Married

So as of 9:00 am Wednesday, the State of Vermont recognizes Megan and myself as a married couple. We filed the paperwork, visited a Justice of the Peace in Montpelier and tied the knot. We're husband and wife!

We were engaged back in December, and have been slowly planning the wedding in the months since. That's still going to happen: there's been some people who've seen the married news and went: Huh?. There's a couple of reasons behind this:

- We wanted the married part to be for us. There's a lot of pressure, frustrating at times, to invite everybody and their friends to the wedding, and we didn't want to lose a whole lot of focus. The marriage was for us, but the wedding will be for all of us. - There's practical things that come with being hitched. Norwich has a great benefits system, and Megan, as my spouse, is now part of that, under my coverage. Saves us money, and should the worst happen, we'll have more options. - There's the whole madly in love with one another thing too.

Plus, the combined wedding / marriage thing felt like this far off, distant, looming thing that would completely stress us out with the minutia and trivial details that come with the territory, and I can't help think that splitting the two apart a bit helps our (mine, at least) mental state. I don't want to go into a happy gathering worrying about X, Y and Z details, or the family elements that might not go off without a hitch.

So, technically, we eloped.

I'm looking forward to the next adventure already: I'll have my best friend, my wife, with me for whatever comes next, and I can't tell you how happy that makes me.

Megan

This is Megan.

We met in 2009 at Norwich, where we were classmates in the Military History program. During the our residency week in June, we met, found that we had a lot in common and began to date. She left, then she drove back up to Vermont. I drove down to Pennsylvania. She came back up, and I spent the New Year's with her, and drove down again a week later after her father passed away to be with her during the funeral. We talked every night on the phone, even when we had nothing to say. I gave her books, and she surprised me with cards in my mail box.

In May, I somehow convinced her to move up to Vermont, where she worked at Residency with me for a couple of weeks. We drove to work together, and then she found a job working at a school nearby. Her parents visited us over the summer, and we stopped by my parents house to visit my family's dog, Fionna (and my parents). My dad pulled me aside during one visit, and told me that while he didn't know what my plans were, she wasn't someone to let go. I agreed.

Megan moved in, prompting a flutter of change and movement around my life. My apartment was rearranged, our floors are groaning under the weight of our combined bookshelves. I've learned to cook for two people, and we take walks up and down the street or around the city every night. We rent movies together and surprise one another with a hug or a kiss when the other isn't expecting it. We've gone swimming in the local rivers nearby and we drive up to Burlington on a whim for Christmas shopping or a movie when the mood strikes us.

I've never, ever been as happy as I've been since she entered my life a year and a half ago.

I've asked her to marry me. She said yes.