Vacation, abridged

It feels like it's been forever since I last updated. And really, I guess it sort of has. For that, you may blame my trip to the more southerly and easterly parts of the state. In my absence, I took some pictures. So here you are, dear readers: amends.

These are my cousin's daughters and are also two of my most favorite children in the world. They are Kylie and Ashlyn. They are seven and two, respectively. They are bright, sweet, fun, and always eat their vegetables. (Seriously, these girls leave nary a broccoli floret untouched--they just put some hummus on it and open wide. I like that and plan to implement a similar healthy eating policy with my own kiddies. Sorry, future children, you will eat vegetables when momma's home, and you can thank your cousin Meredith for showing her that it can be done.)

I spent pretty much the whole of last Saturday taking pictures of these girls at my aunt's house in Huntspatch, and these are a couple of my favorite shots. True to character, both of them.

Here is my brother drinking a beer with lunch during our Monday in Fredericksburg. Wait, allow me to come at that statement from a different angle: here sits a twenty year old sipping a German lager. In a restaurant. Before 5PM. On a Monday. Fredericksburg was awesome as all get out!

Sean and I spent a good hour on Saturday going through his mom's photo collection. Why? Because I need pictures for our wedding slide show, of course! I figure it's not too early to start compiling it since the baby pictures we have today are pretty much going to be the same baby pictures we have a year from now, and that'll leave one less thing for me to worry about during crunch time. Sean's mom, dear woman that she is, allowed me to borrow a good chunk of her collection, and in return I told her what date we'd chosen (because she either hadn't heard or didn't remember) and promised to bring the pictures back the next time I visited Texarkana. Anyway, it was clear from all of the pictures that I looked at that Sean was just born precious.

Sarah Elizabeth and the THNGVBD

I was having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day (replete with tear shed at the most inappropriate times--on the way to pick up my girls, on the way to a meeting, thisclose to in a meeting [omgwtf, Hump Day + post-grad angst + PMS!?]) and then the craziest thing happened! I got on the dreadmill, watched the first 45 hilarious minutes of Too Young To Be a Dad, and received a veritable treasure trove of job postings from my sweetheart-cum-personal-job-hunter, and wouldn't you know it? I don't feel so bad anymore! Bless you endorphins, Lifetime, and best boyfriend ever. Bless you.

Annnnd wouldn't you know, my mom just walked in from her Wal-Mart run and handed me a Martha Stewart (eeee!) Weddings magazine and a tub of cotton candy, presumably as balm for my terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. Suddenly I'm feeling even better! I'm also so eating all 4 Points of that cotton candy. In bed. With Martha. Bless my mom and her Band-aids, too.

Be mine

[This lovely Valentine's bouquet is compliments of my daddy-o and my sweetheart. You'll learn about its origin in just a bit.]

I'd planned on doing a fairly thorough post about Valentine's Day (aka: my fourth or fifth favorite holiday or something) the day after it ended, and then two days after it ended, and then you know those times when you're employed as a writer and after hours upon days of doing your job you just want to step away from the words? That's me right now. But instead of putting the post off until 2011, I've decided to give you a quick and dirty break down of the weekend activities.

On Friday I...
- Built a snowman with my mom and dressed it up as both my brother and my Valentine.
- Made snow cream. Yum!
- Drove my dad to Costco so he could buy four dozen roses for my mom. Thirty red for the years they've been married + six white for the years they dated = six red and six white left over for yours truly.
- Arranged said roses in vases. HO BOY do I suck at that job.
- Welcomed my sweetie home from work at 7:00 only to learn that he had about four more hours of work ahead of him. Yuck.
- Drove all over the Metroplex Dallas looking for binder clips for Sean's take-home work project. Seriously, Target, Walgreens, and Tom Thumb are on my bad list for life. Especially Target, because how can you sell sets of multi-colored binder clips of various sizes that come packaged with sets of multi-colored paper clips but not just boxes of small black binder clips? Team Wal-Mart 4eva!

