Hi! I’m Heidi. I will be publishing occasionally on this site. You may know me as someone who likes the Seattle Seahawks, cats, and tasty food. I also like Mal kind of a lot. We got married this past weekend.

As Mal has told you, we spontaneously got engaged on a road trip to visit my college roommate. Mal’s grandma’s rings were waiting for me in Australia, but it did not seem right to call ourselves an “engaged couple” without something on my finger. We decided a trip to the mall was in order.

Something to know about me is that I have a lot of social anxiety. This surprises some people, because I am a very friendly person, and I have a very social occupation. One thing that makes me particularly uncomfortable is sales pressure. The last thing I wanted as Mal and I tried to pick out a ring for me was a salesperson in a jewelry store trying to show me a bunch of flashy diamonds that were out of our price range.

We tried looking at the bigger department stores, where there are few-to-no designated jewelry sales staff, but I really was not seeing anything I liked. It became clear that we would need to go to an actual jewelry store if I wanted to find something that would not turn my finger green. So, my roommate came up with an idea. We would pretend to be looking for a ring for our mother’s birthday, and our mother happened to have the same taste and finger shape as me.

This was very effective (at least for relieving my anxiety, if not fooling the saleswoman). I found something acceptable in sterling silver, determined the correct size, and found out they could have it ready by the next day. The problem came when it was time to pay. Mal wanted to buy the ring, but my roommate and I had not exactly worked him into our story. We decided it made the most sense if he was introduced as our brother. It look some fast thinking, but we were able to explain away his accent by claiming that, being the oldest, he had spent many years away from the United States.

So yes, our engagement began with a big, fat lie. But hey, all’s well that ends well. Here is a photo of the silly thing.