I've been trying to steer this thing away from being too much of a journal because I felt like I was having too many diary-like entries for a while there.  But it does seem worth noting that I officially got engaged yesterday.  

For a lot of my life I have been indifferent to or even actively hostile towards the concept of marriage.  Given that something like 50% of marriages end in divorce I didn't really see it as a symbol of everlasting love and that it was really kind of just bullshit legal documentation.  I disagreed with the notion that the state should have to sanction your relationship.  I still kind of feel that way, but it's just sort of the way things work.  The legal aspects such as insurance and taxes and god forbid being able to make hospital visitations and medical decisions were a decisive factor for me that it's probably a good idea to just make it official.  Oh yeah, and of course the whole not having to testify against each other thing.  :)

There used to be such a thing as common law marriage and if you lived with someone for a certain amount of time, you were considered legally married.  Apparently now they want you to go through the official channels and jump through the hoops and pay the fees, all of which I still kind of feel is bullshit, but it is what it is.  For all intents and purposes we have been married for a long time already, but it's time to cross the t's and dot the i's so to speak.  So we're taking the plunge.