VDay Catch Up Posts: VDay Weekend

Moving on in my VDay posts…

As everyone knows, I’ve been very stressed out and overwhelmed with school lately. So my sweetie planned a very romantic Valentine’s weekend for me, to help me feel loved and relax and destress!

So, last Friday, Jonathan took the day off of work to spend time with me! I also don’t have class on Friday, so that made it really, really nice! I had made him homemade chocolates during my smidgen of free time on Thursday, with the help of two of my good friends! I think they turned out nicely!

(Side note, Alysha, I wanted to make some for you but thought they wouldn’t turn out very good in the mail…so I went with Brownies instead… so we can make some over spring break if you want to!!)

Here’s what they looked like

Jonathan planned some surprises for me, too. First up, we had couples massages! The last time we had professional massages was on our honeymoon, so this was an awesome surprise! Afterwards, I felt so relaxed and amazing!  Jonathan had also booked us a room at a local hotel for Friday and Saturday night, to help get me out of the house and unstressed. It definitely worked! Jonathan had booked a Valentine’s day special, so at the end we got a gift bag with champagne, plastic flutes, candy, and some other goodies. It was really sweet. 🙂

On Saturday, we went spinning. Now, some of you might be thinking, “Ick, 8:30 am biking on your romantic weekend? whaaat?”  But we are so excited about biking the french country side and we love spinning and training for it! After spinning, we got Kolaches (if you’ve never had a kolache, , you should! kolachefactory.com) We took those back to the hotel, watched a movie and ate kolaches!

Post-kolache eating, we enjoyed the hotel’s indoor pool and hot tub. Very nice and relaxing.  Then we got nice and dressed up, and Jonathan took me to the orchid exhibit at the botanical gardens.  I have a ton of pictures from that, so I will do an orchid post later. After orchids, we went to Monarch for dinner, which was also delicious and fabulous.  We don’t do fine dining very often, so it was a really nice splurge. Monarch has southern influences in their cooking, so of course I ended up having sweet tea fried chicken… amazing!  Jonathan got a sweet potato coated cat fish. Which I actually tried, and liked. Crazy!

On Sunday, we slept in, and then we went to Cafe Madeliene in Tower Grove Park for brunch. The wait was long, but the atmosphere was really nice and the food was great!  After that,  I had to go to class, so that was the end of our romantic Valentine’s Weekend.

 

Lesson Learned

Disclaimer: I am NOT pregnant and we are NOT trying to get pregnant right now. (Someone is going to not really read this and get the wrong idea, I just know that.) Okay.. back to my post…
If you are married, and especially if you’ve been married for more than one year, or, oh my goodness, three years…
You can no longer state that you are excited about things without someone assuming you are pregnant.

I guess there is nothing left in life to be excited about at this stage in our marriage…. And we are not pregnant (and not trying to be pregnant) so I guess I better just get out the cheesaritos and ice cream and drown my sorrows of my unexciting life in cheap sitcoms.

Actually… I can’t do that because I would be excited about that.

If I sound really rude and sarcastic online, I promise I’m really just kidding and I think it’s hilarious.

This is like the tenth time that I’ve posted something on Facebook (I know.. I know.. my own fault) that I never imagined someone would take to mean I was pregnant… but low and behold, someone does.

But really, guys, come on, I’m a fourth year dual degree grad student. If I got pregnant, I’d probably literally die of the stress.

And if somehow I magically did live long enough to birth a baby, it would probably have chronic ulcers at birth just from living inside of me!

And if somehow, we magically did have a normal non-ulcered baby, social services would probably take the baby away because I am not currently fit to be a parent. Most fourth year law students aren’t. Trust me, I know a few. I barely manage to feed myself… if it weren’t for Jonathan, I am sure I would live off a steady diet of popcorn, applesauce, and hot tea. I know this because I basically did that in undergrad when I was over-committed to to many projects and things.

So, atleast hold the pregnancy talk until after I graduate?

Okay, thanks.

in other news, I am excited! About a lot of things! Job opportunities, which I won’t post hear until something comes to fruition. The holiday season. Seeing friends from afar. Being one semester away from graduation. Lots and lots of things! I guess it’s just that time of year!

Return from Chicago and a Fun Saturday

I made it back around midnight last night. Thursday/Friday felt like one intensely long day. I got out of my exam at 1 on Thursday, and boarded the bus to Chicago. Since I had an exam from 11:30-1, and the bus left right after, I did not have a chance to get lunch. Maybe it was bad planning on my part, but I’m usually a speedy test taker, so I thought I’d get out atleast five minutes early and have time to run by Einstein’s and get a sandwich. It didn’t happen.

We got to the hotel around7:30. Let me tell you, this was one gigantic and expensive hotel. I had planned on just finding something to eat nearby, but there was nothing within a block of the hotel and there was no way I was walking around Chicago in the cold and dark alone and without a jacket. Again, probably poor planning on my part, not bringing a jacket.  The room service menu was insane. I had expected it to be expensive, but it was going to cost me almost 40 dollars to get a warm meal! What’s up with that?

So I ordered in Chinese, and it was so delicious. Amazingly delicious. Then I went to sleep early and woke up early, and took my sweet time getting ready in the morning. The fair didn’t start until ten, so I showered, let my hair air dry, and watched Smallville. This was actually excellent planning on my part, because I had intended to actually dry my hair, but the act of using the provided dryer in the hotel shorted the bathroom lights and power, and I couldn’t use the dryer anymore.  Good thing I am such a morning person and had given myself three hours to get ready!

