spritechan | Entries tagged with weekend

Yesterday Steve and I walked to Walgreens for a few things, and then up to Caribou for coffees. The weather was FINE, but it's still way too cool for my liking. Warm up, dammit!

On the way home we got to talking about TMNT (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), and he told me he'd never seen Secret of the Ooze. I was like "BUDDY! How have we made it 12 years into this relationship and you have not seen it EVER?!"

We own it on Amazon (I made some of my students watch it, haha), and on Blu-Ray (we own very few movies but Steve found it at a garage sale). I started it right when we got home. We had SUCH a good time marveling at how late 80's/early 90's it was — in dress, in music, in camera shots, in sound mixing. Every moment of that movie is amazing.

The soundtrack is a BANGER. Oh my god. And it's just a really funny, wholesome movie. David/Sancho said that the first TMNT got a ton of backlash from Mom groups for its violence, so the second movie doesn't even have the turtles directly use their weapons (instead there's a bunch of entertaining martial arts that is more distraction than violence). I love how the movie takes its time with scenes and absolutely doesn't take itself too seriously.

After it ended Steve was like "OMG I LOVED that. Wow. So good."

We realized we had momentum, so we decided to just make an evening of movies. We are NOT movie people, generally. It's so much effort to get going! But we did it!

( Read more... )

Today is such a busy day! Steve and I managed to sleep in until almost 11, the comfy bed, snuggles, and thunderstorms all night soothing us into comfort that we were both incredibly reluctant to leave. But leave we must, because as I said, so many things.

First on the agenda was food, coffee, and writing up the entry for yesterday. I confirmed the time of Pokémon Go for Larvitar as well. Shower was had and clothes were donned, entries were posted and off to Mall of America - which is really the only way to do it, what with the MANY pokestops, lures, people and Pokémon. Why waste your time anywhere else??

Holy crap it was INSANE there today! The parking ramps was already crazy full with a huge line, but I beelined for the roof, because I didn’t ant to waste any more time than we had already, and there was like basically no one there. It is really muggy out today, very VERY humid. Once inside, it was quickly discovered today was the regional yo-yo competition, which is always entertaining but SO. NERVEWRACKING. Steve says I make the best audience because I am so animated while watching - I gasp and cheer and hide my face and have running commentary. Yo-yo is actually a really impressive hobby. We spent a good deal of time on the 4th floor catching so many Larvitar and other Pokémon before heading to the 3rd floor, where we spent most of our time. The mall was filthy with Larvitar. I got a really good shiny as my second catch of the day, and I never did find one better. I found a better regular Larvitar as well, though I didn’t have as many terrible ones as Steve did. In the end I evolved three and buffed up 2. Then we walked around doing a couple raids, which didn’t show up until after the event was over. As usual, when the first Kyogre raid started, my phone borked out and we had to move everywhere. Steve didn’t catch his first one. Once I got into a raid, I did, and it was pretty good. Then we went to another one, and I got another good one, and Steve got a SHINY Kyogre. So jealous!!! They’re purple! I love purple! AND it had good stats. So lucky. On our way out I spotted Pa and Carrie, Parkway coworkers of mine, who were also playing Pokémon Go. We stopped and chatted with them for a few minutes before heading out.

Next up was my brother Jack’s graduation party at my dad’s house. We made the 40-minute drive out there, feeling kind of bad that we wouldn’t be able to stay long because I had to be home before 8 to tutor. I was pleasantly surprised to find that Jack had several friends over and there were people there for Dad and Tammy to hang out with too. They made sure to have rice for my tacos and Jack’s cake was pretty good too. Jack’s friends were decently funny, and apparently the running joke of his childhood was that he always talked about having so many siblings, and his friends were over often enough, and yet they NEVER saw any of them. So Jack was excited to show me off as one of the “fabled mysterious siblings”. To be fair, Jack is much younger than the rest of us. Bethany, at 26, is his closest sibling and still almost 9 years his senior.

After hanging out eating, and watching his slideshow that Dad made, we had to head out all too soon. The children were loudly playing Smash bros downstairs, and Jack seemed a little bummed we had to go so soon but took it in stride. I told him that since he’s going to a college nearby y house that he HAS to come by and hang out. I’m so easy to hang out with; we barely even have to talk lol. Just play games quietly and have fun.

I took a daiquiri to go (it was delicious) and Steve and I listen to Name of the Wind on the way back (we also listened to it on the way to dad’s, and I may or may not have gotten tearful right before we got there. It’s a POWERFUL book). I was in the best mood. My lesson with Shinpei was pretty good, he was distracted at first but eventually got into it, and we had fun. After that I went downstairs and we chilled until it was time to go to Minneapolis.

Oh yeah, we had also bought tickets to the midnight showing of Howl’s Moving Castle. I think the Uptown theatre might do this every year or every few years, but they show Ghibli movies as midnight showings, subtitled, one weekend a month. Howl’s is my favorite, along with Spirited Away and Nausicaa (Only Yesterday is a strong contender too). Steve couldn’t even remember the last time he saw it, and I’m a HUGE sap for this movie. It is so romantic and tender in my heart. Like, the themes really get to me, and I wondered if the type of person I am makes me view the movie a certain way. Ugh, just so good. After the movie I talked at length about the various depths and details I feel, and he said I have a “really strong headcanon.” Lol.

Before the movie, we were both so tired, and the Uptown is on Hennepin ave, one of the most happening streets in Minneapolis. Loud people everywhere. Huge crowds everywhere. We were both super tired but happy during the movie, and were (stupidly) surprised to see that the activity had not died down, or even so much as slowed down one bit when we left the movie. It was 2:30am! How are you people still active??? It was like I knew the dichotomy of being an old tired person placed against my own alcohol-fueled energy going out to party... but still!

You think we went home and went to sleep, but you’d be wrong. Father’s Day is tomorrow and I promised a dessert. The dessert I decided to make is no-bake, but it requires 8 hours of refrigeration. So to Cub we went for a couple of ingredients I needed. I made a simple but amazing-looking chocolate pie thing. Vegan, of course. That meant us finally flopping into bed at 4am. Oh my god.

Last day of school. I was very late as usual. Brian asked me to either cover for him for something, or test Vincente. I opted for testing Vincente, which worked out best for everyone because Vincente loves me so much and would do anything for me. Testing reveals he does not have a learning disability. He is very smart, too. He was very good for testing, trying his best.

We went to the auditorium and had awards, which were adorable and fun. Then we had field day, which was also very fun. The kids did so many cute activities, and Malik only got mad when the girls won tug of war and he thought I helped them (for the record, I didn’t, I just told them I was going to). He got over that much faster than expected and we had such a fun time. We did kickball, three legged race, water balloon games, and of course the tug of war. As always, pics are clickable for higher quality.

I spent the rest of the day fielding Malik and Vincente and saying goodbye. Malik took my leaving well and said I could find him at the community center this summer, and Vincente kept saying I wasn’t leaving. I found my desk graffiti’d later in the day, which I 99% suspect was Vincente, that said “Leah is the best teacher”. He gave me like 5 hugs, and Malik let me squeeze his shoulder affectionately when I said goodbye. It was very bittersweet.

After all that emotion I had to race home and pack for Madison! That’s right, my day wasn’t close to over.

I downloaded Name of the Wind, our next audiobook adventure. Steve smartly suggested it after we finished game of thrones. If you haven’t read it, you HAVE to read Name of the Wind. It’s slightly slow as the setup happens, but that’s only for the first 3 chapters. Then it takes off, and it takes off fast. I’d say in every session I have teared up from how intense and powerful the book is. It’s amazing, one of the best of all time, Patrick Rothfuss is a ridiculously talented author. I should also clarify that I’ve read his books several times.

We arrived at Ben and Sean’s in time for a late dinner at Cafe Hollander, which Steve and I picked after they told us we are “honorary Madisonites” and are also now residents of their house because we stayed there when they were gone and fed the cats and watered the plants. So honored. It was chillier than we anticipated but we sat outside anyway. I ordered a veggie burger with what they called a garlic aioli but was actually a bad mayonnaise and did not hold a candle to French Meadow’s real aioli.

After dinner we walked around a little playing Pokémon go, and then it was time to head back to the house and go to sleep.

Today was the last Sunday Sads day I will have until the end of August! Woooo! But it's a pretty intense SS day, because I just have soooo much to do, and so much I WANT to do. I was definitely worried today that I would spend the day in the same paralyzed limbo and I COULDN'T!!!

I got going a bit late today even though I woke up around 9. I read PostSecret and read texts from Bethany and Haley, and then Steve got the coffee ready while I planned out our meals for the week. It's going to be a very yummy week! We had green smoothies last week for breakfast, so I'm mixing it up with peach and banana smoothies with oats this week. Lunches are a play off of Naf Naf, since we've both been really into hummus and pitas. Dinner is a soup and tacos. I like to have two different things for each meal to keep it interesting - the worst is when I make one things for the whole week and get bored of it and end up eating out. Even though we bought an insane amount of produce last week, I think we managed to use almost all of it, and I'm using things that are left for this week! The only thing we might not use all of the leftovers from are the roma tomatoes; I ended up not making a double batch of one of the soups like I thought I'd need to.

I feel like week one of being consistently healthy was a success, both food-wise and exercise-wise. We only ate out yesterday, and I think eating out only one time hasn't happened for us in YEARS, because we almost always eat out on Mondays and Sundays for sure. When we weighed in, I was 0.2 pounds less than a week ago, but we took body measurements a month ago and I'm down on my waist and hips, so that's encouraging. I can see significantly less bloat in my face and belly; my pants already fit noticeably better. Steve also has experienced progress, but he's belligerent with me about measuring even though weight is no better a measure!! Lol.

Shopping was done at The Wedge, and that was pretty uneventful and quick, and it ended up being pretty cheap for a week's worth of food (for us). It helps that I use my aunt's member discount too ;D After a little bit of traffic due to construction on the way back, we were able to get home in a timely fashion. I put away the groceries and made the first round of lunches, and debated on the breakfasts, but they don't take long to prepare, and we won't need dinner until Tuesday. I've found that doing all the meal prep on Sunday annoys me more right now than preparing a couple days at a time, and I'm more likely to eat something I've recently interacted with than something that's been out of sight for several days.

