It's official!

Here's a crappy phone picture of my new engagement ring!

I'll post a picture of the happy couple once I'm on my own computer. Thursday night, T made a big deal about taking me out on a date and spending quality time with me. At around 6:00, he picked me up and asked if I wanted to go to the beach until our "real" evening started. I didn't care what we did, so off we went to the beach, T's phone receiving text messages all the way there. Something was up...I pretended not to notice. We pulled into the exactly right parking lot and walked down to the sand. As soon as we had turned the corner around a dune, I saw a white table and two little wood chairs sitting in the sun. I gasped, "Did you do this?" He just smiled. As we walked closer, I saw that the table had been draped with a lace table cloth, real china, wine glasses, and four candlesticks. This was the work of two very good friends. He'd gotten others involved in this date. T pulled my chair out for me and then reached into the giant picnic basket for the Olive Garden he had picked up. "I'm sorry I didn't make this and it's not really fancy..." he began but I was too busy squealing "Breadsticks!!!! I was hoping we'd go to Olive Garden." I'm easy to please, you see. Out came salad and breadsticks. We talked about nothing in particular and people gave us curious glances as they walked by (me in my dress and he in his button up collared shirt and nice patent leather shoes). Out came the steak, summer vegetables, and spaghetti. T couldn't decide what I would want more so he opted for all of it. We had a little of everything and then T started babbling. And I knew it was coming. I dropped my fork to listen to him nervously tell me how I'm always there in his dreams, in his thoughts, during his day. I'm the first person he wants to talk to when he's trying to make a decision, or when something good happens, or when he just needs to complain. I'm there and he wants me there all the time forever and he knows I've been the best thing that's ever happened to him (all the while he's fumbling with his pocket and standing up and walking over to me) and then he gets down on one knee in the sand and says "I guess I'm just trying to say, Will you marry me?" And I say yes and he slips the perfect ring which fits perfectly on my finger. And then the part you never see in the movies...we clear the table, throw away the napkins, re-pack everything into the picnic basket and proceed to carry everything back to the car. Perfect.

My Weekend is Already Here!

My parents, T, and I are all going out of town this weekend to visit family. My grandma (my mom's mom) turned 80 the other day so we're going up to have a big family party at my aunt's house. My grandma is insisting that T and I sleep in the basement with my cousins (and all their significant others) which will probably be awkward. We used to sleep there when I was, oh I don't know, EIGHT? I'm now 25 and all my cousins are in that range. T's a little nervous about that particular adventure. So in one house with 4 bedrooms and 2 1/2 (or possibly 2 3/4) bathrooms, there will be 1 grandma, 3 daughters, their 3 husbands, 7 grandchildren (maybe only 6), their 6 husbands/boyfriends, and 5 little great-grandchildren. That probably isn't as big as some families but it's big enough for this little only child.

My dad wanted to extend the trip a little and visit his parents for one day. These are the grandparents who said "Oh honey, you better think about that!" when they found out that T was five years younger than me. Joy! So instead of leaving early Saturday, we're leaving early (EARLY) Friday. T is so afraid my dad is going to ask him about politics or something. They have severely differing views. My dad has 5 hours in a car to talk about it, but I think he'll be too engrossed in his talk radio to ask T anything. I'm sure politics will come up at some point with someone's family as they always do, but my mom and I always manage to stay out of the conversation. I'm sure T will be able to do the same.

I'm actually excited about this weekend, but what I'm not excited about are the preparations. I should've done the rest of my laundry early this week, but of course, I let everything else get in the way because I hate hanging my clothes up after they've been washed. To make matters worse, my roommate called last night and said "The washer is leaking water all over. It looks like there is a pipe or something just sitting on the floor." My dad doesn't have time to come put it back together and I'm afraid to (Spiders!), so I'm going to my parents tonight after work to do laundry, then I'm going back home to pack. I have no idea what I'm going to wear. My dad wants me to bring as small of a suitcase as possible. What?!?! But I pack everything I own just in case! In case it rains, then snows, then turns into an 80 degree day. Anything is possible here in the northeast/midwest. Then after all that, I'm getting up at 5:30 in the morning so that we can leave and be "on the road" (as my dad always says) by 7:00. I should not be at work right now. I have too much to do! Stress!

