And She Said…YES!

Today is going to be a special guest post. Rather than being written by your regular, beautiful hostess Jill, I'll be writing it. To help things make a little more sense as to why I'm here instead of her, I have some exciting news to share:

We're engaged! I asked her to marry me on Memorial Day, and she said yes. And, as she's been getting back into blogging, she wanted to share the story with everyone, and came up with the idea of seeing it from my perspective.

The plan was pretty simple. I had already made reservations for dinner that night, with a special note that we wanted to celebrate our recent engagement. Of course, this presented the obvious problem: we weren't yet engaged. So I needed to do it today. I was going to ask her in the morning, shortly after we got back from working out. She always thinks she's too sweaty to even kiss after she's finished a long run, but it's always worth getting a little sweat on my lips in order to kiss her.

I wanted it to be a surprise for her, which is a little harder to accomplish when we are spending so much time so close together in her new one-bedroom apartment. I wanted to catch her while she was looking absolutely gorgeous, even if she didn't normally think it of herself. So asking her after she's spent an hour putting on her make-up and getting her hair done up while in a pretty dress wasn't going to work.

Unfortunately for my simple plan, the day broke with a rain storm moments after we got out of bed. We're talking cats and dogs coming down in sheets. Alright, no big deal. We'll just wait a little bit longer to go to the fitness center to work out so we don't get there sopping wet, and I'll just wait a little longer to pop the question.

It just KEPT raining. Hours of it. Which is normally fine, I can go ahead and spend a day inside with my beloved girlfriend, but the dinner reservations at 5 pm were creeping closer and closer, and I didn't want to need to pull her aside as we were walking out the door and basically shove the ring onto her finger as an afterthought, and I certainly didn't want the people at the restaurant spoiling the surprise by asking about the "recent engagement" we were celebrating. I might've been able to spin that into a "oh yeah, engagement is British for being hired" or some such, but it'd've been a stretch, and awkward, and I'm sure Jill would have seen right through the obvious cover story.

So, maybe we could go even though it was raining a bit? I kept asking her when she wanted to go, even though it was, of course, still raining. She kept picking up that I was antsy for some reason, though didn't have any idea about why, just that I was apparently really really eager to go working out. I think I asked a total of three times over the course of the day, spaced out to try to not draw too much attention and arouse her suspicion, but I was really worried about her figuring things out.

Finally, the rain broke, and we went to work out. It was a strength-training day for both of us. I explored some of the machines and free weights in her fitness center, trying to find how to most closely replicate the workout routine I do at the gym at school. The co-rec there has squat racks, barbell benches, deadlift platforms, and more, which lets me easily do the classic heavy lifts. Jill did a bunch of bodyweight exercises with extra weight from dumbbells to increase the difficulty. I'm not sure what her routine was, specifically; she's always been better about planning what to do at a gym than I am, I usually just walk in and do what seems interesting at the moment until I'm sore and tired.

After we got back, we were figuring out where we needed to go that night for dinner and to the hotel afterwards, and making sure we would have everything we needed for our upcoming celebratory vacation. She had her back turned to me, checking out things on her phone as it charged on the iHome in the kitchen. Perfect. I slipped the ring box out of it's hiding place in my backpack and came up beside her, the ring in my far hand. Of course, now that I was next to her, she was looking at me as we talked, so I asked a question to turn her focus back to the screen of her phone, and then went down on one knee. In my mind, that's the only way to do a proposal.

She was shocked into silence, and her eyes went a little wide. She said later that it felt like so long had passed before she could finally get her voice back to say "of course!". This was followed by plenty of laughing and smiling and hugging and kissing, and tears of joy on her end. She cries pretty easily at things like this, so it was nice to see it happen.

We had dinner plans for 5 pm, since we were planning on having a nice leisurely dinner. We sat down in the mostly empty restaurant, and immediately started having a fantastic time with our server. Turns out, he was recently engaged as well. Small world. We started the meal with an appetizer of bacon-and-cheese-wrapped shrimp, and a walnut and cranberry vinaigrette salad that we split.

At the waiter's recommendation, we opened a bottle of blended white wine, which was incredibly sweet. I had the stuffed salmon with sautéed green beans over mashed potatoes with sausage. It was fantastic, and I had to slow down my pace dramatically to make the meal last a little longer.

