Thursday night was my final beadmaking class. Most of mine came out all right, though my dichroics didn't come out looking very dichroic for some reason and I skipped trying to make a hollow bead entirely (too hard). The foil beads were a bloody mess- sticky expensive silver foil refused to stick to the bead, but certainly loved sticking to itself, and when I tried to coat the foil with clear glass, the glass peeled off! What a mess. I also did a fish bead (yes, shaped like a fish), which didn't come out too bad, but lost its fins and tail when the teacher was taking it off the mandrel (that's the stick you use to make the hole in the bead).

After that, Hill and I saw Goldmember, which, IMO, is the best of the three. Okay, the main plot is iffy at best, and Goldmember himself is a big ugh, but some great, fun character developments went on that I liked. The end was great. And to my surprise, I even liked Foxxy Cleopatra- she does pretty good. Can actually mostly act and do amusing facial expressions, even. Though why she and Austin didn't do a whole lot of shagging/kissing, I don't know. (Well, they obviously did it once, and used to date before he was frozen, but the final kiss? No joke, a Grandma peck.) I actually loved the celeb cameos, particularly Tom Cruise as Austin and Gwyneth Paltrow as "Dixie Normous" in "Austinpussy."

Friday morning I woke up in a tizzy, since I had to fnish Demma's birthday necklace and the wall hanging of deformed beads I was going to make for Dave before I had to leave. Demma picked me up, and I found out that yes, Scott asked her dad for her hand at her birthday dinner the day before. Scott was clever about it- to make sure Demma didn't run off before he did it, he started talking to her dad about hardware or something and in the middle of that conversation- "Can I ask you a question?" "Sure." "Can I marry your daughter?" Her dad cried and said he was losing his baby (EEK), but it all went well. Demma's getting the diamond out of her mom's ring and will be adding a bit of her mom's dress to her own gown. So it's official. I keep thinking of what Princess Di's sisters said to her after she was engaged and found out Charles was cheating- "Your face is on the tea towels, it's too late to back out now."

Dave and I spent our anniversary (monthiversary? Damned if I know) evening basically schmooping all over each other. But you knew that already, I'm sure. We got all dressed up- I finally got to wear the beaded nightclubbing dress I'd bought a year ago- and hit the streets, where apparently more than one fellow, well... There was this one guy sitting outside of a cafe that practically had his eyes bug out. I was all "What the hell is wrong with him?... (I looked down) Ohhhh..." Dave spotted a guy who (a) ogled me, then (b) gave Dave a thumbs-up. We went out to dinner and pretty much pigged out on calamari and attempted to drink martinis (UGH). Then we headed off to the club, where he tried to get me drunk so he could find out if Demma's stories about me when drunk were true (sheesh). But I drink s-l-o-w-ly, so so much for that.

Mainly he didn't want to go out on the dance floor too much, but cuddled around with me in the corner. It's kind of amusing that when we do dance, we attempt to dance while not touching and then end up plastered all over each other during fast songs. Definitely something I'm not used to.

We went back to the hotel, where I finally remembered to give him the wall hanging. He loved it... then promptly got bummed out and saying he didn't have anything for me. Er, you just paid for dinner, clubbing, and a motel room, I think that's enough! And I was going to do that wall hanging for him anyway, we'd talked about it last week.

This, well, took a depressing turn. I found out that he has big present anxiety about getting me things. I don't really get why, I'd pretty much like anything, but he's got this bug up his ass about how most stuff isn't good enough for me. And since I'm always making him stuff, he wants to make me something, only it has to take a lot of time and effort to be worthy of me. Maybe we should get him into a jewelry class.

All very sweet, yes, but his reasons behind it were well, yikes. Basically it amounted to: he wanted me to have things to remember him by when he died, which he thinks he'll do in about 40 years or so thanks to a medical condition. I did not want to talk about this (of all the times to bring that up!), but he kept going, and I ended up crying. Yeah, that was fun. Then he started apologizing for making me cry. I started saying that for all I know I could drive into a tree first, etc. It kept reminding me of my dad. Then afterwards he was saying such incredibly sweet things... I thought only guys in romance novels talked like that.

