Hey there everyone, I decided that I wanted to share with you a story taht I wrote for my class. I felt pretty darn proud of it and wanted to share it with you! Sorry I haven't blogged in a while, but here ya go! (Everything is going pretty well lately) :)

Tobias Rogan Love is blind

As I lay in bed with the light brown colored blanket thrown across my face, I hear my alarm clock buzzing. I bury myself deep into the blankets and pillows that I sleep with. I open my eyes and see the blanket right in front of my face. I can feel my warm breath bounce back and hit my cheeks. It’s Monday morning. I peak out from underneath the covers, just a little bit. I see the familiar room. My boyfriend is not home.

This time it feels as if my room gives a lonely vibe. I don’t like waking up morning’s when he is not in our bed. Sunlight streaming through the windows leaves a small glow about the room. Books, the scatter of random clothes, miscellaneous coffee mugs, and photo frames scattered about the room. It’s cozy. The dark red walls, light brown ceiling and candles around the room, gives a warm aura about the room. I reach over to my alarm clock and I turn the buzzing sound off. I look at the alarm clock. Beside it stands a photo of my boyfriend and I kissing underneath the stars.

My name is Leo. No last name, just Leo. I am petite sized. 5ft 6. Blonde hair, blue eyes and wearing scarves when it’s warm, I would say I am trendy. My boyfriend and I have been together for 3 years. His name is Jay. Jay Sebastian. He is a blessing in my life. People would say that him being blind would have had a huge impact on our relationship. It does, but in the most absolutely upbeat and successful way possible. We are a pair for sure. I am legally deaf. I lost most of my hearing when I was young. But I was able to save a good half of it with surgery. But that doesn’t prevent us from living our lives with each other. I don’t care that he’s blind. I actually love that feature about him. He reaches out at times and touches my face, and says I’m beautiful.

He works at the local fire department. That being the reason today I woke up alone. Today is a special day. Our anniversary. It felt like yesterday that he walked into my work. I am a nurse at the hospital in our city. New York. It can get pretty busy at times. He came in one afternoon through the emergency. He had splashed some sort of chemical onto his face, causing him to become blind. I quickly learned a lot about him. Inviting him out to coffee after a few months of care giving. I learned that he was an orphan. No family, no support, few friends and new to the city. Naturally, I yearned to help him and get to know him. Finding out he was gay, and single was a surprise at that. Exceptionally straight acting, his tall body, jet-black hair, nearly perfect teeth, and football built body, gave off a vibe of a heterosexual.

Over the next months it went from just coffee and movie dates, to dinner and weekend getaways to his vacation loft in Florida. After two years we moved in with each other. It’s been three years that we have been together. I’ve actually had a planned proposal for nearly 6 months now. You see I don’t want this to be just an average proposal. I have a nearly perfect idea. So today is the day that I’m going to propose to him. I took a deep breath and hopped off the bed and walked into the bathroom. I go to flick on the bathroom light and notice there was a note on the bathroom mirror. A small orange sticky note was stuck on the semi dirty mirror. Written on it were the words, I love you. –Jay. I felt a sigh of relief rush through my body. He still does, love me that is. We just had an argument the other day. But the good thing about our relationship is that we talk through our problems. We don’t yell. We express how we feel towards each other. It’s good for us to spend some time apart, but not too much at least.

I reached over and turned the water on. It warmed up rather quickly. Jay must have showered early this morning when I was sleeping. The remains of some splattered water and a moist washcloth are left in the shower. Sometimes he get’s up incredibly early for work. But working at a Fire Department will do that to a person. As I felt the warm water flow onto my nude body, I felt a sense of happiness and self-assurance that today was going to be a good day. Nervous, no doubt about that but confident. I stepped out onto the cold tile floor. I stand there with drips of water running down the front of my nose and onto the floor. Water trickles down the sides of my shoulders, to the tips of my fingers and down to my toes. I shiver. I wrap the towel around my body. It’s very warm and soft. Nothing like the feeling of my boyfriend with his arms around me though. Can you imagine if he says yes, Fiancée’ will take place of the word boyfriend. He’s already at work, and all his co-workers are in on the proposal.

I decided that I wanted to include the two very important aspects about us. Meaning his blindness and my deafness. Those minor characteristics about the two of us have brought us closer than ever in the last three years. I’ve asked his co-workers at his job to help with my proposal. Because they have been very supportive of our relationship from the very beginning, I feel that is why they have agreed to help. They know that we are happy together. The guys at his work were able to find a school for the blind. I told them I needed to locate a slate and stylus. The tool used to write in brail. Common for those whom are blind. Part of the plan was for his co-workers to deliver the letter that I wrote in brail for him, while he was working.

