on how march madness is best in buena vista

My favorite part of March is, like most people, March Madness.  For those of you who aren't familiar with SVU culture, March Madness has a lot less to do with basketball and a lot more to do with popping the question.  For instance, it is now March 9th, at which point there have already been four proposals (and acceptances!) since the beginning of the month...unless I'm missing someone.  In any case, there are at least four, and I am very excited.  I don't know whether it's the coming spring, or the week-long break, or the realization that the window for a summer marriage is slowly closing, but March is without question the most popular month for engagement here in this tiny town. 

I love engagements.  I love them, primarily, because they lead to marriage, which is incredible.  I also love them because they make people the happiest I've ever seen them!  I'm especially excited for my very favorite Katzenbauers (yes, I will be calling you that), who are in the Big Apple living up the first few days of engagement.

The "next step" in the relationships of my friends makes me even more grateful that I said yes to such a fantastic guy.  (Ok, so it was less of a "yes" and more of an "of course" that--according to Ricky--took about a hundred years for me to say.)  Seriously.  Heck, a complete stranger would've said yes to a boy that adorable kneeling on a beach at sunrise with a shiny ring in his hand!  (For those of you that have seen my ring, that cathedral setting was something Ricky picked out all on his own, a fact that has always impressed me.  I had never even seen the setting before, but I fell in love with it as soon as I did!  It's funny--and not surprising--that Ricky knew what I wanted before I did.) 

I don't mean "fantastic" as in, "he's really smart," or "he's really ambitious," or "he drives a BMW," even though Ricky may or may not be all of those things anyway.  I say "fantastic" because Ricky plays Snakes and Ladders with me and doesn't just let me win, and because he buys me books instead of flowers, and because he watches my old Sailor Moon VHS tapes with me purely because he wants to see what I loved so much as a kid.  There are a thousand other pieces to the puzzle, of course, but when I see the whole picture it's hard to just describe one piece.  The point is, no one should ever settle for less than their best friend...and not the mature kind, either.  The face-making, soap suds-flinging, board game-playing, make-you-laugh-till-it-hurts kind of best friend.  One of my efy girls asked me once how I knew I was in love, and the first thought that jumped out of my mouth was this: "If I only had the option of spending eternity with Ricky under the restriction that we were never allowed to make physical contact, I would still do it, and I would still be happy." 

Anyway, I'm sorry for oozing marriedness all over my blog--I'll keep it to a minimum in the future--but most of you know Ricky and how much he praise he deserves for the guy he is, and for the guy he wants to be.  Even if he didn't propose in March. ;)