Brack: Well, that's a story all on its own, really. I've been a moderator on an interactive website for former and current ATI students for about 2 years now...
Julie: And I only joined the site about 3 months ago.
Brack: Yeah, she joined the site, then made some comments that caught my attention, so I checked out her bio and asked some of my south Texas friends if they knew her... Nobody did, so I just had to wait until I got a chance to respond to one of her posts...
Julie: Little did I know he was doing all this "detective work" on me...
Brack: Haha... yeah...
Narrator: Wow... so when did all of this take place? When was the first contact made?
Brack: Well...I was actually keeping an eye out on Julie's posts, and noticed a comment that she made on a thread about how the moderators were out there watching... I commented that we were indeed, and that was pretty much the start of our relationship.
Julie: Well, I didn't really consider it the start of the relationship, but it definitely got my attention... WOW! I had drawn the attention of one of the moderators to my little thread... and I'd only been on the site for a month!
Brack: Except that it wasn't the comments I was watching...it was her...
Narrator: HAHAHA! That's awesome. So when was that?
Brack: That was the evening of March 5th. After that, we just started going back and forth quite a bit on that thread and the song thread. After some decent flirting, I went to bed, and when I got up the next morning, I found out that she'd added me to her contact list on Yahoo and MSN Messengers.
Julie: But actually, it was the morning of March 5th that we had "first contact", when Brack guessed a song that I had posted lyrics to. It was the song "1985" by Bowling for Soup, which got us in the 80s mood... and we went back and forth on that. Of course, Brack was giving me a hard time about having to Google some of the lyrics. My excuse was having been an ATI student or out of the country during the eighties, and that I am only now starting to catch up!!
Narrator: OK, so you had some clever banter going on in the Name The Song thread, with some interaction on a few other threads... So that's how all that was!! So then how did you guys transition from going back and forth on threads to deciding that the conversation, or, rather, the relationship, was going further?
Julie: The RELATIONSHIP? All I know is that, after staying up all night bantering with Brack (and remember: I was eight time zones ahead of him) and then teaching English and doing a follow-up program with orphans all day the next day...I REALLY had to crash that next night. But I did get up early the following morning to get on Messenger and the Crossings to see what people were up to. I didn't have to be at work until 11:30 that morning, so I thought I'd get a few good hours in before people Stateside headed off to bed. First thing that pops up on my screen, though, is a message from "tehSaint" asking me, "So, did ya sleep?"!! And that was the beginning of that, although I certainly wasn't looking at it as a relationship yet...but I think Brack already was...hehehehe
Brack:
Narrator: But, still...we want to know how the transition occurred.
Brack: Well, a few days after we began to talk on messenger, Julie asked me where I thought all this talking was going. Of course, the ultimate end isn't something you typically want to bring out in conversation with a girl you've only flirted with for a week or so, but, regardless of my former inhibitions and total lack of desire to commit to anything - I decided to mention the possibility of marriage.
Julie: Of course, it took him a while to get the "M" word out!!
Brack: I say it now with relative ease...hehehehe
Narrator: WHOA! One week into chatting over instant messenger, and the word "marriage" comes out?!?! Isn't that just a little premature?
Brack: I don't think so. Honestly, I wasn't interested in forming some vague idea of a relationship with someone that never went anywhere and never matured. There were never any games between me and Julie - we were just ourselves. That translated into a lot of trust and comraderie that you would otherwise miss out on in the beginnings of the relationship.
Julie: And I certainly think that the fact that we chatted for two months, well, almost, before meeting face to face, really helped in the forming of the relationship. I know it sounds weird, but all that talking...
Brack: A little over 160 hours in the first three weeks, by the way...
Julie: Yup. All that talking, without the physical stuff getting in the way definitely helped us get to know each other better, I think. A lot of couples who have that "face time", going out on dates, smooching (hehe), etc. kind of miss out on really getting to know so much about each other when they let that physical side of the relationship get started so soon. With Brack and I, well, we really learned a lot of things about each other. You know how they say that opposites attract and all that stuff? Brack and I are just so much alike it's crazy.
Brack: And it was the similarities that allowed us to discover more about each other, because we were able to bounce off those similarities onto other subjects, giving us a pretty wide variety of things to discuss.
Narrator: What similarities? Just what is it that makes you guys "click" together so well?
Julie: Well, let's see...we're both the oldest in our family...
Brack: Both left-handed...
Julie: Both casual people...we live in our Docs...hehe...
Brack: Both of us have the same spiritual gift and the same love language.
Julie: Wanna know something funny?
Narrator: What's that?
Julie: Well, I saw a picture the other day of Brack...from WAY back...your typical ATI picture.
Brack: Except the bright shining eyes part.
Julie: The suit, the ATI pin, the serious expression...
Brack: Wow!! She didn't even list the GLASSES in the first three things...
Julie: I was getting to that.
Brack: And it's taken ALL this time for me to find her. hehehe
Julie: Yeah, yeah...