Saturday was mostly uneventful. I hung out with S&D, mostly while they did shopping. Also met their friend Jason, the guy Scott met up at camp. We also picked up Gabe and went swimming for awhile. Eventually we picked up Dave and Teri and hung out for awhile. Yeah, very exciting to write about.

On Sunday, I was nervous. Well, I'd already been nervous because of the family reunion. But it only got worse.

Example 1:

D: You don't have to be all that dressed up.

Me: Well, I want to make a good impression.

D: The fact that you're with me is already going to damage your reputation.

Me: Oh, what, they're going to think I'm a drug-dealing ho?

D: No...

Me: Oh, they'll just think I'm a ho, then. (I then proceed to laugh at my amusing remark. He stares at me.)

D: Well, I'm glad you think it's so funny.

What?

Example 2:

Me: Well, at least they all don't know we're engaged yet.

D: Actually, I was thinking of telling them today.

Well, THAT was a surprise. A not-much-mentioned-to-me surprise. One I wasn't too thrilled at having sprung on me, either. Hello, we aren't even close to being able to tell my parents yet, and we're suddenly telling not only yours, but 50-200 of your relatives? The hell?

He did have logic behind it- might as well tell them all at once, be able to introduce me as his fiancee instead of girlfriend- but geez, NOW? Ahead of my parents? Was I going to have to tell them soon now? Probably. I was decidedly not thrilled. Hell, when are we even going to tell them this proposal happened? (His answer: Friday night at dinner.)

We all (S&D&J came in too for this) trooped back to his parents' and I had a little panicked freakout beforehand. Then he dragged me in and told them.

His mom, completely deadpan, was like "Finally. We were taking bets on how long you'd take."

Phew.

Heh.

The reunion itself was pretty dull- Dave got stuck doing the video camera, which may not have been the best idea when (a) he hardly knew anyone there, and (b) he's a smartass. You can imagine the results. After dinner, I about died when some guy demanded that everyone go around introducing themselves and how they were related, and his dad introduced me as his fiancee. Even sitting with my back to most of the room I could see heads turning. Eeeek. The people Dave introduced me to asked when the date was- hah, like we know? (Dave's dad just asked that we not do it this year. Fine by me.) Fortunately, we got to leave after that when the Christian karaoke started.

I didn't get before why Demma was so reluctant/going back and forth on having Scott ask her dad for her hand (in other words, admitting she was engaged) for so long. Heck, her dad's a lot more easygoing than other parents we might mention, he'd be happy about it, she's definitely old enough and they've been together long enough so she wouldn't be getting whined at for doing it so soon and at her age (yes, I'm projecting here), etc. After having his family find out, now I realize why she put it off. It�s bloody scary when people, especially anyone�s family, find that sort of information out.

And of course, my family will be the worst of all.

Speaking of dates and whatnot, I found out that now (let's see if and when this changes!) he wants to do it sometime in 2003, anniversary dates be damned; he wants to get me another engagement ring at some point, a gold claddagh with a diamond; and he wants to learn metalsmithing so we can make each other's wedding rings.

As for telling my parents... Dave had told me last week that his work would be moving locations this upcoming weekend and thus I might as well not come up for a visit then because he would be busy. Okay, fine, so I asked Mom in e-mail if she wanted to come up sometime then for a visit. She never responded to that. Then it turned out that the Big Move had been moved up to the start of this current week (Mon-Tues-Wed, which is why I'm not saying much about those days. Very little happened.), and he had Sunday off. So now he wants to come down on Sunday to Meet The Parents. Mom is still wishing and washing about it. I didn't mention him wanting to come then, I'm not sure if if she found that out, she'd immediately bail on the idea or not.

And here's the bad kicker, folks: I was having this conversation with her Sunday night on the cell. I have a hands-free setup where I have one end in my ear, the other plugged into the phone, and a mike dangling in the middle of the cord. I know she's able to hear whatever's around me (cars, his mother, etc.) when I use that thing to talk to her. Anyway, while I was trying to pin her down on the weekend, Dave leans over and semi-whispers to me, "Can I marry your daughter?" I ignored it and kept going with my conversation, and she did too. I don't know if she heard it or not (she's never said anything), but I'd guess she did.

Oh, and I've got my interview for my job again on Thursday. Woo hoo!

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