St. Patrick's Day

A year ago on St. Patrick's Day 2013, I asked a half-Irish girl to marry me... and she said yes. For my birthday in 2011, shortly after we'd started dating, she gave me a claddagh ring, which I considered the sweetest thing anyone had ever given me, and I was proud and nervous and happy and excited to get down on one knee in a Japanese restaurant (yes, we had sushi for St. Paddy's) and give her a diamond ring and propose to her a year and a half later. While I was fairly certain she was going to agree (we'd talked about marriage), I was still thrilled to hear it, and I was looking forward to spending the rest of my life with her.

Claddagh

Well, we all know how that turned out. While I loved Laura and her mom's big Irish family (as well as her German-descended dad and his current wife), and felt like they all loved me back, and we'd planned to have them all at our informal Biergarten wedding, Laura pulled the plug on all that, on me, and I'm spending this St. Patrick's Day alone. She gave me the engagement ring back on the last day I saw her, though I'd asked her to keep it. I've still got my claddagh ring, and while I hadn't been wearing it since the break-up, I've got it on today, with the point of the heart symbolically facing away. I'm in a better place than I was six months ago, I think, but it's hard to let go completely. As the song says, there is always something there to remind me. Today's holiday is just another one of those.

Of Chinchillas and Men

The best-laid plans often do go awry.  I was supposed to get married two months from today, but as much as it pains me to relate this, as much as it pains me to experience this, we must offer apologies instead of invitations, as the engagement has been broken off and I've lost my happy.

Laura and I still love each other, and we're both upset over the plans we had together.  However, she has issues she needs to work through, and goals she wants to prove she can reach by herself (furthering her education being among them).  She is the perfect woman to me, but she feels she has to live on her own for a while and grow as a person before she can be an equal partner, and I can do naught but respect that, though it tears me up inside.

The timing could've been better, but such things don't generally pay attention to scheduling demands.  Laura will be moving away at the end of this month, and I will be helping her.  Of my three girls, two (Meggy the chinchilla and Preeti the cat) will be staying with me.  It won't be the same, but...  Slime will go on, although it will be odd to be working on it from separate locations.

I'm going to miss Laura's family and friends, and she's going to miss mine.  :-/  We are both hurt by this, and it's been a bit of an emotional rollercoaster, but we still care about each other deeply and are, and will remain, close.  We may not be getting married on September 21st, but we've got a date for that day nonetheless.  I hope everyone will respect our feelings and our privacy.  Thanks for listening...