Steve and I scrounged for some snacks, and then he suggested we go for a walk. Awesome, I'd been lamenting to myself about not being able to go outside. We walked to the park and played Pokemon Go, and then I suggested we continue the walk, initially thinking of going the shortest of the three routes, but then we took the long way, woo! It was chilly at first and windy the entire way. My hat blew off my head several times, and it was knocked off my head by Steve once. I was wearing a hoodie so I warmed up quickly. A good time was had, and I may have seen one a favorite student from the year I student taught - Duane - that group is graduating high school this year! If I'd just been in a T-shirt he might have recognized me because of my tattoo, but I was wearing a hat, my glasses were tinted, a hoodie, and my hair at the time of student teaching was in a pixie cut and is now past my shoulders. I don't mind extremely awkwardly chatting if a student recognizes me, even if I'm sweaty and red the entire time.

The walk took about an hour and 45 minutes, and then it was time to actually eat something substantial for dinner. I bought some vegan pulled pork the other day and have been really enjoying eating it wrapped in lettuce with avocado. FINALLY, time to work. I sat down and spent a good chunk of time finishing up Idrew's evaluation pieces that I was responsible for. I got everything done except his background info and a parent interview, which are arguably not significant compared to the testing and checklists. While I did that, Steve played Hearthstone and we had The Office on.

I have more to do but I just couldn't bring myself to do anymore work tonight! I continued watching the Office and missed Steve from across the room.

It was a bit of a lazier day, getting up later but not too late, still before 11. Noah wanted to maximize his game time and probably ease the strain on his budget, so he requested a quick breakfast. They went out and got BK, and brought me home a bagel from Caribou. I really took my time easing into the day, reading PostSecret and journals/blogs, and getting my list for meal prep for this week. We agreed that beginning tomorrow we’re gonna tackle the correct eating HARD and I like to support us by finding delicious and not-too-complicated of recipes, though I’m still struggling to find enough food in a day to support a grown man vs an average-sized woman.

After I caught up on my entries, I went downstairs and joined the boys in the rest of the day of gaming. Steve continued to play random games, Noah continued to play Dragon Warrior 3, and I continued in Persona 5. Noah got to the almost end of his game, and I beat the second dungeon in Persona 5. We ordered a pizza a few hours before Noah had to go home, and Steve and I went to pick it up together. We of course then played a little Pokémon Go on the way. I kept my pizza consumption relatively low, 2 pieces of pizza and like 4 pieces of the breadsticks (they’re smaller). I always think about when I was growing up and we basically rationed our food - a Jack’s pizza with the fluffier crust would feed me, my mom and sister. Bethany and I would each get two pieces of pizza, and Mom would get 3, and if one of us was still hungry MAYBE they’d get the last piece, but we’d often either split it or Paul would eat it along with whatever he ended up eating. I think about how Mom was always only eating the 3 pieces and how I should also be fine with that many, not more, when eating pizza. Lol.

Eventually Noah randomly announced that it was time to go. He packed up his stuff, put the couch back where it goes, and we headed out. We stopped at Starbucks for some iced drinks (green tea lattes for me and Noah and an Americano for Steve) and hit the road. I finished the thumb on one of Mom’s gloves and spent the rest of the time telling the boys about memes and other things on my Facebook page.

We went to find a couple stops and a gym after dropping Noah off, because Steve had a Pokémon Go quest to spin stops he hadn’t before. That was fun. Oh hey, do you notice when my entries have the accent in the word Pokémon and when they don’t? That’s how you can tell whether I’m typing the entry up on my iPad or my work laptop - iPad autocorrects and the laptop doesn’t. :P

Steve and I talked a bit on the way home about how we’re feeling about the relationship, when Pat’s name comes up in conversation with friends and how it makes us feel, and what direction we feel like we are moving. It was a good conversation... we talked about striking the balance between moving on and not pretending like it didn’t happen, and how we are making the relationship stronger and some things we have noticed in the positive. I apologized again and tried to impress upon Steve just how much he means to me. We talked a little about how the other day he made some comments that I felt blindsided by and I had gotten really upset, and how we can handle the situation better moving forward.

Steve just notified me that he makes fun of me in his entry about being so hype for grocery shopping, so that’s cool, lol.

So after we got home Steve put on some Hearthstone and I entered in the recipes into MyFitnessPal. I also had been entering the food eaten this weekend and came up with 2400 calories per day for myself. Whoops. I should definitely be consuming between 1700 and 1900 per day, depending on if I’ve exercised. I KNOW I’ve been consuming at least this much on average, which would easily explain my weight gain. Not that I’m surprised in any way, and I’m sure there are plenty of days it gets even higher than that!

Seeing that info really helped me feel like it would be good to go for a walk. We didn’t take our whole route because Steve was getting some chafey legs, but we did about 3.5 miles. The local middle school just got a new playground installed at the end of last summer, and I’d only been there once with Haley and Steve hadn’t seen it at all, so we climbed the high tower and went down the slide, I pushed him in the fun slidey swing and we took turns on the rope swing. It was sooo fun. Then when we got to the field path, we saw the first fireflies of the season!!! Fireflies are so hype. They’re romantic and pretty and make it feel like you’re somewhere magical. In the peak of their season, the completely dark field (there are NO lights on in that area) is just lit up with sparkles. Steve showing me his firefly field is one of my most favorite memories of our relationship. Today it was like 10 fireflies, but they’ll get there.

I was more tired than I thought I would be once we got home, so we settled into bed after putting the groceries away, and watched Kripp play Hearthstone. All in all I’d say it was a solid day!

I write so slowly, lol. An entry takes me anywhere from a half hour to almost two hours, depending on the entry. I take my time really thinking through the day, my thoughts, conversations and interactions I had, what I want to write about and what I'm okay forgetting. It's like I relive the day as I write it, and that takes time!! But in that way then it's like everything is in limbo or pause, because Steve can bang out an entry SO FAST and then he's just kind of waiting around for me. He's not TRYING to pressure me but it totally does because I feel stressed that I'm taking too long and wasting time!!!!

In the morning we took our time waking up. Steve and I were gonna go shower but first we got distracted, and that was amazing. But then! Shower. The three of us went to Ward 6. It wasn't quite as hot as it would be, so we sat outside, and that was perfect. Our server was kind of weird, like he gave me spastic energy vibes, and he was barely outside. I was super thirsty for water because of the alcohol consumption the night before combined with the fact that it was hot out, so I didn't drink a lot of my coffee during the meal, but that didn't mean I didn't want it! I ordered the belgian waffle per usual, and for the second time in a row of waffle-ordering, I got a crispy waffle :/ I want FLUFFY and SOFT waffles, not burnt hard waffles that chafe my gums. Ward 6 always has a fresh fruit compote that changes with what's in season, and this week it was apricots and cherries I think. That was the best part of my waffle. At some point during the meal, Steve went to tell me something and addressed me as "Nero." Pronounced Narrow. The short version of Habanero. NERO, OUR CAT'S NAME. It was so goddamn funny. Thank god for something funny during the meal because when Steve went to pay the check the waiter TOOK my FOOD AND MY COFFEE! I wasn't finished!!!!! But it was like, my mouth was full, the waffle was lame, and the coffee was hot and I didn't wanna make a scene. It was way more entertaining to be indignant and mournful than to fight for two more bites of waffle.

Yesterday Noah talked about how he's working on getting healthier, but that he knows gamer weekend isn't the best time for that, and commented that he's on MyFitnessPal. Steve suggested we all get on it and start using it again. it was fun when we were using it with Nick and I think we should definitely do that kind of thing with our friends. Noah is a big guy and has lost a decent amount of weight already, but he's still got a way to go for his goal weight. Steve and I also would like to lose a significant amount. What better way than to support each other on MFP?? And Steve really wants me to be happy with how I look, and find the best way to encourage me to exercise, especially with going to yoga, which makes me feel strong and happy in addition to nourishing my body and soul.

After Ward 6 we dropped my car off at the nearby car place and walked home, playing Pokemon Go. It's rock-type weekend so we've been into hurrying up on our evolutions in that area. Also adding some walking calories to our MFPs ;)

After we got home I played ITG for a couple hours. It was my second time playing using the FitKicks, and this time I started with two pairs of socks right away, and for the most part that worked well. I didn't feel the need to adjust as much, just kind of tapped my heels occasionally to shift my foot further back in the shoes. I noticed more soreness or tension in my shins than in a very long time, and it's probably because with shoes I need to actually pick up my damn feet instead of sliding them. I think overall I did better than last time, not as much sticking to the pad because I dragged my feet, but it is weird how such a thing can make a huge difference in performance. It was clear that I'm worse right now than I was because I'm adjusting to a completely new style - my feet hit the arrows at different times, and those milliseconds MATTER. I did improve my Disconnected score, which was nice, and AGAIN I KNOW can get a really solid score on Kagami, but little dumb things keep getting in the way. I'm also reading at faster and faster speeds... It just FEELS much better. I was trying to explain to Steve how it's just a feeling, a thing I can sense, when the speed is right. It just "clicks" in my head when reading it and it seems so clear. Right now I'm reading between 1005bpm and 1012bpm.*

Overall it was a really fun day, playing mostly randoms with Officials mixed in. I basically quit because I got too hot and my shoulders hurt and I spent a long time laying on the floor cooling down and drinking water. Since then my left elbow has been giving me twinges of pain, and that sucks, but hopefully it resolves itself soon.

After that I had to shower and do Cafetalk with Riria and Shinpei, my two cutie regular kiddos. That was good. I made the mistake of letting Riria choose our next book since we finished Charlotte's Web, and she chose Hachiko. We read chapter 2 today and they are definitely building up to ruining my life. Shinpei showed me his most recent programming skills on his robots, and we practiced his reading. I've been throwing in math puzzles, some with words and some without, because I think his stamina for reading is lower and I can keep him in good spirits if I give him some math inbetween. This child just turned 10 and can QUICKLY do things like 2-digit by 4-digit long division. I think because he's so smart, English being a real challenge for him to read is frustrating. So I try to keep his spirits up.

After that I caught up on LJ and blogs and joined Noah and Steve downstairs and *gasp* picked up Persona 5 again. Hence where the title of this entry comes from. Noah was like OH MY GOD NOW WE'RE ALL PLAYING GAMES. And he really wanted the three of us to play RPGs this weekend, and he REALLY wanted me to play Persona 5. It took a bit for me to remember what I was doing and get the hang of the play again, but now it's good and god is it a pretty game and I'm happy I was pushed into playing it again. I'm working my way through the second dungeon and working on my social links!

