ToshaQ

Meet Greg

This is the love of my life Greg is 23 and is nick named Cookie. His grandfather was the first Cookie, as their last name is Cooke (with an “e”). I don’t call him Cookie, but his entire family does, along with his friends. We have been dating seven years in July. Could you believe, as madly in love with him as I am, that I was totally not into him when we first met?!

We first met at Arby’s, where we both worked, in high school. We went to two separate high schools in our area and when I first met him I thought he was adorable, but totally not my type. In high school I had a pager - as I’m sure every one did - and I thought I was sooo cool. He must have too, because he also had one and constantly paged me for a call back. A week or so passed and he finally confronted me asking why I had not yet answered his pages. I lied telling him that I wasn’t that into dating guys from work, when really I just wasn’t really that into him.

So finally, he made me PROMISE that I would call him back one day if he paged. This is after I had been flirting a little bit with him and told him I never break a promise. How cleaver of me. He wouldn’t leave me alone! I had to give him some sort of chance. He did just as expected and paged me the morning that we were both off. He just made small talk, and I was sort of snobby asking what the point was if we could just talk at work. He asked me to meet him at work in 20 minutes and he’d take me to a movie.

We met at work and he asked if I would like to see his house and that he has some old school Sega games that he thought I’d love. Which is adorable because he asked earlier that week if I liked video games. I replied with , “Psssh, only if its super Nintendo or Sega!” I remember him specifically telling me he had a console, but lost all his games. So I thought to myself how he must have gone out a bought a few for this occasion.

Turns out he had, and we spent an hour playing some Sega Bowling game. We were upstairs in his room, and after an hour of play I was pooped and let him play some old school football game. He lied across his bed and layed his head in my lap asking if I was comfortable. I said yes and let him play for about 10 minutes before getting bored. I was looking around his room and noticed his 50+ baseball caps he had hanging on the ceiling border along his room so I sparked some interest in them asking about different ones. He paused his game and turned to his back so he could look me in his eyes and I bent over and kissed him on his forehead. I opened my eyes and he had a really puzzled look on his face and I quickly appologized. He got up out of my lap and asked why I was apologizing and I told him that he looked surprised.

After hours of making out, and an “I Love You” that he whispered in my ear that I pretended to not to hear, he declared me his girlfriend without asking my approval. I loved his attitude, and the fact that he didn’t give up until he got what he wanted. Reminded myself of me.

Three days later, he told me he loved me again as we were walking out of Foley’s. I looked at him and asked what he meant. He told me he had never felt so connected with another person and said, “I love you, Natosha”. It made me giggle and I said, I love you too.

Nearly seven years later, I can still remember the Michael Jordan cologne he was wearing and how he was just shaven, but had a 5 o’clock shadow. We went to college together where we had a rough two years fighting non-stop, but ended up really learning a lot about each other and falling even more in love which I never thought was possible. We graduated this past summer and moved back home. Currently I’m living with my father and him with his mother and we’re just waiting for his mom to buy a new house so we can buy her town home.

As stated in previous posts, we’re going to be engaged within the next few months I hope! I absolutely love and adore everything about him. After so long, I always thought I’d lose interest… but I still have those same butterflies and feelings I did that early summer afternoon making out on his bed after playing Sega Genesis. *swoon*

Oh My God, you guys!!!
Greg and I just got home from going to Shane Company. Which, I don’t know if it’s an exclusive Colorado diamond store or what… but it’s the best - I think - in our area. I found THE ring. The lady that was helping us was SO nice. I love that they don’t work on commission so they don’t pressure you to buy anything. Her eyelashes - oh my god. even Greg was like, WOW your lashes are really long. I invited her into MAC to get her makeup done. She’s absolutely so stunning! Anyways…

Starting off with ring hunting, I thought I wanted something really extravagant. You know three stone ring with a huge princess diamond in the middle. Or something really unique like intertwined bands, etc etc. And yes… I do… but SOMEDAY. I knew how expensive these rings are… but I also need to keep in mind if I want this to happen in the next few months we need to lower our budget a bit. Greg says he has everything all planned out. And if things “roll into place” like he needs them to, we’ll be engaged in no time.

So the ring. OMG! It’s BEAUTIFUL. It started out as just a solitare. Which, I knew I didn’t want. But the band was only $160 for crying out loud. So, I said to the lady, “Say I want this band… how can we spice it up, because it’s too plain for me.” So, she showed me a couple of “wraps”. It has two diamonds on the side and there’s a little hole for the solitare to sit in. So it looks like a 3 stone ring, but it’s like… a quarter of the price. So, I found a .52 carat princess cut that is really clear and close to flawless for only $900. Total with tax it’ll be about $1800. TCW will be about .75. The “wrap” is supposed to be the wedding band, but we’re going to sadder it together and then get a custom wedding band. Because I’ve always wanted our birthstones in my wedding band. Oh AND the best part, which made me fall in love with it more, is that they’re going to turn the diamond so it’s in a diamond shape instead of a square shape. KWIM? I gasped so loud when they said they could do that I scared the old lady next to me.

EEEEE!!!! I’m so excited!!! He wanted to look around some more at other places because he wanted it to be a surprise. But I fell so in love with it that I said I don’t care if its a surprise. That’s the one I want! Whew, my morning started out GREAT!

Does anyone have iGoogle? I absolutely love it. When I (used to) update my Moleskine planner, I typically do a quote every day to keep my spirits up - usually about love.

The first quote I see when I logged onto my iGoogle was “Love dies only when growth stops.”
I can’t help but think this is totally true. Greg and I have been together now for almost seven years. The first year of our relationship was bliss - you know, hearts, romance, mushy letters, disgustingly romantic texts/calls/words, & non-stop “I Love You’s”… Then he left for college. The next two years was absolute torture because all we did was fight. We knew we were meant for each other so we couldn’t let go and break up… even if we wanted to… but the fighting and the constant nagging eachother and the screaming - oh god I’m glad that’s over.

Love dies only when growth stops. During that time, our relationship pretty much stopped growing. We grew in a sense of learning A LOT of boundaries and communication issues, yes. But, we didn’t grow in the best way. I thank God every single day that we got through that phase of our relationship because now, we’re happy as can be. Sure we still fight - like every couple does - but we’re just all around much happier.

Now, lets hope we can get a damn engagement ring soon! His best friend is getting married in June. Greg decided to tell me this the morning of Thanksgiving - which basically ruined my day. Joe and I have never really gotten along. There’s just a mutual dislike for one another. Which sucks, because Greg has been the center of many fights. Though I do wish the best for him and his fiance it pissed me off ROYALLY that their two years together trumped our seven and they’re getting married before we’re even engaged. Call it pitiful, but it totally ruined my Thanksgiving.

Joe didn’t even ask Greg to be in the wedding - up until yesterday. Greg was really hurt by it, so he called me at work like, “Guess what! Joe called! Guess what he asked!! He wants me to be in the wedding!!!!” It was the cutest thing in the world. Despite my brain starting to churn at the thought of them being married before us (I know! I’m totally selfish, damn it!) I was so happy for Greg because he was just so relieved. So, I joked with him and said, “Babe, this is your deadline. If we show up at that wedding and I dont have a ring on my finger I’m going to flip my shit!” … only half way joking

I know it’s coming very soon. We were going to get engaged in Vegas, but we couldn’t afford it. I know he’s got something up his sleeve…. I hope it’s sooner rather than later!