Togetherness

Disney world was, as it should be, magical. And even as I would get tired and cranky and sometimes unfairly short with him, I know I enjoyed every moment of being with Bran.

While we were down there we hit the one year anniversary of our First Date. We didn't do anything special really. But the whole trip was special so that was easily more than enough. Going into the trip I had already had the idea that I wanted to find him a gift while down there to be an anniversary gift. Because I figured it would also be a good reminder of our time together. And when we talked about it he first said that he'd gotten me something back home but didn't bring it because he knew I'd likely go through his suitcase. [Yup, he knows me. Although I only went through it a very little bit when I was holding the last threads of hope that he'd be able to condense into one suitcase.] So that was cute of him, but he ended up in my "lets get something here" camp before long.

However, then the awkwardness (for me at least) began. The problem arises because he is so apt to buy anything he wants for himself and I am so anti-spending any money at all. We're very tricky people. Luckily at some point we had the idea of both getting watches for multiple reasons generally centering around the fact that we are both dorks. (And perfectly proud of it.)

But anyways I completely wandered from the topic I wanted to discuss.

Now that we're back home I miss him quite intensely. We have a few things going against us. I work a pretty normal M-F 8:30-4:30 schedule but with the season starting soon I'll be loosing some weekends. Plus I like to keep busy so I do have certain activities, like band, which take up one evening each week. He has a ridiculous changes every week (It's like a 12 or 15 week rotation) schedule which can be pretty much one of 3 things. Regular work day, 6-6, all waking day, 6-10ish, all evening 6am-6pm. This sucks because things generally don't line up well which is aided by the fact that he doesn't do stuff on the day before an early wake up (a lot of them). And to top everything off he went and got sick immediately upon our return (likely from one of our fellow plane-riders). Which I am now tetering on the edge of (I just had to see him on Tuesday).

I used to think that I was quite the loner and wanted to have my own space all the time. But as time goes by I'm either changing, or finding that I was wrong. A girl can get very lonely being all on her own after having spent a rather blissful 24/7 (actually it was like 8 or 9 by the time we parted) with someone special.

Maybe I should convince him to move-in together.

Or maybe he had a dreadful time and is now trying to get away from me.

Hmm.....

21 days

In 21 days SD and I will be going to Ocean City Maryland!

There is a rather large possibility that this vacation will drive me crazy. You see growing up we had yearly family vacations. We would go somewhere and then try to do and see absolutely everything. So as soon as anyone even mentions 'vacation' I immediately start researching all of the things that there are to do.

However this is SD's vacation and he has declared that no planning is allowed. [Actually he's a push over and I totally could get away with some planning, but I'm being a good person.] Apparently we are supposed to just like sit on the beach all day or something like that. He says it's called "relaxation". I'm speculative.

Ooo I bet I can bring many crafts! yay!

April Recap.

So it feels rather like April pretty much kicked my butt. I really don't know what happened....

Home time: I went back to my parents house first for Easter and then later to visit my Grandfather (he's on hospice now).  As much as I like going back to see my family and enjoy spending time with them it always feels like I accomplish nothing from those days. That said I wouldn't trade them back just to get things done. Umm...yea I don't think there is a way to properly express this. Oh well.

Boy time: Bran and I spent a lot of my free hours together. This is also 100% a good thing as our relationship is just getting stronger and stronger and more and more awesome. But seriously he doesn't even let me knit when we're watching movies or TV. No worries though someday I'll overrule him :-)

Crafts: Towards the beginning of the month I do believe I was thinking spinning. I made that little batch of yarn. But then I was distracted by other things. On the square front I only managed to whip up 3 crochet and 1 knit square. With everything going on I've just not had my normal free time. Goodness.

Reading: The Shadow Rising, this months WoT book was just shy of 1000 pages. I hit the middle of the month and realized I was only like 1/3 of the way through. But in this last week I dug down deep and finished it last evening before midnight even :-)

Biking: I do believe that I hit just over 100 miles in April. Better than March, but less good than it should be. Must improve in May.

Video Games: Bran has me addicted to games now dammit. I bet I lost a oodles and oodles of time to the DS. Plus he was trying to get me into a new game. And now in the last few days I am getting into the new game. Uh-oh.

So all in all, aside from work and my regularly scheduled events, ballet and band, I do believe those things can account for pretty much my entire month....hmm...that seems kinda pathetic.

It's just a bit big

Just about every time Bran leaves my house I find something that he left behind. Really it's pretty cute and rather endearing.

Most recently he left a zip up fleece jacket thing. It happened to co-incide with a fall back into some cool weather I have taken to wearing it. And as it is quite warm and comfy I'm enjoying it.

Last evening in talking to him I commented that I was making use of the jacket. His response was something to the extent of "well I'll never see that again". I responded back that it was his so I would certainly give it back next time he was over. But then he said that he wouldn't be wearing it now that it's spring anyways. And so I plan on keeping it.

It's kinda cliche but I seem to have a mild obsession with wearing his stuff. Although there is a distinct point in the fact that mens-wear seems to be significantly more designed with comfort in mind.

I will admit that it is a bit big however:

Weekend.

This past weekend was quite rather spectacular. And really what made it so good was that every bit of my glorious free time from 7PM Friday til 1PM Sunday was spent with my man, whom I do believe I shall now take to calling Bran. I love being with him and we did awesome stuffs.

On Friday we started by doing a bit of bike window shopping. Then we went to a hip restaurant. There we had a decadent feast that for me included an appetizer (yay free coupon) of Nachos, French Onion Soup, and a delicious Chicken Fajita entree. Plus I even got me a nice fruity alcoholic beverage (Mango Rum Drop). Holy moly! Bran got a steak because he is a man and eats manly things like steaks. And then he drove home because I was acting really giddy (completely convinced it was more placebo effect than the actual alcohol).