*I have talked a bit with Ben about reading speed, and he mentioned recently how he's slowed down his reading speed I think to the 800s? Low 900s? I simply don't understand how to do that. When I try to slow things down, the arrows jumble together and I can't read them! On HIS machine I read more slowly, because it's farther away and the SM5 plays slightly differently than SM3.9, but it's still in the 900s. DDR players seem to read in the 600s, and Dmac and Dave read pretty slowly too.

Friday was a really chill day at Parkway - Tealie and I had the kids work some more on their work before taking them outside and that was really fun. We chatted a lot about jobs and life, and Andy and Todd also talked to me about jobs. I had forwarded them all an email from the SpEd supervisor, Julie, in the district I'm moving to, and also to Jan (but Jan said she couldn't leave St. Paul). Andy contacted Julie and he wasn't sure he'd fit in because he wants and ASD-exclusive program, not cross-categorical, but on Friday he said he found out the assistant principal at my school is an old colleague of his, so he plans on contacting him to get the scoop. Todd had initially thanked me for sending the info but thought he definitely wouldn't leave... and by Friday he was like "I'm calling her today on my prep." I teased him and said "Hey, there's another opening at Maplewood Middle and I'm pretty sure it's for reading support... wanna be a team again next year?!" Personally I think Todd and I make really good counterparts to each other and we're both hard-asses with high expectations but also have the ability to connect with the kids and loosen up. I legit would love to be a team next year if he could swing it.

Oh, speaking of loosening up-

lollll "They can actually take jokes." Natalie is a Hmong student with a non-montessori background who has done so well in our class this year. I love her.

2nd block we went outside because it was Fun Friday. The first group was chill, I sat on a bench across from DQ, who spent the entire 20 minutes or so yelling "help" for his own entertainment and to annoy Chanel I'm pretty sure. Chanel is good with consistency but god does she talk too much to kids when they're trying to get negative attention. I thought DQ was being kind of funny, and his yelling was just silly. Like he does things to purposely upset her even if he has a consequence. For example, the other week he refused to pick up a waterbottle he left on the ground before we went in, because SHE told him he needed to, and mentioned like a thousand times he was gonna go to Reset if he didn't. This week he ate two bags fruit snacks and dropped the wrappers on the ground, and I reminded him that those needed to be thrown away. He did the "what wrappers?!" thing and covered them with his feet. While Chanel would say something in a serious tone and threaten reset, he and I bantered back and forth about the crazy disappearance of bright pink wrappers, and I said to just not let them blow away before we went in. And then he picked them up without me asking him to when we left. Part of it is he can obviously get a reaction/attention/verbiage out of her, and I think with me part of it for most kids is that I just kind of make it clear what my expectation is with the tone of "I know you'll do what is needed and I'm gonna just leave it at that" - like, they're old enough to know what to do and I trust they'll do it. (And of course when they DON'T, I'm very much like, "Ooookayyyyy then, that sucks but I'm still not mad here's the consequence you knew was coming"). Anyway, in my second group only Dyshawn wanted to go outside and he asked if he could bring a friend so we grabbed Dacarie, and Tealie's class was outside too so we got to talk some more!

Tealie and I have gotten a lot closer this year, and we got pretty close last year even though we didn't work together. Our first year together we spent a lot of time stepping around each other and had a couple of tense weeks where we weren't talking things through, and then our second year we were much better but still had some tense moments. Working with Brian changed Tealie's attitude, and this year we've been REALLY chill and not taken things too seriously, and now that she's got all of her curriculum down she's not spending the time she was with planning and creating the same way she was before. We also received a lot of mixed messages about our roles in the classroom during our first two years, and with more clear expectations, we are much calmer. Also maybe with Anna gone - her previous work best friend (they're still very close outside of work and I think they're connected by a marriage in their families or something) - she feels more free to hang out with me. I was worried for a bit because she and Steph were teacher leaders at CMStep in Cincinnati last summer and are still helping out with that, that I'd get pushed out because Steph is so needy, but after the first couple of months and things settled, Tealie still prefers my attitude to Steph's generally. I'm really gonna miss her, we always referred to each other as the "dream team" even when I was teaching with Jenny Madden and she was teaching with Brian. I have a feeling though we'll stay in touch and hang out more outside of work instead!

At Nokomis I spent the afternoon testing a couple kids, one for a complicated initial eval. He got into a car accident a couple of years ago and has a diagnosis of TBI. From an academic standpoint, he's doing just fine. He's personable, conversational, and quick. On reading he stuttered frequently over words which is not a part of his speech patterns. I have some more testing to do on him next week. He seems like a huge sweetheart. I met with my special ed lead for Nokomis, Shannon, and asked her to do some observations and a parent interview for him (I like observations but they take time and I HATE interviews). Yay! I also sent home some forms for his family to fill out.

This weekend is Gamer Weekend aka picking up Noah. i came home to a sleeping Steve and cuddled into him and watched Hearthstone while he napped and I unsuccessfully tried to nap. I woke him up at 4 and we headed down to Fairbault. We hit some random annoying traffic beginning in Burnsville whichslowed us way down, but otherwise it was good. I finished most of one of my mom's gloves - got the ends weaved in (or knotted when I got sick of it) and the bulk of the second one done too. Driving down with Steve was cute and I love spending time with him. We had to go straight back home because I had plans to see my dearest Breanna!

At nick's suggestion we met at a place called Pinstripes. It's in a rich city that's about halfway between our houses. Meals are $15-25 and drinks are an average of $11 per. Bre really wanted to walk around the lake/park and I was in my wedges, but two drinks was the perfect amount to distract me from any pain I might have encountered while walking. Mostly we talked about our various lives - catching up on her nursing school stuff, my work, her moving back with Lamin now that she's finished studying, updating on her parents (back in love) and aunt (enabling) and cousin (alcoholic + meth) and brother (still mentally ill and just moved back home) and our mutual friends (off and on with Holly and about to take a trip with her, off with Lindsey), making up with Hannah, Gleb's sister just had a baby, and random high school peeps. For my part I didn't really talk all that much other than about my family and Steve, and work and summer, and offering opinions or asking questions (talked about being off birth control, asked about her plans for kids etc.).

We walked and talked or sat in the gorgeous park for most of the night, with me sending pics and updates to Steve, as I think this was the first time I was out alone for so long since Feb and I didn't want him to worry about me. Bre commented a couple of times about my texting him, but I just told her he missed me. She was okay with that.

At midnight the park and restaurant closed so we headed out. It was really good seeing her, and I'd like to spend more time with her in the future. In a dinner-like or relaxed even capacity though, not on the daily. I'm too much of a loner for a lot of hangouts, like she and Holly are going on TWO camping trips over the next month. Not the thing for me! Only if I'm with Steve basically am I okay with that at this point. lol.

Came home and hung out with Steve and Noah for a bit but I was SO TIRED. So bedtime it is.

Today was definitely a lazy Sunday, considering we went to bed so late. I woke up a bunch of times in the morning but was far too comfy cuddling with Steve to bother actually getting up. At 11 I felt guilty enough to FINALLY wake Steve up. We took our time but I'd say we were up by noon. Lol.

To ease into our day, there was coffee and Rummikub. Perfect. It looked like I was going to win for the longest time, but Steve pulled it out in the end, getting a solid 29 points from me and pulling ahead on the leaderboard. Oh well, that just means that his embarrassing picture is up on the board and not mine. Hehehe.

Hunger struck about then, and Steve was jonesing for some Naf Naf, so off we went. But not before stopping at the park for a little Pokemon Go. We were just gonna spin the stops there, but there was a raid at the police station across the park, and I needed 2 more raids to complete my next Mew quest. Now I'm down to 1! Getting closerrrr. It turned out to be a LOT nicer today than it was yesterday, sunny and decent temp and only a little windy. It was definitely far more ideal for eating outside.

Naf Naf was delicious as always, and the guy making our bowls was either new or feeling particularly generous, because my bowl was basically overflowing. Needless to say, I took home a ton of leftovers. Naf Naf is right by Whole Foods, and we needed some necessities. I ended up grabbing a bunch of fruit (summer weather really gets me craving fruit), a few other random things and we decided to take a tour of the mochi. My flavor preference went: 1. Strawberry 2. Mango 3. Pistachio 4. Red Velvet 5. Chocolate Mocha 6. Passion Fruit. Steve's favorite was mango. They were very good.

After that, Steve asked if I wanted to accompany him to scout for another media shelf for the game room. Of course!! So that took us to Savers, where he didn't find a shelf, but DID find a couple games - one for reselling and one for silly curiosity play. Next was Goodwill, which was a total bust and we were out within a few minutes, and then we went to Gamestop because it's Nick's birthday today and Steve wanted to look and see if there were any games he might want to get for Nick. He did end up buying the remastered Shadow of the Colossus, not entirely sure if Nick owns it already or not, but saying we can just take it if he does, and get him something else. He ended up getting a few other games, including one called Snipper Clips.

Suddenly, from all that activity (lol) I got tired and really wanted to snuggle on the couch and maybe nap. So we went home and put on some Hearthstone and I dozed in and out. Steve didn't fall asleep as far as I know, but he lay with me for awhile, and that was really nice. I really felt good nestled against him with his arm around me and it was just what I needed. Eventually he decided to sit up and played some Hearthstone on his phone while I napped some more with my head in his lap. That was also quite nice.

Neither of us were super hungry for dinner so I just cut up some fruit and Steve had a muffin and we snacked while starting Snipperclips. The game is for the switch and is ideal for 2 people, because you work together to solve puzzles. Each person is this like kind of wine tumbler-shaped paper guy, and you can like, cut each other into various shapes (circle, bowl, pointy object, etc) to fulfill whatever purpose is given. So, for example, if you need to get a ball through a hoop, the easiest way is to cut one of you into a bowl shape to catch the ball and then dunk it. To pop balloons, you need someone to be pointy. Etcetera. They require you to work together to solve it, and it's already made for some really fun puzzles. We beat the first world tonight and I can't wait for more!!

Tomorrow is gonna really blow, so busy with IEP and eval meetings after school and Tealie is gone again. Trying not to panic with suffocation. Only three weeks left until the end of the school year, and I'll have two more days off next week. I can do it. But it's sooo stressful. Ugh. This is why I need relaxy ideal days like today. They're so nice and fill up my soul. I'm really looking forward to summer with Steve, it's gonna be awesome.

