I Declare 2013 "Valentine's Day"

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We're here today to discuss the day half of you (apparently) inevitably love to hate. Whether you're happily coupled but decidedly rebel into the "V-Day SUX" camp to express some type of solidarity with your single counterparts, or whether you're single and ready to mingle and fall into the "OMG guyz, it's a stupid Hallmark Holiday" camp and think you look totally cool but really you look bitter... Valentines Day is a sensitive subject. 

If I'm being transparent in which side I fall on, well, I'd like to think I have a pretty good reason. And if you're confused by the title of this post, you'll soon understand why: 

Valentines Day is also the day of my birth, -- my birthday. SO it irrationally annoys me to see people making not-so-funny jokes about Valentine's Day. Not only that, they're never original. And why? If you think it's a stupid holiday, good for you. STFU about it. Haters are not known for their ability to suffer silently. (myself included ;-) )

Let's get back to the point of this post though: this year, I have declared February 14th "Valentines Day!" What do I mean by that? Well, in the past when I've been coupled up, especially with M, the day doubles as Valentines Day and my birthday. What that inevitably means is that it's "all about me" and my s/o doesn't really expect anything in return. I don't usually do the planning, or much gifting, because the focus is on my birthday. (Usually with a "romantic" twist to the day). 

WELLLLL kittens, this year, I told M that it'd be Valentines Day..meaning, I want to plan something! He's aware that this does not absolve him from gift giving. 

Just kidding, it's always his prerogative to gift-give, but I wouldn't care much either way. 

I'm not going to divulge what is in the works for V-Day '13, since M snoops this-here-blog of mine, but stay tuned for the "reveal" on Valentines Day! It's going to be good :)

In the meantime, I can tell you a bit about past years with M, which have always been eventful! He can be quite thoughtful when it comes to special days. 

(I'm not writing this in an attempt to get people to tell me how sweet M is, I already know he's sweet. Instead, this is more so that I remember the details of these days, since I was having trouble conjuring up the details of last year's V-Day while drafting this. Woops.)

Valentines Day 2010:

This one was kind of hilarious and one for the record books. It was our first V-Day/B-Day together and we'd only been seeing each other for a month and a half. M was on his bestest behavior. Well, we'd chatted a lot in those early days about our "favorites" and it came out that I liked Eric Church. I made M listen to some of his music and M decided he liked him as well. I thought it'd be fun to buy us tickets for an upcoming concert in March or April of that year as my V-Day gift for him, so buy them I did. 

M picked me up and we went to his apartment and he surprised me with scrabble and wine (something we did on our 3rd date- played scrabble) before dinner. There we were, laying tiles, when M laid "Eric" and I got all huffy because IT'S A PROPER NOUN and against the rules. That's when he told me to LOOK at the board-->

Well I'll be damned. 

He'd snuck some tiles into his coat pocket and rigged the game so he could tell me what my gift was in this fashion. 

Next thing I know I have an envelope in my hand and I was all "STFU, he did NOT" and sure enough, he bought us Eric Church tickets. 

I started to laugh and handed him HIS gift- a matching set of Eric Church tickets. Yep, we bought each other the same thing. (We ended up selling my tix on craigslist, haha).

We went to 112 eatery in MPLS after and I had the best zuchinni chorizo and burger ever (that I've never been able to duplicate) and tres leche cake (also orgasmic). 

Valentines Day 2011:

He made me guess where we were going to eat, and he surprised me and brought me back to 112 eatery. 

Sentimental one, that boy. I got the same burger. I can't really recall many other details...but it was no doubt a nice night.

Valentines Day 2012:

Came home to a few envelopes on the table revealing a few small gifts: gift card for ice cream for our upcoming Naples vaca, a 'certificate' for me to pick out a bar cart for our house (still haven't gotten this one... lol), a promise to make some wood-transfer-art (this one never panned out either, haha!) aanndd lastly a ticket confirmation for The Vow that night at our local movie theater, and a menu for the theater. 

He took me to see The Vow (he is not a fan of chick flicks) at the fancy theater by our house that lets you bring in food and drinks. We split a pizza and watched the movie in the VIP section. Twas perfect. 

I'm excited for this year, I love to plan/surprise. The sneakier I can be, and the bigger the surprise, the better. SO I'm pretty much jumping out of my skin for Feb. 14th to get here so I can reveal my surprise. Stay tuned. 

