the office

I work as a back-office assistant (RDA) in a pediatric dental office, Irvine Kid's Dentist. My co-workers include Carmen (far left) who works at the front desk, Merissa (center) who is in the back with me, and Maria the office manager. We all started around the same time as interns and have speant around 40 hrs. a week together for over a year now. I'm very grateful to work with people who I not only get along with, but can honestly label as close friends. In this picture, taken about a week ago, we're out with the doctors celebrating Carmen and Merissa's 21st birthdays which were 4 days apart.

As you can see in the picture, all three of us got engaged within the past few months. Carmen was first, and had to endure the rest of us giving her a hard time about sneaking a peak at her ring before her fiance gave it to her. It was also around this time that Darryl slipped-up and confessed that he was planning on trying to get my ring and propose by my birthday, causing me to analyze every move he made and word he said for the next few months with the girls during our lunch hour. One of the doctors in our practice got married last fall, and once she realized that we were all on the brink of planning our own weddings, she fed the obsession with a big stack of her own wedding magazines. They have their own special shelf in our breakroom which we lovingly call "the wedding porn library." For weeks we poured over every one of them, pointing out to each other what we liked and disliked, fantasizing about our own big days.

I don't think anyone else (besides me) was more eager for Darryl and I to get engaged than these two. As much as the suspense was killing me, they also dealt with it everyday as we delved into the agony and ecstasy of wedding planning. The day that it finally happened, they were the first ones who got a text message of the announcement, and also the first to reply back their enthusiasm.

It was another two months before Merissa received her ring on her birthday in April. Needless to say, being the last to get it when you know it's coming soon isn't easy. Carmen and I were about ready to call her fiance, Brad, and demand to know what he was up to because it was killing all of us. But she finally got her wish, and she can finally pose with her (huge!) ring right with us.

Maria the office manager, on the other hand, is the perpetually single one, and gives us the hardest time out of anyone for getting married so young, or at all for that matter. So if anyone knows any tall, blonde, super hot guys who are looking for a date, let me know!

So congrats guys! Our waiting is finally over!