Saturday found us waking up a little later than we’d planned on, but not too much later. I was really excited to eat breakfast outside and enjoy the weather. It’s been in the mid-80’s for at least a week, and I thought it would be a really good start to our weekend. Unfortunately, the weather had other plans for us. It was gray, cloudy and chilly. Stubbornly I still wanted to go, as 59 degrees wasn’t SO bad and it didn’t seem super windy. I just dressed a bit warmer than I wanted to, and Steve still thought he should wear shorts and a T-shirt.

The plan was to eat breakfast at Birchwood Cafe early enough to beat the insane rush that happens somewhere in the mid morning. Birchwood Cafe is this amazing brunch place that is a little more expensive than you generally want to spend on a given early-in-the-day meal, but it’s priced the way it is for good reason. They work very hard to ethically and organically source all of their ingredients, and they make really good food, all from scratch. Ever since the ONE time we’d eaten there in the past, I was craving the savory waffle (sans bacon). So that’s what I ordered, with a side of potatoes (they season their potatoes with mustard seed and olive oil... sooo gooood. I really should start doing that. Lol. I know it’s not hard because I’ve done it several times following Blue Apron recipes). I also ordered a coffee. Steve ordered pancakes and we split the two meals.

We sat outside (again, stubbornly), but it was definitely not ideal. With my hood up I was actually pretty decent, but Steve got colder the longer we sat outside. The food was really good, per usual, though the waffle was crispier than I remembered, a little overcooked. While we ate, we watched more and more people show up, to the point where eventually the line was packed in and out the door. We did beat the rush, even on a crappy day. Sweet.

The reason we found Birchwood Cafe in the first place was a year ago when Steve really wanted to go to a new game store opening up called “Heroic Games.” When we went there, there wasn’t much to see, and it’s a really small shop. Since then, Steve has seen them pop up as a happening place, and he also sees the cool games they get in. SO, he wanted to check out the place again! I also was interested in checking out the yarn store where I bought most of my yarn from when I went to Yarnover, Stevenbe. It sounded really cool and it was also in Minneapolis, where we were. After checking the map, we were pleased to discover that the game store was actually on the way, and basically on the same street, as the yarn store.

The game store had more things than last time, and Steve did look up the prices for comparison on a couple of games, but surmised that the cool things he gets in and posts online must sell right away, so the remaining stock gets pretty stale. It was still a cute little store (I mean LITTLE, like, 10 people could comfortable fit in there if you didn’t expect more than 3 people at a time to be looking at things) and a cute thing to do with Steve. Soon after, we headed down the road to Stevenbe Yarns.

You guys. This yarn store is insane. First of all, when you walk up to it, it’s got this huge sign. And then there are like 4 different doors that lead into this place, but they want you to use one with a big gate. The doors are metal, like a warehouse. When you walk in, you’re immediately hit with a strong smell of wool. You find yourself in a foyer with crappy yarns on extreme clearance, and branded coffee and trinkets for the store. That opens up into this massive show room filled with bright yarns of so many varieties. They have kits everywhere and samples of items knit up with the yarns. It’s really neat. While we were perusing, I found myself a couple of long circular needles. I’ve been interesting in experimenting with knitting armwarmers and socks on circulars to reduce the stitch sizes when changing needles when using DPNs (double-pointed needles). I’ve increasingly seen more people do this. I bought some really short circular needles to try for socks, but I wanted to also try long circs for gloves. The shop owner informed me that there was plenty more yarn upstairs. HOW. HOWWWW.

There are about 10 steps that lead up to a landing, with “geek-specific” themed yarns and samples there. I don’t watch Dr. Who, but I was particularly impressed by this shawl and would definitely knit it if I knew someone in my life who loved the show and would wear a shawl.

10 more steps and you’re on the second floor. MOAR YARN. Not only moar yarn, but there was another big room, a side room, and a hallway filled with yarns. But wait! Another discount yarn ROOM. Holy crap. The upstairs had their “fiber” area, with unspun wool of various types, spinning wheels, carding machines and weaving looms. It was all very neat.

Once heading back downstairs, I hemmed and hawed for quite awhile around these gorgeous hand-dyes (who am I kidding? I will always want the stripey hand dyes) before finally settling on a skein that was beautiful and was under $30 (the needles I was buying cost over $30 together already)... my second choice of yarn was $61 and I felt too guilty spending $100 at the yarn store when I have so much yarn at home that I DO wanna knit.

After the yarn store, we headed home. The weather was still lame, but it wasn’t threatening rain or anything. There was a Pokémon Go event from 1pm-4pm for Charmander, and the legendary Pokémon Ho-oh also is going to be in 5-star raids starting today. Steve invited Nick to come Pokéhunting with us at the park by our house, and he came over pretty quick. We all walked over to the park and started catching Charmander. Within like 15 minutes, Steve and Nick had each caught like 2 shiny Charmander, and I hadn’t even seen one!! I was throwing a fake fit about it. Lol. While we were at the park, Ben contacted us via FB messenger and invited us to Mall of America (Ben and Sean are in town!) and hot tub + VR in the evening. After some conferring, we agreed the mall would be the best place to go.

Even though it was a Saturday, and a Saturday with a Pokémon event happening, I still found parking quite easily and we met up with Ben and Sean after stopping to catch some Charmander. They were in line at Carlos’ Bakery (from cake boss) and got some really tasty pastries. We didn’t get more than 12 steps before we ran into big Mike! WHAT ARE THE ODDS, seriously. He informed us there was a Latias raid starting in like a minute and we should go there. I had to wander away from the group to get the right GPS location to participate in the raid, but eventually we all got in and got to try to catch her. Unfortunately, none of us were successful.*

A lot more catching of Charmander was had over the next 2 hours, including lots of shiny’s, and Ben teased me about how much I whined about not getting any good shiny’s and I ended up with a pretty good one. Sean got overly excited about Raltz more than once, to the mock indignance of Ben. Much hilarity ensued as we circled the Mall. We got to participate in TWO Ho-oh raids, though I had to do a lot of wandering with the first one (again, GPS) and we all got yelled at by security because there were SO MANY people there playing Pokémon Go that it was clogging up walkways (like, no less than 100 people). On my VERY LAST throw on the first Ho-Oh raid I got him. Nick didn’t end up with any legendaries, Ben’s phone died during the first raid but it miraculously saved his spot when he plugged in Mike’s to-go charger and booted it back up, and Steve and Sean both got one. On the second raid, Sean got a shiny Ho-oh and EVERYONE was mad jealous. So lucky!! She was very happy and it was cute.

Soon after we had to head out because I had Cafetalk lessons starting at 6:30. We got BurgerBurger to go (the sandwich I ordered was requested no bacon of course, and while I got the veggie patty it had a crapton of bacon on it, which I discovered during my first huge bite). Haley was at our house doing laundry, and spent the next two hours pissing Steve off and making Nick uncomfortable with her questions. She’s been obsessed lately about the fact that women have hair on their buttcheeks and would not shut up about it. And other inappropriate topics. She left before I was finished with my second lesson.

Did my lessons and then it was 9. Nick headed home, and Steve and I went over to Ben’s parents’ house to try out BeatSaber VR. It was SO. FUN. Look it up if you haven’t seen it yet Exactly as I imagined it, though I kept accidentally pressing the menu button when songs got intense. It lines up really well and does sense you better than PlayStation VR, because it has two sensors for you instead of just the one and can track your movement better. The only downside is that it was on a computer and only the person playing could hear the music, so the room was quiet save for the swishing noises as you swiped, and the heavy breathing of exertion XD Hard mode is really fun, and I was unable to pass any expert songs (which I’m happy about - love a challenge). We all took turns playing to our hearts’ content. When I wasn’t playing, I was knitting on Mom’s gloves and fighting with one of the kittens to stop trying to eat my yarn and needles.

Sean went to bed around midnight and Mike left, and then Ben’s friends Kuh-San and Amanda (they’re married) came over. Kuh-San is one of Ben’s longtime friends, having lived just down the street from each other, and he makes a daily appearance in Ben’s “post-college pre-Madison” book, Corrupted Complaints. He and his wife were pleasant and nice. More BeatSaber, more conversation, and then hot tub. We spent about a half hour in the hot tub. Steve had been asking me what I liked about hot tubs, and I was having trouble articulating other than it’s warm and comfy and fun. Lol. Once we got in there, I realized it was because if you’re in a group, you just take the talking you were JUST doing, and add in fun warm water and artistically good sensory distraction, like putting your hands and feet in the jets, floating back and forth, and experimenting with how much of your skin to expose to the chilly air.

During that time we talked a lot about Disney World. Ben, Sean, and Ben’s parents JUST got back from a trip there, are going to go again in August, and planned for us to join them there in December (plans right now are the 1st-9th). I’ve been to DW once, for my little brother when he was 6 and I was 19 (so over 10 years ago) and I didn’t remember it being that fun. How can it be so fun for a group of adults that they go three times in a year?? I don’t know how you can want to go that much. Ben basically ended up saying that it’s just an excuse to spend a lot of time with the people you care about, in an easygoing place with a lot of access to comfort and luxury and unique foods and people. And of course, the Disney theme and fireworks. So I guess it’s something about not thinking you’re going to an amusement park, because it will never compare to Cedar Point or Six Flags or King’s Island, but more like you’re going for the ~experience~.

Soon after there was toweling off and Kuh-San and Amanda left, and then Ben laid on the floor of his living room and Steve and I sat on the couches and we talked about journaling, jobs, and other nothing topics that felt really good to just be hanging out. I really like Ben a lot, and he has a lot of thoughts/rants/etc. It’s really funny when he and Steve are talking, because Ben has such an analytical way of thinking (“process” thinking where he wants everything to be as efficient as possible and even though he doesn’t process super quickly, you can bet he will find a good solution) and Steve has such an analogical way of thinking. They’re both hilarious when talking, so it’s always enjoyable to be around when they’re having a conversation.

Oh, and I took a cute selfie.

Finally we got too tired to continue (it was well past 2am by this point), and Steve and I stopped at Taco Bell, not having gotten dinner (I just ordered a bean burrito), ate quickly and collapsed into bed, serenaded by Kripp playing Hearthstone.

Perfect end to a perfect day.