On Saturday I...
- Lifted my head off the pillow just long enough to mumble "good-bye" to my sweetie as he left for work at 5:30AM.
- Visited Tom Thumb (it may be on my bad list, but that doesn't make it any less conveniently located) five hours later to shop for ingredients for lunches for Sean + ingredients for dinners for both of us.
- Cooked lunches for Sean while working on, well, work.
- Welcomed Sean home from work at 7:00PM and received a beautiful bunch of baby blue hydrangeas. "You kept talking about how much you like them," said Sean, "so I figured that was a hint or something." The man is good!
- Didn't have a vase for my hydrangeas and I didn't want to plop them in an oversized cup that my parents got from Texas Stadium and passed down to Sean, so I got creative and stuffed them in with the roses I got from dad. (When I say "stuffed" I am referring to my ineptitude at arranging flowers and not at all trying to indicate any negative feelings about my bouquet, which is in fact the only bouquet that I have ever endeavored to keep alive. I'm failing, of course, but I'm doing so with a lot of extra elbow grease.)
- Watched Good Will Hunting for the first time in like, 10 years. (Hint: It's WAAAAAY better when you're 23.)

On Valentine's Day I...
- Woke up too early for Sean's taste.
- Made breakfast for us to share.
- Tried to catch the 2:20 showing of Valentine's Day but missed it because I am a slow dresser. Tried to catch the 4:00 showing of Valentine's Day but missed it because the ticket lady said it was sold out. (Not so, said the board behind the ticket counter. Lame.) Bought tickets to the 5:20 showing.
- Wandered the mall waiting for show time and SURPRISE! Managed to save all of my money excepting the one dollar I spent on a drink at Sonic.
- Didn't breech the subject of how inane the movie was until we were almost at the car. I certainly did not like it, but I don't feel strongly enough about it to say that I hated it. It's like this--if you regularly spend $10 to take a nap, then by all means, see Valentine's Day. If you prefer to nap for free, don't see Valentine's Day ever. Not even when it comes to a Redbox near you.
- Returned home to chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream and some pretty interesting show about human love (and some pretty nutty show about human sexual disorders. Weird.)

So yeah, I guess the actual quick and dirty version is this: More or less uneventful because my poor Valentine had to work through 2/3 of it. No matter though, because it just so happens that chick flicks (even truly awful ones), chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream, and hydrangeas! are the keys to my heart. The end.

This day in history

Do you know what's special about today? I mean other than the fact that it's Friday (which is, let's admit, the most specialist day of all)? No? On this day in 2008, Sean and I became a happy couple. That's right, we've been mooning over each other (and only very rarely making each other crazy) for two whole years! To celebrate this joyous occasion, Sean's buying his and hers bottles of wine (Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, respectively) I'm buying complementary cheeses (Edam, Jarlsberg, and Gruyere, respectively), and we're going to watch Sideways and overindulge in his living room.

"Whoa-ho-ho," say you, "Really going all out, eh? Taking the celebration to the next level?" To which I reply, "Have you watched Sideways? It's spectacular. Have you imbibed a glass of Chardonnay with a side of rich dairy? It's delicious. Have you seen the engagement ring I want? It's gorgeous."

Food, mostly

- As I was browsing the Central Market food court on Saturday night, I happened to notice a sign for "Greek Yogurt & Cucumber Dip," which some of you may know by its more official name--"Holy Buckets, This Tzatziki is Amazing! Is it Available in a Big Gulp?" And that's when I started craving a gyro. I would have gotten one, too, when Sean and I decided to have something exotic for brunch on Sunday, except Sean doesn't like Greek food, so we went to an Indian restaurant instead. And green curry, while delicious, does not a gyro craving satisfy. So I did a little research and lo! Recipes for gyros and tzatziki! Extra points for my mom if we have a pound of ground lamb in the freezer...