I know that Jay’s favorite flowers are white orchids. He said that they were his favorite flower because they start off as tiny bulbs and then as they start to grow they blossom. Just like our relationship. You don’t get to see the beauty of the orchid until after it blooms. Just like a relationship, you have to work at it. Jay is always good with his words. He used to call himself a hopeless romantic before he met me. I remember on our second date he complained that he couldn’t see colors anymore. So I decided to change that. I told him he could easily see the colors. I took a boiling pan of water and boiled a rock. Yes, a rock. I told him to hold onto the rock and feel the color. Red. Hot! That is red. I dipped his hands into a cold bucket of water, cold, blue. I then took his hand and draped it against some cotton balls. White, I told him as he felt the cotton between his fingers. That is one of my favorite memories of us when we were dating.

Sitting next to my kitchen table I skimmed through a photo album of Jay and myself. I patiently sat for the long waited cell phone call. I flipped through the photos and went through memory lane in my mind. But to shortly be interrupted, moments later my cell phone rang. It was Christopher Keyes, a friend of mine. He works for a carnival. Chris makes wax hands. So for the past few weeks I have been visiting him downtown and making wax hands. This is all part of my plan. I answer the phone and Chris says that all the hands were done and ready to go. The wax hands were downstairs and ready for delivery. I gave him the address of the Fire department. He then drove off into the busy bustle of New York. I grabbed my jacket. I buttoned up the three rather large buttons attached to it. Opening up the closet nearest the front door, I decide that I wanted to wear my plaid scarf. It goes good with my jacket. I put on a hat, reached up for my keys and walked out into the hallway. I shut the door behind me, locked the two locks, and was off. I arrive at the Fire Department. Good thing that Jay doesn’t see, because this is all part of my plan.

I head out into the back room where the guys all usually eat dinner and watch television and started to unpack the waxed hands. The room is rather big. You walk in and immediately see a large light brown wood table directly center of the room. With white stools all around the table and plenty of dark green cabinets full of food you know that the men here don’t starve. Especially with the fridge completely full with all it’s food. Apparently there aren’t many neat freaks at the Fire Department. Jay has a unique way of organizing everything at home; a familiar way of cleanliness is here. I think they adopted Jay as the maid. His nickname from the guys is Lucy Ricardo. Everything that is clean is lined up how Jay would clean.

I saw the letter on the table. A small smirk came onto my face. He’s going to love this. I went to the loading dock and picked up the box of waxed hands. I pulled out each and every hand and set it atop of the counter, in the proper order. I hear the bustle of guys start to come into the room. I tell them to make certain that Jay is not to come in yet. But of course my boyfriend is Mr. nosy. “Guys I’m blind not deff, you bunch of goofballs” You all are forgetting that I can hear. It’s Leo that can’t. Well at least not as well” Jay yelled out to everyone with a sly giggle on his breath. He’s got a smirk on his face, wearing a dark blue shirt with small yellow logo, and sweat pants he walks in. “Now why is it that I’m not allowed in the common room?” He asked. Nick, a very close friend of ours said in reply “Leo wants you to read a letter, it’s in Brail” ‘But you have to read it out loud!’ Yells one of the other guys. Jay sits on one of the stools. Picks up the envelope. “Holy shit, he actually learned to write in brail” Jay said out loud. Everyone laughed.

They all know how terrible I was at learning how to write in brail, or at least procrastinating like I was. I looked at him, him having no clue that I was there. He had a quaint look on his face. Knowing that I was up to something, but not having a clue. It was rather cute to see him puzzled. He began to read. “Jay: I know your probably thinking, what the hell is going on!? (everyone laughed) No worries, the guys only know 99% of what I have up my sleeve, the other 1% is all a mystery. The last three years have been phenomenal. From when we first met that very day long ago in the hospital, to spending numerous nights just talking all night, I knew that we were bound to be together for a very long time. You know how terrible I am with words, especially when trying to give advice. But this time I am not giving you advice. nearly asking for a favor. You know that I love you from the bottom of my heart and always will. I won’t sit here and beat around the bush, stand up and walk over to the counter there’s another letter over there for you. But this time it’s in a different form of language, sign language. I know that I have had a lot of struggle with learning to write in brail, but you are smart. The guys are here to help you”

He took the letter and sat it back down onto the table. Sat there for a moment and didn’t say a word. In fact he sat there a while and then eventually said out loud, “Aren’t you guys going to show me where the letter is?” They all started to scatter and showed Jay where the wax hands were. I saw him reach out and grab the first hand. “It’s soft…it’s an M” He began to feel for the other letters and read them out loud. “A…. R…. R…. Y…. M…. E….he paused on the last waxed figure. A look of a shock came over his face. He was holding the last one. “I’m having trouble figuring out what this last one is.” he said. At this point in time I had made my way over to where he was standing. I was on my knee. I said to him “It’s a question mark. That specific character is hard to make with a hand.” He looked at me puzzled. Realizing that I was in the room for the first time. I wasn’t up to my normal height. He walked over to me. Stopped, and reached out. Grabbing my face, feeling around, I said “Take my hand.” He felt for my hand and felt the ring. He began to smile. A tear ran down the side of his face. I asked him “So what will it be?” “Yes, I will” came from his mouth. As we went to kiss, the alarms went off in the building. “I have to go.” he said. “I’ll see you at home Mr. Fiancée` I replied as I walked out the back door.