*Steve informed me, post-entry, that he lied to everyone and he DID catch Latias, but felt guilty that he was the only one and thus pretended he didn’t. HAAAHAHA omg he’s the best.

Sunday found us getting up at around 8:40, packing up, and heading to Sow's Ear for breakfast. This time I got the other soup, and worked on my knitting when I was finished writing for Saturday's journal. I had my iPad and got Steve all set up for his... and then the iPad died. Whoops.

Sidenote, I've been using my work laptops and iPads for 4 years (I think my laptop died my first year teaching), and now that's going away! I don't have any technology for myself... we have a desktop computer but it's inconvenient to my daily needs. Steve suggested that maybe I just get an iPad and keyboard, like how my current school laptop is set up, instead of a whole new laptop. It makes a lot of sense and suits my needs just fine. I think that's a great idea if we can find one that's more affordable than a laptop. I prefer Mac far more than other brands, just because it syncs with my phone and stuff. So convenient.

We got our entries written and commented on the similiarities and differences, and then we decided to head out after finishing our food to go play mini golf. Initially we thought we'd have to play inside, but turns out, even though the day was gray and dreary, it was warm enough. The ground was soaked, but it didn't rain, so we played outside on the Wisconsin course. I thought that there would be LESS people out because it was Mother's Day, and boy was I wrong. So many families, and parties of 5+ people saturated the course. Steve and I ended up bouncing around to open holes, and we both played TERRIBLY. A good reason was, again, the course was really wet, but also it was our first time out on the course all year, and some obstacles still just weren't fully prepared yet. I somehow ended up with par (which was like 63 or something), and Steve was 3 strokes behind. He did win us a free game at the end though, woo! It was a fun time.

After that we made a pit stop at Ben and Sean's, left them a cute note on their garage floor, and then promptly forgot the bag with our co-op buys in it. AUGH!! Sadness. It'll keep until we're back there in 3 weeks.

We left just a bit too late to stop at the vegan place again, whoops! Uh, and we also got so into Game of Thrones and knitting that we completely forgot about stopping at game stores too. Haha, we totally failed at remembering things in favor of the cute things we were already doing.

When we got home, we had about an hour of the book left, so we pulled out some lawn chairs to sit in while we listened and I finished the cowl I'd started just earlier in the day!

DO YOU SEE WHAT I MEAN ABOUT KNITCIRCUS MAKING THE BEST GRADIENTS?!?!

Phew, about 3 years in the listening, we finally are all caught up on the Game of Thrones series. We read most of the first book but we listened to all of the rest, 32-45 hours apiece. They were so good! So many things left unfinished! Steve read to me from the Game of Thrones wiki while I plowed through a couple other random projects - I couldn't remember where I was in the Pi shawl I'd started, and even though it's not nearly as big as I'd wanted it, I just bound it off so it's a giant doily lol. Then I used the cheap extra super bulky yarn I got from Wish to arm-knit with. It's OKAYYY but not great. I also refused to knit it the way tutorials online say, because it's WRONG. Like, the stitches get twisted if done that way! Instead I just moved it back and forth like you would when doing straight knitting, which was fiddlier and made it take longer. But I'm done! It was nice to just finish up a couple things. I think I'm gonna keep that up right quick - I bound off on my black scarf base and I have one more cowl I need to finish. Oh, and my mom's gloves. That's first!

Steve and I ended up flopping into bed after 11 AGAIN, which I definitely regretted all day today, lawdy. But we definitely got some REALLY good cuddlesleeps.

Breaking this one up by the topics I divided up yesterday!

Garage sales and Pokemon Go
Steve was interested in checking out the Madison garage sale scene, so we meandered about without much luck for awhile, but it turns out that we were just in the wrong area. We turned around after Steve looked up garage sales on Facebook or something (seriously, did you know that was a thing?? Weird) and we had more luck in a DIFFERENT neighborhood. He likes to go to garage sales to look for old games and systems, particularly with the hope that it's an older person (usually a lady who cleaned up after grandkids) or parents after their kids have moved out. I don't like garage sales and haggling makes me nervous, but I don't mind driving around and knitting and playing Pokemon Go, so I have fun too!

Sow's ear breakfast/Pokemon Go/New plague
We couldn't spend TOO much time garage sale-ing because we needed to eat and I had a knitting class scheduled at the Sow's Ear. The Sow's Ear, I've mentioned before, is an amazing Cafe and Knitting shop in Verona, WI. If you're ever near Madison, go there. Not only do they cater to people who love good yarns, they also have amazing drinks and food options. I ordered the grilled cheese on a french baguette and a cup of their summer asparagus soup, plus a hot chocolate with soy because YUM. Then Steve and I walked around a bit getting PokeStops and marveling at how there could be so many damn people on "Main Street," like calm down people GO! AWAY!!!

Knitting class and cute texts
My class started at 1, and Steve and I took bets on how old the other people would be. Steve guessed an average of 39 (with me bringing down the average, and I said 45 and older. There ended up being 5 other women in the class, the youngest of which was 40+. Three of the women were at least in their 60's. Everyone but the youngest was fine, the woman on my right was funny, and the woman on my left was kinda derpy. The youngest of them just had that annoying voice quality (think back to Yarnover and the fuckin' nerd ladies with their pressured speech and nasally voices) and she knit very slowly. But she was nice, and she showed us a stranded (colorwork) double-knitting project that made my colorwork look like a kindergartener's so I should stfu about knitting speed. Though she did make multiple comments about how fast I knit and suggested there had to be crochet videos for learning to crochet with your right hand and I should try to find them.

The stitch I was learning was Brioche, and I'm REALLY glad I learned it in person before trying to learn it via videos or words. It's basically a type of ribbing, but the way instructions talk about them is way more complicated than the act of brioche. It has a very easy and repetitive rhythm, and once you get a couple rows, you can just SEE the stitch and just remember which ones you yarnover on, which you slip, and which you work. It's also really neat because it's technically reversible. I started my practice with a yarn I thought would look good and knit up okay, but I didn't like the black contrasting... it's too bold. I'd want something else I think to finish (though the yarn is Mano del Uraguay and sooo soft).

Steve had gone out to more garage sales during this time, and he actually found some awesome deals. He ended up with a complete NES system in addition to several games - two of them BOXED, which is super rare to find at a garage sale. Usually Steve ends up finding video game boxes on ebay, and NES ones are not easy to come by. He's actually just finishing up getting boxes for all of our SNES games, so it seemed fitting he'd finally found some for the next system he needs to collect for.

He texting me such cute texts about how much he loves me knitting and how taking knitting classes is ideal girl behavior. I missssssed ideal girl stuff. When we first started dating he would point out things I did that were "ideal girl behavior" - things that he didn't necessarily KNOW of, like didn't have a list in his head, but things that definitely count towards comprising the perfect girl. Apparently knitting (/having a passion for a hobby) is one of them. ^_^ All I want is his looooove and support! He's VERY good about supporting my endeavors, love him so much!

I got to talking to the woman next to me about how beautiful her yarn was (from KnitCircus) and she said they have kits specifically for the cowl we were working on at their store, and I HAD to go check it out. It was 3:30, and the store closed at 4. I quick packed up my things, raced out to Steve and explained the situation, and we booked it out.

Omg what happened Knitcircus exploded from a small store to a store filled with yarny treats
Last year Sean and I went to KnitCircus and it was definitely in a different building, this store was MUCH bigger and had so many more options. It was to DIE for. They have the best gradients and rainbows and mixes of colors, and their yarns are already wound for you. They're pretty spendy but SO worth it. I was in yarn heaven.

I found some yarn for the cowl I wanted and we realized we were pretty tired after so much stuff in the day, and we headed back to Castle Seanjamin, put on some Hearthstone, and I cuddled up into Steve's perfect nook and we promptly fell asleep. It was a good nap! We woke up rested and hungry, and I suggested we try Dumpling Haus, a place we've seen on the way to The Great Dane a bunch of times. I was intrigued!!

Dumpling dinner/socially unacceptable food behavior
Steve of course didn't remember that I've talked about this place a bunch of times. It just sounded so good!! When we got there, the place was PACKED. There was ONE small table left and I claimed it, and Steve and I each ordered a set of dumplings (Bao) plus dessert bao (nutella) and Steve ordered pork and greens wontons and chicken fried rice. I also ordered the tofu soup. The bao was perfect and light (I got veggie and it tasted like Spring). My soup was exactly what I was looking for as well. I knit while we waited.

There was a man and his child eating next to us, and I thought they were very normal but Steve did not get good vibes from the dad. He just seemed serious and probably the kind of parent I would be - he didn't freak out or even say anything really when the kid knocked over his pop, just suggested he get more paper towels. He mentioned more than once that he didn't like wasted food, and when they left, the child had left one bao untouched, which I thought was strange. Like, they could have easily taken it along and given it to family (who they were talking about) or saved it for later! I asked Steve if he would eat it if I grabbed it off their plate (I assumed it had meat in it because most of the food there did), and he said he would if I was brave enough to violate the social code of not taking food from strangers' plates. They had been seated less than a foot from our table; we basically ate together! I had no problem snatching the bao off the plate and plopping it in with ours. It turned out to be pork, and Steve ate it happily. I have never understood why it's so frowned upon to take someone else's leftovers, especially if they're completely unsullied. :P

Witness to an accident/co-op/COPS
Full and happy, we decided to go to Willy's Co-op right after dinner instead of the next day, just for time's sake. I really wanted to stock up on their vegan jerky, which is AMAZING and I haven't seen it anywhere else. On the way, we were at a red light at a really weird intersection, and we watched an SUV sideswipe/half T-bone a sedan with two women and a child. The child was in the seat where the SUV hit, but it looked like he had slowed enough and she was turned enough that most of the damage ended up on the tire well and did SOMETHING so the trunk popped open. Steve was driving and observing to make sure the family was fine, so I was completely impotent when the SUV just DROVE! AWAY!!! What the fuck?! Like, the damage to the SUV was at least as significant to the sedan, and he didn't even check to see if they were okay???? WHAT THE FUUUUCK!!! I was so stressed out, I am such an "action" person when it comes to emergencies. My brain works in such a way that it immediaely develops a bulleted list of things that need to be attended to and wants to DO them. As a passenger and also in a situation that I really couldn't be helpful in after a certain point, it was a frustrating situation. The people in the sedan were okay, I think they were just really scared and upset.