T wanted to carve pumpkins before this weekend since we won't be home. I'm sad. We ran out of time and now we won't have any cute little jack-o-lanterns on our porches. Actually this will be the fourth time in my life that I've carved a pumpking for Halloween, but I'm sad for T. It's an important part of the season for him. Maybe I'll surprise him with a couple pumpkins tonight (Oh. Oops! Stop reading this T!). I can make time for that.

Oh, and by the way. I saw this on Oh! How Lovely!

Go back to the beginning and read it. DO NOT CHEAT AND READ MORE RECENT BLOGS. Start at the beginning and read to the end. It's spread like wildfire and it's fantastic. You will love it.

Have a great weekend everyone. And a good, safe Halloween. It's supposed to be warmer here. I hope you have good weather where you are!

How D'Ya Like Them Apples?

I was so exhausted last week. Maybe because we were slow at work and it made me sleepy. Anyway, I'm back! I had a great weekend which revived my need to write so here I am!

Thursday night a couple girls from work came over and watched "P.S. I Love You" with me. It was such a good movie. I don't know why I waited so long to see it. So the next night, T came over and we watched it together. He even thought it was an awesome movie. If you haven't seen this movie yet, rent it and watch it! It kind of bridges the divide between what guys like and what girls like - much like "The Notebook." And it wasn't a cry fest either so if you're like me and you just don't feel like having a good cry, you can still get this movie. It has a lot of funny parts and only a few heart-string tugging parts. Just an all around great movie.

Saturday, T and I went to an outdoor market and bought lots and lots of veggies. I'm going to start freezing them tonight. Here's my list: 4 pounds of green beans, 2 heads of cauliflower, 5 big beefsteak tomatoes, 3 heads of broccoli (actually from a different farmer's market), 2 bunches of beets (also from a different farmer's market), 4 huge, sweet onions, 4 green peppers, 4 red peppers, 1 pint of red raspberries (because they looked good), and 2 pints of pears (which was about 10 or 12 pears). The grand total? $51.74! If I was to go to a regular grocery store and buy all that, I would have spent over $100! I think I have enough to last me the majority of winter. We'll see.

After the big farmer's market trip, we drop all the produce off and promptly get back in the car to drive about 30 minutes south to an apple orchard. I was told by a co-worker that this particular orchard had the best apple cider in our tri-county area. I have nothing to compare it to, but it's pretty darn good. We drive back to the orchard area, find a parking spot, and then sit there staring confusedly at the rows and rows of apple trees. "We didn't bring any bags," I finally say. "Well, let's just get out and walk around," T offers. So, I leave my camera, my checkbook, and my list of in-season apples in the car, and we walk toward the guy handing out plastic produce bags (so not eco-friendly!). T and I each take one bag and then T asks where I want to start. "Well, I didn't bring my camera or anything. Should I go get it?" I ask. "Why would you leave all that stuff in the car?" he wails. "I just thought you wanted to walk around and check it out first." T looks at me like I'm the biggest moron alive and I realize how stupid my train of thinking is so we trek back to the car and get everything out. Since we're right in front of them, we decide to stop and look at the "U-Pick" Grapes. I make T try one and he agrees only after I've tried one. They were the best grapes I've ever had. A grape that tastes like a grape marker smells! Never knew they existed. We snap a few pictures
(more like 34 pictures of grapes and 12 pictures of T and me) then head over to the apple trees. All I want are Macoun. They are spicy and crunchy and perfect for apple sauce. A little lost and looking for non-existant signs, we pick 14 1/2 pounds of wine sap apples instead (tart and crunchy. Also good for applesauce but I do not like tart apples). We then pick another 13 pounds of apples: golden delicious, more wine sap (oops), and the one Jonathan apple left on a tree. So, after 27 1/2 pounds of apples, 70-ish posed pictures of either T or me picking an apple , 2 bottles of grape juice from a local winery sold in the orchard's store, 1 gallon of apple cider, and at least one bite on my arm -from either a fly or a spider, we are ready to go home. We turn the car around a couple of times to get pictures of the pretty fall leaves and even back up to get a great picture of a little barn amongst a bunch of turning trees (do not attempt backing up on a busy road yourselves. I am very practiced in these death-defying stunts).
True tourists in our own county.

T's parents were camping over the weekend so we stopped by and drank apple cider and grape juice by the fire. I had my last two s'mores for the year. We then went home and collapsed. We love fall.

