Engagement Party Dish, Part Two

This two-part pun of a post series is now concluding. The first divulged a secret. Get it? Dish? Right. I'm fully aware I'm not nearly as clever at 3 am when these posts are being written as I would be were I writing them around the time they're being read...

Anyway, this second post is literally about dishes. Specifically, what are we serving at our engagement party. Our choice of venue, L26 restaurant, has an amazing array of food. It's seriously tasty.

Having eaten there three times since we booked our party, I am ashamed to admit it never crossed my mind to take pictures of all the food. But in my defense, what they serve for lunch and dinner and late night isn't actually on the menu for options for our cocktail party.

But I can find some pics online that almost do it justice. Some of my favorites? You know what time it is. It's food porn time.




everyone loves mac and cheese; L26 has superb mac and cheese



honey glazed broiled salmon. droooool.



I love strip steak so much, I'm serving it at my wedding, and maybe my e-party too.



asparagus is a dish everyone who's important in my wedding loves!


Okay, enough food porn. But prosciutto wrapped asparagus on the cocktail party menu is calling my name. And the beef skewers with peanut sauce. And the chicken wings. And the hummus.

It's going to be a tough decision to narrow it down to 3 or 4 things. But we'll make it happen. And I'll be glad to report what menu we decide on.

And because we like a full party, we'll be having some sort of foodstuff for favors. Why do we need favors for our e-party? I'm still not sure. But my mother swears they're important, so have them we shall. I just hope they go well with the wine toast we're planning for the end of the evening.

What have we got in mind so far? Um, let's see. Personalized Hershey's kisses, home-made cookies, those mini bundt cakes that are labor intensive but so tasty, personalized M&Ms. So you can see we're be getting something sugary and/or chocolatey.

Mmmm. Chocolate. How does anyone ever make the 1,000,000 decisions that go into a wedding that you ordinarily wouldn't actually care about?

Bridezilla Pizza Party aka Birthday Do-Over

My fiance Easy had a birthday last week. He just turned 27, yay!

I had a birthday gathering for him that ended up being a comparison of who's friends were more flaky between mine and his. Mine ended up winning, but then again, they've only known him for a year. It's still a toss up.

My girls who are my bridesmaids decided to come by for a birthday do-over. It was really a nice surprise because I was under the impression that only Michelle was coming. But her plus 4 others came carrying pizza, beer, and wine.

They came to make up for missing Easy's birthday as well as to make sure I was okay after the bridesmaid dress fiasco. And they brought me something to make me (hopefully) laugh.

The pictures are backwards because I took them in the mirror. The top one is the back-side of the sash. It says C-Ride. There is a ridiculous story associated with that nickname that I'll explain in a second. The bottom pic is the front-side of the sash. It says Bridezilla.

They were all looking very nervous when they handed me the sash until I laughed when I saw it. Then they felt relieved. I thought it was funny. I don't know that I acted very bridezilla-ish with the bridesmaid dresses. If Camille hadn't tried to help the issue by making it 1000 times worse, there would have been no drama to begin with. but that's neither here nor there.

Besides, I mentioned before that my friends make up rumorsjust to be funny. Also, Easy said I can't be called a bridezilla because I didn't let bird poop break me. Soooooo, I embraced my new sash and my new bridezilla rumor and we got back to celebrating Easy's birthday (a week late). Mmmm, pizza from Giordano's.

Back to how I got the nickname C-Ride. I was out with my girls, apparently laying all the bonding groundwork necessary to have the perfect bride-bridesmaid relationships. We stopped by a liquor store to load up for what was sure to be a fun night.

I paid for what I purchased and the guy behind the counter balked at the name on my license. "How the hell do you pronounce this name? You know what? It doesn't matter. You need a nickname. I'm gonna call you C-Ride."

We all began laughing because C-Ride is the type of round-the-way nickname you give to someone who's got many many street credentials to back up such a name. On me, it's just ridiculous.

And instead of letting the moment pass and laughing occasionally that some stranger we never saw again chose to nickname me, my girls (and their guys) embraced the nickname wholeheartedly. It's still used to be funny, but it definitely stuck.

I'm C-Ride. Don't judge me. Judge my silly friends. In fact, Gloria's boyfriend Gregory never calls me CeCe. He only calls me C-Ride. And when she mentions me to him by name he responds, "Who is CeCe? Oh, you mean C-Ride? I don't know who CeCe is."

Okay, as I wrap this post up, I'd like to apologize for the terrible quality of the photographs. I snapped them quickly on my blackberry before I headed off to work Wednesday night. I swear I know better than to take photos in mirrors of words with light behind me. I'll do better next time.

Party Til You Puke (For An Extra Charge) Part Two

In my last post, I talked about our search for the perfect venue for our engagement party. Because I'm a weirdo, I do things backwards. Or maybe, I'm just a rebel.