- For perhaps the first time in the history of new years, I did not resolve to lose weight. Hooray! Except then I ate a couple of doughnuts for breakfast, cheese fries and a hamburger for dinner, and a few dozen left over chocolate chip peanut butter cookies for a snack, and all of a sudden my jeans didn't fit quite right. The trouble with me is that while I can get down to a satisfactory weight and size fairly easily, my motivation to do so ebbs and flows in conjunction with major events in my life. For example, I wanted to look decent in my Halloween costume, so I chose food wisely (flow). Then I didn't have anything immediate to look forward to so I ate some full-fat ice cream (ebb). Then Thanksgiving was around the corner so I was careful again in the weeks leading up to the gastronomic deluge (flow). You get the idea. I had a pretty good system going this summer that kept me on track in spite of my relatively clear schedule--whenever I looked in the fridge or wanted to sleep through Jazzercise, I just imagined myself in a bathing suit and ho boy did those carrots look good! I'm implementing a similar strategy now that I'm trying to drop a few holiday pounds--whenever I think I'm about to drop dead on the treadmill, I pretend that I miiiiiight end up in some engagement pictures soon (I'm nothing if not delusional. Do not derail my efforts, SEAN!) and I crank that sucker up to 11.

- Speaking of which, I was so sore today after two days of working out (by which of course I mean "walking briskly on an inclined treadmill for 30 minutes") that I had to pop pills just to stand up straight. Oops, out of practice.

- My dear beau is a genius at practically everything. Thinking about putting your mature bonds in a savings account? Sean says: Buy mutual funds, you'll see a better return. Want to buy the large new house with four bedrooms at a bargain basement price? Sean says: What are you going to do with the three extra bedrooms besides pump them full of electricity? Buy a smaller house for the same price and you'll save money in the long run. Having trouble finding a job that you're qualified to apply for? Sean says: In the thirty seconds I just spent searching, I was able to find five jobs that would be perfect for you! I'll find ten more tomorrow! Two things he is not a genius at? Housekeeping and kitchen management. Sean and Sarah--an exercise in symbiosis and traditional gender roles.

A birthday narrative

This is my birthday beau:

Isn't he a fine 24 year old? (Be warned: I plan on marveling over our two year age difference ad nauseam until I turn 23 next month.)

On Saturday night our families met for the first time (eek! Except not really because everyone got along swimmingly, just as I expected they would.) and went out to dinner in Big D. After eating entirely too much Italian food, wishing Sean buon compleanno with the waitstaff and restaurant patrons, and filling three to-go boxes with leftovers, we rambled back to Sean's apartment for cake and prezzies, both of which he received in spades. (Sean rambled a bit more slowly than I did, of course, since he's two years older than I am.)

Sean's momma brought him a delish Dallas Cowboys cookie cake from exotic East Texas and I made him this cake because he asked me to gifting opulent cakes always makes me feel a little like the birthday girl:

I was thisclose to making him a Scion TC cake, but I opted not to as soon as I looked at pictures of his car for inspiration because HOLY MOLY are cars ever intricate! I thought about making an exotic car themed cake instead (because he works with them every day, get it?) but eventually decided on a suit and tie. Good thing too, because he totally guessed what my present was as soon as he saw it wrapped and be-bowed (also helped that he shook it), and he had an inkling that he was going to get a car cake. Surprise, sucker! You may be two years my senior, but with my youth comes superior cunning and wile!

I returned to his apartment yesterday afternoon so that I could eat his leftovers I could spend some quality time with the birthday boy, and after facing down two crises together--one involving Saran wrap and the other the dishwasher (ask Sean to let me tell you that story some time because it is heee-larious)--I got to partake of some pitiful Cowboys football and some outstanding When Harry Met Sally...with a smokin' hot older man.

Laws of attraction

**A note of context before we begin--my dad and I regularly play-fight. In fact, if we didn't play-fight so often we'd probably not exchange many words. We plain ol' fight as well sometimes too because he's always wrong and I never am (and vice versa) but when we are not plain ol' fighting we play-fight. So please keep that in mind as you read. Onward!**

Dad: When's Sean going to come over to our house again?
Sarah: I dunno, I don't think he likes you much, so it might be a while.
Dad: What?
Sarah: No I'm totally kidding, Sean would kill me if he knew I'd blasphemed thusly. (Upon reading this, Sean proceeded to collapse into a rage blackout. [Also a total lie: Sean doesn't get mad. Except when he's been done wrong, like the time those two people at the blood bank dug around in his arm with a needle, or the time the screw stripped when he was trying to take a leg off his couch. Doozies, both of them.])
Dad: I like Sean. He's a really nice guy isn't he?
Sarah: Yes, he is.
Dad: So I can't figure out why he keeps hanging around with you.
Sarah: Neither can I, dad. Neither can I.

