"Holy Cow!"

That was the response I got today from a faculty member in my FNP program.

And no, she wasn't saying it to praise my efforts at school. But it still made me smile really big.

Today I spent a few hours in a neighboring town helping to complete physical exams for kids who are planning to attend the Head Start program in the fall. I enjoyed putting my NP skills to work in a less-formal setting than I've been in lately. Plus, the kids were awesome. But this had little to do with the above exclamation.

A first-year FNP student and I were paired up to work together. As we were setting up our assigned room, the faculty member entered and struck up a conversation. It went something like this:

"How are you, Laurel Lee?"

"Great. How are you?"

"I'm good, thanks for asking. So, are you engaged yet?"

"Actually, I'm married. I got married last summer."

Then, empathically and enthusiastically: "Holy cow! Didn't you just start dating that guy?"

I explained that when she met Robert in March 2009 (I introduced Robert to her when we discovered we were attending Wicked the same night), we had been dating for six months, that we'd started dating before I started the FNP program, that we got engaged two weeks after she met Robert. After a little more explanation, she responded with, "Congratulations! When you know, you know!"

Her initial reaction to my declaration that I'm married was awesome. I can't quite explain why. From one personal conversation when she knew I was dating Robert, she arrives at the next such conversation and I seemed to have skipped a step.

In her defense, she had a baby in September and just returned to work a month ago. Little did she know, though, that Robert and I were engaged when she taught my class a year ago. :0)

(This instance aside, I've always really valued her interaction with me and my classmates and her teaching style.)

I'm not much for drawing attention to myself, but perhaps she wouldn't have been so shocked had I announced in class last year that Robert and I were engaged. But if I had to do it over again, I probably wouldn't have changed how she found out.