This has been a banner week

OK, guys, I knew I said I’d wait until you posted on your own blogs (here and here) so I wouldn’t be stealing your thunder, but I just can’t help myself. I’m too excited. (Plus, I don’t think anyone that reads my blog doesn’t know already or reads your blogs too. If that makes any sense.)

Ben and Abbie got engaged today!!

Abbie called and asked me how my day was, to which I responded “kinda crappy” because the new iPhone I bought has to go back to the store because of the curse I have with all things technological.

When she responded, “Well, I had a good day,” I could feel her smiling through the phone, and I knew immediately! I waited until she could tell me herself before I started shouting something like “Shut up!” repeatedly. (There may or may not have been an expletive in there. What can I say, I was excited.)

The thing is, it wasn’t shocking so much that they got engaged as that they got engaged less than 24 hours after Abbie and I were just commiserating over the supreme annoyance of being a long-time, live-in significant other stuck with the casual title of “girlfriend.”

I felt this way until a year ago this weekend, when Rob and I got engaged. It’s not so much the wedding that Abbie and I wanted or were ready for but the marriage — or at least the promise of it. And the designation of “fiancee,” which gets a whole lot of people off your case.

We were even discussing how nice Abbie’s name sounded with Ben’s last name! So its pretty mind-blowing that Ben whipped this one out of nowhere. He may be even more slick at proposing than he is at parallel parking.

So, not to make this all about me, (which someone’s sibling may or may not insist I always do), but this has really been a banner week for me! There’s nothing quite like the feeling you get when you see something wonderful happen to people you love, or living vicariously through them.

I feel practically giddy for my friends! It’s as though I got engaged and had a baby this week. Which, under ordinary circumstances, wouldn’t be the best combination. And I don’t recommend it for those of us who have their periods and are hormonal emotional messes to begin with. I really need to start wearing waterproof mascara.

Anyway, here’s the happy couple. If this isn’t the best picture of them you’ve ever seen, I don’t know what is!

Congratulations, Ben and Abbie!! Best wishes for a wonderful engagement. Hope I didn’t steal your thunder!