Narrator: So, we've established that you guys waited a week of talking before discussing marriage. And you put off getting engaged until you actually saw each other in person?
Brack: Actually....at one point, Julie had to ask me if I was on a knee...LOL!
Narrator: That was before you guys met?
Brack: Yeah - we were just chatting over messenger, so she couldn't actually see me...it was pretty funny!!
Narrator: So you met in person when?
Julie: On Wednesday, April 26th, and I didn't even say "I love you" until later that night...couldn't believe his reaction!! Come to find out, he'd decided to not propose until I'd said that.
Brack: There was a lot hanging on those three seemingly small words!! I was stressing pretty heavy...haha!! Of course, I already had the ring. We had discussed promise rings, styles on engagement rings, things like that, so I knew exactly what I was after, and Thursday, April 20th, I went and got the ring.
Julie: My guy is a sneaky guy!! He told me to bring some dressy clothes and be ready for a night on the town on the Monday before I headed back to Romania, so I figured if anything was going to happen, it'd be then. I knew he was going to talk to my dad that first weekend, so that was no surprise...
Brack: It was something of a surprise for me, though!! I knew I wanted to talk to Mr. Seale, but how that came about was rather interesting. We made it out to Julie's family's old farmhouse out in East Texas on Thursday, April 27th, and everybody is just kind of chatting in the living room, when, all of a sudden, and pretty much out of the blue, Mr. Seale looks at me and asks, "So, have you asked her yet?" Julie turned beet red, and buried her face in my shoulder, as I very calmy replied, "No, sir. Figured I'd talk to you about that first." Then he replied, "So, would you like to go grab some coffee or something tomorrow?" To have it put so bluntly actually was a lot less nerve-wracking than I'd expected it to be.
Narrator: So that pretty much put aside any nervousness on your part, then? Just knowing that he was already thinking about it?
Brack: It SHOULD have!! But the scope of what I was doing really hit home, and I was pretty nervous until after I'd proposed.
Julie: So yeah...he went on into town with my dad the next morning. I knew that he was asking my dad's blessing and such....but still I was thinking that if he proposed on this trip that it would be when we dressed up and went out a couple days before I left, so I thought nothing of it when Brack asked me if I wanted to go on a walk whenever they got back. We had gone on a walk the day before...it is just something you do when you are in the country...you go for walks!!
Brack: Well, before we get to that. I'd had in my mind that today would be the day, so early in the morning, I'd gone out to get the ring out of my backpack. I didn't want it just loose in my pocket, though, and I didn't want to carry the box with me, so I took the battery out of my cell phone, wrapped the ring in a tissue, and put it in the back of the phone. It was pretty secure in there.
Narrator: So you had the ring the whole time, even when you were talking to her dad?
Brack: Yup. I wasn't sure if I'd have time to just nonchalantly wander out to the car without anybody wondering what was going on.
Julie: Me being as clueless as I was, I wouldn't have noticed anything!!
Brack: Yeah, but the guy isn't really thinking logically at that point, I've discovered!! hehehe
Narrator: Ok, so you guys went on a "walk". Please, continue...
Julie: We walked across the meadow and back into the old pine orchard...
Brack: Well, before we got that far, her mom told her little brother Andrew to not follow us out there...
Julie: Which he took as a challenge to change into his camos, put dirt on his face, and grab his camera and follow us...
Brack: Yeah, there were a few "pre-engagement" photos that he managed to snap...
Julie: But we confiscated his film!!
Brack: So during this time, I'm trying to get the ring out of the cell phone. I get the ring out just fine, I just can't get it away from the tissue!! In fact, at one point, I get the ring and tissue in my hands, and I'm trying to hug her, but not let her know that I've got anything in my hands. Then she reaches back and grabs one of my hands, fortunately not the hand that had the ring in it, and leads me on further into the pine orchard. Finally, I get the tissue separated from the ring, and hooked over my finger, and I just started shaking...
Julie: I had my arms wrapped around his waist, and just felt him shaking, and mentioned something about it...
Brack: I figured at that point it was now or never...besides, we were in this spot that had no visible cow patties and a nice floor of pine needles...so I answered and said, "Well, that's probably because I've still got to..."
Julie: Then he dropped to BOTH knees, I guess he was begging...
Brack: I was...
Julie: And said...
Brack: "Will you marry me?"
Julie: I was speechless, which is not a common occurence!!
Brack: She did manage to get a "yes" out...
Julie: I gasped it out...
Brack: And that's when I brought the ring out and asked her if she'd wear it. I never actually got anything more than a tear-filled head nod (which I prudently decided to interpret as a "yes")!!
Julie: Then I really started crying...
Brack: It probably wasn't more than a minute or two...but it really felt like it was at least five minutes. All the nervousness and trepidation was gone...life was awesome, and I know that the memory of that moment will last forever in my mind.
Julie: My sentimental guy...you gotta love it!!
Narrator: Wow. So that's the story, huh?
Brack: That's the story.
Narrator: Sap.
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