Our Story
Welcome!
How Our Relationship Began
So there I was...
We met during the summer of 2006. It was the second week in August, and we both had moved into college early to take part in the Georgia Tech Marching Band camp. It was Mikhail's first year in college, and as such, he was a RAT of the marching band. As a RAT, he was required to ask a veteran of the band to become his Vet -- someone who would show him around and help him to traverse easily through his first year of college.
It was the third or fourth day of camp, and it was lunch time. We were all eating pizza that the band had bought for everyone. I was sitting with a few friends in the band when Mikhail comes over with a veteran member of the band (Hal!). Mikhail had not yet chosen a person to become his Vet, and I had not yet gotten a RAT. Mikhail and Hal sat down with us and after some time, Mikhail had to make the choice of who would become his Vet. It was between me and another girl in the colorguard. She had a car, and so did I. She really knew her way around Atlanta, and so did I. She was enthusiastic about everything all the time and for the most part, so was I. ;)
Tense moments passed by. You could see the wheels turning in Mikhail's head, calculating the pros and cons of each person. In the end, Mikhail chose me to be his Vet because I was attending Agnes Scott College at the time -- the same school his sister was attending.
From that day on our relationship grew into something much more than a typical RAT/Vet friendship. I realized the first time that he called me on my cell phone that I had a crush on him. He had left a voicemail (incidentally this was the day after Dwarfing, and he was in need of some meds to calm his stomach! Wonder why? ;) ), and the second I heard his voice my stomach flipped over. It was then that I knew that I wanted something more than a friendship.
A few times before we officially started dating, we had what we called "RAT/Vet bonding time" where I went to his place to hang out after band practice. Normally we'd sit and watch movies (or drum corps!) or we'd get something to eat. On "Vet Appreciation Day," he gave me an entire box of strawberries after I had mentioned that I was sad that they didn't have berries at school.
It was the little things that made me really fall head-over-heels for him, and luckily my feelings for him were returned! To this day, I can't imagine being with anyone else. :)
How We Were Engaged
We were in New York City with the band for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. On Wednesday, Tita and I had planned to do a lot of things in New York. We wanted to see the Statue of Liberty, Museum of Natural History, Central Park Zoo, and Central Park.
Well, we didn't get to do all of these. The Fox and Friends gig that we had in the morning took longer than we thought it would. So, instead of eating lunch at Liberty Island, we ate near our hotel. So by the time we got to the Statue, after waiting in line for about 45 minutes, it was already like 12:30. We had planned to leave by 2, so we knew we were gonna have to give up seeing something. We took some pictures and shtuff. We ate again around 3 at the island. Then when we decided to leave, we just missed the ferry by a few minutes so we had to wait another 30 minutes for the next one. So we ended up leaving around 4. And finally, we got to the main island and took the subway to the stop for the museum.
When we got off, we were surprised with a HUGE crowd of people. It took us like 10 minutes just to leave the stop. We found out that right that stop, they were inflating the balloons for the parade. Everyone and their mother was out to see them too. So we walked down the street to the back of the museum. By the way, it was about 5 and already pretty dark. So we just wanted to get to the museum right in front of us. However, everywhere was blocked by barricades and we were told we have to walk 2 blocks down, walk another 2 blocks to central park, then walk back up 2 blocks to the entrance of the museum. This is, by the way, the track of all of the people that are following to see the balloons. So we were pretty upset about it AND we both had to pee like crazy so that didn't help. So we decided to just try to get past the crowd and get to a bathroom and maybe drop by Central Park. Well, luckily we found a bathroom and got past the crowd.
We walked to Central Park but since it was dark and late, we decided NOT to get raped and mugged and just follow the parade route back to our hotel.
So we walked along the side of Central Park, took a few pictures here and there. By the way, Central Park would have been awesome to propose at, if it hadn't have been so dark. According to our earlier plans, we were supposed to be there around 4:30. So it would have been the perfect time. Oh well.
So we walked the route and took pictures and acted like we were parade watchers in empty stands and had fun and joked. So finally we got back to our hotel and we went up to Tita's room. Her roommates were just waking up and getting ready to go to a comedy show. So once they left, Tita started getting ready for bed, putting on her pjs, brushing her teeth, putting on acne cream, taking out her contacts...
so we laid down in bed and started watching tv, Cosby Show. :) And as we were lying there, we would tell each other how much we love each other and why and all that mushy lovey stuff. ;)
So finally when she was dozing off, I reached in my pocket and pulled out the ring box. I laid it on her and she was totally surprised. She was speechless. After a few seconds, she said "YES! Of Course yes!!!". So after a little bit of of cuddling and hugging, she finally asked what I was thinking. And I asked, "Will you marry me?" and she said yes again. :)
So we called and texted people telling them the good news. And her line brothers of KKPsi invited us down stairs for a celebratory shot. Well for Tita at least. :)
So yeah, that's my story and I'm sticking to it. :D