Either way, I don't do things as expected. The perfect example is this engagement party venue. We spent waaaaaay more time searching for a venue for this than we did for the wedding. We looked at three places for the wedding, and I chose almost immediately.

Be we agonized over the engagement party.

My mother and I looked online for a number of places. Then we decided to hit the pavement.

Her friends gave her suggestions. We went to 21st and State to a lovely restaurant that looked perfect but is closed. So no free publicity silly closed restaurant that looked perfect.

Next we went to 21st and Michigan to a club/museum that was supposed to be a great option for an outdoor venue. I'm sorry, but you're not an outdoor venue and shouldn't advertise yourself as such if 85% of your outdoor area is mulch and another 10% is ceramic pavement and the last 5% is bushes.

Moving on. A friend of my mother's mentioned the South Loop Hotel. We couldn't find it (ahem because she couldn't remember the address). So we gave up and headed south on State toward my apartment. Then we passed by it and did a quick u-turn to check it out.

I looked like my style, which I can't really explain. But it's a cross between classic and modern with an odd quirk thrown in.



think a combo between these two with something extra and quirky thrown in.

 So, we went in to check out the grand ballroom my mother had been told about over the phone when she called earlier in the week. Except... there was no grand ballroom. There were only medium sized meeting rooms.

So we went strolling around the hotel just to see what they had to offer. We took note of their flower shop for later. I had finally saw an arch there I didn't hate with a visceral passion, so it was worth noting.

Then we stumbled across the restaurant in the hotel. And it was love at first sight.



kinda creepy, ya think?

We strolled around the restaurant the woman who happens to book private events there came out to talk to us. A hundred quick questions from my mother and I later and we were ready to put down money on the place.

I called Easy to check to see if he wanted to see the place first. When I told him what it was, he said he knew that place and actually had just gotten a gig there for the next night (well that's the sum total of what happened in short version).

I know you're dying to see/hear what the place is. So without further ado....



We're having our engagement party at the L26 Restaurant in their private room in the back. My mother and I stayed for dinner and the food is fantastic. Since then, we've been back twice for Eay's gigs. His birthday was one of those days so his parents and mine joined us and the food is really really really good. And the price really makes us happy.

I'm so excited for this location. Now if only we could get our guest list within the fire marshal's limit for how many the room holds. Speaking of calling in the authorities, I'll finally explain the title of the post. In our contract, it says the restaurant isn't liable for any damage caused. It specifically points to damage caused by intoxication.

For example, if someone gets so drunk they vomit, we're on the hook for the cleaning fees. The lady told us this covered vomiting, urination, and defecation. Yes, she indeed used those words. So, we could very well party until we puke, just as long as we pay for it after. Interesting way to talk about it. I was expecting more of a "don't puke in my restaurant", not "as long as you pay to have it cleaned". Good times.

Breadsticks and Bothersome Waitresses

First let me say that Easy read yesterday's post about the cute redhead from the Whiffenpoofs and he is indeed judging me. Whatever, he doesn't know my life.

Moving on to today's topic. I went to dinner at Olive Garden with a friend of mine the other day that was very interesting for several reasons.

1. She's the younger sister of the Ex.
Even though he and I haven't spoken to in over 2 years, I have remained friends with some of his family members. I'm like a big sister to her, so we went out to dinner to catch up in person instead of always over the phone.

She and I haven't discussed the Ex in years because he never comes up. I don't care to ask and she doesn't offer any info. She did mention him though. She told me how she had been mad at him for literally years since he and I first broke up in 2008.

She said they had talked about how he regretted letting me go, but how he figured I would never take him back. I wasn't trying to hear that "one who got away" mess. I told her she didn't need to be upset any longer at her brother because I was very happy. And even though she and I were never going to be real sisters, I would always be there for her, just like I've been since the day we met.

She also gave me a heads up that he was moving back to Chicago next year and she was considering becoming roommates with him. That will be interesting because he and I are not going to be friends. I guess I'll just see her everywhere but at her own house, ha ha.



quite the understatement actually



2. Our waitress at Olive Garden was the oddest waitressing waitress I've had possibly ever.

When you think of a bad waitress, you think of being ignored, forced to suffer through a long lull between each meal portion, and possibly having your food spilled on you or an incorrect bill.

That's the opposite of what happened to us. You might think the opposite of those above horrors is a perfect waitress.

But it's not! It's a crazy attentive waitress. I mean CRAZY attentive. That woman must've come by our table to ask if we were okay 40 times in the hour we were there. I am not exaggerating. She was there literally every 1.5 minutes.

Each time she came, she tried to move us on to the next portion of our meals. She would take our food order before our drinks were up. So we had our soup and salad while we had our drinks. That seems like a great idea, but it was just the start of a disturbing trend.

