There are only a few things on my Stuff to Grab When Fleeing a House Fire That Aren’t Alive List. While I honestly try to dedicate myself to the beliefs that material things are just things pretty much religiously, I know that there are a few objects that I feel I would lose a piece of my heart if they went missing. (So the materialist thing is something I’m working on. Probably for a while.) Two of those objects came to me this week, but I just want to talk about one.

(I feel like I’m speaking in stark, Hemingway-esque sentences that feel utilitiarian and cold. Please excuse that as I’m working off a couple hours sleep and I feel that if I veer from the facts, I’ll oversentimentalize everything and make it unreadable and/or dismissably melodramatic.)

When Greg and I found out we were pregnant, we were four months into our relationship, one week away from graduation and rather directionless in our plans for postgrad living. He proposed to me a few days later which, ordinarily, I would’ve scoffed at but, being that I kinda already knew I wanted to be with him a while, it didn’t rattle me too much, even though I still have questions about the logistics of marriage as an institution.

Anyway, he was waiting on his murphy bed in the tiny studio apartment we’d spent most of the last few months together. I’d just come out of the bathroom, probably experiencing the first of many disgusting pregnancy-related bodily phenomena. He asked me to marry him and, when I accepted, he pulled out a ring he’d fashioned out of two bread bag twist-ties, that even had a little customized mini-sculpture on top to act as the “jewel.” I wore this proudly until he insisted on buying me a real diamond with all the money he received for graduation. (I really did fight him on that.)

Our first anniversary is coming up in two days and, being that neither of us have no patience, we went ahead and exchanged gifts a few days ago. I received the ring again, now coated in a metal-based enamel, in its own display case. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen more precious jewelry.