The job fair was good. I got one interview for a position in DC. Sorry, Laurel, but Whirlpool did not seem very interested in me at all … 😦  That was a bummer, because I had been very excited about them! Most of the St Louis companies at the fair were like… “We’ve already done our Wash U recruitment.” So that was dead end city for the most part also. But I have about 7 good leads. Most of them require following up in the spring. (One of the leads is a St. Louis or Cincinnati based position, and either would work out because St. Louis is here, of course, and Cincy is really close to mine and Jonathan’s parents.)

Anyway, I am not sure if it was worth the nearly 300 dollars I spent to be there… stupid hotel that cost over 200 dollars… but it was actually a pretty good time and I made some good contacts. So if I ignore expenses, it was a good experience!

But boy! Am I worn out! And of course I didn’t manage to sleep in today.

When I got in, Jonathan had beautiful fall-colored flowers on the kitchen table, and in an old heart shaped chocolate box, he had put two tickets to see the Gin Blossoms tonight! I am very excited!

We are also making a field trip out to Illinois to go to Ulta to buy necessary beauty supplies, and maybe… maybe go biking.

Last thing on our agenda for today is to eat pizza and watch movies. Our small group weight loss contest starts tomorrow, so this may be the last bite of pizza I take for quite some time! Mmmmm pizza!

So that’s the plan for today! I still need to decide what class to drop before the new miniterm begins on Monday, and do homework for Monday. So I’ve got some work to do too!

 

Middle of the Night Pajama Party

I have a lot going on right now, between exams and recruitment. Frequently, when I have so much going on, I have trouble sleeping. And last night, at the last minute, Jonathan and I decided to change travel plans for Chicago this weekend… we figured out that I could, in fact, take the charter bus with my classmates and it would save us money if I did that versus him and I driving up separately. (We had originally thought that the bus departure would be earlier, and I have an exam that gets out at 1.) The bus is actually going to load at 1 and leave at 1:15. So, I spent a lot of time and energy last night trying to get last minute travel arrangements set. I still don’t have a hotel room, but I’m going to take care of that tonight!

Anyway, worrying about all of these details, and getting ready for the conference while studying for my exam tomorrow made me a very restless sleeper last night!  Around 3 am, I was tossing and turning and tossing and turning, and finally Jonathan suggested that we go to the living room with our pillows and blankets, turn on the tv, and have somewhat of a pajama party in the livingroom!

Unfortunately, we turned on a show that ended up being way more interesting than usual…. it was the Halloween episode of Chopped. So we didn’t fall asleep as fast as we thought we would. But, it was really fun!

Now I’m mondo tired and I’m going to have to down a five hour energy right before my exam!

Valentine’s Day

Jonathan and I had a very nice Valentine’s Day! We trade who plans what holiday, so this year he was in charge of planning Valentine’s Day, and I’m in charge of our anniversary.

Anyway, we did our official celebration on Saturday, since I knew I’d spend most of the day (and evening) at the school on Monday. Part one of our celebration involved walking around the mall together, as a throwback to our earliest dates. Then, we came home, and cooked a fancy-pants dinner together! I wish I had taken pictures! Jonathan had set up the table with candles, our wedding china, and a bouquet of flowers!

We made tarragon steak, champagne risotto with asparagus, and then had chocolate fondue for dessert. It was so much fun to cook together, and then share a meal together. 🙂

Then, on real Valentine’s Day, we decided to meet near the school for dinner together. Jonathan met me at IHOP with balloons, and we shared pancakes! He also got me a beautiful heart pendant! Here’s the stock photo, I’ll upload real photos later:

When I finally got home that evening, and checked the mail, there was a Valentine from Jonathan! He had written me a poem in a card and put it in the mail box! It was cheesy, but so cute and sweet!

Anyway, it was amazing to just spend some time together!
I had a very interesting experience on my way to dinner. I swung into Walgreens to grab a valentine’s day card for Jonathan. First of all, the parking lot was packed. I had to circle around a few times to get a spot. Then, the greeting card lane was packed with people in slacks and button downs. Professionals. All of whom had waited until the absolute last second to get their loved one a card. I already felt bad enough about how busy I’ve been lately, and not putting more thought/effort into the card. As I stood there, looking down at my shiny dress shoes and pinstripe pants, I realized that this is not what I want life to be like. I want to have time for the people to care about.

For now, I do the best I can, between assignments and readings and interviews. I’m a law student. What more can I do?

Today, we just scheduled a winery getaway package for the first week of March! For a Wednesday night. I don’t have class on Wednesdays, and I am determined to get my work done and leave it all. at. home.

The Best Laid Plans

It seems that story after story of marriage includes things going wrong. You save for that big vacation and then the air condition goes out. You plan a fancy date, and then your husband has to work late. Etc, etc.

Here is ours: We planned a nice anniversary date. We were going to go listen to a Frank Sinatra cover concert in the park, and then go to our favorite Italian restaurant. It was going to be sweet and romantic.

Then, I got sick. I spent all day puking my guts up. There goes any chance of a romantic anniversary date. Not only did I miss an amazing opportunity at work, but I also ruined our two-year anniversary.

That’s when Jonathan saved the day. He knew I was not only feeling bad because I was sick, but that I was incredibly disappointed about work and about our date. He came home at lunch, and worked from home so he could spend time with me. He brought me a beautiful flower bouquet with an anniversary balloon. And we spent our anniversary doing what should be done on anniversaries. Spending time together and sharing our love with each other.

Anniversaries aren’t about fancy dates. Anniversaries are about celebrating making the decision to love each other, to stay beside each other, and to care for and about each other. Being sick didn’t ruin our anniversary, it just gave my adorable husband the chance to remind me what being married is really about.

So, here’s to two years of being married to my best friend. And hopefully next time, our anniversary won’t involve puking.