a little, but he kept going on.  He told me how much I mean to him, how happy I make him, and he wants to make me happy for the rest of our lives.  He then pulled out THE RING.  I couldn’t believe it.  At that point, I obviously said yes, and we kissed.  It was really nice to then have the next hour to talk about everything he hadn’t been able to tell me.  I loved that it was just us.  There was no show, and I was surprised.  Plus, he must love me exactly as I am.  I love that.  We then proceeded to call (more like I proceeded to call) everyone we know for the next several hours.  I then went back to my room to get ready for class.  Yes, I did go to class.  Who knows why because I couldn’t focus on anything, but I went.  After class, at 5:15, I had my Alpha Chi candlelight.  All the Alpha Chi Omega’s stand in a circle outside our house and sing the sweetheart song.  The candle gets passed around the circle once for a lavaliere, twice for a pinning, and three times for an engagement.  When the candle got to me the third time around, I blew it out and ran inside with my big sister Katie.  We screamed for a minute, both of us shaking, and ran back outside so I could meet back up with my fiancé.  It was such an amazing moment.  We stood in the middle of the circle and danced as all my sisters sang to us.  Once the singing concluded, Brendan was requested to tell the story of how we met and got engaged.  As he was doing so he said, “This morning I didn’t get to ask Kate the right way, and would love to do so right now.”  He then got down on one knee and asked me to marry him again in front of all my sisters.  It was so incredibly romantic.  After my candlelight, about 15 of our friends took us out to dinner at Fazoli’s.  I think that’s one of the best parts of getting engaged in college; there are so many people to celebrate with.  After dinner, we came back to campus for Holy Thursday mass and to ask Father Jeff if he would marry us.  He said he would.  Life feels totally complete right now, and I couldn’t be any happier.

The Unplug Challenge

So a few days ago I decided to log out of technology for 24 hours.  I did it partially to prove to myself that I could do it and partially because there was a group of us who took the challenge together—the unplug challenge that is.  During the 24 hours, I keep a log of how I felt without compulsively checking my email, texting, listening to my iPod, checking facbook or our Alpha Chi website, or watching TV.  This is what I came up with:

8:30 p.m.: Went to bed without calling or texting anyone in order to feel rested when I got up early to study (Still recovering from Houston)

5:15 a.m.: Studied while ate breakfast instead of getting on computer

8:00 a.m.: Realized I had saved so much time not using my social media; felt proud of myself

8:15 a.m.: Realized I did not have any good morning texts because my phone was off; felt a little sad

9:50 a.m.: Walked to see Brendan instead of just texting him

10:37 a.m.: Couldn’t call the woman I volunteer with to tell her I was running late because I couldn’t use my phone; felt frustrated

11:30 a.m.: Couldn’t use the Internet to browse despite having a computer at my volunteer site; felt unproductive and irritated

12:30 p.m.: Felt bored that I could use the computer for volunteer work but not for my own personal use

1:55 p.m.: Felt frustrated that I couldn’t text Brendan to tell him I was running five minutes early for our walk

2:05 p.m.: Felt frustrated that Brendan was running five minutes late for our walk

3:45 p.m.: Completed a walk with Brendan to the IMA 100 acres and felt surprisingly relieved not to have my phone

4:30 p.m.: Felt wonderful to have a face-to-face discussion with the honors thesis coordinator instead of just an email conversation; also enjoyed meeting her 2-year-old daughter

5:15 p.m.: Felt excited for the Butler Catholic Community dinner with everyone else who had taken the challenge to discuss what it had felt like

7:00 p.m.: Thoroughly enjoyed the BCC dinner and loved not having to eat Alpha Chi food; left wishing Friday night BCC dinners could become more of a regular occurrence

7:30 p.m.: Went to Target with Brendan on a date night – was great not to have our phones distracting us

8:30 p.m.: Checked my phone for any emergency situations and watched The Office with Brendan for several hours

Overall, I loved not being connected; I’m seriously considering making it a bi-weekly occurrence.

