Congratulations, Paula and Jeff!

When your best friend calls you and leaves a message saying, "call me back, I really need to talk to you," and her usual voicemails are more along the lines of "just calling to say hi, call me back whenever," it's a safe bet that she has BIG LIFE NEWS to share. In this case, Paula called me on Sunday and left that voicemail, but I was napping on the couch and missed the call. Upon hearing that she "really" needed to talk to me, I immediately grew suspicious. Yesterday, our other friend Jamie, who never calls me, called me, and I refused to pick up, growing more suspicious that I knew what Paula's news was, and afraid that Jamie didn't know that I didn't know and would spoil the surprise. I wanted to hear it from Paula, you know? I even made Eric call into my voicemail to listen to Jamie's message to make sure it was innocuous -- which it was, but that only made me more suspicious...

I finally got to talk to Paula earlier today, for about 2 minutes, and it's confirmed -- she's engaged! I called Jamie back afterward, and we had a nice, long talk about it, among other things, but I don't get to hear the full story from Paula until after 11 tonight, when she gets out of her ER shift. I couldn't be happier for her and Jeff!