She had... some other fantastically delicious dish. I'll admit, she's much better at remembering meals than I am. Fortunately, she's also very good at taking pictures. [From Jill: Cashew crusted tilapia with Jamaican rum butter sauce (holy crap, awesome) and sweet potato couscous with sautéed green beans.]

For dessert, we were gifted two glasses of champagne and a "chocolate box". The box was formed of milk chocolate, and filled with white chocolate mousse and raspberries, blueberries, and bits of strawberries. It, like everything else, was delicious.

After dinner, we took a walk, enjoying the warm night and chance to be downtown where we normally aren't. We ended up drifting several blocks over and finding ourselves by a Cheesecake Factory, so we stopped in for a second dessert to truly celebrate the wonderful occasion, as well as some drinks. I had a Long Island, she had a martini, and we split the Oreo and Kahlua cheesecakes.

A fantastic way to end the night. Of course, we still had to get to our hotel, so after some fancy navigating to get on the highway out into the boondocks, and quite a few missed turns, we were finally on our way there, and arrived near midnight. We checked in without any trouble, but when we got up to our room, we discovered the bed was all disheveled and immediately turned around. If the room was occupied, we didn't want to stick around when whoever was occupying it came out of the bathroom. The ladies at the front desk were very helpful and very apologetic, however, and immediately found another room for us to take. We were upgraded to a suite (awesome) and given two vouchers for free breakfast at the hotel's restaurant (also awesome).  Quite the day! And the start of a fantastic forever with my new fiancée.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Jill here, again.  So there you have it, ladies and gentlemen.  We’re engaged and very happy.  The wedding won’t be for a while, think three or four years given that Jack needs to finish his PhD, but we figure that just means we have a ton of time to get it perfect.  =D

The [May] Month of Great Change

So not only did I graduate this past month with my final, most awesome degree but I have since moved to a new place and am about to start a brand new job.  It was quite the crazy last few weeks.  So let’s start close to the beginning, shall we?

First off, I had to say good bye to everyone amid packing up the entire apartment.  I don’t know about you all but packing up everything in your life is incredibly displacing and uncomfortable.  Not to mention busy, chaotic, and just downright messy as all else.  It is definitely one of my least favorite things, ever. 

Saying goodbye, or see you later as the case may be, to people you love and have spent so long around, is difficult.  I think it almost made it worse too because I didn’t just have one party where I said “so long” to everyone in the same night.  I took the draw-it-out path and had individual dinners and things with those important people.  While this gave me a chance to hang out with everyone individually, it meant that I had to suck up the tears multiple times before leaving behind my life there.

Never-the-less, these people were worth it, and I’ll miss them terribly!  They’ve all been such an integral part of my life these last seven years.  But, I’m sure there will be new friends and new things waiting for me here in my new city.  Never to replace the old, just to add on the new.

By the end of the month, the 24th, it was time to actually move.  We had a rocky start to the 23rd, the pack-the-truck day.  Budget Truck Rentals called me to tell me that they simply didn’t have a truck for my reservation.  I’m sorry, what?  What the heck is a reservation for?!?!  The only silver lining to this was that they called me a half hour before the pick-up time, rather than having us go all the way there to find out there wasn’t a truck waiting for us.  We managed to find another truck, thanks to the lovely people at Penske. 

We packed things up in the truck, with many thanks due to Jack and a new friend Eric.  I treated them to lunch in exchange.  Jack and I then returned to clean our way through the apartment before handing in the keys.  Sadly this took even longer than it took to pack the whole place up!  How crazy is that.  Thankfully, Jack’s mom came to help us out.  Couldn’t have done it without her.  After that, we were more than hungry so we met up with another friend and indulged in some great Greek food as my last meal before leaving.

I had some delicious vegetarian sampler plate, some of the flaming cheese, and a piece of the best baklava ever.  And with this food baby in my belly, we slept it off and woke up bright and early for the move day.  Jack and I made the entire move in one day and by the time we got here and unloaded everything, we were completely wiped.

The mess was just unbearable so we left and got food.  We went to a recommended pizza place and immediately sat down to order waters and a cream cheese pesto dip.