Aannnndddd despite my preface regarding my distates for V-Day haterz. Do share. Do you hate V-Day? If so, why? Do you go all out? What's one of your FAVORITE V-Day's past? 

The story of us: amended

I didn't get into a lot of detail in the original "story of us" about those early days, but thought it'd be fun to go back and document pieces of it. 

Do you want to know what the neatest part of meeting your future husband online? I have a lot of sweet documentation of our "early days" via email. We're such a modern couple. ;-) 

The other neat thing? I was a TOTAL spaz and recapped in excruciatingly painful detail every single email and my thoughts and analysis to my girlfriends. That transitioned into recapping all of our early dates and moments. I'm not sure how much I'll share, and I'd like to keep some of that to myself, but I wanted to put some of this here, should anything happen to my email, and whatnot. AND I figured it'd be fun for ya'll to see :)  

So, as I mentioned, M and I met on Match.com. I had created the free profile and emailed a few people... but good ol' M took his time emailing me back. Finally, I opened my inbox after a very long final exam my 1L year of law school to the following message:

I was FLOORED. We exchanged a lot of early "getting to know you" emails. I would usually reply within HOURS, and he'd wait a day or 2. He later admitted he would wait so he wouldn't look like a crazy person.. clearly I did not have the same hangups..haha. It was the holiday season and he was planning a trip back up north to where he grew up for Christmas, so we just did a lot of introductory stuff. Not to mention, I was waiting for HIM to make the first move as to a real life meet-n-greet. 

Meanwhile, I had a simultaneous email chain going with several of my girlfriends. I'd never been a "dating junkie".. I usually focused in on one guy, and went for it full throttle. BUT, something strange happened at this time, and I somehow wound up with 2 other dates between the time M sent his first email and we actually met. I couldn't put all my imaginary eggs in one basket! What if he wasn't as great as he sounded, or photogenic but a weirdo in real life?! My girlfriends (and I) were not-so-secretly always "team M" though, as you can see below:

 1. "Tom" was one of those aforementioned random dates I went on. It was a fine date,...we went to the Wild game, but he wasn't Matt. (bear in mind I had never met M and I was comparing people to him already. Totally normal, no?)

2. Let's address the fact that my friends were planning my wedding to a man I had never met. God bless those 2. I look back at this particular email and REALLY cherish it, because while it was a joke (and a dream) back then, I think it's SO special that now it's REAL. 

3. Leah's timeline may have been a BIT off, but HOLY WOAH- girl you are a fortune teller! Let's compare! :

"offical by date #8" --> It was right around this time that Leah herself made a comment to M about "his girlfriend" while we were hanging out, which prompted the question..."well, IS she your girlfriend?"He said yes, and it was easy as that. 

"He'll propose next year" --> Oh Leah, quite the optimist. While it wasn't exactly December 2010 (it was April 2012).. I'm glad we waited until I was done with school and had a chance to live with each other. I really feel like marriage will be less of a "shock" to the system and more of a smooth transition (for US, at least)

"We'll all be in the wedding"--> This was accurate! I was Meagan's MOH (she would get engaged 11 months after this email) and she's my bridesmaid, Leah is my personal attendant. Girl is organized, and a PRO at this. I have the utmost faith in her. 

"They'll move into their house somewhere between mpls and stp, probs south mpls."--> Well, we DID look at houses in South Mpls, but we found it was too "hit or miss" by neighborhood and block. We're not far from there now, though! AND we did this backwards, from engagement. 

Overall, a very accurate (albeit mayyybee a tad creepy at the time) assessment of my future! haha

OH and as far as Meagan's reply? I'm leaning towards black bridesmaids dresses as well. Eerie. 

SO after a bunch of emails that looked a LOT like the one above (to save face as only a partial creeper, I'll spare you), and we finally set a time and date to meet: New Years Eve, 2009-2010, 1:30 at The Depot in downtown minneapolis for an ice skate: 

We skated for 3 hours that day, and each left for our respective New Years Eve parties. What followed was a dinner date at Loring Pasta Bar (the same place we went to eat after he proposed), mini golf, home cooked dinners, movie-watching, and on and on and on. :-)

As our 1-year approached, we decided it'd be fun to start a tradition (by that point we'd discussed moving in together, so starting an anniversary tradition wasn't "creepy"). Every year on our anniversary, before we went out for NYE, we'd spend the afternoon ice skating at the place we first met. Here are our first two years' photos:

So there's a little bit more detail about the story of us. :) 

OH, and do you recall the mention I made in the "story of us" of some of the creepers that caused me to stop emailing the rest of the guys all together? (This was before M finally responded to my email).. WELL, here is the gem that prompted it: 

You just can't make this stuff up. I had been emailing with him, and he's the 2nd closest I came to a "real" match date- we spoke on the phone, but never met. After our phone chat there were several HUGE red flags that he was NOT dating material, and overall the idea of meeting someone (besides the guy that had prompted the whole ordeal- M) was overwhelming me. SO I sent him the text you see recapped above for 2 of my girlfriends. His reply is below. I die. May I reiterate how Lucky I am to have only met one guy, and gone on one date from match? oofta. 

-Kelly 

                                        

Hump day

Well, that last post was uplifting, wasn't it? Let's face it though, sometimes just putting it out there in the unvierse, "I'm having a SHITTY day," is the best way to make it go away. That, and an impromptu dinner out with someone who can take me from a sobby hot mess, to laughing and smiling in a matter of an hour. Yes, that'd be M. And yes, this is why I am marrying him. :)

Anyway, I had/have more to say, but if I keep putting off posting anything until I have time to sit down and dump ALL my "recent photos" and blabbering into one post, it'll never come. I had saved these pictures into a draft, so it's easier to throw this one into a catch-up post.

Some instagram pics from the last week or 2. Baby TJ crawled up on the couch to snuggle with M and I the other day. He just stared at M until he lifted his arm and let TJ crawl into his nook. Then he stretched his paws out, and rested his left one on top of M's hand like this:

I. die.

My boys, snuggling on the couch. 

The makings of a pasta dish I threw together last week. I blanched some asparagus for 2 minutes (I had no idea what that word meant when I started cooking, but it's basically bringing water to a boil, tossing veggies in, and cooking them real quick for 2-3 minutes... you then pull them out and put them in ice water to halt the cooking process), then diced them up and sauteed them with some halved brussel sprouts, garlic, and about a tbsp of balsamic vinegar and garlic.From there, I tossed them with cooked pene, some vodka sauce I had laying around, layered it in a baking dish and topped it with the shredded italian cheese blend we had on hand. Ta-da, the "kitchen sink" dinner, as I like to call it.

TJ is a fantastic little sous chef. As long as he can lay in his "spot" on the counter, he really doesn't bother me while I chop food. Usually he's all up in my face and licking the veggies (so if you ever come over to our house for dinner and something tastes "off".. now you know). No we have not gotten our granite installed yet, hence the temporary counter. BUT it's coming on May 3rd, YAY!

Annndd lastly, because a crazy cat lady can never have too many photos of her cat, here's TJ mean mugging me. He's got the stink-eye down pat.

Let's see.. In other news, mom is doing well. I sort of bombed ya'll on that one. My mom has had MS (Multiple Sclerosis) my entire life. She was diagnosed at about 24 or 25 (so, my age). I hate to say that it feels "normal" to me, but it's all I've ever known is a mother with a cane, and eventually a wheelchair. We'd been lucky in that up until about 5 years ago it was pretty slow progressing, and even still it's been slow. It finally caught up to her about 2-3 years ago and she's been in a wheelchair permanently ever since. She gets bed sores from sitting/laying all day, which is what the current problem is and part of the reason she's at a care facility right now.

She's set up at a temporary care facility near the house, and people have been going to see her a lot. She's already made friends with the staff (surprise, surpise, mom's a chatterbox!) and we're hoping that after these 2 weeks are up we can bring her home. With her bed sores though the nurse said it could take up to a year for them to fully heal, since they're internal wounds. As a part of the process for them to heal, she needs to be turned every 2 hours. Well, unless dad were to quit his job that just doesn't seem feasible at home. That being said, we're looking into a bunch of options to try to keep her at home after the temporary stay.

I guess in writing this out and emailing my friends when all this happened it kind of hit me that I don't really talk about it a lot. It's not that I mind, it's just that dealing with these things seems so "normal" to us, that it doesn't seem like something I need to vent about. I talk to M, obviously, and will mention it in passing to others, but I think I keep it to myself because it gives me anxiety seeing other people's reactions. Either because I am usually pretty calm about all of it (again, because this has been "normal" for us) or because the thought that people might be looking at me differently, or with pity, makes me all sorts of nervous. I know that's not rational, but it's how i feel. And this is maybe the worst admission I've ever made but thinking about my wedding and having hundreds of strangers potentially looking at me with "oh, that poor girl and her poor mother" eyes makes me want to elope. There, I said it. It's not because I'm embarassed by my mom at all, it's the idea that people may look at me, or think of me, differently after. Alas, my goal is to be happily buzzed so that my "pity radar" is scrambled.