This and That

The other day I was listening to the radio and someone requested "Baby Got Back" by Sir Mixalot. First of all, this is a terrible, demeaning song to women, but for some reason I stayed on the station and listened to the words. He mentions magazines being all about stick thin girls and how they tell us "normal" sized women are fat but he doesn't agree (he says this in a more rap and less lame way, but you get it). While most of this song is very dirty, I'm kind of happy that someone wrote a song about it being ok if we have some curves and meat on our bones. I just wish that I could feel that way when I look in the mirror because when I see a stick thin girl with a smallish bum and size B bust (like my roommate), I wish I could be her. When will I learn?

On to less depressing things. T and I went to an orchard/nursery on Saturday and bought a bunch of home grown veggies and fruit. I don't know why people waste their money at the grocery store on stuff that came all the way from California when you can get it less expensive and it came from someone's back yard. I couldn't find anyone that was selling broccoli which was sad. It's supposed to be in season here, but I could only find cauliflower. So I bought two heads of that, a ton of nectarines, purple grapes, acorn squash, butternut squash, and six ears of corn (I wasn't going to get it but I only hear good things about this particular farm's corn so I couldn't pass it up). I also bought yellow and red peppers on a whim and was pretty close to getting some yams and cooking onions when T told me to stop. I get on these kicks and I can't control myself. If someone isn't there to hold me back, I just buy everything and don't use it up in time. I have to get on with freezing this stuff though. I bought extra so I could do that and now I'm having the busiest week ever.

What about that two hours in the wetlands on a rainy day, you ask? Well, two hours turned into about one hour by the time we got there, and that was still much longer than needed. We were taken to one area which was very thick with mud and my teacher brought his dog. A big dog who likes swimming in ponds and romping through mud puddles. I was pretty convinced I was going to go sliding on my bum down a hill or fall on my face when we had to jump over a stream from one slippery hill to the other, but I did ok. The second watershed we went to was much grassier but we then had to walk through giant, wet wild flowers. I stared at the ground the whole time. It wasn't the little crickets that bothered me (of which there must have been billions! The grass appeared to move on its own and it wasn't windy!), it was the big spiders I knew must be lurking behind every weed I pushed out of the way. I tried my best not to spin around in circles looking for spiders to be crawling up my back or on my legs. I tried very hard to stay calm and look like I always stomp my way through tall grass in the middle of a fall hurricane remnant. I am not looking forward to any more of these science labs.

Rainy Days and Monday Always Get Me Down

Ok, well, it's Friday and I'm not really that sad about the rain because it's the weekend! And we got paid today! I really didn't get as much as I wanted in my paycheck and I had to pay a hefty library fine. Woops. I'm going to be short when it comes time to pay my school tuition. I need another source of income. T and I never started selling t-shirts on Etsy. I thought about making and selling jewelry but everyone does that, so would I get any attention? My friend, S, said that my jewelry is cuter than anyone else's on Etsy and I could probably do really well. It could get me a little extra money. I could pay on credit debt and put some away for savings if I made enough. What do I have to lose by joining Etsy as a seller? I wonder if there is a fee...

I have a lab for my class tomorrow. We're going to see the wetlands in our area for 2 hours. 2 hours! What is there to see for that long!? This is not my kind of science. It's supposed to rain all weekend so the wetlands will be wetter and I don't have any rainboots. Oh well. After that, T and I are going to a produce market nearby. I meant to go there all summer but they only accept cash and I never carry cash. Plus they're only open until 6:00 and I get out of work at 5:30 every day. It just wasn't meant to be...or I was really lazy on Saturdays when I could've gotten some cash out and gone. So, we're going there for the first time this summer/fall and I'm going to get some nectarines and raspberries (still in season!), broccoli, squash, and cauliflower. I'm going to freeze some so that I can have fresh, local produce all winter. I'm excited for that. I'm going to find some recipes for cauliflower so it's not so plain and weird. My mom always just steamed them and we ate them with salt. I need more variety in my food.

AND in an effort to eat more "organically," I'm going to start making my own wheat bread. I found a seemingly perfect recipe online with many, many tips and tricks from the author for the perfect sandwich, wheat bread. T hates when I stand in the bread aisle at the grocery store screaming "Everything has too much sodium!" so this seems to be a good alternative to that. I'll post the link to the recipe if it works out. I'm not sure if I'll buy everything to make it this weekend or in a couple weeks when I, hopefully, get a better paycheck. I will be Miss Suzy Homemaker if it kills me!