Then we had some drinks and a bacon cheeseburger pizza.  And yes, it was as incredible as it sounded.  Seriously delicious.

When we returned thankfully we had already made the bed so we could crash immediately.  No joke, if you do one thing the day you move, make your bed.  You will be ever grateful to yourself and your forethought.

The rest of the weekend was spent unpacking and getting things that I had determined to simply buy new on the other end.  I managed to get the entire apartment unpacked in a single day.  Sunday was a full 8 hours of work but it was nice to finally have everything done.  This cause for celebration meant another night out.  We headed to a local stellar burger joint and ordered a bunch of yummies.

I had the andouille chicken sausage burger with watercress, blue cheese, and onions.  Jack had a burger with a parmesan crisp and a fried green tomato.  On the side was a trio of sweet potato fries (with herbs and brown sugar….amazing!), truffle tater tots, and ridiculous onion rings.  The whole meal was insanely good but we decided shakes would make it better.

And my peanut butter marshmallow one certainly did.  And again, nursing food babies, we went back home and crashed again.  We were so tired from all the unpacking and stuff.  Moving just takes it out of you!  Also, Jack was kind of getting over a sickness (which he eventually gave to me and I haven’t stopped sniffling since) so that didn’t help either.

But, in the end, we were finished.  And I am moved.  And the rest of the adventure was (and is still) just getting started.  In other news, Memorial Day also turned out to be a pretty stellar day.  More on that in another post though, probably tomorrow.  Believe me, it’s a sparkly surprise.  =D

Questions: How do you get through moving?
Where do you get your recommendations for places to eat in a new city?

Love Week In Review

Hey group.  We have a lot to talk about!  I’m sorry I’ve been MIA but this was my first week at a new rotation clinic site and it was a bit hectic.  I really didn’t get home until after six almost every day.

Also, we have a midterm coming up on Wednesday so I’ve been studying, studying, studying.

Anyways, let’s review the week of love (aka Valentine’s Day week) shall we?  And GO!

Last weekend Jack came to visit and we have our Valentine’s Day stuff early.  We were low-key this year honestly, and that was okay, especially since we have our three year anniversary coming up in less than a month.  We had a packed weekend together though, filled with social things.  This was both good and bad we decided later.  By the time Sunday night rolled around we both were exhausted from the weekend and didn’t feel ready to tackle the week.  Saturday consisted of seeing a woman I haven’t hugged in person for almost three or four years.  We went to college together but she got married, had two babies, and moved around the country since we left.  She and her family are on the way to Las Vegas due to her husband’s military job.  They were having a going away party and it was the perfect time to get back in touch.

Joshua was there too.  We used to be quite the freshman threesome back in the day.  Nice reunion though short.  Jack, Joshua, and I headed out and went for dinner in the city because Joshua had driven in and we figured we should milk the time for as long as we could.  We picked out a new place to try and ended up being the only people around.  That was okay though.  They brought the bread basket in no time and we dug into these awesomely seedy rolls.

I had mine with some of the whipped butter they dropped off tableside too.

It was so great.  There is just something to be said about hearty carbs.  Oh man.  Speaking of, our appetizer was pretty carbtastic and epic as well.  Gravy fries anyone?  Thick cut fries topped with gravy, pot roast, and melted cheese curds.

Holy yum.

I mean just look at that cheese landslide!  They were incredible.  I honestly could have had the whole plate to myself and been a very happy camper.  Though it was probably good that we split it three ways because we had dinner coming.  Joshua got the cedar planked salmon with fingerling potatoes and Jack got the mushroom ravioli.

I ended up choosing the mahi mahi sandwich with grilled pineapple and a chili aioli.  This thing was massive.  Like taller than my iPhone massive.

It tasted alright after I cut it into quarters.  I think it would have been better, really, if they had taken out the thick middle piece of toast.  The bread kind of dominated all the other tastes.  I liked the pineapple though.  A bit later we decided on dessert for the three of us: German chocolate cake and cappuccino crème brulee. 

