Random Facts and Figures About Don and Maggie

1. Don has traveled to 11 countries and 25 US states, plus Washington, DC. Maggie has traveled to 3 countries and 28 US states plus DC.

2. During our honeymoon trip (Spain, Morocco, Scotland, and several hours in Amsterdam) we will get to add 1 state (4 hour layover in Atlanta) and 3 countries to these statistics, but not the same ones, since Maggie has been to the UK and Don has been to Morocco.

3. Besides English, Don has studied 7 languages, including 3 spoken in his mission. Maggie has studied 4 languages, most of them dead (Latin and two obsolete forms of English).

4. One of Maggie's New Year's resolutions was to read 50 new books by the end of the year. In the three months before starting to date Don, she read 11 books. In the nine months since, she's read 25 books, 10 of them while she was sick with mono, 8 of them for work-related research, and none of them since getting engaged in October.

5. On our first date, it rained the whole night. We ended up playing miniature golf and air hockey. Don gracefully admits that Maggie pretty much creamed him at both.

6. Don's three-year-old nephew Wyatt held Maggie's hand before he did.

7. Two of Maggie's obsessive-compulsive habits are checking her hair for split ends and checking her purse to make sure her keys are still there every time she leaves the house. Two of Don's obsessive-compulsive habits are checking the Major League Baseball website and checking to see if Maggie is still in the room every time he wakes up from his pre-graveyard shift nap.

8. Maggie hates monkeys. Don hates camels. Thus, the most shiver-inducing place we've been since we started dating was a room in the Asian art exhibit at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Apparently, there is a culture that considers both monkeys and camels to be lucky and worthy of being portrayed on five-foot-tall wall paintings.

9. Maggie introduced Don to Invader Zim and vegetable pizza. Don introduced Maggie to a plethora of sugary cereals and nearly every Mel Brooks film.

10. Don says one of the best things about dating Maggie is all the free meals. Maggie says that one of the best things about dating Don is having another excuse to go clothes shopping.

It's Foraculous!

Two things that I never thought I would be doing after graduating from college were getting married and going back to school. But lo and behold I’m getting married next month and taking the GRE this Friday. My plans after college were to pay off all of my school debt and continue to study Arabic in Syria for a year or so; but fate would have it otherwise, and I would not want it any other way. Maggie and I like to call our being together a little between fortuitous and miraculous—or as we have phrased it “foraculous.” Maggie has been this beam of hope in my life and I cannot imagine my life without her. Anyway, any one who can put up with my obsession with Pink Floyd, baseball and the NY Yankees, the Middle East, The Simpsons, and Mel Brooks’ films and Horror movies, not to mention that I lived at a mortuary for two-years, worked at a cemetery, and now work the graveyard shift, and gave her mono, and she still loves me—all I can say is I am one lucky person and she is the most wonderful person in the whole entire world!

Our engagement photos

Our engagement photos were taken at Cascade Springs, which is several miles off the Alpine Loop. It's a special place for us, since it's where Don proposed to me. We first visited Cascade Springs in June during one of our long drives to get me out of the house while I had mono. I didn't get to enjoy it very much since I was sick, so we went back to explore later in the summer once I was stronger. Since Don is probably the reason I had mono and couldn't enjoy the scenery on the first visit, I have to say that he definitely made up for it by giving me a gorgeous ring there!

It was a nice day when he proposed, almost summery, but by the time we went back for our photo shoot, it was freezing! It actually snowed a few days before we went up there. This is what went on behind the scenes: me shivering despite a jacket, scarf, and Don's hoodie.


And many thanks again to Whitney Keller for taking such great photos!