the engagement.

Thankfully, I have a pretty great relationship with the Princess. I wish it was this way with all my kids, it’s not, but the older they get, I think it gets better. Princess shares a lot with me and I’m lucky to be her sounding board for a lot of things. Grateful for that. I did a good job with that one, and I suppose Hubby helped a little. 

Some of you may know that we have Uma living with us and have for some time. Uma is Princess’ long time partner. She has taken up residence in the bedroom that Princess usually occupies. I feel a little bad for Uma because, well, Princess has A LOT of “stuff”. Turns out that Uma also has A LOT of “stuff”. There is not a lot of storage space in my house, and we have no basement. I see a storage unit in my future once Princess brings her “collection” home from college. 

Anyway, Princess sent me a text one day, with no lead, probably because she’s my kid and cuts to the chase in a conversation. “Mom, is it ok if I ask Uma to marry me?” My instant response, which I immediately wanted to reel back in was, “I don’t care.” Yes, that’s what I said. Yes, I realize that wasn’t how it should have gone. After realizing what I said, I quickly recovered with, letting her know that while of course I did indeed *care*, I support her in her decisions. After all, I raised her to make choices that were good for her, and she is an adult. If her choices don’t work out in the end, I’ll support her. She knows that. 

When Princess was home for the holiday break, she decided that was her proposal time. She had planned it out for Belle Isle. Princess has always loved the Scott Fountain and so we headed there after a fun tour of the Ford Estate. We get there, and Uma apparently doesn’t think as highly of the fountain as Princess does. So, scratch that! We wander back to the car and because this is my life, the car doesn’t start. This is of course the perfect time for the starter to decide it’s done fulfilling its obligations. After a lot of banging on things and a spattering of swear words, the car starts and we head towards home. We now can’t make any other stops for fear the car may not start again. Princess and I spend the ride home texting back and forth to come up with an alternate plan and settled on dinner out. 

I successfully managed to make a dinner reservation. The restaurant dude that answered the phone did laugh at my last minute request, but he did make it work with a pretty minimal wait. I guess the car trouble was a bit of a blessing because now it’s was late enough in the day that Mr. Gatsby could join in. Outside of Uma, Mr. Gatsby is pretty much Princess’ favorite person on Earth. 

The proposal happened over dessert. Uma said yes and Mr. Gatsby pulled his phone out to update Uma’s contact to read, “Sister in law.” Turns out we also make the waitresses day, because this was her first proposal in 25 years in the restaurant industry. I guess this was a big day for everyone. 🙂