The Benjamins

Saturday last, just after Sean and I had journeyed to my house from his apartment, my mom zipped into the house in an uproar because "Sarah, did you smell the anti-freeze in the garage? You'd better because IT'S YOURS!" And sure enough, there was a slimy green puddle on the garage floor just beneath the front of my car. We popped the hood in hopes of finding that a leaky hose was the source (because those are cheap to fix, while leaky radiators are decidedly more expensive), but saw nothing, and I had no choice but to wait until the next week to see a mechanic. So for the next two days I drove with the A/C off and a bottle of water in the passenger's seat JUST IN CASE.

On Tuesday morning the nefarious mechanic called to let me know that he'd have to replace the radiator and also that if I ever wanted to drive my car again I'd need to rob a bank and turn the take over to him. This is the point in the story where I should mention that I'm only very sporadically employed and that I just took an expensive trip two weeks ago, and that it never occurred to me that I might need to set some funds aside for use on major car repairs because, oh I dunno, my car is a beastly ten year old Honda and during the seven years we've spent together I've never heard so much as a squeaky brake out of it? Yup, exactly.

So anyway, as soon as I told my sweetheart about my sudden financial crisis, he said that he could help pay for the repairs when he got his first pay check from ye newe job. And this is the point in the story where I have to call my fella out in front of God and all of you fine people for being the most wonderful, selfless person on the face of this earth, and for having a heart made of solid gold. HAHA! BUSTED!

I didn't take the deal, of course, because I have some money in reserves and I must insist that Sean put his income towards furniture and cable for his apartment, as I did not figure cardboard boxes and rabbit ears into my design. I did, however, have a mild panic attack/depressive episode smack dab in the middle of the week that resulted in me browsing freelance writer opportunities and seriously considering a job in a grocery store bakery. I thought I was going to the poor house, guys.

And then at 5:45 this morning my mom came running up the stairs waving a phone and shouting, "WAKE UP WAKE UP! A substitute system is on the line and it wants you to work today!" (Is it just me, or does my mom come across as a complete maniac in this post? Sorry mom, creative license!) So I worked my first substitute job EVER from 8:30 to 4:30, and afterwards I took care of my cousin. And after 12 straight hours of work, do you know how I felt? Like a big girl! For the first time since graduating! And for the first time in my life going to work didn't feel even the least bit dreadful. As soon as I realized that by George I might have just entered this new phase of my life called "adulthood," I proposed to that wonderful, selfless fella of mine! Only this time what I actually meant was "will you marry me right this second? Because the only thing that could make a paycheck more appealing is knowing that I'll see you every day that I work for it."

Weekends and wedding planning

As most of you know, I live a mere hop, skip, and jump away from a sprawling metropolis, which means that I'm surrounded by hidden opportunities to broaden my cultural horizons. Fewer of you know that my boyfriend is terribly fond of films, particularly of the indie persuasion. Unfortunately, he lives in a smallish town whose culture only varies from one coffee shop to another (the historic downtown area and gay bar notwithstanding). It follows, then, that said boyfriend would leap at the opportunity to catch a movie that is (for now) only in limited release when he is in a city large enough to accommodate different tastes. So last Saturday night we went to this indie theater that is only 45 minutes from my house:



to see this movie:



It was sort of fabulous and oh my gosh, if any of you want to know what my boyfriend is like in real life, go see this movie when it comes to a theater near you and just imagine all of John Kransinski's lines coming out Sean's pretty face. Seriously.

