Rings are all around...

I will start with the latest weather report. Very hot, muggy, humid and no air-conditioning. Oh my, oh my.

Well, as many of you now know (or the two people who read this blog—Mary and Katherine), I am now engaged to Brian. This has brought on a plague of mixed feelings for me, both happy and bitter. It is like déjà vu all over again for me. Maybe some people wouldn’t understand, but I feel as though I am the victim of bad luck or bad timing. I know that I should be really happy, but since this is the second time, it is somewhat different. And though I am excited about the wedding, I really can’t even start planning it until Brian gets a new job, which should be in the fall sometime.

I just had this feeling sometime last week that it would happen. I don’t really know why I felt that way, and I didn’t tell anyone, for fear of being wrong. And then, it just did.

Last summer, a few days after I arrived in Massachusetts, Brian took me on a little trip to Cape Cod. Now, I always had this crazy, outsider notion that Cape Cod was one town, an elitist place swarming with people like Ted Kennedy and Martha Stewart types (her vacation home is in Maine, by the way). But Cape Cod is this huge area, from Falmouth to Provincetown is definitely over 70 miles. It is pretty diverse, too, and attracts all kinds of people, from families to singles to couples, etc. This year and last year we stayed at Nickerson State Park in Brewster, which is in the middle of the cape. We camped, but we are not really hard core campers. I mean, we have a tent and roasted marshmallows, but there were bathrooms about 50 feet away or so from our little area, and grocery stores and restaurants very close. It is just cheaper to camp.

Anyway, we left for the Cape on Saturday morning, June 23rd. The night before, we went to Shrewsbury and ate at Qdoba (yay, I haven’t been there in a long time), and we bought snacks at Trader Ho’s (oops, I mean, Joe’s, ha). We left on Saturday at about 10 and arrived at Sandy Neck Beach before noon. This beach is in Yarmouth, on the harbor side. We like it because the water tends to be warmer here, although the water was very cold this past weekend. After settling in, I took a long walk along the water and then sat down to read when I got back to our chairs. Then, Brian got up and then got down on the sand and said “I have a question for you.” Well, I thought he was going to ask me to take a dip in the ocean with him and I was totally going to say no. But then, he asked if I would marry him and I said, “well, you don’t have a ring,” when he presented one. It was sort of romantic, but I liked that it was all mushy, because frankly, I’m past that now. It was a Brian-type of proposal. I love my ring, too. It’s white gold with a thicker band and a round diamond with a kind of square setting with little diamonds around the diamond beneath it. I will take a picture, soon, I promise!

After that, I started calling my family and I called Abby that day, but I didn’t really tell anyone else until we got back from camping.

After the beach, we went to check into our campsite and then we went to dinner at the Lobster Claw in Orleans, which is the next town over from Brewster. We both had lobster (which was $30 for each dinner, oh my) and clam chowder and oysters; it was a typical Cape meal. Then, we went to Skaket beach and watched the lovely sunset (again, this is a tradition). Then we got a snack to take back to the campsite and set up our tent. It was a little cold that night (in the 50’s) and we tried to snuggle together, but sometimes that doesn’t even work. Plus, we need to get an air mattress because sleeping in the tent on sleeping bags is mostly like sleeping on the floor.

On Sunday, I bought these great bagel sandwiches from Jo Mama’s Bagels in Orleans (mine had an omelet with Muenster cheese, tomatoes and avocados, yum) and then we headed to a beach in Provincetown. Provincetown is at the very tip of the Cape and is a truly interesting place. It felt like we were at the end of the world or something, well, because the road just goes into the ocean there (not really). I actually think that the most eastern part of the U.S. is in Maine. But still, it is cool. We spent the day at Herring Cove Beach and got a lot of sun, perhaps too much. I took a walk on this beach and I wish I had had my camera, for a baby seal beached herself on shore. She was alive and so cute. I think she was injured though, which was sad. Everyone crowded around her and took pictures and she wasn’t scared at all. Later that day at Nauset Beach, we saw another seal, only it was a lot bigger and in the ocean. Anyway, after our day at Herring Cove, we had pizza in Provincetown and drove around for a bit. The town was very European and had really narrow, windy streets and a lot of art galleries. I wish that we could have spent a little more time there. Anyway, then we played some more mini golf at a nicer course (I won this time) and we had some pistachio ice cream. We went to the Nauset beach and then went to the grocery to get s’mores stuff and firewood. Brian had a little trouble starting a long-lasting fire, but he got it together. I love marshmallows and chocolate together.