When she brought our soup and salad, she took our food menu. Then she brought us our food before we were done and tried to take our soup and salad. We told her to just leave both.

Five minutes later, she took our dessert order. We were confused why she was ordering it then, but she said she wasn't going to put it right in. 2 table visits later (3 minutes), she brings our dessert.

So we're sitting there with a table full of food, becoming irritated that she's basically shoving us out the door. The manager comes by to see how we're doing and marvels that we chose to have all our food at once. We tell him that's not at all what happened.

Then she comes back to the table to apologize but that she thought we wanted our dessert before we finished our dinner. And our appetizers. She got this look.

 

And then, she began trying to clear our plates. We wouldn't let her take anything until we had finished. And of course, then she took 10 minutes to bring our check. I paid the bill and we high-tailed it out of there.

 

I've been to that Olive Garden soo many times over the years, but that was just weird.

3. The weather coming back was like something out of a horror movie.
It was pouring down raining when we left the restaurant. Seriously, there were comically large raindrops. And it was bright sunshine and at least 80 degrees.

When I dropped Melody off back home, the sky was scary looking, but the rain had stopped.

As I drove back home, there were huge lightning bolts that looked like they were 100 feet from the expressway. And right when I exited the expressway, hail started falling. I

There were huge chunks of hail blowing sideways in very strong wind. Then the rain started back up with the comically large raindrops. All while it was still over 80 degrees. But the sun had gone away. While it should still be bright outside, it was suddenly dark as night.

I've never been so glad to get home. That was science fiction movie weather. I blame it on Indiana. Every time myself or a friend goes to Indiana, something freaky or horrible happens. It's a proven (I'm making this up) fact.

Moving Into My First Nest

Easy and I, along with 10 of our friends, moved our stuff into our lovely third floor Hyde Park apartment Saturday. I'm just not getting around to blogging about it because I was in mourning for my lamps.

I have grown attached to my lamps. They were lovely and really fit who I am. If you are at all into decorating, you'll understand why I was so sad. Not one single lamp made it without being broken. Out of 5 lamps. Five lamp!!

But it's okay. Well, it's not. Careless people. Easy's friends, not mine by the way. But those lamps made it from Florida to Chicago to Champaign to Rockford to Alsip. But they couldn't make it from 127th & Cicero to Hyde Park. Sigh.

I will just have fun picking out new lamps.

We were amazingly efficient in moving. We allotted several hours to make it happen, and only needed about half that time. I'm very impressed with our people. Plus, most of the people helping us move were wedding party people, so it was one of the first wedding party "events" we've had.

We bought everyone Giordano's Pizza and Harold's Chicken as a thank you for moving. Seriously, you must buy food for your friends who help you move. But waiting until the people leave who broke all your beloved lamps before you actually place the order wouldn't hurt.

My parents came later and hung out for a bit. They brought champagne, riesling, and Coronas. Great housewarming gifts I think.

One of Easy's exes who he's still friends with (don't even get me started on the fact that she still wants him) also stopped by. She brought us gifts too. The cookie jar she brought is my favorite.

I've always wanted a cookie jar. It just seems so home-y. I can't wait to get everything unpacked and bake those chocolate and peanut butter chip cookies Easy loves and load up our jar.

Even though I was in pain for two days after the move, it was totally worth it to do it ourselves. Now, if/when we go to NYC, we're definitely getting professional movers. I just have to pare down my stuff so there's less to take.

I don't know what that means for our wedding registry, but I will figure it out.

Father's Day, Playing Catch, And Growing A Second Head

Saturday wasn't a particularly eventful day, but three interesting things happened that I wanted to share with the blogosphere.

The first thing was my family celebrating Father's Day a day early. My family is all about holidays. All about them, okay? And my father spends the time the holidays focus on him saying things like, "you really really shouldn't have gotten me anything," the rest of us still enjoy celebrating in his honor.

We all gave him our gifts Saturday and had a great meal of jerk chicken, beans and rice, and cabbage. Then I had to rush off to work. Why did we do this a day early? My father leaves for Reno at 10:00 am to go to a bowling tournament.

 

Want to see what I got him as gifts? They're great gifts, if I do say so myself. What makes it even better is that I paid for these gifts with money I earned from work, without input or help from anyone (except payroll, bahaha).


Great Gift Idea: The Knot Wedding Shop



Lennox Tuscany Decanter at Macy's



 I do love my Daddy so much. I was glad that my first gift purchases with my all-grown-up-and-working money went to him.

After I left for work, my second interesting thing happened. I found out that all my co-workers are just as incredibly silly as I am.

