Back to work Tuesday

As I'm sure you've heard by now, Darren and I are engaged. For full details, interesting back story and regular updates, check out my wedding blog. (keep checking; things are a little busy right now)

We got home from Edmonton Monday night and to be honest, I was a little nervous going to work on Tuesday. I wasn't sure what kind of reaction I would get. First of all, the majority of my colleagues just recently found out that I was even dating someone. Secondly, there are many views about marriage represented: some have been happily married for years, some are married through common law, some are single, some have had bad relationships and one seems to be turned off of marriage altogether.

I thought I would test out my storytelling skills on the ride there with Lyla but she had so much to say (we hadn't seen each other since Thursday; a lot can happen over a weekend!!) that I only got a chance to give a very rushed rendition. That didn't help my nerves at all.

But actually, I didn't have to tell anyone. The first thing my office mate (cubical mate?) did was check out my hand...it was like she was expecting to find an engagement ring there. She made a big fuss, which led to more commotion and the word spread like wildfire among the 5 of us who were actually there at 8:20 this morning. After teaching 4 hours in a row, I came back to the office and started eating my lunch. At that point, my bosses came in, already having heard (sensed? Can women really do that?) the news and that created another round of hugs and squeals and people popping up from all over the office to see the ring and congratulate me.

I'm not sure how I'm so clueless as to not have known that Darren was going to propose when my office mate and boss seemed to have been in the know. But then again, not everyone was in on anything. A little later the office assistant / secretary, with whom I've eaten lunch on a number of occasions, asked, "So, who's the lucky guy?" Oops.

Anyway, that was very nice, but my favourite part is still to come. A colleague instructed her class, "...and the other piece of homework is to scrutinize Larissa and figure out what is different with her today." I'm glad she warned me!

I got to my reading class 2 minutes late (that happens sometimes...shhh!) and when I entered I was greeted by applause and cheering. So what did I do? Turn around and walk right out the door. I re-entered to the same reaction. I guess they had figured it out. I asked how everyone knew and they all turned and pointed to the quiet one in the corner. It's always the quiet ones, eh?

One student pulled up my chair, asked me to sit down and proceeded to ask a number of questions like "So, where were you really yesterday?" and "What did he say to you?" Actually, they took turns asking questions until the entire story came out. They were so curious - it was a nice teachable moment.

I'm sure things will get back to normal soon.

Perhaps my favourite moment was when a collegue came into my cubical shouting, "You're marrying the Meter Reader?" And his buddy responded with, "That's great! Now we can joke about little meter readers!" Sigh...I love my job...usually.

P.S. Sorry for the delay in posting this blog. We didn't want our close friends to find out this way. If this is the first you've heard of any engagement plans, sorry I missed you!