Dabamf said:
Your search for a good gift led you to consider an engagement ring. Bad start.
Huh? They"ve been discussing marriage for awhile now from the sounds of it. It"s not like this would be out of the blue or that it was solely germinated by the need to find a gift. It"s been on both of their minds for awhile, and from the sounds of it they"re both down with it.
It"s impossible for any of us to say whether or not it"s a good idea Aria. I"d say that 2 years is easily enough time if you"re in your mid 20"s. But they only people who can answer this question are you, your woman, and perhaps some close friends or family.
That said, I think it"s ridiculous to get engaged with no intention of marrying for 3-4 years. If you get engaged, it"s because you"re going to get married within a year IMO. Otherwise you"re just in some retarded limbo between dating and married.
Now, back to me:
Me said:
I think I"m supposed to go paddle boating with a girl next weekend, but I"m not clear on that.
So my friends were kind enough to fill me in on the details, since I was too drunk to remember what happened. We were hanging out in the beer gardens, getting quite drunk, and one of my friends basically started auctioning off the single guys to a couple groups of girls we"d been hanging with. The only part I remember very vaguely is at one point having my ass groped by half a dozen girls at once. Apparently when I was up for auction one girl approached my friend and said she was interested.
Somehow it was decided that her winning bid (I have no idea if there were actual bids) would include me taking her paddle boating at a park, along with a picnic lunch. I was not a party to any of this at all. From what I recall I was talking with some other friends and my bud and one of the other girls came up and were like "hey, this is Sarah. You"re taking her out next weekend" and informed me of the nature of the date. We exchanged numbers and parted ways since the gardens were closing for the night. The next day a couple of her friends right away were asking if I was gonna call her, what did I think, etc etc. There was another point where I was standing in line with a couple friends for food, and she and three of her friends were standing about 50 feet away in a semi-circle all facing me and quite obviously talking about me (I pretended to not notice them through the crowd of people). I spent most of the day actually watching music for once, but when I got to the gardens and sat down with some people I knew sure enough she was sitting 15 feet away halfway facing me. Turns out she"s quite cute, and I could tell she was nervous as hell. I gave her a smile and wave and was gonna go over to chat, but when I looked around she had left. I texted her:
Me: Hey! Did you leave the fest?
Here: Hey! Yeah I did. I made plans to see a friend, so left a bit early. I didn"t even say bye, sorry!
Me: No worries, will chat this week.
Her: Yeah for sure, have a good night!
So my question on this is, do I do the paddle boat thing? Seems like a pretty grand romantic gesture for a first date. Dial it back to a quick drink or bite to eat? Or just go all in?