same old story of boy meets girl

For those of you who have been under a rock for the past week, guess what? I'm engaged! That's right, its official. Erik asked me to marry him. It was a total surprise. We'd talked marriage for a little while now, but I didn't expect a formal proposal or a ring for many, many months. So where to begin with this whole story...

In 1984 the Esch family, moved from their home in Minnesota to Ft. Lauderdale, FL. There, in middle school, Erik met a boy named Luke Adams who would become his life-long friend. As fate would have it, Luke moved to Charlotte, NC just before his senior year of high school. At his new school, Luke met an uber cool girl named Heather (that’s me). They quickly became very close friends. While no romantic relationship transpired, they kept in close contact while they went to different colleges. All the while, Erik and Luke also kept in touch, visiting each other regularly, it was only a matter of time until Erik and Heather's paths crossed. In early 2001, Erik and his friend Jenny (Ally) Kristofiak came to visit Luke at his first apartment. Of course, Luke invited me to town to show his friends around. Many drunken antics occurred. I observed Erik to be a very nice boy, but nothing particularly earth shaking.

Over the next few years, Luke and I visited Erik several times in Florida. In November, 2004, Luke and I traveled to south Florida for the Clemson/Miami football game. Luke and I stayed with Erik and his family. It wasn't but a few short hours into the trip that I decided that Erik was quite possibly the most adorable and sweet boy I'd ever met. Ludicrous amounts of flirting commenced. Even Luke and Jenny (at this point Kristofiak) noticed that Erik and I were sitting a little close, laughing kinda loud and generally paying a little more than causal attention to each other. Luke commented to me once on the way back to the car after seeing a movie "what? are you guys soul mates or something?" I told Luke I was in love. On the flight home, I told Luke I was going to marry Erik. He laughed and gave me the same "you're crazy" look I've seen many, many times.

The next two years I spent loving Erik from afar. I regularly sent him Christmas cards and stalked him through Luke and Jenny. I refered to him as "my sweet baboo". Word got out of my secret obsession, but Erik was always politely indifferent.

That was until late summer, 2006. Luke changed his cell phone number. One warm summer Friday afternoon, Erik called me to get Luke's new digits. After I finished jumping up and down and squealing with delight, I engaged Erik in a cool and casual conversation and eventually gave him the information for which he originally called. Erik asked if I was on myspace. Of course I was! And many times I already had searched for him. When I got home that night, I diligently searched every feasible combination of his relatively unique name. Finally, I gave in and called him (trying to be coy) and told him I couldn't find him. He gave me his new email address. And POOF! I had a new friend on myspace. Several days of witty-banter back and forth online, gave way to 6 hours a night on the phone. My heart fluttered with each email and text message. We still had no definition of a relationship. My nerves were getting the best of me. I over analyzed every conversation, consulted with Luke and Jenny for hidden meaning and suffered severe sleep deprivation. Until finally, Erik admitted that he didn't know what was going on with "us" but that he looked forward to talking to me everyday. I melted. A few weeks later I got a phone call from Erik asking me to do a favor for him. "Of course! Anything!" I said laying sweaty in my bed after coming back from the gym. He asked if I could come pick him up from the airport. AGHH!!! He flew up to surprise me! (Just 2 short weeks before his already planned trip up to visit Luke for his birthday. The weekend of a family reunion no less. He meant business. We were both head over heals for each other. The whirlwind romance continues. We spend as much time together as possible, since Erik still lives in Florida. Erik plans to move to North Carolina in May of this year.

Erik came to visit over the Christmas holiday. His flight on the night of the 22nd was delayed several hours. The morning of the 23rd we got up early to get ready for Christmas with my mom's family. When we came downstairs, I flipped on the Christmas tree lights and Erik asked "What’s that on your Christmas tree?" I couldn’t see what he was talking about. So he asked again and I was completely oblivious to the beautiful ring sitting right there tucked in a box on a limb right in front of my face. After about the third time I asked him "what?", he pointed at the box. I squealed! He got on one knee. I said yes. He shook like a leaf. It was magic. Then we sat on the couch and watched Saturday morning cartoons while I called family and close friends. My family was ecstatic! We left the next day for Minnesota to visit his family who was also very happy for both of us.

So here we are. Erik and I hope to get married in the fall of 2007 and looking forward to sharing a casual afternoon with the people we love.