One Ring to Rule Them All.

Disclaimer: If you are the type to gag at true love stories, walk away now. You've been warned.

So, you remember that one guy from my post about trek? You know, the one who crammed his long legs into the back seat of the car for part of the trip, so that I didn't have to?

Well, it turns out that I love him. He's going to marry me.

What? You want to know how we got here? Well, dear reader, I will be delighted to expound.

Since you all know me already, I will start by letting Benjamin introduce himself. You'll know it's him because it will be in a different font. Also, it will not sound like me.

My name is Ben. I got engaged to Stephanie on Friday. I like marshmallow mateys. I like to hang out with Stephanie. I like to run, but not from Stephanie. Actually, I don't hang out with Stephanie, we go on dates. It's hard to think of clever things to say when you're soooo.....sleeeepy..... But that's not a problem for me because I never get tired! I like to consider myself a connoisseur of beauty, which is why I keep Stephanie around. She makes me say cheesy things and brings out the bad grammar in I.

Thank you, my dearest Benjamin. We'll be hearing more from him as the post goes on. He'll be inserting commentary to my side of our story. 

Many of you noticed that I fell off the face of the earth back in late June. Part of this is because my blog is primarily a weight loss blog, and with my knees deciding to fail me, I had lost a lot of my zest. I had also rediscovered how great food tastes, and was having a hard time talking myself back into dieting.

Then came Ben.

Even after a long day when I look like that, he still looks at
me like this. Fo' reals, people.

With him, my resolve to blog was completely shot. Gradually, he became a huge part of my life. I began to have an increasingly difficult time thinking of anything worthwhile to talk about that didn't tie back to him in some way or another. I also did not want to blog about my dating life. This meant that my blog just kind of... faded away.

Over the past few months I have received increasingly hostile demands for details about my life from former fans of this blog. So, now that things are rock solid with this fella, I figured that I would let you all in on the happiest part of my life, thus far.

I first met Ben in a teacher development class at church. I knew him as the incredibly handsome and intelligent one who was obviously way out of my league. Then we were divided into families for trek. I tried not to seem overly enthused at the discovery that we were in the same group.

But first, let me insert a comment about that class! There was this girl in that class that I was interested in dating, but even though she was nice, she would never sit by me. So I was pleased to discover she would be trapped in a motor vehicle with me for 12 hours.

I've never been more happy to be "trapped" in my life. On trek, we got to know each other better, even through the mysterious sound divide of the two rows of seats. (See the helicopter story.)

All during the drive, I found out that Stephanie was a fascinating person and I had all sorts of questions to ask her. I was disappointed that she still wouldn't sit by me; she kept sitting on a different row.

Upon returning to normal society, I made certain to end up next to him at every possible ward event for the next week. He caught the hint, apparently, and asked me out on a date. Then we went on another date. And another. Soon we were seeing each other a few times a week and I was unknowingly using up every last minute on his cell phone plan.

I discovered that he was not only intelligent and handsome, but he also had the same sense of humor as me. Most importantly, he has the kindest, most genuine personality of any person I have ever encountered.

With all of these amazing qualities, naturally, I was just waiting for him to figure out who he was dating and run in the opposite direction as quickly as his cross-country runner legs would carry him. I was thrilled and amazed when he not only chose to stick around, but really seemed to be genuinely falling in love with me in return. Warts and all.

All of my time was spent going on bike rides, hiking, and dancing in the star-light. I found that he was my best friend. I never feel self-conscious around him. The best way I've found to describe his effect on me is that he brings out the very best of me, makes me want to be so much better than I am, while somehow making me feel like I am perfect the way that I am. I have never felt more beautiful.

What is so awesome is that our feelings were completely congruent. I felt everything she felt, only I felt the same way about her that she felt about me, not about me the way she felt about me. And I don't feel beautiful, but that's okay because I'm a boy and I don't care.

This all sounds like the perfect story to add up to me regaining all of the weight that I lost. However, that is not at all what has happened. I have stayed within 5 pounds of my total 50 pounds lost the entire summer. Considering that I've been trying (and failing) to fatten Ben up, this is even more impressive.

Finally, a couple of weeks ago, after much hinting, we came to the solid conclusion that there would never be anything that would make either of us happier than being married to each other forever. So, we began to make plans and went ring shopping. He then informed me that, sadly, my ring would take a few weeks to come in. Then, this past Friday, he planned a very special date. We went on a romantic candle-lit picnic up the canyon, at a place where we had one of our most memorable dates early on in our relationship. He brought a fresh bouquet of flowers from his parents' garden and some of my favorite foods.  Then he asked me to go on a short walk, and then proceeded to lead me up the steepest part of the Crimson Trail. At this point I inquired as to just how "short" of a walk we were going on. He promised me that it wouldn't be too far, and true to his word, we soon reached the spot. It was a place where the trail split and we could see all the way down Logan Canyon. There was also a rock that was the perfect spot to sit. We talked for a few minutes and then sat quietly before he jumped down from the rock and got down on one knee. The next thing I knew, he was opening a ring box he had made out of some shiny origami paper from one of our dates and saying, "Stephanie, will you marry me?"

In my mind, I thought that I was saying a clear, "Yes" and then calmly picking up the ring. Apparently, I actually did some unintelligible squealing, grabbed the ring with lightning fast reflexes and put it on my own finger. In hindsight, perhaps I should have let him do that. I was just  soooooo excited! I mean, seriously. I get to keep my best friend with me for the rest of eternity. And he's the one asking me to do so! That is the coolest feeling ever!

I'm pretty sure I heard a clear, happy, yes, like the chime of a bell. I thought the whole candelit dinner with all the artifacts from our previous date at Guenevah campground would give my plan away, but fortunately, it did not. It was raining everywhere but where we were. Literally.


Now, I'm sitting here with him. Finally typing up our story. The dress is bought. The appointment is set at the temple. The ring is on my finger. His secret plans for where we're going on our honeymoon are underway. There is still a great deal to do to plan for the reception and such, but things are rolling along quite nicely,

I can say with complete honesty that I have never been as happy as I am right at this moment. Every day is better than the one before. I'm always discovering new reasons that I could never imagine a better person to be stuck with.

Now there's only one problem.

Eternity is not nearly long enough.