Monthly Life Update
I wish everyone in my life would quit mentioning marriage to me. Not just marriage, but the fact that Rogers and I should be/will be getting married soon. It kind of makes it difficult for me to follow through with my whole "not caring about not being married" thing. My mom is the worst, probably just because I see her the most. She's constantly telling me how Rogers might propose when I go to see him this weekend and how our kids are going to be this and that. She also refers to his family a lot, in the context of how they fit into our family. I don't even have a ring yet, people! My friend Gordon is equally bad. He's constantly trying to get my hopes up about Rogers proposing. Half of my friends chide me for wanting to get married at all and the other half are egging me on and begging to be in my bridal party. Basically, I hate everyone and I just want them to leave me alone.
/rant
Well, Christmas was awesome, in a very toned down and family-oriented way - which is how I like it. We had the usual traditions of opening a stocking stuffer on Christmas Eve, baking cinnamon buns in the morning, and having a stocking for the dog. Our house has been all decorated since the day after Thanksgiving and we baked all kinds of holiday foods. I made the usual pumpkin pie and brown bread. I also tried my hand at making chocolate ganache truffles and (idea stolen from Janeface) chocolate cookie and peppermint creme whoopie pies (basically the best things in the world). Christmas dinner was delicious and we used my new fondue set for dessert that included strawberries, marshmallows, blackberries, cherries, and of course chocolate. God, I need to go run a few miles just thinking about all this food. I got some sweet presents (ie. a Steven Jackson Rams jersey, a crystal hair piece, and kitchen herb garden set), but my big present this year was the plane ticket I got to see Rogers a few weeks ago after my finals were over.
I flew up to Schenectady on the 9th to celebrate the end of the semester. We hung out for a few days and then took a little road trip over the weekend. We drove a couple hours down to New York City where Roger's brother Jason lives. Rogers had bought tickets to an off-Broadway play, Avenue Q, as an early Christmas present for me. We loved the play - because who doesn't love puppet musicals that include songs like "Everyone's a Little Bit Racist (Sometimes)" and "The Internet is for Porn" - and we went to a great Japanese restaurant afterward. We tried to go ice skating in Central Park the next morning, but ice hockey practice took up the whole rink until 1pm. So instead, we walked around Rockefeller Plaza and found some good hot cocoa before all 3 of us piled into the car to head to Philly.
Roger's other brother Blake was in Afghanistan for about a year and he just got home so Roger's family was throwing him a big party. I actually didn't realize how big until we got to Philly and saw the TENT they had rented, the food that was CATERED, and the 38,462,559 relatives that flew in. It was a super fun party - despite the fact that I don't think I remembered anyone's names. We went to brunch with some of the close relatives the next morning at Roger's family's YACHT CLUB. (Can you picture me at a yacht club? WTH am I doing with Richie Rich??) Anyway, the weekend was fun and I got to meet lots of Roger's family, plus Blake's gf who'll be going with us to the Virgin Islands in March - she's a doll. The rest of my week-long stay with Rogers was pretty uneventful. I gave him his Christmas presents - he loved the Kindle! We watched some movies and made of a list of all the ones we need to see before we die.
Oh, so before I flew up to NY this month, Rogers spent about a week hanging out with me in Stafford/NoVa. He came down after Thanksgiving and ended up just chillin' since he had that whole week off. I still had class 3 times a week, but we had a really great time relaxing. We drove to Richmond with Laurena and hung out with her super cool bf and Roger's old roomie. I'm really glad I've gotten to spend so much time with Rogers lately. We've been doing legit long distance for over a year now. We've been doing really well, even when we don't see each for 2 months sometimes, but it still majorly sucks.
P.S. You know what else majorly sucks? SNOWSTORMS. Driving in them, being stranded in them, basically everything about them. Lauren and I got caught in a blizzard last weekend and it probably lopped off 2 years from my life. We drove the 4 and a half hours to Virginia Tech for her brother Ryan's graduation. Now, I know it's Tech and I wouldn't normally set foot in that cow-infested farmer college, but Ryan is like my little bro and it was a great chance to spend some quality time with Lauren and her fam.