On Saturday we went bike shopping for real and Bran bought himself this new beautiful shiny bike. I think I'm in love. Of course we immediately went home and went for a bike ride. It made me happy.

Then that evening we got together with a bunch of his friends to eat pizza (always a yum), watch the end of A Knights Tale, and play trivial pursuit. There are many funny parts to this because these boys were in the middle of watching a chick flick that they tried to say was not a chick flick but it obviously is. And really I gotta love me any group of people who has the intellectual capacity and desire to play a game of trivial pursuit. Plus given that here it was/is considered a fun activity. Well now that just means I've found a good group of people methinks.

Sunday we were supposed to have brunch but ended up doing lunch at a local place that's been on the 'go there' list. It's a burger and fries type place (even though I get a chicken sandwitch). I hadn't been in a long time plus I'd never been to this particular location. But it was a rousing success! Bran enjoyed his ginormous plain burger, my chicken sandwitch was good, and they had nacho cheese that I could dip my fries in. Yumm.

Finally before he left Bran started us on a new TV series: Arrested Development. So far it's a good bit out there, but enjoyable. And if the boy is to believe it'll be getting better.

All in all: happiness.

March Progress

March definitely came in like a Lion for me. And while it's calmed down some, I really don't see many lambs in my future.

The stress is entirely work related. This is always the busiest time of the year and there were a few compounding issues thrown into the works this time around. And so I’ve been feeling pretty stretched since late-February-ish. Then pretty much from right around when March started it’s been like running full throttle into a brick wall. Over, and over, and over again. Can you tell from all of my amazing metaphors (and I could easily think of dozens more) that things really are not very happy for me there? Yes? Good.

Thank goodness that my personal life is actually for real happy, or I would be completely doomed. Reason #1 for this is the continued awesomeness that is my Man. We hit six months on the 11th. Yay for us. I’ve also been happily crafting, reading, managing to ride my bike at least a bit, and I’m a bit loath to say where the Man can see it but I’ve even been video-gaming it some as of late. These things make me happy. Although even some of the happy things have been a bit stifled owing to exhaustion and what not. Boo.

But let’s take a closer look at my specific March goals:

• WoT Reading: An easy easy check. I finished book 2 early in the month and as I only have 170ish pages left in book 3 I may actually be back on track with my book a month plan.
• Bike 100 miles: Uh-oh. Right now I’ve only logged 35 miles. And I have absolutely no excuse as the weather has been incredibly gorgeous. It’s just so hard to get motivated when I can collapse on the couch and read or do a craft. Or if I want to enjoy the weather I can go read outside. Technically I still have 10 days which is quite enough for lots of miles. But I don’t see it happening. Maybe I should modify and try for 50?
• Blocks of the month: Double-ish check. I finished the planned 4 squares. Then at some point I calculated how large the afghans would be and decided I ought to be doing 3 of each (6 total) blocks each month. Last night I started to question that so who knows what I’ll really do. But so far this month I have completed 2 crochet squares and 3 knit squares plus have 1 crochet block started.
• Art Journal: I started 1 page and didn’t finish anything. New things are totally not my strong point. Must kick self into action.
• Wall-decal: 2 weekends ago when I was actually not working I found that I can easily freehand a dandelion seed. I was very proud of myself and promptly cut and ‘hung’ one lonely seed which floated their alone for a time. Then yesterday I was re-inspired and drew up a bunch, cut out 4 and proceeded to attempt the stem. It’s much too big and heavy now, but it’s still good progress and quite awesome.
• Blog comments: So far I’m slacking. It just feels so weird. And is exasperated by my own lack of bloggage recently. But I should be able to do it now that I am posting again.
• Postcards: I was going to do something for St. Patty’s day. And even started/tried something new. But the new thing wasn’t so cool and I never kept going. But if I do something relatively simple, maybe design something printable, the goal could still be easily met.
• Organize craft stuff: Check! I did this 2 weekends ago. It was awesome. I took many pictures with the intent of blogging about it.
• Cook: Kinda doing ok at this maybe? Early in the month I made Chicken and Biscuits which is kind of cheating because everything, the meat veggies and starch, are all in the one dish. Last week I had two good dinners of ham steak and pierogies with peppers. The peppers thing was an unknown but it worked out happily.

Well I do still have some work to do. But seems like I stand a chance at being moderately successful. Rock on!

Too much of a good thing.

8/20: Send message in response to a guy’s online post.
8/21-8/30: Many long emails.
8/24: Exchange phone numbers.
8/24-present: Many text messages.
8/30(? ): First AIM conversation.
8/31-present: Many AIM conversations typically running quite late (who needs sleep?).
9/7ish: Schedule date for Hershey park on 9/12.
9/8: First brief phone call in-between house hunting.
9/8-9/9: Schedule date for 9/11.
9/11 afternoon: Scrap Hershey park for free tickets to the Baltimore Symphony opening night concert gala plus bus trip.
9/11 evening: 1st date. Appleby’s, Ice Cream, Bowling.
9/12: Free trip to Baltimore, dinner at Cheesecake Factory, hear Lang Lang. Best Date Ever.
9/17: Spontaneous “3rd Date”.
9/18: Made dinner at ‘home’ and Harry Potter in iMax.
9/19: Ridiculously gorgeous weather for Hershey Park.
9/26: Lunch and then he helped pack and move all of my stuff to the neighbor’s garage.
9/26 evening: Officially apply boyfriend/girlfriend titles.
9/27: Early evening walk in the park and dinner after.

"Too much of a good thing is never enough"