Got the jerky, got some coffee, got a water bottle and some treats - vegan gluten free dense soft muffin for me, and vegan banana muffin with peanut butter frosting (literally his perfect dessert)

On the way back to Castle Seanjamin, we passed no less than 6 cops on this 5-miles stretch of road. The first was a cop pulling someone over who was next to Steve. Then we passed one speed trap with an undercover SUV, and then at the next exit there were TWO cops (one undercover charger and a regular cruiser), and THEN we saw TWO SEPARATE people pulled over, within a hundred yards of each other, plus another cop just driving (probably after just having pulled comeone over). It was madness. WHY SO MANY COPS. CALM DOWN.

Dmac/ITG/knitting
When we were on our way back from the co-op, David (Dmac) asked if we wanted to play ITG with him. Of course! Though I also wanted to be KNITTINGGGGG. It was good. We played a bunch of songs from the Fantastic Beats pack, but Steve and I weren't having off-days exactly, more like Ben's machine just feels sooo different from ours now... it's really weird, and we were both late ALL the time, which NEVER happens. I just couldn't find the sweet spot and would insanely overcorrect. Just strange. But we all had fun, talked to Dmac about the popularity of Ultimate Frisbee in Madison and his tryouts for teams, and he ended up getting a really good score on an ITG Rebirth song.

During that time I started my Knitcircus cowl and it's been beautiful so far. After Dmac left we showered quick and hopped into bed!

Oh, and we've also decided to rename from couple complaints because we don't really complain much - we just initially stole Ben's book titles (College complaints, corrupted complaints, cubicle complaints and "Compendium of Complaints" - all of the books). Ben has a really funny way of talking about things, and I never really think of them as *complaints,* more like musings and thoughts. Like he doesn't strike me as a negative person and he's quite funny, but I GUESS he's complaining? It's just not how I personally view complaining. lol. So I think we're going to rename to couple chronicles. Fits better. :)

All in all, it was a busy, but relaxing, and just basically a perfect day. Wow. Love this boy, love this life!

Because too TIRED I had a BIG DAY

Like literally so much happened, one of the best days 9.9/10 so I wanna give it the attention it deserves in the morning.

Garage sales and Pokemon Go

Sow's ear breakfast/Pokemon Go/New plague

Knitting class and cute texts

Knitting pics/brioche

Racing to Knitcircus

Omg what happened Knitcircus exploded from a small store to a store filled with yarny treats

Cutie nap so perfect in the nook

Dumpling dinner/socially unacceptable food behavior

Witness to an accident/co-op/COPS

Dmac/ITG/knitting

More knitting and then bed

Renaming from couple complaints because we don't really complain much

PICS

This morning when I woke up, I was pleased that I woke up naturally, even if I still felt quite tired. I expected to it be kind of late for how much of the "waking up and going back to sleep" cycling I did before I finally decided to stay awake. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was only 9:15; plenty of time to get ready and get brunch at Ward 6.

Steve and I got ready and headed out after locating a couple of our reuseable bags. When reuseable shopping bags first came out, I didnt really have an interest in them. When my mom got into selling ThirtyOne bags, she gave me one of hers to use, and it was so nice! But I would ALWAYS forget it in the car and have to use disposable bags anyway. Now it's gotten to the point that if I forget my reuseable bags, I either try to carry it all in my arms (often) or, if I have too many food items, I buy another reuseable bag (less often). I know that we own at least 5, more like probably 7 or 8, reuseable bags. So why is it that we can only find 2?

After we got to Ward 6 we did a little Pokemon Go. Today I wore a new dress I got on sale at Express, which meant I was wearing "nicer" shoes, my wedges. These shoes are of good quality, but even so, they still wear at my feet after awhile. Today was really good though. I had no probems walking around, but I did definitely need to consume food, as the Hangry Monster was roiling on up. Got my usual Belgian Waffle. It was very good today. If they put the toppings on my waffle, I get the tiniest drops of fruit compote and whipped cream. If they put the toppings on the side, I get an actual serving of both. The fruit is always delicious - Ward 6 sources locally and organically as much as possible. Yum.

At some point Steve and I got on a bad train of thought, and things quickly spiraled. He made a comment that he thought was kind of a sharp joke, but was actually just sharp and mean, and suddenly I was crying. He seemed caught off-guard, but I had been sensing some anger underneath his presentation all morning. We tried to talk about it but we both just escalated until he tossed his card at me to pay and stormed out to cool down. When we left we talked some more, somewhat calmer, as we went and took a couple gyms and did a raid at Metro State. Eventually we reached a place where we were okay moving on with our day and talked a little bit more as we drove to the store. Once we got to the Wedge I think we were recovered. It had been a little while since we'd had a slip like that, and that's okay. It just serves as a reminder that Steve is still struggling (as am I), and we need to be mindful and open. It's obvious that I'm continuing to be more open; I was as surprised as he was that one comment, in public no less, made me cry on the spot.

Shopping was good, we got most of the necessary foods for meal prep. Every store we went to was packed though, ugh. We agreed we need a new plague. We were pleasantly surprised when our bill somehow totaled only $77. Sweet. Steve got an americano from the cafe and I bought some Honest T. When I was drinking it I was thinking the drink could used a touch more honey, not a lot more, but I could barely taste it. At some point I read the label: Unsweetened. Hm, makes more sense now.

There were still a few items we needed when we left the Wedge, so we went back to Woodbury and went to Whole Foods. That trip was short and sweet, and finally we needed to stop at PetsMart for oooone more thing. Oh, and Cub... and the Dollar Store... and Menards. I don't know how we did all that and still managed to make it home at a decent time. Steve got the groceries away and then we took a sex break (amazing) before heading outside to read Ben's book. Steve read a few chapters while I sunned myself, and then we traded and I read a few more. It was awesome.

When the sun started to get too low we came back inside and Steve heated up some food and we took another sex break and that was awesome. Steve has a final interview/meet and greet tomorrow to see if he'll get this job he really wants at the U of MN. I'm 99% sure he will get it, because it sounds like he's not even really against anyone, just that the director wants to meet him before the offer is formally extended. So I ironed his suit for him so he'll look extra sharp tomorrow, while he started some ITG. He had a really good set, improving a bunch of scores. It was really fun watching and supporting him, and I enjoyed seeing him feeling good about his play. While he did that I worked on my Mother's day gift and got a good chunk of the colorwork done. There are going to be a LOT of ends to weave in, but hey, at least it's knitting up quick!

Today was the first Saturday of garage sale season, which for us means that Steve woke up early (for a weekend — it's still two hours later than we wake up for work). We meant to get up at 6:30 for coffee time, but we went to bed past midnight and I continue to suck at sleeping.

My tracker caught 2 times of me being awake. Usually my sleep tracker doesn't even recognize when I'm awake, because I don't move around enough. As I said, I usually find myself staring into the dark. You will note the 158 audio catches, which include snoring (from either of us), but are usually me tossing and turning. The light sleep is often me being awake. I've tried calibrating it multiple times to track my wakefulness, but the app just won't believe me when my heart rate isn't spiking. /rant

You'll note that I have a giant orange bar on the right. When Steve left, I decided to go back to sleep until 9, at which time I'd go to the farmer's market. Instead I laid there anxiously as Connie, Grandma, or Ronnie came in and out of the house 100 times as the garage sale got underway. I stubbornly stayed in bed anyway, desperate for more Z's, listening to Day9 play Hearthstone.

When that didn't work, I invited Haley out with me and went to pick her up. She was in a decent mood, updating me on the Derek situation and I updated her on the garage sale situation. She also described her horrible experience at the doctor about her possible fibroids or cysts, and I started to actually feel faint/dizzy/gray as my trauma reaction to anything in the cervix/uterus area spiked.

We got a parking spot a bit away but not terrible, and we wandered around the market. It's still too early for most of the produce, especially with such an extended winter and literally no spring, but the flowers were out, and that's what I was there for. We started at the front, which is comprised of vendors of various goods - clothing, jewelry, honey, meat, cheese, bread, sauces, tea, etc. I bought some sticky rice and veggies from my favorite Hmong food place (and they put out a new curry spice mix to go with their sweet potato noodles so I bought both), and Haley bought a lemon poppyseed muffin. She also bought a mug from our "Mug Lady" before we went back to the flowers.

This year I decided to go with a brights theme - orange, red, and yellow. I bought some Dahlia, Merigold, one other, and I bought some medium-sized white flowers as filler to mix it up. I hadn't cleaned out my garden at all yet this year so I wasn't sure how many perennials had come back, and I didn't want to buy too many. Haley and I spent a lot of time going back on forth on what was ugly and what wasn't. I also ended up, for the first time, buying a plant that goes in a hanging pot and should cascade out of it. When I asked the woman if it could be indoors, she got REALLY weird about it and stammered that they only raised plants to go outside. ...okay, that's what I was asking. Haley has a bunch of plants that go indoors in hanging pots. Her response had the tone of complete shock at the idea of an indoor plant, like my question was WAY out of left field. Steve has called me out a few times lately for being unnecessarily snappy to customer service people (I dispute one for sure) so I made a concerted effort not to react to her and just said thanks (in a not-bitchy tone) and said I'd put it outside.

After the farmer's market I dropped Haley off at home, got gas and a car wash (discovered that my driver window has several weak spots in the seal, lol), and bought a hanging container for the new plant as well as compost and potting soil from Menards. When I got home I had to quickly drop all the stuff off before driving Steve and myself over to Baker's Square for lunch with Steve's parents and grandpa. This is a bi-monthly thing, as Steve's grandpa is 90 and still living independently and his parents live 4 hours away. Before we got there Steve and I made our "Bingo cards" on what phrases or topics would be brought up at the lunch.

Steve's mom won the bingo game, though she doesn't know it. At the end, we were doing the Minnesota Goodbye aka standing outside of the doors of the restaurant, half blocking them, and continuing to talk while edging in the direction of our cars before coming back in for hugs, and Mama Aker started shotgunning phrases and topics at us, as if she remembered about it and needed to squeeze in as many phrases as possible. She ended with, "I haven't seen you in so long I was gonna ask if Steve got a new girlfriend!" and right at that second, a woman was walking toward the door. Mama Aker pointed at her and said, "You really should get that shirt!" The woman's shirt read, I didn't want to come. We both burst out laughing, knowing how fucking good she got me. It was amazing, I'm proud of that super sick burn. Shows me that Steve and Amy didn't get their humor from nowhere.