We had a lovely weekend together and then I spent my Monday moping over losing Sean to the work week once again. I think that this long-distance stuff is making me a little wedding crazy (it couldn't be that we're smack dab in the middle of wedding season and that television is chock-a-block full of wedding programming, no sir) because I pretty much spent all of last week planning (in earnest) a wedding that's still two-and-a-half years away. I've chosen my colors and I know what I want my dress to look like and I know what flavor of cake I want and I'm working out like the wedding's next month and I know how I want the reception to feel and I know how we're going to coordinate the honeymoon around a teacher's schedule and I know where we're going to live afterward. And in an attempt to get myself out of the doldrums today, I Googled "reception venues fort worth, tx" and now have a whole slew of places to check out once I get a ring. My brother somewhat-wisely pointed out that I might want something completely different when that time comes, but if not at least I'll be pretty prepared. I guess I just cope with being work-a-day single in the city by planning for an event that will ensure that I never have to don that dreadful title again.

Moseying to the chapel

This long-distance relationship business really is the pits. I only left my love in College Station 30 hours ago, but I'm so excited for my return trip this weekend (to move my brother into my old apartment) that I can't even fathom going to bed. I've started to think of this time apart as just an inconvenient hiatus between graduation and marriage and so I started looking into wedding venues, dresses, and centerpieces in earnest today. It doesn't help that TLC and the Style Network are flooding their line-ups with wedding-themed shows during this season of getting hitched. Every time I change the dadgum channel I see some bride cutting a cake or trying on a dress and the wheels in my mind start turning. Nevertheless, did you know that you can often get better deals on caterers and venues if you have your wedding during the "off-season" (October-April)? Glad Sean and I detest this miserable season and set our hearts on mid-October almost a year ago!

I took a quiz about the type of groom I have and it turns out that he's a "Planner Extraordinaire--thoughtful, strong, compassionate, and researches right along with the bride" (I already knew this). Luckily, Sean and I have VERY similar taste and are usually happy to hear each other out when our opinions do differ, so we aren't likely to come to blows over many of the details: "I think a fireplace in the reception venue would be just lovely in the fall." "Why, yes, darling, that idea is absolutely splendid!"; "I'm not at all attached to a particular floral arrangement, all they do is cost a fortune and then die straight away. How would you feel about centerpieces made out of candles and other fall vegetation?" "That sounds brilliant, love. We really ought to save as much as we can on the wedding so we can afford to reno our house afterward." "I heartily agree: granite countertops mean so much more to me than a dress that I will only wear once."; "I'm afraid, sweetie, that I will be a DIY-bride--save the dates, invites, programs, none will escape my creative touch." "Oh I am sure of this, but I look forward to seeing what you come up with!" I figure that it's never too early to start having these tough conversations.

Take finals, retire, eat cake

Tomorrow (today) is final exam day, dun dun DUN! And yet here I am, blogging rather than studying for the nutrition final that I'll be taking in 12 hours. I'm not at all motivated to read about vitamins and minerals when at least half of the test questions are coming from old tests, on which I have received nary a grade lower than 96%. Besides, seeing as my tenure at The University technically ends tomorrow at 5:00PM, I'm a mite more concerned about the distant future than I am about the test.

I worked from 9-5 on Monday and Tuesday of this week, and from 9-2 on Wednesday. A typical day (at a job I like!) consists of entering data into a computer, filing, answering phones, and glancing at the clock every three minutes desperate for the end of my workday. I figure I ought not to go through life this way, so I've told Sean that I'd eventually like to just be a stay-at-home mom, please and thank you. BUT THEN I had today off and spent all of my free time decorating a cake and glancing at the clock every three minutes desperate for the end of Sean's workday so I could spend time with him. At least when I'm at work and waiting for 5:00 I'm getting something out of it (albeit not very much)! I think what I want to do after I graduate is retire with my future hubs and travel around the U.S. in a motor home. That way, I won't have to work and I won't have to miss him. It's win-win.

Two weeks from now it's going to be totally lose-lose, however, because I'm moving away from my beloved AND I'm still going to have to work. All I'll have to look forward to at the end of my workday for the next two years will be my parents (both of whom I adore, don't get me wrong) and my cat. (Well, maybe my cat. My mom told me today that she wanted Miss Layla to stay in my apartment with my brother rather than move home with me. Trey didn't want her either, though. Too bad, wicked grandmother, too bad!) Remind me again why I'm not getting married in June like everyone else who graduates next weekend? Oh yeah, because neither one of us like the summer. And because I don't have a job. Or any money.

