The past 10 days have been a whirlwind. It started last Monday when my car started making a weird noise, and my mechanic told me in no uncertain terms that I needed to get rid of it immediately. I was kind of sad, to be honest. I had driven that silver 2002 Cavalier for seven years. But it was trashed. The backseat and trunk were strewn with water bottles, half-knitted blankets, quilts, Goodwill donations, Cheez-Its, work receipts, and one metric ton of golden retriever hair–and I totally loved it. I took a journey to 139,000 miles of glory with that car, all the way around the Southeast, as far West as Wyoming, and to Washington, D.C., a time or two.

Anyway. Let’s not wax sentimental about the car. I spent Monday and Wednesday nights at car dealerships until 10 p.m., arguing with pushy salespeople until I finally picked out my new road trip companion: A blue 2012 Nissan Versa. Daniel argued with the finance guy for two straight hours, catching every glitch and fudged number, until we walked out the door with the car–$3,500 less than the sticker price with tax, title, and everything included. I wanted to marry him.

Of course, that part came later. But not before his dog ate a metric ton of sugar-free gum, which is now made with a chemical sweetener called xylotol. Xylotol, they say, is completely safe and healthy for humans, but it actually causes liver poisoning in dogs. I don’t even want to get into the fact that the FDA approves chemical ingredients like this into our food. So I won’t. But suffice it to say that from Thursday afternoon until Saturday morning, I spent lots of time with Gibson at the animal hospital.

By Friday, I was exhausted. Somehow, I had managed to lose a car, buy a new one, drive a total of 200 miles getting the dog back and forth to his veterinarian–and I had interviewed for and been offered a country music blogging position at TasteofCountry.com. There was paperwork to process and things to put in place.

I wanted to stay in and order Chinese food, but Daniel just had to go to the lake for a picnic on Friday night. And he asked me to marry him right there by the water, and I excitedly accepted. There are a lot of other details, but I won’t bore you with them. After the engagement, we went to Rumours East (our fave wine bar) for a glass of champagne. I thought we would just have one drink and then go home for sweatpants and another bottle of wine. Except when we got to the bar, 30 of our favorite people were waiting there to toast our future together. It was completely awesome.

All that to say, I’m back. I’m a country music blogger now, and I have a ring on my finger. Let’s see what’s next.

This was taken right before we went to Rumours. I had no idea I would see my best friends that night.

Courtney and Sam. Two of my favorite people.

My ring in its box. Both made in the 1920s.