After that, Steve and I got Starbucks (he got his usual Americano and I got the new cold press with foam drink) and I took us to Half Price Books. I didn't find anything - I was looking for a specific sock knitting book - but Steve ended up with a couple cheap games.

We headed home and hung out outside while the garage sale wrapped up. I started weeding the garden: cleaning out the leaves, clipping the dead perennials and moving the old stuff out of the new growth, managing the ants with my cinammon spray, and ignoring my cousin Danny's awkward stares as much as possible. Steve sat nearby. They started packing up, and Danny and Ronnie (Danny's dad) started bickering about whatever, and I didn't see what happened but Ronnie is so damn unstable and as he tried to stalk up the driveway (at best he can manage a painful-looking lurch) he lost his balance and fell on his "good" side. It was extra embarrassing because grandma got all stressed and he couldn't stand easily and Danny just stared and there were people AT the garage sale still looking. It was sooo awkward. He was at least agreeable for a few minutes to sit down, but he almost fell at least two more times before they left. God! Just stop!!! Soon after that it started lightly raining for no reason so we had to bring everything in while my aunt and grandma muttered about mold... kayyyy. It let up soon enough so we could finish packing up the stuff and I could get back to the garden.

They got everything out of the garage to take to Ronnie's to try to sell there, which was surprising and a huge relief. Connie still has stuff in our guest room, but not nearly as much and she's promised to get it all out in the next couple weeks. So I finished the garden. It looks good, but I think will need a couple more flowers. Oh well, guess I have to go to the farmer's market again (yay!).

I got done planting with 10 minutes to spare before my tutoring lesson with Riria (she's been my student for almost 4 years). Lesson was good, but her connection wasn't great. We finished Charlotte's Web and I made the mistake of asking if she had an English book she wanted to read, and of COURSE she chose Hachiko, so I'll probably cry.

Nick and Scott came over, I ordered a pizza and Steve went to get it while I finally took pictures and posted my haul from Yarnover on Instagram and updated my Ravelry. Soooo excited. After that I came down here with the boys and started my newest project. I REALLY want to start like 2 different shawls and another pair of socks (and I have Steve's socks on the needles), but I was a responsible person and cast on for Mom's Mother's day gift: Curious Cats fingerless gloves. I'm already done with the cuff and am about to start the pattern. The wonders of worsted weight yarn and larger needles!!

During that time, Nick started Uncharted 2, Scott played something handheld, and Steve fell asleep (he had a big day!). We chatted about woodshop classes we took in school and other random things. Eventually Steve woke up from his nap, we all talked a bit more, and then it was P-gas time*. Steve and I had planned to go Ghost Hunting in Pokemon Go tonight, but we're both too beat. There will be other nights for spooky romance!

*P-Gas = poison gas. A method of kicking his friends out since the beginning of time, wherein at a certain point in the night the room fills with a toxic gas that forces everyone but us to evacuate. Steve has prevented so many tragic incidents from occurring by being vigilant all these years.

So I started that last journal entry on Friday, and I added in the UTI stuff, which I dealt with this weekend. So — on to the weekend!

Friday Haley came over and did laundry and we went out to eat at a new vegan restaurant in Saint Paul, and I did my Cafetalks while she messed around with my phone (hers broke this week).

( Read more... )

After that I got home with enough time to help Steve clean a bit, because Mike, the one who donated the ITG machine to us, was coming over to play. That was a lot of fun, but since I haven't played much over the last month and a half, I'm out of shape and out of practice. We rotated turns and it was great! Steve passed his first 14, which has really spurred me to try to pass my first 13 and continue passing 12's.

Out of the blue, our doorbell rings and it's BEN AND SEAN!! They were in MN for a night to help with moving something and wanted to see us quick before heading home. Awwww. Ben played a song or two and complimented how nicely we'd modded the arrows for actual competitive play. I believe his exact words were, "I could reasonably see myself quadding multiple songs on this machine."

On Sunday, Steve and I continued "Get Rid of Half Our Stuff 2017" and finished everything in our room except for our old paperwork and Steve's t-shirts. We also finished the hall closet, which desperately needed attention (hoodies and extraneous kitchen appliances). After that we played like 4 hours of ITG (while streaming to no one), wherein for some reason I decide to play the 12 chart of 10 Minutes (Nightcore) right when the stream starts, and then pass it, which really encouraged me to keep practicing for the 13 (which is like my life goal). The 12 has 16/8/8 which means it has 16 measures of stream with no breaks (then 8 and then 8). The 13 chart of this song has 24/16/16 I THINK. 24 for sure at the beginning. I BARELY made it out alive with 16 straight measures of stream, I'm not sure I've ever done that before on any song of that speed. Slower streams of course aren't AS bad. But I had a really good ITG day, so surprising after not having played in awhile. It was reassuring that not all is lost and I can actually keep improving.

10 Minutes - Nightcore Hard chart. The major life drop is one section where I just always lose the pattern.

Oh, for posterity, I got my first traffic ticket in my entire life a couple weeks ago. They put in these new weird crosswalk lights and it is hard for me to notice them because they're lights but not traffic lights, and they set up a sting and I completely fell into the trap. I was leaving Nokomis and getting my stuff settled and I just did not see the guy planted there. So I got a "failure to yield at a crosswalk" ticket. The undercover guy was fighting with the officer for a good 20 minutes because he wanted me to get "running a red light" too, but I'm guessing she ultimately decided against it because I've never ever had a moving violation and she thought it was unreasonable. But it took FOREVER. He like climbed out of his car into her vehicle and everything to try to convince her.

Taking forever to write journal entries yet again. STILL haven't written my California entry...

Two of the weekends in September Steve and I stayed the weekend in Madison, though ostensibly we were there just to crash and had other things we were doing.

The first weekend, we went to Distant Worlds in Chicago, as I mentioned. Then last weekend we went to see Stephen and Owen King in Milwaukee.

Guys. Stephen King NEVER tours. He never does book signings. He doesn't need to! He doesn't care about that stuff! BUT THIS YEAR HE DECIDED TO. And! He decided to give every attendee a copy of their new book on the way out. Where UP TO 16% of them were signed by the authors (the venue said "up to 400 copies" so we don't actually know how many copies were signed). When they were talking about signing the books, SK (he calls himself Steve!!! But that would be confusing if I referred to him as Steve bc of my boyfriend) said that his son would nudge him once during each event and say, "Make this one really small." and said that ONE of the books had small signatures from each of them.

The line to get in was INSANE, and the event was totally packed. As usual, I got Steve and myself really good seats in the lower balcony.

The event was them talking about the book, each reading an excerpt, talking about their life, and SK showed everyone pictures of his Corgi Molly, who is Facebook famous because SK refers to her as The Thing of Evil.

( Read more... )

For the last month or more, the only thing I've wanted to do in my free time is knit. I finished my first experimental pair of socks on the way back from Madison. When Steve and I were at Distant Worlds at the Chicago Symphony Center, I was the crazy lady with the yarn. When we were walking to our seats, I was knitting on my socks, and when we sat down I realized I wouldn't be able to work the decreases in the dark, and that meant I needed to start Sean's scarf.

The problem with the yarn for Sean's scarf is that it is not wound into balls yet. This meant that I would need to wind it myself, which often has disastrous results. I did not want to have an inner meltdown due to tangled yarn during my fun concert. So I tried to elect Steve's help:

The look of exasperation on his face as he struggled to get the yarn around his big feet, coupled with the fact that we were in the front row of these balcony seats and people were DEFINITELY staring, had me in uncontrollable giggles. Unfortunately, this method did not work as the yarn refused to pull or rotate the way I wanted. Steve got his repreive from being used as furniture, but he DID have to sit next to me with the yarn hanging around my neck and me rotating it around and around while I wound it into a ball. This unconventional method worked far better than I think it should have, and before long I had a cute little ball of this soft gorgeous yarn.

A simple pattern, yes. I loved the sample wrap at the yarn shop, but can't tell if I hate the plain garter with yarnover decorations...

A woman at my yarn shop talked about how she ALWAYS winds her yarn by hand, so she can get the "feel" of it. That without winding using your hands, you can't get to know the yarn - you can't develop an understanding of its tension, its personality, if it's splitty or smooth, if it's uneven, or if it's content. After winding my own ball without major issues (a first - normally I'm too busy detangling to notice anything but how difficult it's being), I totally understand the desire to experience the yarn in that way... But I still prefer the convenience of a machine winder.

As for the socks, I returned to them the following day after lunch.

In classic Leah fashion, my body is built all wonky, including my calves and feet. I have huge calves, regular human-sized ankles, and smallish feet (I wear a US 6.5 usually). Because of this, when knitting top-down, I have to cast on an abnormally high number of stitches for your average woman, decrease around the ankle so it's not baggy, and decrease even more for my feet themselves so there's not extra material on the bottom of the foot.

I knit the two socks very differently, as I learned things from the first sock and applied them to the second sock. I didn't account for the fact that with less stitches and more stretch, I would need to make the foot longer, technically speaking, on the second sock than the first. Unfortunately, I learned this AFTER I bound off and sewed in all the ends. I was shocked to discover I was a full inch and a quarter short when I tried to slip the sock on my foot.

Also in classic Leah fashion, I had a moment of panic where I thought,
"OH WELL! Guess I'm just NOT having two socks. They're my first pair anyway, who cares?! I don't need to wear them! WHATEVER!!!"

And then in defiance I worked some on Sean's scarf with the beautiful handpainted Mountain Colors Twizzlefoot yarn, a mix of wools, silk and a bit of nylon, which calmed me down enough to realize I was being overdramatic, and even though my toe decreases and end-weaving were perfection, it wouldn't take too long to undo, add rows, and redo again.

In the last leg of the four-hour drive back from Madison I sucked it up and returned to the sock, carefully finding my woven-in yarn, making one gentle cut, and I undid the toe. I inserted my three needles to the row before the decreases, and then I frogged out all the yarn until that point. It was as painless as I knew it would be, and my finishing toe ended just as well as the first. I was able to weave in all the ends and have two functional, finished woolly socks for the first time in my knitting career. Yes, it is long overdue.

You can see the difference between the two socks - the left far looser than the right due to the number of stitches. I decreased much more gently on that sock, whereas on the second sock I decreased aggressively, but not soon enough. I might actually have made the ribbing too loose! I also recently saw patterns where you change needles for the foot, using one size smaller instead of decreasing as much as I did. I'll have to keep trying.