Have a fabulous weekend!

A Night Off

I didn't feel well so I skipped my second day of class the other night. I feel really bad but oh well. I got a movie (The Great Gatsby) and a TV show on DVD, I made an album of my summer on Facebook and watched half a season of Curb Your Enthusiasm. A nice night away, hiding in my room is just what I needed.

T and I watched most of The Great Gatsby last night but old movies like that (not old old just 1970's old. Robert Redford looking young and dashing old) move a little slow. I'm not sure why that is, but we needed a break so we hung out with T's brother and his friend for a bit and then I went home.

Ahhhhhhh...today is Friday. Pay Friday. Pay Friday before a holiday weekend Friday. I'm going camping which is great. I always feel so relaxed after a weekend of camping. And the best part is that the campground is very close to T's house so we get to shower and dress and do our hair there and then go back to the wilderness. It's the best of both worlds because camp showers are not my cup of tea. I can deal with them but if given the opportunity to shower in a home, I'll take it. I'd rather not shower while staring at a spider on the ceiling to make sure he doesn't come down on my head just for kicks. I'm also a little uncomfortable with someone opening my changing room curtain and showing my pudge and secret parts to the world. So a good weekend will be had and I'll probably snap off another 100 pictures of tents, campires, sparklers, and bagg-o/cornhole/beanbag game (whatever you call it). I'd like to post some real pictures on here and not just the ones I find on the internet.

Have a great weekend! And Have a great holiday weekend to my American friends!

A Photographer - I Will Never Be

The batteries in my camera died. Yup. I have a charger but I did not use it.

Saturday I went out with one of my best friends from high school. We went to Brio and had a lot of bread and amazing Italian food. I don't even know what mine was called but the pasta was handmade and it was fantastic. I saw a cooking show where the host went to Italy and showed the tradition of hand-making pasta. It looked so good and so fun. I wish I could do it. I tried to make gnocchi once and it just fell apart in the water. Maybe I'll try again sometime.

After dinner, we headed over to H&M so my friend could get some teacher clothes that weren't too teachery. You remember how your teachers dressed? Long flowery skirts and tennis shoes? Or cutesy little jumpers with school related items stitched on?
Thank God for my friend who is trying to change that trend one pair of wide leg pants and cute, frilly tops at a time.

We met up with another friend who was out shopping for shoes with his next door neighbor. I helped his neighbor decide not to buy some brown pumps that she just wasn't in love with. She needed some pointy toes and only my beloved Steve Madden seems to be into that trend. I read somewhere that round toe is back and pointy is going out, but sometimes we just need a pointy toe. Unfortunately, the store did not have those shoes in her size. Sigh. Why are all girls' feet the same size? Who decided that was a good idea? After shoes, we went to "The Feast" which was incredibly crowded. Apparently, it only gets worse at night because of the bars and beer tent. Plus there was gambling in the basement of the church. Interesting. We just wandered around as best as we could, cutting groups of people off so that we could get cannoli and tiramisu from a few stands. I ate my own cannoli and then finished off someone else's. Mmmmm...Italian desserts are my weakness.

Eating My Weekend Away - Starting Early

One of the teams at work had a "Pig out Day" and I was going to bring deviled eggs. I've been on an egg kick lately since I discovered I can hard boil an egg and have the shell come off without so much as scraping the egg with a fingernail. Well, day of all days! Nothing went right. I'm pretty sure I over-cooked the eggs, yolk looked gross, the egg was coming off in the shell. I decided I can't cook and I got a dozen donuts to bring instead. Plus I'm having an ugly/fat/bad hair day. I'm going back to bed when I get out of work. Then I'm taking a shower and starting my day all over again around, say 7:00 this evening.

There's a food and art festival in Little Italy this weekend called "The Feast". I've never been to it but I hear it's the party of the year. Apparently it's a tradition for the Catholic church there to celebrate the assention of the Virgin Mary into Heaven. They have a solemn mass where they march her statue around the streets and then they get out the food, the rides, and the music and start celebrating. There are independent vendors setting up booths too which is what I like the most. I love buying other people's handmade crafts since I'm not too crafty myself. I just make jewelry but so does everyone else.

I'll post some picture of "The Feast" here soon.