What I do have, dear readers, is a final project due tomorrow. A final project that involves lots and lots of cake. Observe:


This is my codex (which I've renamed "cake-dex"). It's basically an accordion-style book of symbols that Aztecs and other South American native people used to keep records and tell stories once upon a time. My codex tells the story of my cakes with symbols that represent when I made them, who I made them for, and the occasions for which I made them.


And hey, it's the happy couple! Also it's an idea of what the book looks like inside. Voila! A+, methinks (mehopes).

I spent so much time working on the cake-dex and accompanying cake, nutrition final, and Mother's Day cake today that I had to deny the beau our daily dose of The O.C. (Like nicotine, that show.) I've promised to make it up to him one night next week with a bottle of wine and a full-on marathon because what else will I have to do? Not one solitary thing. Oh good gracious...

All you need is

Borrowed from Stef, who always seems to have these surveys in spades.

♥ What are your middle names?
Keith and Elizabeth

♥ How long have you been together?
Not long enough - only one fabulous year

♥ How long did you know each other before you started dating?
Two years

♥ Who asked who out?
Sean asked me out, he's mighty persistent.

♥ How old were each of you?
I was 21 and he was 22.

♥ Whose siblings do/did you see the most?
We see my brother more since he's here at school.

♥ Do you have any children together?
Not yet

♥ What about pets?
Sean and I are daddy and mommy (respectively) to Miss Layla Lou. Sean's trying to convince me to adopt another kitty, but I'm holding out until marriage.

♥ Which situation is the hardest on you as a couple?
We're both fairly easy-going, so nothing's really been too difficult. We thought we were going to have to do the long distance thing during my last two semesters, which would have sucked a lot. Happily, it ended up not happening.

♥ Did you go to the same school
Same university, different high schools.

♥ Are you from the same home town?
Nope. He's from the country and I'm from the city.

♥ Who is smarter?
We're pretty much equal, I don't think either of us could tolerate a dumb significant other.

♥ Who is more sensitive?
I had typed that Sean was more sensitive, but that didn't look right so I deleted it. We're both fairly sensitive, it's impossible to choose.

♥ Where do you eat out most as a couple?
We don't eat out a ton, but we order Chinese food fairly regularly. We love eating at local places whenever we do eat out.

♥ Where is the furthest you two have traveled together as a couple?
Corpus Christi

♥ Who has the craziest exes?
Of the few exes we do have, I don't think any are crazy.

♥ Who has the worse temper?
Oh I do, for sure.

♥ Who does the cooking?
I do most of it, but Sean's been known to cook a thing or two as well.

♥ Who is more social?
Sean, hands down. I'm the homebody.

♥ Who is the neat-freak?
Neither of us is particularly neat, but I think I get on cleaning kicks more often than Sean does.

♥ Who is the more stubborn?
We're both pretty stubborn, but I might be slightly more stubborn than Sean is.

♥ Who hogs the bed?
The bed is not the problem, there's plenty of that to go around. The problem is the covers - Sean can't seem to get enough.

♥ Who wakes up earlier?
Sean has to be at work at 8AM, poor dear. I don't have any obligations before nine.

♥ Where was your first date?
An amazing local restaurant called Luigi's, Research Park, and Starbucks in Barnes and Noble just because Sean wasn't ready to take me home.

♥ Who has the bigger family?
I do.

♥ Do you get flowers often?
Only on special occasions (birthday and Valentine's Day), but I know Sean cares regardless.

♥ How do you spend the holidays?
Separately, for now.

♥ Who is more jealous?
That's not really been too much of an issue thus far.

♥ How long did it take to get serious?
I knew within the first three hours of our first date that I was going to marry Sean. I think it might have taken him a couple of months.

♥ Who eats more?
Sean

♥ Who does the laundry?
Generally I do, but since I don't have a washing machine in my apartment, we usually do it together at Sean's house.

♥ Who’s better with the computer?
Sean for sure.

♥ Who drives when you are together?
Sean again. I only drive when he makes me.