My girlfriend emailed me this morning to tell me that she is engaged. On one hand, goody for her! I wrote back and told her so and sent along my congrats.

On the other hand, I wonder if this is going to become yet another chapter in her Danielle Steel novel life.

Seriously, this girl could be a mini series. She was raised in a large, loving family. They struggled financially but were very close knit. Due to an indiscretion she had to drop out of college at 19 to play mom. Well, husband #1 turned into a toad so she left him, took daughter home to loving parents. Worked a million jobs at once, went to school full time, pulled off A grades while managing to make the school recitals and help glue together the science project. Husband #2 appeared upon the scene and swept her off her size 5 feet (did I mention she's petite and cute yet?) and then shortly after they married she got a killer job making serious money--all that hard work paid off. Of course the downside was she had to travel a lot and that took a strain on her marriage. Husband #2 was jealous of her successes when he was stuck in the same job and made less money. Exit Husband #2, enter boat loads of guilt, recrimination, self-loathing and becoming a workaholic. After some drama with daughter during the high school angst years and a few brief and unsatisfying relationships she decided she'll never marry again. (Can we see where this is going yet?)

Daughter goes off to college--ivy league, naturally--and she's alone. She moves back near her parents, buys a big house with an in-law setup so they can live with her during their old age. She's still working like mad but now it doesn't mean quite so much; she's unfufilled. And then, on a wedding trip to Ireland for one of her closest friends, she meets him. They start dating across the ocean, going on trips in exotic locales, meeting here and there, burning up their cell phone bills and sending emails like mad. The relationship slowly grows--it's on again, off again for a while, then he nurses her through her midlife crisis and they're ON.

(are you ready?)

He proposed to her in an ancient castle in Ireland, on one knee and everything. She sends out gushing emails en masse to everyone she knows. Details to follow, etc... etc...

Naturally I'm jealous--I mean, who wouldn't want to be proposed to like that? And I am genuinely happy for her. She deserves this kind of happiness. But the skeptic in me is saying 'Hey, wait a minute. Just six months ago you were still moaning about your past mistakes and how determined you were not to be tied to a man again. What happened here?'

(exit to music of 'Things That Make You Go Hmm')