On our final day, Monday, we had more bagels, and I finished my current book, The Time Traveler’s Wife. Hmmm, very interesting. It was like 540 pages, but it went very quickly. Oh, I also had a gingerbread chai tea from the bagel place, which was amazing! We ended up going back to Sandy Neck Beach on our way out of town; it was a little windy, so we didn’t spend too much time there. We split a late lunch at Friendly’s on our way out of town and then came home. That evening, we picked up Morgan at Gretchen and Andy’s house. She entertained them greatly. Both of his parents were happy that we got engaged.

The three days since we have gotten back have been a bit tedious at work and the weather has been really hot and humid. I think the heat wave will break tonight though, with the oncoming thunderstorms.

We’ve been eating some very interesting food lately and a lot of fish lately, which is great. Brian went to the grocery and we had haddock and asparagus on Tuesday and then we had filets, asparagus, and salad last night. I’ve also been eating hummus, alfalfa, and tomato sandwiches on wheat for lunch. Very good. However, I’ve been bad about working out lately.

I’ve started to look at some bride’s magazines. Now, planning a wedding is fun, even the first time was that way. Abby is my maid of honor and my sister-in-law, Sarah, is a bridesmaid, but I may ask a few more people later. Or I may not. I probably won’t even make them buy special dresses. I want to have cupcakes instead of a cake, possibly with big flowers on them. Also, I want a simple dress, and nothing with a train. Those are pretty much all the decisions I have made. And no meatballs whatsoever!! Have I made myself clear? Ha.

Well, no plans for the weekend, but that could change.

It's cold....

The weather has been so crazy here lately. It either rains or is really cloudy and cool. I mean, yesterday it was 55 degrees out for most of the day and cloudy. What the heck is going on?

I shouldn’t complain so much…so stop. Work has been slow; that is why I’m writing my blog on a word document at work. To pass the time and express the inner voice of my soul.

Last week, I went to see the movie “Knocked Up” and it really made me think about stuff, my life, etc. The movie was really funny though, and I loved Seth Rogen! He was cute and reminded me of Brian, in both good and bad ways. I feel like Brian is kind of irresponsible in many ways, and although I am very responsible most of the time, that just doesn’t cut it all the time. But Brian is very nice and never says an unkind word, and the main character is pretty much like that. I really want to have a family and everything, and I worry that I don’t have a good partner for that, who will contribute equally to the responsibility of raising a child or even two. I guess eventually, he will grow up, but he is already thirty, so…that is the reality of our situation. In conclusion, for me, the movie went way deeper than it was supposed to and it hit really close to home.

I’ve also been thinking a lot about my own health lately and picked up this book that my brother bought about a year ago called You are what You Eat by Dr. Gillian McKeith. It is really good because it tells you about different foods and how they will help you solve certain target issues, like bowel problems, skincare, etc. Although, it is very hard to accomplish all the things she recommends, because no one is perfect. In a single day, I can’t eat all the veggies and proteins and fruits that I am supposed to, and never can I ingest all the vitamins and minerals that I need to be healthy. But at least I can try. Another thing—good quality, healthy food is really expensive. Unhealthy food seems to always be cheaper. Plus, I am no gourmand, so cooking healthy food is not always simple either.

This weekend was okay. On Saturday, we didn’t do too much during the day because it rained. However, on Saturday night, we drove to New Haven, Connecticut, to see a free concert in a park in the middle of the city. The concert was a compilation of music from Spike Lee’s films, which were scored by Terrence Blanchard, Brian’s favorite trumpet player. Spike Lee was even there to introduce the show! Terrence, his quintet, and a small orchestra played the music from Inside Man, Malcolm X, When the Levees Broke ( a documentary about Hurricane Katrina), and other movies. It was really good and Terrence was amazing. Thankfully, it didn’t really rain or anything, but it was pretty cool outside. Prior to the concert, we stopped at Panera bread (yum) for dinner and Dick’s sporting goods to get new chairs for the concert and the beach next week (yay) as well as a new lantern. By the way, New Haven seemed like a nice place; there were a few rough spots, but for the most part, it was pretty and Yale University is there as well. We went into a cigar bar before the concert and met a nice couple from the area. It was the first time in a long time I’ve been into a bar where people were allowed to smoke. It wasn’t the best for me.

We were supposed to go to the aquarium in Boston on Sunday, but I was really irritated because the Riverside T-station, which we always use, is being repaired every weekend until the end of the summer. We could have taken a bus there, but I didn’t really want to, so we left and went to like the worst miniature golf course ever, but it was still fun. The course had all this gross water around that had tadpoles and algae in it and broken boards were all over the place. Brian didn’t have too much respect for the place and urinated by one of the holes. Yeah, I know…nice. Then we had a big lunch/dinner/lunner thing at Fireflys, this barbeque restaurant (not as good as KY barbeque; I love Mark’s feed store). A few hours later, I walked to Dairy Queen (it’s not very far at all) and got a chocolate cone with butterscotch. It was great.

