rules of engagement

a big announcement is cruising around the globe, and it finally reached little old me yesterday:
brad and ivy and going to get married.
well, at least they're engaged.
I think they'll get married.

even though she has said loudly and clearly, more than one time, I'm not the marrying kind.

it all comes down to never say never.

doesn't it?

I first became acquainted with brad and ivy during power camp 2 winters ago. brad is your typical, hunky, fit, clean-cut minnesotan who now lives in our earthly version of heaven, utah. ivy is a petite brunette fireball, quick-witted and quick-muscled, game for any adventure brad or the world might throw her way.
ivy played lacrosse in college (which would be MIT), and ivy sells airplanes for a living.
ivy is no wallflower: no shrinking violet aspects to that girl.
they do "adventure sports" vacations: would you care to take a guess about what those are? I'll tell you this: they all involve dirt and sweat and things like mountain biking, kayaking, and trail running, one after the other after the other until any normal human would drop like a towel-whipped fly. in addition, they road bike like crazy, doing those centuries just for fun on a given saturday morning, and flying past me on the 200+ mile rides. they smile and say hi, then brad throws the tiniest bit more quad into his pedal stroke, and I am left to eat their dust.

they are on the upper end of being kids, as brad has passed the big 4-0 mark, and ivy is a generous half-dozen years behind him. but this slows them down not at all. this year they are both instructors of power camp, which means not only are they fit enough to take and perform well at the classes, they are at a level where they can teach the darn things. (which means they can both DO the work and BREATHE well enough to be able to TALK while they're doing it . . . a feat I only dream of performing.)

back to the engagement.
I am happy for them, because as great a couple as they have always appeared to be, there is just something even cooler about a couple who is willing to take that huge step and plant their relationship in the sacred ground of commitment.
everyone who knows them knows them as brad-and-ivy, so there will be little change for us outsiders who look in.
but for them it will be different, in ways that only they will perceive and experience.

I hear the universe clapping it's hands in joy and anticipation of another deepening commitment to experience all of what comes with couplehood.

way to go, you two.