Best day ever

Is anybody there? Does anybody still read this? I haven't updated in 6 weeks. That's pitiful. I apologize to all you who are at work and have nothing to read on my account. I apologize for all the breaks you have not been able to justify in order to read this. But, just like always, I have an excuse. I've been busy.

Stop rolling those eyes. I know what you're thinking, "Scott, that's bull. You work for the government and are still in training. There is nothing you could be doing that would prevent you from blogging." That's partially true. I have a backlog of things I want to blog about but this is time relevant. I promise in a more reasonable period of time you will read about mundane things like which blogs I read and funny things I notice in the 757.

Now you are thinking, "So what could possibly be your awful excuse?" I've been planning. If you know me at all, you know that I am not a planner. I'm awful at it. I'm never on time for anything, I'm not good at ironing out all of the details, and I only go over things once which causes me to miss stuff. I'm assuming by now you have rolled your eyes a few more times thinking, "What did Scott plan and how did it go wrong?" I decided awhile back that I wanted to ask my girlfriend, Hannah, to marry me. We have known each other for 2 years and dated for 7 months and she is the coolest girl on the planet. I will not blog any more about why I made this decision. You can simply ask me. Important life details such as this require a more personal conversation, not you reading a blog while drugged up on coffee at 9 am in front of your coworkers.*

After some pondering, I came up with a rough plan: hike and then go eat. Pure genius I know. So refining that plan meant hiking Tinker's Cliffs, a hike we had talked about, and eating at a restaurant nearby called The Homeplace. I asked a buddy of mine what he thought of that plan and he said, "Scott, that's an awesome plan, but you aren't marrying me. You're marrying Hannah." Mmmm, good point. So I thought some more, talked to her friends and made sure that my idea would be something that would honor her and make her feel loved.

So I used the smokescreen of her birthday and a belated Mother's Day celebration to convince her to go to Blacksburg. The "plan" was to go home and celebrate my sister and my mom (both moms) and then hike on Sunday on the way back to the 757. I had my sister call me on our way and say that she would be late to Blacksburg, which meant we had time to hike that day. After some tasty Bojangles, the hike commenced. It was perfect weather. The weatherman the whole week had predicted 70% chance of rain. Thank God (seriously)that the rain held off. About 1/4 mile from the top, I had my sherpa attach pictures of Hannah and I from different points in our relationship to trees. A letter towards the end and me asking a specific question at the top, and we were joyfully moving down the mountain and eating delicious family style food at The Homeplace. This is a brief synopsis and a better story can be read at Hannah's blog, one of the ones I read. Or you could ask me. Pictures will come later, I haven't gotten them yet.

*Also, I don't know who I'm supposed to tell about these things. If this is news to you, I'm sorry. The internet is such an impersonal place to learn of such great news. Thanks for reading.