Top Chef’s third season started last night. Of course, the local yokel from Mississippi was sent home first. He spoke with a really bad accent and talked about whiskey and he probably was smoking. Jerk. It makes me so indignant because they picked some southern trashy person with an awful accent to represent that state. I know plenty of intelligent folks in Mississippi and I mean it! This guy really misrepresented the state. The same thing happens to Kentucky all the time. We’re just the dumb, slow people who say y’all a lot, drink too much sweetened ice tea, and are obviously racist and ignorant. I’m really tired of that image.

I can’t wait for the beach next weekend; I just hope it is sunny and I that I don’t get a sunburn.

Thunder, thunder on the mountain...

I'm trying to mellow out by reading my book, "Love in the Time of Cholera," and listening to some mellow tunes by the likes of Sting, My Morning Jacket, and U2. I've also been thinking about my time in the desert and how nice it really was. Today, my parents are in New Mexico and I want to be there.

The aforementioned book is magical and thoroughly romantic, as well as funny. It is about the undying love of a man, Florentino Ariza, for a woman, Fermina Daza, in Columbia over a period of fifty years. The book really has that quality of escapism, which I absolutely love. I highly recommend it.

There's a raincloud in the desert sky...

I guess today would be as good as any to talk about my trip to beautiful Arizona. I left Boston Logan airport at two in the afternoon on May 23rd. Flying out of Logan wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, especially since I rode there via the Logan Express bus from Framingham. The security lines were long and alas, many people still didn't get the whole "liquid restriction" issue and had their expensive hand creams, lotions, and other cosmetics thrown in the garbage. Get a clue, people. If you're going to fly, read up on airport security issues. In fact, one of the security folks asked if they could use my quart-sized plastic bag with cosmetics in it as an example to the other passengers. I felt responsible!

After a very short layover in Hotlanta (thankfully, the guy with TB wasn't flying that day, otherwise, we would really have been in the "hot zone"), I flew to Phoenix. I arrived about twenty minutes early and Abby was waiting for me in the baggage area. Very sweet of her. We drove to Scottsdale and saw the valley of Phoenix at twilight. I had no idea all these beautiful mountains surrounded the area. As Arizona is on Pacific time during daylight savings time (they actually don't observe daylight savings, so they are on Mountain time in the other months of the year), I was pretty tired by the time I arrived in Arizona. So, we just ate some chicken and some great guacamole that Abby made. Abby works in a health food store, and she has a penchant for the best quality foods, which I have no obection to either. On Thursday, we got ready to drive up to the Grand Canyon (it's four hours north of Phoenix), but were delayed a little bit by her roommates, who were packing. However, that was fine and we got on the road at about one. The ride to the canyon was great; we were steadily climbing in elevation and heading up through the mountains. We stopped for a picnic lunch south of Flagstaff and proceeded on our way. I have to say that there is almost nothing on the way to the Grand Canyon. At least from between Flagstaff or Williams and the canyon. We took a very lonely road up to the National Park on the East side (this is the lesser road taken) and once we got to the park, we still had to drive twenty-five miles to the Grand Canyon Village, where our hotel was located. Our first sight of the canyon was great! We took two cars there and we immediately stopped and got out of the cars, and took several pictures. We checked into our hotel, the Yavapai west lodge, and then tried to catch the sunset over the canyon. It was getting dark, but it was still beautiful. No words or pictures can really describe the experience of the Grand Canyon; one just really has to go!

We had kind of an expensive dinner at the lodge afterwards and then went to bed. Abby's roommates, Tsahai and Richard, got up early to watch the sunrise, but Abs and I were much too tired. I kind of regret this because I heard later that it was absolutely amazing. However, we did start our day kind of early, we had breakfast again at the lodge, and then went on our merry way around the canyon. We walked a "Trail of time" which I didn't really understand other than that there were these markers going back in time many, many millions of year ago. We ended up walking to the larger part of the Grand Canyon village, where the El Tovar hotel is located as well as the Bright Angel Lodge. There was also a trail heading down to the canyon where people and mules can navigate. There is a famous mule trail ride that occurs everyday here; that really would have been fun, but the recommendation is that you book this journey one year in advance (wow!). I was wearing a v-neck t-shirt and got a little sunburned on my neck. I wore ample sunscreen on my face and arms, so otherwise I was fine.