(I don't really know why I P.S.ed earlier - I'm not done with my post...)
So the graduation was really nice - we hung out with Ryan and his roomies the night before, playing beer pong and pretending like we were back in college and we went out to dinner with Lauren's mom and grampa. What happened after the graduation was not so nice. It started snowing and we figured we'd better get on the road to try to make it home before the weather got too bad. We knew there was a big storm coming, but if we stayed there, we'd be trapped for several days. Well, Lauren and I didn't make it far. It took us about 2 hours to get to Roanoke. The roads were so slippery, I was fish-tailing all over the place. We had to pull off the freeway when it started getting dark and we booked a hotel for the night.
Overnight, it snowed almost 2 feet and we were trapped. We booked the hotel for a second night, but after hitchhiking to the market down the road with a very nice man who told us about back roads that might be cleared off with little traffic, we decided to head out again. We drove for an hour or two, almost crashed after I slid across a couple lanes of traffic so we found another hotel. We finally started driving again the next day and we made it to Richmond. I left Lauren there with her bf because I was sick of driving in the snow and sleeping in strange beds. So all in all, nobody died and my car made it home in one piece (despite the horrible vibrating when I get above 45...)
I was supposed to drive up to Connecticut with two friends for a New Year's Eve party next week, but I reeeeeeally don't want to be in a car ever again, especially MY car. Rogers actually just bought me a plane ticket up to his place for next week so we can go to CT together so it's all good. And now I can get my Christmas presents from him!
Let's see, what else can I add to this super long post? Classes start up again on January 11. Not really looking forward to it, but hopefully they'll be okay. My roommate is getting back together with the husband she was separated from, so he'll be moving in with us. I'm debating just coming back to live with my parents. My place is getting a bit cramped and I'm up in NoVa so often anyway. It'll save me a bunch of money... I'll decide when classes start up again since that's when I have to commute.
Anyway, to conclude, here are some awesome videos I found while dicking around the Internet. Peace out!
An Engineer's Guide to Cats
http://video.yahoo.com/network/100000089?v=4438098&l=100022574
Where the Hell is Matt
http://video.yahoo.com/network/100000089?v=4438098&l=100022574
Bike Hero
http://video.yahoo.com/network/100000089?v=4438098&l=100022574
/rant
Well, Christmas was awesome, in a very toned down and family-oriented way - which is how I like it. We had the usual traditions of opening a stocking stuffer on Christmas Eve, baking cinnamon buns in the morning, and having a stocking for the dog. Our house has been all decorated since the day after Thanksgiving and we baked all kinds of holiday foods. I made the usual pumpkin pie and brown bread. I also tried my hand at making chocolate ganache truffles and (idea stolen from Janeface) chocolate cookie and peppermint creme whoopie pies (basically the best things in the world). Christmas dinner was delicious and we used my new fondue set for dessert that included strawberries, marshmallows, blackberries, cherries, and of course chocolate. God, I need to go run a few miles just thinking about all this food. I got some sweet presents (ie. a Steven Jackson Rams jersey, a crystal hair piece, and kitchen herb garden set), but my big present this year was the plane ticket I got to see Rogers a few weeks ago after my finals were over.
I flew up to Schenectady on the 9th to celebrate the end of the semester. We hung out for a few days and then took a little road trip over the weekend. We drove a couple hours down to New York City where Roger's brother Jason lives. Rogers had bought tickets to an off-Broadway play, Avenue Q, as an early Christmas present for me. We loved the play - because who doesn't love puppet musicals that include songs like "Everyone's a Little Bit Racist (Sometimes)" and "The Internet is for Porn" - and we went to a great Japanese restaurant afterward. We tried to go ice skating in Central Park the next morning, but ice hockey practice took up the whole rink until 1pm. So instead, we walked around Rockefeller Plaza and found some good hot cocoa before all 3 of us piled into the car to head to Philly.
