This weekend was my 1-year anniversary with Mr. M. I have been looking forward to giving him his small present for the past couple weeks.
I got crafty from a pin I fell in love with. Mr. M and I are big Instagram-ers, so I took one photo from each of the months we have been together and made a special magnet set. I thought I was being so clever.
I knew he would love it, and he did, but I was completely unprepared for what he was going to give me.
I’m the kind of person that LOVES to guess surprises. I like clues; I like to be tortured with riddles. BUT I hate actually guessing what the surprise is. In my effort to figure out what Mr. M got me for our anniversary I found out one thing. He was going to go looking for it on Sunday, and he hadn’t seen it since he was 15.
What?! I was stumped. “What if you can’t find it!? You better have a back up plan,” I joked/not-joked. 😉
We went out to eat a fancy local place in Norman called Benvenutis. I highly recommend it if you want the best Italian food you have ever had in Oklahoma.
We ate our three-course meal, drank wine flights from Italy and beyond, and then he told me a story.
He said when he was 11-years old his family moved from California to Oklahoma. On the way, they stopped in New Mexico and his mom handed him $15 to spend on anything he wanted.
He almost bought some typical boy stuff, a rubber band gun, marbles…ya know, boy stuff. He went outside and met a man who was selling his handmade jewelry. He scanned the rings and found one. The man told him that ring was a very special ring. He said it was his favorite one that he had ever made and it must go to a special woman. Mr. M decided at that moment he would save this ring for the woman he was going to marry.
On September 2, 2012 I sat drunk on memories of the past year with Mr. M and full of creamy Italian food (lobster ravioli to be more precise). He pulled out the ring and said he wanted this ring to be his promise to me. A sterling silver ring, engraved with the words “SILVER” and “BJ” in the inside stared back at me. A circle turquoise stone sat sweetly in the middle.
I sat there, amazed. Amazed that for 16 years he lugged this thing around. He said it sat in his drawer for a long time and over the years his mom kept it so he wouldn’t lose it. It’s been in his mom’s storage unit and the first box they looked in had the ring.
I was amazed that out of all the stones in the world, he picked turquoise. It is literally my favorite color and stone to wear. It makes me feel strong and impenetrable by evil.
I was amazed that out of tons of relationships, ones that lasted much longer than ours, he never gave it to anyone.
I was amazed that like out of some Jonas Brothers rom-com I now had a promise ring, and I loved it.
I was just amazed.
I have to get it resized since my knuckles are too Irish for such a little sweet ring. I can’t wait to wear it and look down and think of this 11-year old Mr. M every time it catches my eye. To say I am lucky is weak and barely scratches the surface.
We are lucky. We are so damn lucky.
Yours wearing a new ring and ready to rock year two of this relationship,
25swf
25 Single White Female 