Abby and I left the canyon between 2 and 3 and headed to the beautiful town of Sedona, which is south of Flagstaff. Again, it was kind of lonely road on the way there, but we did go through a beautiful area called Snowbowl, AZ, where there are several ski resorts, I believe. The drive from Flagstaff to Sedona was so gorgeous and almost didn't seem like Arizona, more like Colorado. It made me realize how diverse the landscape of the state really is. Sedona is the home of these beautiful red rock formations. Several western movies have been filmed here. We found a nice Mexican restaurant called the Oaxaca (apparently, it's a cheese as well) and ate on the second floor, which had open air seating. We walked around the town a little bit and took some more pictures. On our way back to Phoenix (or Phoenie, inside joke), we drove three miles out of the way to see the only Mcdonald's with turquoise arches. Apparently, the golden arches would have clashed with the scenery. Haha.

On Saturday, Abby and I drove to Old Town Scottsdale and walked around the area, which had lots of cute shops and restaurants. We ate at this Mexican/Cuban fusion restaurant, which was great. We had gelato for dessert at this great place, too. I had pistachio and Abby had mint chocolate chip. To me, gelato is way better than regular ice cream. It's less airy and less fattening, too. Of course, we went to a mall in Scottsdale, too. I bought some makeup at Sephora and Abby got some cool green flip-flops at J.Crew. Since Abby had to work overnight doing inventory at Wild Oats (where she is the supervisor and top conoisseur of the cheese counter), we got a pizza for dinner. While Abby was at work, I watched "Forrest Gump" (love that movie and Alan Silvestri's music; he also composed for "Back to the Future") and then went to sleep. I had a hard time sleeping because Abby wasn't back by 4 am from work and I was worried about her. The inventory took longer than she expected and she didn't get home until 11 am. We were supposed to go to a Diamondbacks game but that didn't really work out, however, this was fine. We were both really, really tired. I took a short walk around the neighborhood (because it was so hot, it was not that easy to be outside for a long time) and then Abby and I got ready to go out again. We drove down to this exclusive hotel/resort called the Biltmore and surveyed the area. Every U.S. president has stayed here since Herbert Hoover. Pres. Bush has stayed there thrice; our tax dollars are working hard for him. They had an amazing pool, complete with a movie screen, and I really wanted to go swimming! The hotel also had a life-sized chess board (and checkers) and a croquet set. We drove to downtown Phoenix and then to Tempe for dinner, where we ate at a Greek restaurant called "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" and then we had more gelato!! My flight left at 11:45 pm, so Abby dropped me off at the airport and I was on my way back to Boston. Abby was a great host and I want to thank her so much for everything!

I really began to appreciate the western United States on my trip. Arizona is amazing and it seems like a great place to live.

I didn't arrive back in Boston until noon on Memorial Day and I hadn't gotten much sleep at all, so I was very cranky when I got back home. Sorry, Brian! That night, we had a small cookout at Gretchen and Andy's. I brought them a magnet and some grapefruits from the tree in Abby's backyard.

Work has been fine since I've been back in Massachusetts. On Thursday, I got a good review for my first month and a half, so that made me feel somewhat accomplished.

Wednesday night, we went to the Red Sox game and I made a sign in Japanese for Daisuke Matsuzaka, the new pitcher this year. We weren't on TV and the Sox didn't end up winning, but it was still really fun. It's very hard to get tickets to Fenway Park, because it's the smallest baseball stadium in the MLB, so when you do get tickets (any tickets), it's really great.

The weekend has been alright. On Friday, I went to Trader Joe's and bought some yummy food, including more gelato (this time, tiramisu). BTW, does anyone know of a good gelato place in the Boston suburbs? Obviously, there are some in Boston, including in the North End, but I don't really know of any in the Metrowest area. I also bought one of their grocery bags, which is really cute and of course, environmentally friendly. Lately, I have been thinking a lot about caring more for the environment and for myself. It seems that there is a correlation in Arizona between their beautiful environment and their appreciation of it and of salubrious living. I feel like out here on the East Coast, we are not as conscious of it (plus, it is so congested here), and in the midwest, it is even worse. I don't even have a recycling option here in Marlborough, and that makes me feel guilty a lot.

Anyway, yesterday I worked in the morning and then Brian and I went to Target in the afternoon and Keith and Sarah's for a lovely grilled cod dinner. I was and am always impressed by their combined efforts in the kitchen. Today has been somewhat of a lazy day. Although, I have been to the gym for the first time since I got back to Mass. Right now, I'm watching a marathon of Top Chef season one. Tonight, we are going to Framingham for Chinese food. Yay!