It started because one of my co-workers threw a ball of paper at another one. It quickly devolved into us throwing swag from previous employee meetings around the office.  It was like this:

Well, except in an office not a pool. And with those little hackeysack balls, not water balloons. But it certainly felt that festive. We had fun and then the phone range and we got back to work. It felt like some flash mob that breaks into dance and then resumes life as if it hadn't just happened. Or any musical ever. It was awesome.

The third thing is actually two moments that feel like they are exactly indicative of my life right now in this point in time. Easy brought his stuff back from St. Louis (that means he's officially moved back!!!!) and put it into my storage unit. Nothing says all grown up and standing on your own like sharing a storage locker with your fiance.

The other thing is I got some snacks from Wal-Mart before work. I finally pulled out an apple to eat it because I was hungry for something sweet. That's when I noticed it was the hugest apple ever! I mean, genetically altered, gonna-grow-a-second-head-if-you-eat-that-growth-hormone-pumped-fruit, big as a baby's head apple. And of course I ate it. It was either that or a Snicker's bar.



imagine this but like three times the size



In conclusion, my Daddy's Father's Day was early (and awesome!), my co-workers are buckets of fun in downtime, and I'm quite the adult in this genetically altered 2011 summer!

Did anyone else have an interesting day?

Quick Highlights of My Florida Trip

I really should be sleep right now, but I'm not, so I figured I'd write a post since I haven't had time all weekend. I will write a real post when I have the time, but I wanted to share some highlights.

1. After stalking ebay, and begging my parents to help me get my camera in Florida that came to Chicago, I started taking lots of photos. That led me to make a Flckr account. I added the photostream to my blog page and there's a link where you can check out all my photos I've added. It has the higlights from this weekend.

2. I've been having so much fun. I feel old as hell though! I forget sometimes that the people I know here go all the way back, like 8 years ago. Long time, but good times.

3.  It was the best decision ever to leave from Tallahassee even though we flew into Jacksonville. Not having to get a ride 2.5 hours away before our flight will make everyone's life easier in the afternoon.

4. When I get back to St. Louis, I have to rush off to Chicago because I have a meeting with the director of the company I interviewed with two Thursdays ago. They told me two weeks, but they really liked me, so they wanted me to come in as soon as I got back from out of town. That probably means something great!

5. This is totally random, but I miss my cat Belle. I'm just used to her crawling all over me while I'm blogging or reading articles on the internet. I miss my bossy co-dependent cat.

6. I've been eating so unhealthily these last few days. I always lambasted the food in Tallahassee, but there are places I just had to go to and get food from that I can't get outside of here. Zaxby's, Chubby's, and Captain D's. I know they have them other places, but not Chicago, and they just speak FAMU to me. I have to decide tomorrow if I'm going to go to Hip Hop Fish and Chicken, Moe's, Firehaus, or Tropical Smoothie Cafe. Probably the last one. I'd love a smoothie and a caesar chicken wrap. That's not as healthy as it sounds.

7. In spite of my diet, I did get in a run while here. It was so hot though I got overheated, but I was glad to be able to keep working out and maintaining (in some form or another) my healthy living.

I'll blog more later. But right now I'm going to watch Enchanted for the 184th time and go to sleep.

Surprises And More Surprises

I came down to St. Louis with Easy on Sunday night and I'm flying from here to Florida Friday morning. I'm very excited about my trip, but I'm also just glad to be here after two weeks away in Chicago. Which is where I live. I live in Chicago. All my friends calls me a St. Louis resident, but I live in Chicago.

But on to the surprises the title told you were coming. Easy decided he wanted to surprise me Wednesday evening when he was done with work. He pushed it up to Monday cause his weekly gig got cancelled for this week. He took me Jared and... no we didn't buy and engagement ring. Calm down people. He bought me a Pandora charm bracelet for Christmas and he's been slowly but surely filling it ever since. He got me four new pieces for it. Usually it's two, so that was great!

Then we went to the movies. I love going to the movies, but Easy and I don't go very often, so it was a nice surprise. We went to see Source Code which I've been dying to see. I won't ruin the ending, but I'll just say my natural inclination toward optimism and far-reaching science were both fulfilled. Then I wanted a burger, so we went to get me a burger. It was a great evening.

At first, Easy suggested he come up with another surprise for me for Wednesday, but I told him, I'd prefer to come up with a surprise for him. I'm very excited about this surprise. I feel like it was exactly something he'd want and appreciate. I dropped Easy off at his school Wednesday morning and kept the car. His roommate's fiancee is in town, so she rolled with me to Wal-Mart, where I picked up some supplies. I got excited because of all the plans.

The plan was to pick him up from school at 4:30 and ask him to drive to where he wanted to take me ice skating. Wednesday was the first really nice day in St. Louis, so I figured a picnic would be great. I took him on a picnic when we first started dating and told him that's what life would be like with me, so I figured I'd better take him on another and keep my word.

