Walking Together

So when I titled this blog "Occasional Perambulations", I did actually intend to post occasionally. I guess I can be forgiven though as all three of my readers will understand the busy pre-Christmas season. That, and things have been (and still are) a little busy at work as I try to complete a fairly big R&D project that is way overdue. The Christmas season was a great chance to get away though, and I am thankful for the break to spend time with family and friends.


The other thing that has kept me very busy through the month of December was some plotting and planning for one of the most important and best phases of my life.


A lot of people have never met my girlfriend Nicolene, and she hasn't been a subject on this blog yet (okay, so I've only posted twice, actually once if you count my first post as a test).


This is Nicolene (or Nic, or Nicky, but she doesn't really care for Nicky very much).


Nic and I met [officially] for the first time on Dec 31, 2005. I say "officially", because a long time before that, I saw this girl a few pews over at church one Sunday, and she made an impression on me. I always remembered seeing her, and months and months later, I met her at a New Year party in Victoria.


I had travelled to Victoria to ring in the New Year with my friends Julia and Janine (and their guests). One of Janine's guests was her sister Nicolene. We hit it off almost right away at the party, spent a lot of time together on the 1st, then since it "just made sense" (yeah, excuses excuses), travelled back to Vancouver together on the 2nd. That was the day we declared as the day we officially were a couple, and things went quickly from there.


On the 4th of January (our third day officially together, fifth day since we met - although it felt like far longer since we spent every waking moment together), Nic took me to a World Junior game at GM Place, then afterwards, we went to Malone's for a beer and had a really awesome conversation about life, our beliefs, goals, dreams ... my chest honestly felt like it would burst as we talked because I was so excited. I looked across the table and asked her if it would totally freak her out if I said I loved her, and she said "Not at all, I totally feel the same way!" From Malone's we went for a walk. It was pouring rain, but that didn't matter. We walked around downtown in the rain, stopping to kiss on the street corners, and eventually finding our way to her car where we just sat and talked until 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning until we finally went our seperate ways to our homes.


For weeks we spent every day together, and we were totally in love right from the start. All of our friends and family knew it too, and commented amongst themselves that we were done, off the market, hooked.


Well, it was exactly one year ago yesterday that Nic and I got together. We've had an awesome year together - too many good times to list - but by far the highlight came on Friday before the Christmas holiday.


Yup, that's right, on December 22, 2006, I asked Nicolene to marry me, and she said "YES!"


I am excited to see what the future holds for us, and I can't wait to be married to her. Only 5 months to wait, and those months will go quickly as we plan our wedding together.