The Top 100 Banquet and Houston for the Dawgs

All week, campus was abuzz in anticipation for the final four game in Houston.  Everyone was either talking about whether they were going or not or giving random people directions to the book store.  In one day, I directed over 10 people.  It’s like we became a national phenomena overnight.  Our fountains even got turned blue, and we had a pep rally with Governor Daniels and Mayor Ballard.  I loved it, but it made focusing something I couldn’t remember how to do.  By the time Friday night rolled around, I was a mess – anticipating the top 100 students banquet and the final four game in Houston.  The banquet was awesome.  I felt so special having my parents, Eric and Brendan there.  Each student was honored and looking around, I felt so honored to be part of such an elite group.  So many of the other students are people I look up to on campus; it almost felt surreal to be considered among them.  My good friends Claire Petersen and Christopher Ring were named the top woman and top man; so needless to say, it was a great conclusion to a great night.  After the banquet, Brendan, Eric and I drove back to campus, quickly changed into sweats and met up with Carly, Bo and Mark to leave for Houston.  It was a long haul down.  By the time we arrived, we were a little more than stir crazy.  It took Bo 15 minutes to give Carly the graham cracker she wanted.  I’m not sure why, but it was literally one of the funniest things ever.  We made good time.  Our directions told us it should take around 18 to 20 hours, but it only took us 15, and trust me, that was plenty of time in the car.  The original plan was to go to the hotel to check in and freshen up first, but we were still hopeful that we could get a good seat, so we went immediately to the stadium.  Mistake one was exiting the car, running to the line of people and realizing we had to first go get our tickets.  Mistake two was wearing sweatpants and sweatshirts in Houston, Texas, where it was over 80 degrees.  Mistake three was changing in the car once we finally had our tickets.  I felt so disgusting after a 15 hour car ride without showering, brushing my teeth, wearing make-up, etc.  Gross.  We then ran to the line to get in to the stadium only to stand and wait for another hour.  We were in the student area, so that meant we were right next to the VCU fans.  Some heated words were flung back and forth, and every time VCU was on the news, we made sure to add in what we thought should be the version of their fight song.  Each time that caused uproar.  Once we finally got through the ticket line, we received a free Butler t-shirt and a coupon for a free meal.  I couldn’t believe our $25 ticket got us all that.  Once inside, we had over two hours to just soak it all in. We got our food and roamed the stadium – it was awesome to basically have the place to ourselves for awhile.  We eventually made our way to our seats in section 621.  I thought it was going to be too far up to see, but everything was crystal clear, and it was a blast to be wtih the other students.  Mistakes started to be made as random other people had tickets in the Butler student section, but we eventually sorted out the problem – until part way through the first half that is.  About ten minutes into the game, someone came up to our row and had a ticket with the same seat number as Carly.  We told them that we also have tickets that clearly state our seat numbers, so they would need to go take up their problem with the ushers.  Everything was smooth sailing until halftime when different people came up to our seats and had tickets that put them in our places.  We eventually were persuaded out of them by an usher who said she could get us floor seats.  Not only did she not get us floor seats like she promised, but she sent us up to section 721.  We were so far up that we were the last row in the entire stadium and could touch the ceiling.  I spent a good portion of the second half brooding, but once Butler started to pick up, so did my mood.  By the time the last minute occurred, I was beyond excited.  I knew we were moving on to the championship game.  Being in such a fan-oriented atmosphere for the final four game is unbeatable.  I loved that everyone was as excited as I was.  After the game, we stayed for part of Kentucky vs. UConn and then left to check into our hotel for some much needed sleep.  We all slept like rocks.  Once Sunday morning rolled around, we took our time getting up, showering and eating breakfast.  We left our hotel at noon to head to the Galleria mall.  During our shopping excursion, Maggie and I both managed to find a few deals.  I bought a dress, a sun hat and a fun headband at a Forever 21esque store.  The boys bought all the girlfriends white v-necks that said “The Butler Way.”  They were really cute and came with free foam fingers, face tattoos and framed pictures.  After the mall, we drove to downtown to explore.  We rode the metro to the museum stop, where Brendan and I got off to visit the Houston Museum of Fine Arts.  Everyone else went to the zoo, but we had a blast exploring the art work of Houston.  It was nice to have a little time to ourselves, too.  After an hour and a half, we met up with everyone to have Mexican food for dinner.  It was delicious.  After dinner, we took the metro back to our downtown stop.  On the metro, I met a nice man named Robin who directed us to the Green Park where a free Kenny Chesney concert was going on.  Eric, Bo, Brendan and I hung out for awhile and eventually met back up with Carly (who spent the day with some friends) before going back to the hotel to go to bed.  At 4:30 a.m. on Monday, the boys, Maggie, and two of her friends woke up to stand in line for tickets because they weren’t sure if would be a legitimate line or a raffle.  Carly and I decided to sleep in and get a little work done before leaving the hotel at 11.  I’m quite glad we did because not only did the tickets end up being a raffle, but we still had to wait in line until 6 p.m. when we finally got inside the stadium for the 8:30 game.  It was such a long day, and I do not think anyone at Butler is happy with the NCAA for how they handled the games.  We ended up on the floor but in the back of the student section where we watched the game on the jumbotron.  It was still a great atmosphere to be a part of.  I’m sad the dawgs lost, but I’m still so glad we had the opportunity to go to Houston to support them.  After the game, we fought traffic all the way back to our hotel and decided to sleep in until 8 a.m. so that we could be safe drivers for the way home.  It was one of the longest drives of my life.  I contributed a lot more this time around, but my tolerance for sitting in a car and my lack of sleep really started to take a toll by the time we arrived back in Indianapolis at 4 a.m.  Along the way, we did have a few funny moments (OK, a lot of funny moments) mostly revolving around Bo’s inability to hear anything, including sisters (scissors) and foam hands (phone hands).  Plus, we had to mix in Eric’s sausage/pickle, his inappropriate jokes and his obsession with Mark.  Arrival back at Butler at 4 a.m. meant I did not go to bed at all in order to complete homework, unpack, shower, do laundry, etc.  I then had class from 9 to 3:30 and attended the pep rally for the team at 4.  The rally was great, and I got to take pictures with the players afterwards which felt pretty surreal.  But now it’s not even 8 p.m., and I am ready to go to bed.  I could really use some sleep, but how ‘bout them dawgs?!