Welp, should probably hop on this research memo at work here. Hope you all have a good hump day! M and I are going to look at another venue tonight, and a different one tomorrow. SO maybe if I get my shit together here, I can post some recaps, as well as a recap of the venue we saw last Saturday!

-Kelly

Thoughts on Thursday

Well, the dust has settled, for the most part. Still here, still engaged (still WEIRD to say that). Even weirder to think we're getting married. (I think M agrees, as you can see below). This week has been pretty busy, unintentionally so, or at least it's felt that way. Monday night I had coffee with 2 girls I met through M and his guy friends (one is a fiance of one of the guys, the other is an ex-gf).

Yesterday my Forever 21 dress came in the mail! I need to shop online more, it's much more fun to get packages instead of junk mail.

I posted the dress photo on Instagram (kellybea14) with the caption "somebody bring me a yacht!"...because seriously, that's all I feel like I'm missing. It needs to be shrunk a smidge (and with my luck I'll turn it into a bodycon dress instead of just shrinking it a teeny bit). But even if it doesn't shrink up a bit in the wash it's still a good fit. Now all I need is some bright jewelry and cute wedge sandals and I'm set!

All the exitement lately had my boys awfully sleepy every night this week. I snapped these 2 the other night. (I'm just waiting for an email or text about posting this on the internet, but I think he looks sweet when he's sleeping.) I had him wedged to my right on the couch....

and this little guy snoozing on my chest. That grey blob is M's leg thrown over me. I clearly wasn't going anywhere... not that I wanted to. I love it when these 2 cuddle up to sleep. It's precious.

I had a stupid day at work Wednesay.. I am sure it's pretty commonplace but I swear my boss only tells me when I'm doing things crappy and never tells me I've done a good job or at the very least whether ANY of the research memos I've turned in are remotely helpful. It gets a bit disheartening after a while. It's a little ironic that law students and lawyers are all Type-A's who want yes/no answers and clarity, when in reality the law is NEVER (or VERY rarely) made up of yes/no's.. it's always "well, it depends." Infurating, really.

Anyway, the point of that rant was to say that some days all a girl needs is her kitty to make her feel better. I barely get through the door and the little guy RUNS to see me and is purring SO hard he's squeaking. It's really the sweetest thing ever. He's nuzzling, rubbing, and crawling into my lap. He really has all the best attributes of a dog but the "I can crap on my own" beauties of a cat.

Also picked up this nail polish after seeing it on a friend's Instagram. It's Sally Hanson 07 Sea. A very pale blue. I like it :-)

That's about it around here right now. Headed to my dad's saturday to start working out some details about the list... I don't have a mom-zilla but I'm worried about dad turning into a dad-zilla. Who knew he'd be so opinionated about venues but he's already tossed out 2 and said he'd like to come to some of them when we go see them if possible. Pray for me, girls. I may need it. hahaha.

-Kelly

lots of photos and words. but important photos and words.

Oh my oh my. This was quite a whirlwind weekend so I suppose I'll start at the beginning. Friday I had court trials, and both M and my dad came to watch. We had 2 of the most unusual trials we've ever had so it was fun for them to not only see me try a case, but see some quirks as well. Basically one guy was trying to enter motions pro se and bombing, and this other woman was a hilarious ball of sass. All around, a good day in court.

I got done relatively early, and M had the day off, so we decided to go to a nearby restaurant in a shopping district and enjoy happy hour on the patio. His mom got ahold of us and we ended up deciding to go over there for dinner. We had some time to kill though, so we wandered around the shopping area and I found a dress I loved for graduation!

I think it has the perfect amount of sophistication and spunk. :) I asked M if it says "I'm a lawyer!" and he said it did..so that was enough for me.

Saturday we slept in a bit, and then M decided to go golf with his best friend, so I cuddled up with this little guy all morning:

Let me take this time to back up a bit. Earlier in the week M had asked if we had plans Saturday, and I said no, so he said he wanted to go out to dinner at a place we hadn't been before that his coworkers were talking about. I said sure, I love an impromptu date night!