Also, Easy and I have been talking about marriage and engagements and the like. One of those discussions led to a joke that he wanted me to propose first, and I said I would with a lucky charms ring. So while at Wal-Mart, I bought some Lucky Charms, whipped out my sewing kit, and made him a ring. I figured I would propose at the picnic. We wouldn't be engaged afterwards, but he would know I was more than ready for him to propose back to me. It was cheesy and sweet and funny, just like how we are together.

I wanted the picnic to be romantic and fun, but I also wanted to get home in time to watch American Idol and America's Next Top Model. I love Easy because he gets my crazy and wouldn't think it was un-romantic to rush home at 6:30 pm. When we finally got back, Easy's roommate and his fiancee were laughing at us and fake gagging over our romantic picnic. Ha ha, reminds me of the reaction most of my friends would have.


But you want to know about the picnic don't you? Well, I picked him up from school, and he drove to the park. We scoped out a great place that I probably couldn't find again, but it was near the golf course, the St. Louis History Museum, and a soccer field. I handed him the basket and told him to dig in. He saw the sweet tea, the potato chips and decided that he could break the rules just a bit to enjoy those things.


Then he saw the apple slices, baby carrots, and grapes, and was ppleased. The he saw the jewelry box. I'm not sure if he recognized it is the box he normaly keeps his cufflinks in or not. But he was like, "whaaaa?" Then he opened it and saw the Lucky Charms ring. He burst out laughing at the sight of it because I guess he truly never expected that I would actually work out making that ring.


Once he stopped laughing, I leaned over to him and told him how much I loved him and that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him. Then I asked him to marry me and he said yes! Like I said, we're not engaged, but we're fake-affianced, haha. He made a joke that now he has to propose since he said he'd propose the day after I did. I told him that wasn't going to happen cause when would he get a ring and also he hadn't asked my parents for permission yet and that was really important to me.


He told me not to worry about it and then we just moved on and settled into our picnic. I had the supplies to make lettuce wraps since his current diet plan doesn't include carbs. Iceburg lettuce, deli sliced honey roasted turkey, swiss cheese, and ranch dressing. we ate and laughed and enjoyed each other's company. It was a great way to spend the first real day of spring here in St. Louis.


Easy and I were both patting ourselves on the backs for how successful our surprises had gone. We're self-congratulatory like that. It's why we match.

Back In Chicago

I drove toward Chicago Wednesday around noon, and made a two hour stop in East St. Louis to hang out a bit with Lion and then I was on the road. When I finally got on the road, I felt good. I wasn't too tired to drive. I hate driving tired. I spent half the drive on the phone with Easy and half the drive listening to Michael Jackson music on my Kindle.


I love that I can listen to music on my Kindle in my car. I just play it the same way I'd play an iPod. Yay for technology. Anyway, I was hoping to get back in time to catch American Idol on television live, but then Michelle asked if we could hang out tonight. I hadn't hung out with my girls in Chicago in what felt like forever, so I was willing to forgo watching American Idol live just to hang out with them.


But luckily, Camille was still at the library studying. So I got to watch American Idol, America's Next Top Model, and Chopped All Stars before it was time to head out. Camille, Michelle, two of our other friends, and I headed out to Hooters to get some chicken wings. We had a very good time while we were out. Laughing and joking and catching up. I feel very lucky to have a great group of women to hang out with.


And these women are the type of women I can grow with. We were definitely having a good time, and we were discussing what our friendship would be like as we aged. We were talking about trading in nights out at Hooters for dinner parties. If that was mentioned a few years ago, I'm sure the conversation wouldn't have ended so well, but it was an idea everyone was open to, at least in theory. So it's good to know as I get older and have different preferences, I won't have to replace my friends with more age-appropriate ones.


After we ate, we headed to Gloria's house to hang out with her. She couldn't come out with us because she has a two year old son and can't make spontaneous plans like that. But we brought her chicken and we hung out and caught up.


The whole time I was out, I was texting Easy back and forth. We even made plans to try and get our friends to all hang out together to celebrate St. Patrick's day up on the north side of Chicago. I think it will be fun, and I'm definitely interested to see how our friends will all get along. I'm extra interested in seeing if the pairings I thought my work between his guys and my girls will be cool. I hope our plans don't fall through. But as long as I'm spending time with Easy and my girls, I know it will be fun.


I definitely love that Easy is a solutions guy. I talked about feeling like I wasn't paying as much attention to various parts of my life that I should, and he comes up with a plan to combine them. So I get to hang out with my girls, spend time with him, and get to know his friends better. And I thought he was a terrible multi-tasker, haha.

Spring Break! Whoo! And A Couple Of Dream Dates

Easy is on Spring Break right now, which is great because we've had more time together. I just wrote a post about us spending so much time together and me not being sure how that worked with my desire to have "me time".