Both offerings were delicious.  I loved the icing on the cake and the sugar crust on the crème brulee.  Great way to end the night…but it actually wasn’t the end.  We stayed at the table for close to three hours afterwards.  We talked about all sorts of things from genetics to bioinformatics to physics and such.  Finally around 11p we all headed home.  The following day was filled with another social engagement: ice skating!  We met up with a bunch of friends from swing dancing for a few hours on the ice.

I used to ice skate competitively before high school and I still fit into my custom made skates.  Jack rented his.  He is actually pretty good on the ice.  Makes it nice to skate around together because we don’t have to hug the boards the whole time.  It ended up being a nice two hours though my legs have certainly forgotten all the muscles it takes to properly skate.  My ankles aren’t quite as strong as they used to be.

We decided that after we left the rink, we weren’t ready to be done with the day.  Instead of going home we headed to Starbucks for drinks and went across the street to a toy store to poke around.

Some gems we found included an awesome genetics & DNA experiment kit…

…a puzzle game…

…crazy mirrors…

…and a cute magnetic “easel” of sorts.

After coming back home we cooked up the dinner we bought at the corner grocery store.  Chinese anyone?

With some red wine too, for good measure.

We played some two player games like trivia challenge and air hockey after dinner.  It was a cute experience. Made me think about what people did before smart phones with games on demand!

Then the week began.  With a loving mood in mind, one of our professors bought us all Girl Scout cookies.  He distributed them all as fairly as possible.  We each drew a letter and got the box that matched.

I ended up with one that I had never tried before: Savannah Smiles. They have a nice lemon kick and a great crunch. Yum!  A few girls didn’t want to take their temptations home so they opened them up in the student room.  I’m fairly sure we had close to seven different boxes open at one time.  I snagged a peanut butter pattie (or tag-a-long depending on which Girl Scout generation you’re from) after lunch one day.

Just as yummy as I remember but smaller…or maybe I just grew up.  Other baked goods showed up on Thursday for Valentine’s Day.  I made cookies and one of the first years made mini chocolate chip cheesecakes.

Then there was puppy chow.  I made myself some based on a lower calorie version I found somewhere on the internet or Pinterest.  I can’t remember now.

This followed my solo Valentine’s Day dinner of a strawberry and blue cheese salad with red wine.

Other eats of the week included perfectly hard-baked eggs with curry spice blend sprinkles, spinach salads dressed with extra virgin olive oil, spinach dip-sundried tomato dip-blue cheese sandwiches, scrambled eggs with salsa and sour cream, and sweet potatoes with sunbutter (aka the “crack snack”).

The week ended with a small social date with two of my first years on Friday night.  We were the last people out of the student room around 7p and our tummies weren’t lettting us get far.  Noodles & Company was just around the corner so we drove there quickly for food.  I ordered the Japanese pan noodles with shrimp and a side of tomato-cucumber salad.

It was nice to not have to cook or reheat anything plus I was seriously craving some social time.  I feel like I’ve been a super shut up recently.  I hope that doesn’t last forever!  However it didn’t get better this weekend… I stayed in my apartment and studied though my eats were great.  For lunch I had a spinach, blue cheese, olive oil, and lemon pepper salad with apples and lettuce wraps with egg salad.  Dinner was had just after the cable guy left.  I nuked a sweet potato and topped it with some sloppy joes made with TVP.  Sour cream too!  I made some tweaks to this recipe so mine didn’t come out as saucy but still yummy.  I didn’t have tomato paste so I used ketchup and some BBQ sauce.  I also used a bunch of onion, green pepper, and carrots instead of just TVP.  Nomnom.

Then I did my population genetic practice test to see how I would fair on Wednesday’s midterm.  I didn’t do as great as I wanted but the more I looked over my work, the more I realize I made some silly mistakes.  The way I see it, I made them all now in practice and won’t make them on the test.  We used to say in ice skating that if you had a bad practice ice you were going to have a stellar competition ice.  Here’s to hoping that same logic works with class!!

And to finish everything off, I treated myself to some great chocolate frozen yogurt topped with chocolate syrup, marshmallows, puppy chow, and dark chocolate chips.  Perfect way to end the week of love and start the first week of actual counseling at my new rotation site.  Tomorrow I have a baking appointment followed by more population studying.  Bring on the week!

Questions: How was your Valentine’s Day week?
How much do you love puppy chow?