Thursday my brother offered M and I hockey tickets for Saturday night. M reminded me of our date so I turned them down. Saturday rolls around and before he leaves for golf he's telling me he has to call to see about reservations because the last time he tried they were "full"... he then leaves the room to make a phone call, comes back, and says he got them for 5:30. I thought "well what the hell, we totally could've made it to the hockey game at 7..." but didn't say anything.

I start getting ready for dinner, and after he told me he was wearing a button down and nice jeans, I decided that was a green light for me to dress up a bit. So I curled my hair, and wore the same dress I wore to law school prom the weekend before, and put on some "fancy" makeup (aka more than just mascara and eyeliner). Before leaving M told me to "grab my camera" because there was a statue in front of the restaurant that people like to take pictures in front of. I thought this was strange because a) I ALWAYS have my camera on me and b) my phone (my nice new phone) has a pretty solid camera and lastly c) he's a boy, and boys never make it a point to direct girls to bring cameras places.

So we hop in the car and head downtown.. M's picking at his nails a bit in the car but this really isn't anything new. We get off a particular exit and my spidey senses are piqued even more because we start heading towards the part of downtown where we first met. (I then also recall that it was 2 years ago on Easter that I first told him I loved him and he said it back...) We take a left in front of The Depot- the indoor ice rink where we went on our first date. I see a restaurant with 2 huge fat naked man statues and said "Oh! are we going there?!"...."nope." he says. We pull around the corner and park at a meter, at which point I ask where we're going. He said, "I parked here so you can't see the restaurant." Well, I thought, that eliminates the other possible place I thought we were going, and as we round the corner and he stops me in front of The Depot it was like I was in a soundproof booth and everything was in slow motion. He points down at the sidewalk kitty corner from The Depot and asks, "do you know what this spot is?"... At this point I have the following thoughts, OMG he's about to propose but OMG if he doesn't and I just burst into tears I'm going to look like a LUNATIC, so I do what comes naturally to me: start babbling INCOHERENTLY. I LITERALLY looked down at the "spot" he pointed to and I said "umm, that's a dead worm?" (pointing to the next slab over, yes, I'm that smooth), and he replies, "this is the first place I saw you. I parked over there and it was when I was standing right here I saw you walk into the Depot in your white coat for our first date"....

again, true to form, I start rambling about how I parked over at the ramp across the street and couldn't find the front door, and blah blah blah, and finally he just gives up trying to say anything, drops to one knee, and whips out the ring box, and I'm in tears. I think I squeaked out "omg" and "Yeeeee" (which must've meant yes, because I don't think I actually ever said 'yes'..") and I vaguely recall him asking "will you marry me.".... I had so many visions of how that moment would go, and I sort of wish I'd shut up and let him talk and let it feel more sentimental but it was as if a bumbling idiot had taken over my body and I had no control over myself. I also imagined my reaction being way more dramatic (falling to the ground, sobbing incoherently, etc.) and I was a bit surprised by my reaction. Not disappointed, just surprised. Anyway, the way it actually went down was true-blue-US.

SO, after 4 minutes of freaking out, strangers on the street congratulating us, we round the corner to go to the car (at which point he tells me there is no dinner downtown and we were going to eat at the place we had our 2nd date) and there's a meter-maid writing him a ticket. We couldn't have been there more than 5 minutes. M tried to get him to stop/not issue it but he claimed it was already in the system..He asked the dude to cut him a break because he'd just proposed, and I could tell the guy was agonizing over it, but it was "too late".. at which point M told him "oh, okay. you're really going to do this? this makes you a bad person. what's your name? okay thanks." and gets in the car. I couldn't help but laugh because those 5 minutes summed us up in a nutshell: I'm an awkward, anxious, bumbling person, and M is the guy who can go from calm and composed to an unparalleled level of "annoyed" at people in no time at all. We laughed, he realized he probably was a bit hard on the dude, and said "well, at least we have a time, date, and location stamped piece of paper of when we got engaged!?" SO we're going to try to pay the ticket online and frame it. Makes for a good story, right??

After the engagement, we went to dinner and both were so anxious to go tell people that I barely ate my salad, M wolfed down his meal, and it felt like we were only there for 10 minutes. Not before getting the man at dinner to take our picture (which is still on my camera). I'm sure it was longer. We zipped over to my parents, having just missed my brother (who was going to the hockey game M turned down... NOW it was all making sense!) and surprised them. I didn't say anything, instead I just pulled my hand up in front of my face. My dad and mom both said variations of "oh wow! congrats!" and gave us hugs.. my mom cried, and then we proceeded to have a beer with my dad and call/text everybody else. My best friend Tori's parents were in the area and my dad called them and told them to stop over for some "news".. the minute Tori's mom saw me she said "show me your left hand.".... I guess I'm transparent? haha.

