Girl please

I swear I've never ever gotten as much attention from random girls I don't even know since getting engaged. I don't know if it's the ring, my age, or the glowing light that constantly shines around me (yeah right)... but SOMETHING about the fact that you're officially getting married serves as the strongest magnet for "girlfriends". I've been so caught off guard by how outwardly giddy every girl is over this. I mean yes, of course I'm about to explode with excitement every second of the day, but I don't always show or tell that! It's been the strangest thing and I've got not one, not two, not even three but FOUR different stories for you:

1. I was just doing some wedding brainstorming in my notebook during my speech communication class (the class I have officially renamed "Wedding 101"). I noticed the girl sitting in front of me glancing back every two seconds, with every glance her staring became more and more obvious. She then proceeded to scoot her desk back toward mine making it obvious that she wanted to see what I had come up with. She asked just about every question you could think of related to the topic: how Joel & I met, how he proposed, when's the wedding, what are your colors... It was exhausting. I won't even go into the fact that this was all DURING the lecture. Grant it, yes, I was taking notes about the wedding rather than good public speaking skills but come on girl, the professor is RIGHT THERE!

2. My partner for my publication design class noticed my ring when we introduced ourselves, and again asked all the general questions. Next class I came in and we began discussing the details of our project when she interrupted with "I'm sorry, but I have a question non-design related... Can I take a picture of your ring?" I sort of gave her this blank stare for a few seconds before snapping out of it with "Oh yes! Sorry, of course you can...?" She must have caught on to how weird this was because she then proceeded to tell me ALL about how she and her friend plan their weddings every day, and this girl had guts because she even admitted that neither of them are dating anyone. She promised her friend she'd send a picture of my ring, and after doing so her friend responded with a text saying "Daaaayyummm tell her I said congratulations!" Quietly to myself: Ummm..... tell her thanks....?

3. I walked into my photography class and headed to the same seat I'd been sitting in when I was waved down by the girl who had taken the seat next to mine. Let me clarify, she had moved from across the room to take the seat next to mine. Before I could even sit down she blurted out "Ok so I just HAVE to see this ring..." She explained that she's also in "Wedding 101" with me and when we did our class introductions she noticed my ring and decided she had to hear every detail. So for like the bajillionth time I told her everything I'd told all of my other newest girlfriends.

4. In that same photography class a few weeks later we're spread out in random discussion groups. All of the sudden one of the girls in my group completely changes the subject and goes "I don't mean to be super weird but can I look at your engagement ring?" Now clearly she wanted an up close and personal view of the thing because if all she wanted to do was look then she wouldn't have to ask, am I right? "Look... you mean like hold it...?" I responded as I slowly slid it off my finger to allow her to asses the merchandise. Not to mention that this girl was also engaged, it's like come on girl you know the drill by now.

Don't get me wrong, I totally understand and love everyone's excitement over the whole thing. I guess I just wasn't expecting it. To go from never even being given a second look to random girls literally moving their seats to come hear stories and details of my life really is a dramatic change. Part of me wants to be difficult and ask "well why didn't you care about my life before, why now..." But I think I'll withhold and just understand that it IS exciting and if it's something that can bring other people joy in hearing about then I definitely don't mind telling : ) But once again I reminded at how strange the female species is.

(I hope Joel Henderson reads this post and gets served a nice tall glass of pride. Love you.)