Roger's other brother Blake was in Afghanistan for about a year and he just got home so Roger's family was throwing him a big party. I actually didn't realize how big until we got to Philly and saw the TENT they had rented, the food that was CATERED, and the 38,462,559 relatives that flew in. It was a super fun party - despite the fact that I don't think I remembered anyone's names. We went to brunch with some of the close relatives the next morning at Roger's family's YACHT CLUB. (Can you picture me at a yacht club? WTH am I doing with Richie Rich??) Anyway, the weekend was fun and I got to meet lots of Roger's family, plus Blake's gf who'll be going with us to the Virgin Islands in March - she's a doll. The rest of my week-long stay with Rogers was pretty uneventful. I gave him his Christmas presents - he loved the Kindle! We watched some movies and made of a list of all the ones we need to see before we die.
Oh, so before I flew up to NY this month, Rogers spent about a week hanging out with me in Stafford/NoVa. He came down after Thanksgiving and ended up just chillin' since he had that whole week off. I still had class 3 times a week, but we had a really great time relaxing. We drove to Richmond with Laurena and hung out with her super cool bf and Roger's old roomie. I'm really glad I've gotten to spend so much time with Rogers lately. We've been doing legit long distance for over a year now. We've been doing really well, even when we don't see each for 2 months sometimes, but it still majorly sucks.
P.S. You know what else majorly sucks? SNOWSTORMS. Driving in them, being stranded in them, basically everything about them. Lauren and I got caught in a blizzard last weekend and it probably lopped off 2 years from my life. We drove the 4 and a half hours to Virginia Tech for her brother Ryan's graduation. Now, I know it's Tech and I wouldn't normally set foot in that cow-infested farmer college, but Ryan is like my little bro and it was a great chance to spend some quality time with Lauren and her fam.
(I don't really know why I P.S.ed earlier - I'm not done with my post...)
So the graduation was really nice - we hung out with Ryan and his roomies the night before, playing beer pong and pretending like we were back in college and we went out to dinner with Lauren's mom and grampa. What happened after the graduation was not so nice. It started snowing and we figured we'd better get on the road to try to make it home before the weather got too bad. We knew there was a big storm coming, but if we stayed there, we'd be trapped for several days. Well, Lauren and I didn't make it far. It took us about 2 hours to get to Roanoke. The roads were so slippery, I was fish-tailing all over the place. We had to pull off the freeway when it started getting dark and we booked a hotel for the night.
Overnight, it snowed almost 2 feet and we were trapped. We booked the hotel for a second night, but after hitchhiking to the market down the road with a very nice man who told us about back roads that might be cleared off with little traffic, we decided to head out again. We drove for an hour or two, almost crashed after I slid across a couple lanes of traffic so we found another hotel. We finally started driving again the next day and we made it to Richmond. I left Lauren there with her bf because I was sick of driving in the snow and sleeping in strange beds. So all in all, nobody died and my car made it home in one piece (despite the horrible vibrating when I get above 45...)
I was supposed to drive up to Connecticut with two friends for a New Year's Eve party next week, but I reeeeeeally don't want to be in a car ever again, especially MY car. Rogers actually just bought me a plane ticket up to his place for next week so we can go to CT together so it's all good. And now I can get my Christmas presents from him!
Let's see, what else can I add to this super long post? Classes start up again on January 11. Not really looking forward to it, but hopefully they'll be okay. My roommate is getting back together with the husband she was separated from, so he'll be moving in with us. I'm debating just coming back to live with my parents. My place is getting a bit cramped and I'm up in NoVa so often anyway. It'll save me a bunch of money... I'll decide when classes start up again since that's when I have to commute.
Anyway, to conclude, here are some awesome videos I found while dicking around the Internet. Peace out!
An Engineer's Guide to Cats
http://video.yahoo.com/network/100000089?v=4438098&l=100022574
Where the Hell is Matt
http://video.yahoo.com/network/100000089?v=4438098&l=100022574
Bike Hero
http://video.yahoo.com/network/100000089?v=4438098&l=100022574