But I also just wrote a post about us fixing a problem with only doing his things and not doing our things that often and hardly ever doing my things. But Easy came up with a solution to this all on his own. He said he would use the first part of his Spring Break to give me three dates that are not things we always do, but things that I have said I wanted to try. So today is the day I describe those dates.


Date #1: Sunday Afternoon. We headed to the zoo. This may not seem huge, but for people who know me well, it is. I love animals, I love being outside, and I love spending time doing what amounts to a whole bunch of nothing with the man I love. We got there pretty late because we were... distracted... and then we got a chance to look at some animals. This is gonna sound cheesy, but I don't care.

At the St. Louis Zoo, they have this butterfly/moth observing room thing. The weather and garden in there is always like early summer and those things are flying around in there just happy and enjoying the flowers. We walked around and watched them fly and land and fly and land. Easy took a couple of pictures. And it was all very romantic We had a moment where we stopped on the path and smooched. Luckily, we weren't the only couple in there, so I didn't feel to ashamed of our in-your-face PDA moment.

After the zoo, we went to this Thai restaurant in town I've been dying to try. Easy let me pick our food and even agreed to try some new tea without sugar. I'm just more familiar with Thai food than he is, so he was totally fine with me choosing the path of our meal. The food was great and now we have our favorite Thai restaurant in St. Louis. We laughed and shared food and jokes and it was just so much fun, like hanging out with one of my best friends.

Then we went bowling. I've been wanting to go bowling in St. Louis for while, and Easy finally made it happen. He was right when he said he wasn't a very good bowler, but he got better with a few tips. I'm not the world's best bowler yet, but I know a lot more about what good bowling is supposed to be than my skills yet show. But bowling was fun and cute because he gave me kisses for every pin above my average that I bowled.


Date #2: Monday Early Afternoon and Late Night. We woke up pretty early and started watching movies. I love going to the movies, but this past year (except during the summer when I was dating up a storm), I didn't go to nearly as many movies as I would have liked to. So Sunday night, we rented like six movies from Blockbuster, most of which had come out in the last year, and only one that I'd seen before.

We began watching the movies and they were good choices. Except for when I cooked us lunch and started preparing dinner, we just chilled in the living room, liking the fact that we both talk all during the movie, and glad that could pause and rewind when we had especially long comments to make. We watched Mega Mind, She's Out of My League, and The Expendables throughout the day.

Easy had a gig Monday night, so we went to that, but then came back home and got back to our date. I made us a delicious dinner (that was also healthy, yay!) and we spent the night talking and laughing. We don't do that much at night cause Easy is a morning person. I'm a night owl, so pretty much from 9:30 pm to 11:00 am, we don't get in much quality bonding time. I think he had plans for us to be out and doing stuff, but it snowed, in March, in St. Louis. Stupid snow. I figured maybe he'd just push the activities to the next day.


These dates were great and something we could have only done because he was on Spring Break. And not once did I wish I had some alone time. I think that's because I know we're headed to Chicago on Wednesday, and we're both taking our own cars, so we will be spending time apart very soon.


Tomorrow, I'll talk about how the third date went.

Staying On The Exercise Bandwagon

Easy and I didn't get up and go running yesterday morning, but we did go when he got home from work. He only had a half day today because of parent/teacher conferences. And to kick off his Spring Break, we went running. We ran ever farther than we'd run up to this point, so that was a nice expansion of working out. And when we got back, we had a great chicken Caesar salad for lunch and watched Jet Li in Fearless. I think it was a great way to spend the afternoon.


I used to hate running, and I'm not sure I'm still too far from that, but I do enjoy the feeling of accomplishment I get from it. and it might be in my head, but I swear I've had more energy the last couple of days. What I do like it feeling the muscles in my thighs get more firm and knowing that I'm getting my heart rate up, which is great for healthy living.


I'm excited too because of time spent with Lion. He's been super busy with his rotations, so even though I spend so much time in St. Louis, I don't get to spend a lot of time with him. But he has just finished his shelf exam for family medicine and he has the weekend free before he starts OB/GYN on Monday, so I'm hoping we can get some good quality time in this weekend.


One of the only things that sucks about spending so much time down here in St. Louis is that I'm not doing my Chicago stuff. For instance, my bowling league meets on Fridays and I won't be there. My team should be alright without me, but I just wish I was there. I bowl at least 20 pins over my average almost every game, so I'm worth more there than not. But that will something to work out after this season. There are only another ten weeks or so left in the season anyway, if that many.


On another note, I saw a slight increase in the number of followers to my blog. That makes me happy! Looks like reaching out on BlogFrog and 20-something Bloggers has had a pretty nice initial payoff. I would like to say you all should check out my other two blogs too! They're great, and they sound mostly non-narcissistic because they're not about my life.


