This page describes our Extreme Engagement. You can also see a description of what it led up to -- our Extreme Wedding.
So, this is us. The two voyagers on the Office Odyssey, trying to make it through the modern versions of Scylla and Charybdis (McDonald's and Taco Bell) unscathed. I'm a full-time telecommuting technical writer working for Network General Corporation, a maker of network analysis products located in Menlo Park, CA. I'm not there, though. I'm in Tacoma. Or, I was. Now, I'm an Extreme Telecommuter bringing the noise from Boise to Boston. With me is my wonderful girlfriend, Kristanne. Well, at least she used to be my wonderful girlfriend. Things change, y'know. People grow up, move on. It happens.
Yup, now she's my wonderful fiancee'(!).
Or, if you prefer, my wonderful Extreme Fiancee'. We're going to get married. It's going
to be great. That's a picture of the ring I gave her there on the right. Whaddya think?
Let me tell you a little a bit about how it all happened. You see, if I don't, Kristanne's mom will have me for lunch. Now that I think of it, my own mom might just join in on the munching. So, here's how it went. As you probably know by now, Kristanne and I are setting off on this here Office Odyssey, gallivanting about the states with a van, a laptop, and a mission. Now, we've been together for almost three years now, and let me tell you, I've never met anyone quite like her. So, with this big change going on in our lives, it just seemed like a great time to make it all official -- let the world know that she's the one for me and I for her. So that's what we decided to do.
Well, actually I decided
that part. But she did say, "yes," so we'll let her claim half the credit :). Anyway, we had been busting our keisters for the last
two weeks trying to get everything ready for the start of the Odyssey. So, naturally, an evening at a nice hotel just before three
months of sleeping in the van sounded pretty durn nice to the both of us. I booked a nice suite, made sure it had a dozen roses in it,
and arranged for champagne to be delivered after our return from dinner. Now, at this point I was pretty sure Kristanne was in the dark
about the proposal. Sure, I'd made a couple tactical errors -- commenting on other women's rings in a knowledgeable way ("Say, is that
really a Vs(1) Marquis? And with a C color grade? Nice stone!") and acting unnaturally cagey (K - "Sid, can I have the car keys?" S- "Why do you
want the car keys? What do you think is in the car?"), but that really didn't amount to much, all things considered. Things were looking
good.
When we got back to the room after dinner, I
was pretty darn nervous. The champagne was there, but I was worried about how I was going to get the ring out of my backpack and into
my pocket without Kristanne seeing. Worrying about whether I would say the right things. Worrying about whether she would be able to
hear those right things said over the pounding of my heart. Luckily, Kristanne had to use the restroom, and I had time to pocket the
ring, painstakingly ensuring that it was riding hinge-side down. I even had time to sever a few loose threads that could
have snagged on the hinges of the ring box, causing me to fumble the ring into Kristanne's lap as I ripped it free from my pants. These
things can happen -- I know. Then, the bathroom door opened, and there wasn't much left to do but do it. So, I knelt and tried to not
to trip on my tongue as I asked Kristanne the most important question of my life -- will you marry me?
The look on her face was amazing. Clearly, it did not matter whether my words were golden or not -- she only heard the first few, after which she was sort of just in a little bit of a daze. I'm pretty sure it was a good daze, though.
Naturally, after a little bit of happy time for ourselves, we had to tell someone. Our parents seem very happy (that's them at
the left), and so are we. And that's all about Sid and Kristanne!
Now, admittedly, this was a relatively tame story about us. So, next time we update this page, we'll be sure to tell you about how Kristanne saved thirty orphans from certain death using only a broken dog whistle and some dental floss after their bus careened off a cliff in Capistrano. Following that, we might get to my world famous collection of rubber stamps. We'll have to see how things go.