Sneaky, Sneaky

Well, this is a few days late in coming. Christina is here now and we celebrated her birthday by going to Blarney Castle (she kissed the stone) and Cahir Castle, by having dinner at some of our friends' house and to Kilfenora for a lovely session. We're off tomorrow to the Burren and the Cliffs of Moher.

I have to tell the tale of last weeks visitors. Jen was here for about 10 days and her boyfriend Eric conspired with us to surprise her while she was here. That had been in the works since December. Well, 4 days before Jen arrived I get an email that says he wants to propose as soon as he sees her here and asks for some help on this end. So, I set off on a quest for a castle to be the setting of this romantic moment. I settle on the ruin of Rossmanagher castle in the hills of county Clare only 10 minutes from the airport and fully in the middle of nowhere.


So Jen arrives and we are having a lovely time for 4 days. We talk a good deal about her & Eric and I censor every word out of my mouth so that I don't accidently let on that he's coming or that he has every intention of "committing" to this relationship. So, Tuesday rolls around and Eric's flight is due that afternoon. After a nice hike in the Burren and a scenic day, Jen is exhausted but I drag her to just "one more place... a cool castle ruin" before we "meet Blayne and Lori for dinner". We pull up the road and Jen says "I guess we have to go inside". I'm skipping down the road to the castle and being silly. Jen had NO idea what awaited, which is just glorious because she's so hard to surprise.

I walked inside first and said she should come check this out... it's really pretty... someone lit candles. She walks in and sees some guy in the corner and thinks we're interrupting a proposal and keeps on walking. Eric finally gets her to stop as he talks to her and it slowly dawns on her that its him, not just "some guy". So I take a picture of the sunset outside while Jen is freaking out, crying and saying yes inside. The next few days were spent with many moments where Jen would recall our conversations before he got here and exclaim, "you knew!! and you didn't let on!" She pretended to be mad at me, but I'm pretty sure she'll forgive me.

So, its in the works. JenEric are gonna tie the knot. It's pretty exciting stuff I must say. I'm pretty happy for my friends and glad I could play a part in what is about the most romantic proposal I've ever heard of. Well, I'm off to the doctor now-I've been sick for over a month now, so I'm guessing that I need some meds to get rid of it. I'm going to be home next week and I can't be sick for all that! Looking forward to seeing lots of you very very soon. I'll be in Nashville Thursday night through Sunday morning and then Greeley Sunday to Tuesday. Yipee! Very excited to be back on that side of the pond for a bit.