The first is My Life's Love Medley. It's a blog about the love lives of my closest friends. Each friend gets a day, except Camille and Lion share Wednesday. So there are eight friends in total. I talk about them a bit on this blog, but The Medley is where they get most of their coverage. It's like a soap opera if you look at the different stories each person has told about them. Also, on days when there's nothing to update, I link to another blog or website that talks about something very relevant to my friend's current romantic status.

The second is Rants About The Real World. It's a blog where I share my (usually rant-y) thoughts about what's happening in the world around me. Right now, I'm doing a series of posts on all the protests going on in the Middle East/Africa. Based on the coverage these stories are getting in America, these protests are of interest, some more than others. But I'm covering them all, in chronological order based on when they started. Also, I talk about things that go on in American politics, local politics, pop culture, and the media. If you like current events and general rantiness, check it out.


There are links to both blogs on the right hand sidebar of the blog, usually around the level of the end of the most recent post. Read them, and let me know what you think. I love feedback!

Saturday Night Could Have Gone Terribly, And Instead It Went GREAT!

Easy had a gig last night. And somehow, between him and I, we thought it would be a good idea to invite a number of people who matter to us, and throw them all together. That group included his mother, his oldest sister, his oldest sister's son, his oldest sister's son's girlfriend, a close fried of his from high school, my mother, my father, one of my best friend's Bad, and his girlfriend Jordan.



That's a lot of people, but the night went well. Easy had a gig at a pretty nice restaurant up in Evanston, IL. It barely counts as a suburb because if you're driving north in the city, you will be in Evanston before you know it. The street signs don't even change. Only the parking meters seem to be different. But I digress. He mentioned to my parents last month that they might want to check this gig out.


Then he invited along his mom to come Saturday night with my parents instead of Friday night. Then his sister, then his nephew and his nephew's girlfriend. Then he suggested I invite Bad and Jordan. Also, a friend of his from high school who's also a musician came too. So that's how we all ended up there.


I was a bit nervous about all the people meeting in such a random and large mix. And the restaurant put everyone at one big table instead of several small ones. That turned out to be good because it gave them a chance to talk a lot as opposed to a little. The music was great, the food was good.


They all seemed to have matching senses of humor and get along great. No teetotalers in the group, which of course only improved every one's mood. I learned a few things about the people in my life.

1. I really can take Bad anywhere and he'll fit into any crowd. This applies to Jordan now too.
2. My mom is really looking to bond with some young lady. I think Jordan is going to fill the gap my brother's fiancee never filled. There's something to be said for an instant connection
3. Easy's mom talks as much as mine did. They chatted each other's ears off the entire night.
4. My dad really loves live music. Like, he really loves live music. I'm not sure if he likes Easy because he's so nice and funny or because he plays the hell out of an alto sax.
5. I should have invited more people. My uncle and aunt were upset that we didn't invite them along.


I'm just glad the evening was a success. I hope future group outings will be fun for everyone. And I hope they all actually like each other as much as they seemed. I know my mom definitely loved Jordan. They're supposed to be going to lunch one day this week. That could have been my brother's fiancee. My mom really reaches out to people who will be important and around for a while. I think this is the first time she's seemed to really connect with a girl brought around my my brother, or a cousin, or one of my close guy friends. I hope it goes well.

A Valentine's Day That Lived Up To The Hype

Yes, my Valentine's Day was great this year. Thank God we chose to celebrate early. My sickness on Monday threatened to ruin it all.

So we had planned ahead of time to celebrate Valentine's Day on Saturday, February 12th. The logic was we wouldn't actually be together on Valentine's Day.

I have mentioned once or twelve times about how I've had a whole bunch of horrible Valentine's Days. Easy heard me and planned something great for us.

He wouldn't tell me what the plans were, he just let me know it would be good and it would be exactly what I asked for.

I told him, I didn't want him to go over-the-top. I just wanted a nice day that we got to enjoy together that wouldn't break the bank.

And boy did he deliver. He told me to be ready at 4 pm and wear jeans since we'd be outside for a bit.

He arrives at my house on time with roses and those Fannie May Pixies everyone loves. The Pixies were for me, the roses were for my mother.

Everyone in the house swooned appropriately.Well, not my dad. He just probably subconsciously counted the roses to make sure his bouquet would be bigger two days later.

Then we headed downtown. I saw the address he put into the GPS and I couldn't figure out for the life of me where we were headed.

I sat there thinking I could have sworn I knew that area very well, but I couldn't visualize that corner of the city and so I gave up guessing and just waited until we arrived to see where we were headed.

It was this great little Italian restaurant I've always wanted to try and never got around to it. Easy didn't even know this place has been on my To Do list forever, he just knows I love Italian food.

He got lucky on my love for group dining, new places, and great decorations. Or maybe he listens better than I thought and picked that place for all those reasons.

