Love is blind

There was a point where every guy I ever was interested in looked like Clark Kent/ Superman to me. One of my favorite episodes of “Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman” had Lois saying to Clark, “Every woman in love thinks her man looks like Superman.”

While I have found my Superman in Addison, I’ve realized he doesn’t quite look like Clark Kent (though he did dress up one Halloween for me).

Still, there have been days where I’m watching a movie or a television show and all of the sudden I’m like, “Hey! That looks like Addison!”

Of course most times, my friends just roll their eyes at me. Like the time I thought Addison looked like Hugh Jackman in Austrailia.

Or there was that time I decided he looked like my favorite journalist, Anderson Cooper. Yeah… no resemblance at all.

But right now? I’m totally convinced he looks like a young Richard Gere.

Come on…you know you see it!

Then again…when I was in New York for months and months, there was that moment I thought Addison looked like a lego character I was working with when assembling a toy for Parents magazine.

Hmm…maybe love is blind? But you gotta admit…that Lego guy is cute!

That “one moment”

Taylor Swift just came on the radio with “Mine.” Now, I know everyone has their own tastes in music but bare with me for a moment. I actually really like this song, not just because I love Taylor Swift, but because I believe that every relationship has that one moment you always look back on when times are rough.

Sure, there are a million and one amazing moments in any given relationship, but don’t you find yourself sweetly reminiscing over a slightly faded memory from the beginning of your relationship?

For me, my Addison moment comes before we even started dating. We had become friends through work and mutual friends. One night, he randomly called me after we had been IMing while I was doing homework. He wanted to get ice cream.

It was around 10:30 at night, and being the prude freshmen I was, I was flabbergasted by the idea. My roommate who never got along with me completely encouraged me to get out of the room (probably because she just wanted to get rid of me, but I digress).

I mean, I had a boyfriend. Sure, not one I particularly liked and didn’t have the courage to break up with him (I had tried to before going to college and then later in October because of an issue).

But it was just ice cream. We were just friends. Why not?

So we went out for ice cream and picked up a pint of Ben & Jerry’s. I honestly don’t even remember the flavor. But he pulled out two spoons and suddenly all rosy with embarrassment like he still does today. One spoon happened to be one of those slotted spoons that are used to strain things… green beans. He was very embarrassed but I joked that I’ll take the “holy” spoon…holey…yeah…our whole relationship is based on bad puns.

We shared the ice cream in the gazebo on campus that’s near a creek and just talked. We talked about everything, laughed, and joked. It was probably one of the most carefree times I’ve ever had in my life.

Now Addison and I are busy all the time. We stress about school, work, money, long distance, family, everything. And of course, sometimes we bicker.

But it’s when I think back to that time where we just simply sat and shared ice cream, I know everything’s going to be okay. I know life is more than paying bills or worrying about work. It’s not even about feeling those butterflies or going out on fancy dates with fancy gifts. It’s about just being together. It’s about just simply being.

And I am more than ecstatic to just simply be with Addison.

How we met…

You can’t really say much in the 300 characters allotted in the Simon G. Jewelry “Perfect Proposal” competition section about “Our Story.” So, I made it more about how while together, we’ve been apart for most of our relationship.

But I always kind of thought that how we met was sweet too. So here it is.

My freshman year I somehow got a job at the Plemmons Student Union at Appalachian State University by the grace of God. I’m pretty sure I snagged the last opening before school started. Most of my shifts were game room shifts, and lucky for me, most of my shifts were during a time where the older students who worked at the PSU who come, chill, and shoot pool.

More than once they had to save me when I would fail the cash register and so we all go to talking and we eventually became friends. They especially bonded over the fact that I turned red int he face over anything sexual (I was a very sheltered 18 year-old).

Eventually they’d laugh and be like, “This is awesome! We have a female Addison!”

Never hearing that name before now, I responded, “What is an addison?”

Turns out, Addison was a student who was gone that semester because he had back surgery. I would hear stories about him and people would compare us all the time.

Then, I met him. Someone introduced us, but we really didn’t get to talking until one day when an older friend, Sam, made the joke that the cash register did not like me because I was virgin. They loved teasing me about how I was a sworn virgin to marriage.

Addison happened to walk up at that moment and said, “Don’t feel bad. They tease me about that too.”

I immediately jumped up and gave him a hug and said, “I love you!”

Addison, who I discovered is super shy 99 percent of the time, turned beet red and stood as stiff as a board.

Later I would find out that is when he said he fell in love with me. I, on the other hand, had a boyfriend. In fact, I would still be unavailable for the next couple of months.

But until then, Addison was probably the best guy friend I ever had (and not in the “I’m-only-here-til-you’re-single-sort-of-way.” That’s probably why he still is my best friend today.

And now I’m going to marry my best friend, except we aren’t engaged yet. We’ve been talking about it seriously since early this past spring when I was still in D.C. When Addison said we could enter the Simon G. Jewelry “Perfect Proposal” comeptition to win a $10,000 ring, I was so excited. Honestly, while the ring is pretty, it isn’t about the ring to me. It’s just one less thing to take a burden off my man.

After all, it’s not the ring I want. It’s him.

(Though I must say, Simon G’s sparklies aren’t half bad)

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