I had always wanted to tell SOME of my "important people" in person first, if possible, so I texted my good friend Leah and asked if she was home. I played it off like I just wanted to see her cats/her and chat since we were in the area. I walked up to her apartment and she asked where we went to dinner. I figured if I told her where she'd know what happened and I wanted to wait until we were upstairs, but I kind of fumbled on where we were and she finally just says, "show me your hand. now." so I pull it out and she's spitting out, "omg. is that real? omg. shut up. OH wow. okay, OH that's for real!?" and I'm cracking up. M hadn't even locked the car yet. So we went upstairs and told her the whole story.

After a long, happy, exhausting day, we crashed hard. This morning we headed to my parents for easter mass where my dad took inordinate amounts of joy out of telling everybody he knew at mass. We stopped back at the house and played with Squish (above- those are my brothers hands, haha) before we headed to my dad's friend's house for Easter brunch at 1:00. My mom's entire family was meeting at 11:30 at my Grandma's, and while the 2 houses are about 45 minutes apart in opposite directions, we really wanted to go over and surprise everyone to tell them. None of them knew we were coming, so when we walked in they all looked a bit confused. They said "we thought you were going to your dad's friend's house?" and I told them "oh we are, but we wanted to come share some news with you guys" and flashed the ring.

There was a collective "OMG, AHHH! CONGRATS!" from the group, and M and I sat down for a mini-brunch (we were starving and I'd had coffee on an empty stomach... combine that with my nerves and I was a hot mess) and told them the story too. My grandma rustled up a bottle of champagne so...

we had a champagne toast to celebrate.

and my uncle Michael made a speech. I'm so unbelievably happy we got to go over and surprise them and share that moment with them all at once. It just so happened one of our special historical moments was a holiday so I'm even more glad M chose to do it around that time again so my family was able to be together.

The rest of the day was spent at my dad's friend's house, and then over at M's mom's, where we showed off the ring and had dessert and coffee. Finally sitting on the couch in sweats with the kitty and M relaxing. I'm anxious but excited to start the week, as no doubt I'll have some more storytelling to be doing. It's still SO surreal. I'll be sitting in normal conversation throughout the day and then wonder "why does 'normal' feel weird? why do I feel so excited?" and glance down and see the shiny rock on my finger and think "OMG that happened. that's real." 'Normal' feels weird because I want to run around SCREAMING 75% of the time" and there's a constant undertone of me beaming with excitement.

SO I suppose some of this space will be dedicated to wedding planning from here on out!? (OMG. wedding planning. wow.)

Hope you had a good Easter weekend as well :)

-Kelly

a day in the life

Sometimes I wonder why the neighbors don't really talk to me, and they all chat up M. Then I stop and think about all the times I've busted out some strange dance moves, hopped around, squealed, or otherwise talked in our "lolcat" language while they may have been within earshot. (if you're not versed in lolcat, please see this website). basically it's a bunch of weirdos who send in photos of cats (and other animals) and post captions in this strange language. M and I are kind of losers and kind of love it.

Anyway, this got me thinking a few minutes ago as I got this email from M, if the neighbors only they knew.. M is no better than me. In fact, he's an instigator! Behold:

Sorry for the crappy photo, and the redacted portions, but this was an email exchange I just had with M. I told him it was rude that he commented on my recent facebook photo of the cat that the cat views me as his prey (which is true, and which is why he stalks me around the house sometimes and pounces on me). He said "iz not rude, iz da troof" that translates to "that's not rude, it's the truth"... see how this works?? and that's my pending reply in the top of the screen.

I tell ya, when you and your significant other are crazy, lolcat speaking, weirdos...there's never a dull day.

-Kelly

The abbreviated story of "us"

I thought I'd take a break from posting about my compulsive home decorating to sharing the story of "M"...and how we met, since it's a tad untraditional. You remember M, don't you? Here he is!

Where oh where might I have been lucky enough to find such a handsome specimen?

wait for it.....:

That's right, folks. I'm a walking, talking, match.com success story. (still waiting for our commercial deal. srsly. I emailed them like twice. third time's a charm?!)