Dinner was fantastic. It felt like Italian-style tapas, which only made it more fun for me. The wine was great too. It was Orvietto. It's this wine I discovered with Bad at this place in the city called Vintage 338. I believe I wrote an entire blog post about this place.

After dinner, we headed off to another part of downtown Chicago. I wasn't where we were going, but it turned out we were headed to go ice skating in the John Hancock building.

If you know that area of the city, you understand how even while we were walking toward the ticket counter, I still couldn't be sure of the plan.

Well, the plan fell through. Those tickets to ice skate have to be purchased in advance. It's the world's tiniest ice skating rink, ladies and gentleman. Seriously, it's small. They sell tickets by the half hour. Seriously.

I was feeling pretty horrible by this point. The sickness, which I'll dedicate an entire post to later was taking over as the medicine was wearing off. All I wanted was to go home.

But I really truly appreciated that he tried to get it on the agenda because I mentioned a while ago that I really wanted to go ice skating and he actually remembered. I accuse him (quite often) of not listening and not remembering anything anybody says, but he remembered this. So that was definitely bonus points for him.

So instead we went to the movies earlier than planned and back south so we weren't that far from my home.

We ended up going to see that Jennifer Aniston Adam Sandler movie which I can't recall the name of right now.

That movie was hilarious!! Even with a sore throat that was making it increasingly difficult for me to even speak, I was cracking up laughing straight from the gut.

Those two have great chemistry. Even the kids, who I was not fans of until damn near the end of the movie were a good fit.

And then Easy just took me home after that. It wasn't quite the day he had planned, but I thought it was great. Considering how bad I felt for most of the day, I couldn't have asked for more.

He didn't get me a giant stuffed animal (which would have been horrible). He did get me Italian food. And lots of cough drops from the 7Eleven right across the street from the restaurant.

Oh, I forgot to mention the gifts I got him. I wasn't expecting anything outside of whatever our events were for the night, but I sure as hell was making sure I got Easy a gift.

He's never received anything besides a card before, so I had to do something great (on my nonexistent budget of course).

I got him 2 crunch bars (his favorite chocolate). I also got him Pixies. Another of his favorite chocolates. I definitely cracked up when I saw he got me the same thing I got him. Especially since both of our reasoning was because he liked it. But hopefully next time he'll remember my favorite chocolate and get that instead. Though I have been enjoying the all the Pixies.

I also got him two shirts. He likes screen t-shirts. I'm not the hugest fan of a man closer to 30 than 20 wearing them, but I can accept it. Bad does it, so does Sonny, so does Lion. Easy just fits in with the clothes.

And so I got him two shirts. One I knew he'd love, one that I liked a lot, but isn't really the style he generally goes for. I figured we'd see if he actually even wears both shirts, but he said he likes them. The one I knew he'd like? It says "This Is What AWESOME Looks Like".  I have to admit, I love that one too.

Creating Things Day Sixteen - Baked Chicken And Mashed Potatoes

Pretty much, the only things I'm able to make here in St. Louis at the Bachelor Pad is food and drink.

Voices around the blogosphere are going "duh!", especially if you've read my last few posts.

But I learned that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach, so I cook, ha ha.

Tonight, I'm making baked chicken and mashed potatoes for dinner.

Easy like potatoes a lot. Thank goodness we started dating after I was done with my no-carb phase.

I forgot to take pictures when I first started cooking, so I'll just have to type what I did.

I'm making breasts with the bone in. More flavor + cheaper price = no brainer.

I seasoned them with olive oil, cumin, salt, pepper, and thyme.

I sauteed the meaty side in a pan with a bit of butter and olive oil so it will be crispy even without skin.

Then I put the breasts in an aluminum foil lined glass pan with a bit of salted water and chicken broth in the bottom.

I covered the pan and stuck it in a 375 degree oven.

Here is the chicken in the oven. I pulled back the aluminum foil so you can see the tasty looking chicken with all the seasoning on it.

To make the potatoes, I just started by putting five potatoes in a pot full of water.

Here's a picture of the potatoes in the pot. Exciting, right?

I turned the chicken over after about 30 min on one side. Can't serve undercooked chicken.

I also took this opportunity to take the potatoes off the stove.

I peeled them and started smashing them.

No way I could mash them, no tools to do so in the Bachelor Pad.

I added butter, milk, and some Colby cheese. And of course, it tastes great.

It looks great too. Here's the picture.

The chicken was finished on the second side, then I turned it one more time.

I wanted to make sure it got finished.

But this time I removed the aluminum foil so that the chicken could brown a bit more.

I like that flavor you get from nice browned chicken.

Here is a picture of the chicken. There's only one breast left in the pan, I had already made our plates by the time I remembered to take the picture.

Here's my plate with the chicken at potatoes. Looks tasty, right?