In Which We Do Not Get Engaged

It's time for another confession here at WCBTWCB; be prepared to encounter another embarrassing personal revelation. Ready? I may, may, possibly, be a bit of a control freak. Just a bit. Case in point: The Big Romantic Trip We Took From Which I Totally Intended To Return From Engaged.

Once upon a time, in the distant time of 2009, Ben and I booked a romantic vacation to Rome, the eternal city. It was bought for a Valentine's day present and we'd be there at the end of summer, just in time for our 4-year anniversary. I think no one would be surprised if I had visions of sparkly rings dancing in my head. One may have been slightly more surprised to hear me explicitly stating that I fully expected to return with said sparkly ring happily ensconced on my finger. But hey, I believe in open communication and fully letting your partner know your needs. And what I needed was a great, romantic engagement story. Here I was conveniently setting one up for him, no work on his part needed. See how nice and helpful I am?

Romantic Roma

So I had my master plan and was carefully working toward executing it, when the unexpected happened. Now, in retrospect, and considering the state of things in general now, it wasn't that unexpected. But boy, did it feel like it at the time. Yes, my friends, Ben lost his job. We went from excitedly planning our vacation (and wedding, in my head) to "Oh my God!!!!!! How are we going to pay our bills!!!!!!" The number of exclamation points is no exaggeration. Unsurprisingly, my engagement ring/romantic Roman engagement plan was no longer a priority, as illustrated by this chart:

As you can see, my ring (or really, my imaginary ring, since it had not yet been bought, but was clearly on the "to purchase" list) ranks very high on the FUN axis, but quite low on the Bill Payment axis. Net result: No ring.

So, in spite of my excellent planning, helpful suggestion that I would like to be engaged, and great set up, things outside of my control came in and ambushed my engagement plan. ARRRGH! However, I graciously still went to Rome (I mean we already bought the tickets, why waste them :) ), had a fantastic time, and just had to wait until we were all gainfully employed and could pay for our engagement ring and wedding.

Roman Holiday! (source)