I already can't imagine NOT making millions of socks. My next pair of will be knit toe-up, as increasing seems to be more logical in this type of situation. So will begin my NEW learning and experimentation with socks in the reverse.

A friend on another blog posed the question in my subject line. She described her heart in the way I would think many in the world do: transparent with cracks. She described her love interest as opaque, like polished obsidian. I think my heart is like a ball of yarn. It's made of fibers woven together, criss-crossed experiences and memories folded and wrapped and twisted, with bits that are thicker, bits that are thinner, with frays here and there from getting caught on the various things that may pull it out of place. It's beautiful, and dense, and malleable. It's tough, but has a lot of give.

What's your heart made of?

Current Mood: happy

So, I had a really nice weekend. I took a half day on Friday for PTO and spent the afternoon and evening with the lovely Breanna and her man Lamin. Lamin is from Africa and so are the other people I met that they spend their time with. Lamin ADORES Bre and it's very obvious if you're with him for four seconds. It was really, really fun and Lamin made what he calls "African Sauce" - a mixture of an oily soup base with carrots, peppers, onions, etc. He also cooked drumsticks on the bone to the point that the meat just fell off when you ate it. They normally make it spicy but Lamin tried VERY hard to make it not spicy for me, the honored guest. It turned out very, very good. You just pour the whole thing over rice and yay! Nommy meal. Bre complained about the rice the whole time (it was very dry, I think because Lamin was concerned about keeping me too late and rushed it) while I just laughed at her because dry rice, while not preferred, is not a big deal. XD She's so funny. Lamin has a good sense of humor to match hers.

Oh, and I had to deal with lame work stuff WHILE ON PTO because that's how the job is sometimes. Bleh.

Conveniently this took until about 10pm, at which time I crashed at home for an hour and a half until I was surprised with.. GASP! Scavenger HUUUUNT! I was most thoroughly surprised/tricked AGAIN because Steve let me get all changed into comfy clothes and snuggle into bed. He kicked off the Hunt by taping the first clue to a confused Grim's cone (Grim was Mr. Freeze XD). It was Batman themed, so each person involved got be a villain for me to foil. Scott was a chilling and AMAZING Zsasz, Nick was the Joker, Noah was Calendar Man (complete with a calendar cape and shirt with an X'ed out 19 on it ahahah). Pat was the Riddler, and Faith was a nearly-nude captured Poison Ivy that I had to save (she was secluded from the boys' eyes in Pat's room and Pat was the one to write her part). Steve, was Alfred, my trusty Butler. It was so much fun.

Gifts I got include a Harley Quinn figure from Arkham Asylum, 2 Nintendo DS games, slippers from American Eagle, a full replacement set of hardcover Harry Potter books in a wizard's trunk from my AMAZING boyfriend (as my entire collection save for book 7 disappeared mysteriously a few years ago...), and a buttload of candy from my less money-fortunate friends. Oh, and Calendar man got me a calendar XD Pat went on about he had planned to prove me wrong and NOT give me an I.O.U. (I have no idea how many I've collected from him ahaha) but that the item was GUARANTEED shipping and it didn't arrive... so I got an I.O.U. A couple days later he finally checked his email and it turns out he never bought it because he entered his payment information wrong. I LOL'd. I win again!

Saturday it SNOWED. Like, 3 inches. The weather was trolling me hard that day. "Muahaha it's yo birfdai? HAVE SOME SNOW. >:D" It actually wasn't ALL that cold out and it will probably be melted by tomorrow as it's been in the mid-40's today and is supposed to be in the 50's tomorrow. Steve and I went to dinner with my parents on Sunday, and it was delicious! Prior to that Steve and I decided to hit the B-ville mall because we both needed to suck it up and buy some pants that actually FIT. Steve ended up with a good haul, including 3 pairs of "skinny" jeans from the Guys section. I say "skinny" because they're not skinny in the sense of girl pants skinny, which is what he normally wears. They are not leg-hugging like he is used to. I rather like it. Sexay ^_^ We were on our way to the Juniors section when we spotted my parents! I went BOUNDING towards them to surprise them, when I noticed they were carrying what was obviously gifts for me. I was like two feet away from them when I skidded to a halt and started shoving Steve away as fast as I could! We were able to hide from them in the slipper section, but they were rounding the escalators where we needed to be! For some reason they circled back, and Steve was like, "What if they come around that corner and see us crouching here?!" At which point I burst into quiet laughter and said that it would be hilarious. We were able to escape and sneak back upstairs and buy Steve's things and high-tail it out of there! We were very surprised when we saw August at dinner, because if he had been with them he SURELY would have seen us and ruined our noble plot not to spoil that we saw some of my gifts! Luckily they turned out to be last-minute bday gifts and not for Christmas so I didn't have to hold that secret for long. It was really fun to play Stealth Escape Mode.

I really hate spoiling surprises so if I ever do, I NEVER give it away that I knew. It just deflates the excitement the person has for the gift they're giving you! I never do it on purpose, because I LOVE being surprised.

We took Monday off as well, and while I enjoyed napping most of it away, I played a good chunk of Ar Tonelico. Steve was playing Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword all weekend. I had terrible sleep Monday night because I kept dreaming about work, all anxious and stressed out. Last night I dreamed about buying groceries and losing one of the bags with the perfect pizza in it, and going back to the grocery store and finding exotic Chobani yogurt flavors. :P

Grim hasn't been feeling well. He's not been eating, and he projectile vomited all over me and the bed this morning. He was too quick for me! So he's been spending copious amounts of time just laying in one spot. Poor guy :( But! The cone comes off today! I hope he improves then.

Current Mood: happy

Current Mood: content
Current Music: Nikki talking on LoL

So, I've been feeling more social than normal this past week. I hung out until 5am at NIck's on Friday/Saturday, mostly playing FFVI and me, Pat, and Nick gossiped a lot (Pat said to me at least 4 times this weekend that he loves how On I am about gossip in our circles. And my definition of gossip isn't a negative one, because it's not always BAD things. It's just sharing knowledge about people we know and discussing it! That DOES NOT make it negative.). Then I decided I wanted to throw a little party at our apartment, because hey! It's a large space and can fit a lot of people and it would be really fun! So I invited Nick and Pat and Faith, and we ran into Nikki on Saturday and invited him, and Nick brought Joe Waid. I invited Courtney too, and she came later :) It was really awesome to get basically the entire group together. Part of the reason I wanted a little party was to get as many people I like from this group together, and because I want to see more of Courtney, and because I wanted to drink a bit and Faith did too. And Nick and Pat. We all don't really drink all that often (except Nikki, he's a typical college kid living in a college town and college boy house where drinking is a daily occurrence).

Anyway, most of the time was spent talking and joking and trolling each other. We also watched a Jackie Chan movie, which was great entertainment, played some SSBB, and talked some more. It was really fun and I'm glad Courtney was able to come.

Then Pat and Faith left at like 4:15am. Soon after, we heard what sounded like knocks on the window, so we thought they came back because they forgot something. Joe Waid went to investigate, and saw this fat black woman smashing out the windows on Nick's car with a baseball bat! He was too shocked to say or do anything, and she took off in this getaway car (and he didn't get the license plate).

See the horrible pictures here.

It was very obvious that this was a target attack, because she didn't hit anyone else's car and Nick's was in the middle of the lot. We later did find what we assume was the ACTUAL vehicle she meant to hit. It was the same make and color as Nick's. The cop who came out told us that this is actually really common in our awesome ghetto neighborhood - angry exes slash tires or smash windows for revenge. He asked me how I liked it here, and I said I was fine, and never heard of anything happening here yet. He kept asking Nick if he was SURE he didn't piss anyone off. We reiterated several times that NONE of the people present except for myself was even from the area, and we know no black women. lol.

I'm not worried about my car; it's very unlikely that someone would mistake it - there are stuffed animals all over the back window area, and my windshield has a very noticeable crack running the entire length of it already. Steve's car can't get mistaken because it's an old-man car that no one else in the world drives XD I feel so so guilty and bad about Nick's car. What are the odds, seriously?! And Courtney and I had been making all these ghetto-themed jokes about what the noise was, while Nick's car was getting destroyed.

Steve gets all bonerific whenever I hang out with people, because he thinks it's so cute. He thought this weekend was especially cute because not only did I hang out with people of my own accord one night and play epic amounts of FFVI, I stayed with Nick after Pat left and waited until Steve got off work and the three of us had some cute time, but I made separate plans for the next night and had a REAL social gathering! ^_^

In preparation for this impromptu housewarming, Steve and I finished unpacking everything left. We also rearranged the living room the better suit our needs, vacuumed the carpet with deodorizer (it had been STINKY), and set everything up super cute. In fact, next entry I will post picutres of the place FINALLY. It is now very clear that we MUST paint that living room. It is ugly and bare and unwelcoming with those stark white walls D:

Zomg BlazBlue Continuum Shift 2 is coming out for the 3DS at the end of the month!!!! Crap. Now I HAVE to get a 3DS sometime. -_- Oh, I reserved a hotel for us for our trip to Distant Worlds. For the 6 of us, we get to stay in one room for $120! That's on'y $20 each! If we'd tried to stay the night in Chicago, it would have been ridiculously more expensive, and we'd have had to get two rooms. This way, it's perfect!

Okay, now to play FFVI! Steve's playing Halo: Reach and Nikki's on Skype with a friend while they play League of Legends. So social! Steve asked me if he had the #1 spot in my tags, I told him that I doubted it - so we looked up all my tags. Above him are "me", "relationships", "school", "life", "friends",... and "dan". He got all mock-offended about it and started teasing me about never writing about him and that Dan was more important or something. I was all, "I've been dating you two years and Dan was in my life for 5! What do you expect?!" and he was like, "You'd even have WAY more Dan tags if you hadn't lost those years from GreatestJournal!" And then it turned into this silly banter about how I now need to find a way to get a Steve tag into every entry, even if it's just a sentence XD I'm not gonna do that, but I will make more of an effort to write about our cutie relationship. I explained to him that I have so many Dan tags because I complained about him and our relationship A LOT. I whined soooo much about us, and the wishy-washiness I felt about him, especially over that last year. I have nothing to complain about with Steve, so I get half the reasons to write about him :P