Let's back it up though and tell the whole story. It was the winter of 2009, November to be exact, (the day before Thanksgiving to be more exact) and I had just been dumped by my ex for the 4th (and final, oof) time. One of my good friends, Leah, was an avid online dater and she suggested prior to the breakup, "If E ever gets stupid and breaks up with you again, you should make a match profile!".... sure, I thought. We'll see. Well, true to form, he did, and not more than 4 days later I did. I created an online profile "just in case" and made it invisible. I wasn't ready to launch myself onto the world. A few days later, after a long evening of studying at school, I said "f&$% it." and I "launched" so to speak.

I had a "free" subscription at the time. That means I could see how many messages I had, but couldn't read them. All I could see were my "winks" (think "poke" function on FB). I created a gmail account with the same name as my match.com name, and tried to sneak language into my profile to get people to email me so I could avoid paying for a subscription. It worked a few times but on the whole people weren't catching on. Then, browsing through my winks, I saw this picture:

Me likey. I browsed the rest of his photos and profile. I liked what I saw: marketing? can transition from suits to jeans flawlessly? Law and Order addict? catholic boy? loves hockey? sign me up! One problem: I couldn't email him since I was still on my free subscription. SO I did what any normal gal would do- cracked for a free 3-day trial, where I sent him my personal email address (as well as 4-5 other guys) and then bailed on Match.

I waited, and waited, and emailed with some people who turned out to be a wee bit creepy (another story all together), and had all but given up on "the one I caved for"... when one day, "Matt _____" popped up in my gmail inbox. My heart stopped. My first thought was, "is this Matthew_____ from Match?" since the names didn't match. ( he had used his middle name on match and his last name was in the email). We emailed back and forth for a few weeks (Dec. 6th to Dec. 29th)... I was only really using my gmail account for "M" emails back then, so I'd log in and wait eagerly as it loaded, desperate to see that little (1) at the top of the page. We arranged to meet on NYE at 1:00 to go ice skating at a local indoor rink. Quite symbolic, to be meeting on the day of the year that "they say" sets the tone for the rest of your year.

The rest is history. He was the first, and last, online date I ever went on. Below is a picture of us on our 1-year anniversary. We made a promise that no matter what we do that night, we'd go ice skating at the same rink we met at on NYE afternoon.

and here we are (below) on our 2-year anniversary skate a few months ago.

Lots has happened in between. We attended our first winter carnival in January 2010 and took our "first photo ever" together (below)...that's us sitting on an ice chair. Brr.

I went to the tiny island nation of Malta for a study abroad for law school in the summer of 2010, and after only 6 months of dating, M flew thousands of miles to see me for a week while I was there. (below) that's us on the island of Gozo at a hotel

[Actually, my trip to Malta was my first real attempt at blogging. I mentioned my travel blog before, which I tried to convert into a "lifestyle blog" and failed. Anyway, here it is, in case you want to read firsthand about my trip to Malta, and M's visit.]

We attended a lot of sporting events those first two years, here are a few of them:

annndddd we attended, and were in, a ridiculous amount of weddings.

(Below) Clockwise from top left

1. guests. M's cousin

2. MOH, and M officiated! (that's right ladies, he's an ordained minister ;-)

3. guests. M's college friends

4. guests. M's college friends

5. guests. my cousin

6. Best man. M's college friends

7. (center) guests. M's college friends
I suppose we're at "that age".... and yes, I chose to put a bunch of pictures that show me (gasp) wearing the same dresses to multiple events! haha. When you have 4-7 weddings a year, like I do, you'd try to get at least 2 uses out of a dress. I'd do it where the weddings were for different groups of people. (so sneaky).

The last 2+ years have been incredible. We've had our ups and downs, but the "relationship" aspect of us as a whole has just come so naturally. There was never any fuss about being "official", there was never any fuss about dropping those 3 little words, and when it came time for M to house shop, there really wasn't much question of how involved I was going to be in the process since we both knew I'd be moving in the same time he did. The only thing that took a LEEETLE bit of convincing was TJ. But seeing M's face when TJ trots over, hops into his lap, and falls asleep tells me that it probably wasn't as tough a battle to convince him as I thought. Sometimes I forget we met on Match.com, until someone asks us..and then I think "oh yeah. that really happened that way, didn't it. ha!"

So, that's the abbreviated story of 'us' ... :-)

-Kelly