And so it begins...

Well, I'm engaged. Yay me! And so begins using this blog as a way to voice my worries, concerns, and other random ramblings associated with planning a wedding. I'm sorry to my imaginary friends. I had originally started this blog just to ramble. Now, I seem to have a purpose for it. Crap.

I'll start by telling you, my imaginary friends (or IFs for short) how it happened. I wasn't expecting it. Not at all. I thought I had just gotten the boyfriend to agree to move in together at some point this year. I considered that a major victory and maybe in 6 months or a year I could start hinting at my true feelings, that I want to marry him. Never doubt that; I want to marry him and come home to him every day and share everything with him. I realized that he was the one I was willing to and wanting to spend the rest of my life with a while ago. Ok, now I'm rambling again...

So how it happened...It was New Years Day...not Eve. We had spent NYE hanging out at his house, he had just gotten back from visiting his parents and was tired. We just watched TV and took mini-naps until we decided we were hungry and grabbed some pizza before heading to a friend's little get together. It was a great time. On new years day, we decided to have a nice meal together, since we didn't get to spend Christmas together and pizza on NYE was silly. We grabbed a lobster (we could only find one) some oysters, champagne, a very nice fillet of cod and spinach. We love to cook, so we made the lobster and fried a few of the oysters of questionable quality and had that along with the good raw oysters for an app. Later we baked the cod with a mustard and panko bread crumb combo we enjoy and served that with spinach and couscous. I popped the champagne (one of my favorite things to do) and we had a very filling meal. After we were cuddling on the couch, with a fire going in the fireplace and listening to the radio. He moved to the floor, going on one or both knees, grabbed something out of the drawer in the end table and handed me a little box. I thought it was earrings. (He hadn't given me my Christmas present yet). It was a very beautiful ring (that boy has really nice taste in jewelry). He said 'I think we should get married' (he does not have a way with words). I said yes and then asked 'really?' about a hundred times. I didn't believe it. I was shocked into crying. Not the deep breath can't breathe crying but the eyes just leaking type of crying.

It was great. I don't remember what was playing on the radio. He does...the end of Styx's 'Come sail away.' How romantic, but since we were listening to Alice Cooper's radio show, it could of been worse and it is a fun song to sing along too.

So there my IFs...is the beginning of this little journey. I'll be back with other rambles and useless words later. TTFN

The mom purse

I am not a mom, but this past weekend my boyfriend managed, with one simple act, to turn my purse into a 'mom purse.'

We all know what a mom purse is. It's the most real world application to a bag of holding we may ever see. How our moms and our friends who are moms got that much...stuff...into a purse was always a mystery and why...

After babysitting for many years, I now know why; because you never know. You never know when you are going to need a swimmie diaper in the dead of winter. You never know when you are going to need six extra sets of keys. You never know when you will need those double A batteries. You just never know.

My best friend is always prepared. I have used that swimmie diaper in the dead of winter. To tire out an active toddler at the hotel in our neighborhood. In fact, the purse was prepared and I wasn't; I had to run back to my apartment and get my swimsuit, but the kid and purse were prepared. And those double A batteries, are really handy when a new toy is purchased or given as a gift and those big eyes look up at you and ask you to 'fix it'. My best friend is a great mom with great kids, who know that in their mom's purse is everything they may need to survive (sippy cups and granola bars, along with the iphone that has their favorite games)

My mom had all these keys. I still don't know what they are for. She says she does, but sometimes I think she just guesses. She does have fingernail clippers, business cards of businesses in another city (car shops, jewelers, furniture stores, etc.), gum and a small screwdriver set. She would always clean her purse out after a long trip (usually once a month). I would watch as all the garbage that had accumulated, from my sister and I (sorry mom), was tossed. Then I would watch her put everything back in after some thought of 'do I really need this.' The answer would usually be 'yes' and soon everything was neatly packed away. Neat and tidy until the next time my sister or I needed those fingernail clippers, or the screwdriver set to tighten the screws on our glasses.

Back to this past weekend. We were going out for an afternoon play and then dinner afterward. I wasn't even carrying a very big purse. Just large enough for my little change purse I use as a wallet, my phone, my T pass (subway card), and a bottle of water. Yes, I was carrying a bottle of water, it was hot and muggy out and I can get cranky if I don't have anything to drink. We got to the play and they had food. Yay! After munching on this afternoon snack, he turned my cute little stylish purse into the mom purse. He took the extra napkins and put them in my purse. There was room, but really? He didn't want to throw them away and since we were on a bench and not at a table, just leaving them there was not an option in his mind. So throughout the play and dinner afterward (playbill now in purse as well), I had a mini-stack of napkins in my purse. I laughed and joked with him about what he did, but frankly if he does this again...I'm gonna need a bigger purse.