Sneaky Valentine Cupcakes

A few weeks before Valentine's Day, a local cupcake vendor had samples at work and a sign-up sheet for people to send "cupcake-grams". I went and partook of the delicious samples and "casually mentioned" the sign-up sheet to my husband. He muttered that he had already been planning to do that and it took away the surprise for me to mention it.

Except that later, he sheepishly admitted that he had then completely forgotten about it until the vendor had left. I found it amusing, not disappointing, so it's all good. I don't really need cupcakes anyway, right?

Then today, Valentine's Day, I got up early, before Forrest, and walked in to work. (It's a 2.3 mile walk and I'm really enjoying the walk, which I've done every day so far this week. But I digress.) Not long after I get in to the office, I get a text from Forrest asking if I could meet him in the lobby of my building. It's our frequent meeting spot to exchange items forgotten, chat in person, or to meet up before going somewhere together, so I didn't think anything of it.

Can you meet me in the PKV lobby?

Kk

Here

ETA?

I got there in a minute, but Forrest wasn't there yet. I was mildly annoyed that he wasn't there already, because he personally hates being made to wait and complains about it. But I was generally in a good mood, so I just did language-learning flashcards on my phone to pass the time.

Valentine cupcakes & ladybug roses

A couple minutes later, Forrest steps out of the elevator. He smiles, hugs & kisses me, and says, "Good morning!" This is unusual. I interpreted this as his Valentine's Day gift to me, and it really did make me happy. I thought he'd taken the time just to come over and say hi and be friendly.

Little did I know.

Forrest goes back to his building and I go back to my desk. As I'm plugging my cell phone back into its charger, I notice a cupcake next to my charger cable! I suddenly realize that his asking me to meet in the lobby was just a ruse to get me away from my desk!

HEY!!!

YOU ARE A SNEAKY SNEAKY PUNK AND I LOVE YOU

(Unless the cupcake in the special cupcake container was sneakily left by a secret admirer, in which case nevermind. ;)))

Omg another!

And a baby one!

=D

My coworkers confirm that some suspicious-looking bearded dude was mucking around my desk. ;)

hrmph

Hehe

Love you

=)

Weight, Todos, Anniversary, and Jambool

The month of September: a summary... I struggled but succeeded in maintaining last month's weight loss, I found a todo app that works for me, and Forrest and I celebrated our 1-year anniversary. See also WE BOUGHT A HOUSE!

LoseIt Weight, 2012-09

Weight: 5 pounds forward, 5 pounds back

I had gotten my weight down to 150 pounds at the start of the month — a weight I haven't been since last year! But then I had trouble not reverting back to my old eating habits while I spent a good chunk of the month visiting with friends in Seattle, so I regained a couple of pounds. I reapplied myself and eventually re-lost the pounds by the end of the month. So it goes.

Getting Things Done

I tried out several todo list apps. They're all very similar, but often missing one key feature or another. I eventually settled on OmniFocus (despite the hefty! price tag) on a personal recommendation. It's awesome! Instead of putting of chores that I know I should do but never feel like, my todo app "makes" me do them. Rent was zero days late! My bathroom countertop is clean! I followed up with terrible, I-really-want-to-avoid places like the DMV! It's been pretty awesome, really.

It works well for me because A) it syncs on both my Mac laptop and my iPhone (if I had non-Mac machines that I used regularly, OmniFocus wouldn't be the right choice), and B) it allows for infinitely nested projects with a rich set of recurring options (which appeals to the OCD in me).

It's not without its faults, but overall I'm glad I bought the licenses for the Mac and iPhone versions of the software.

Our 1-year anniversary

We took two days off work to have a long weekend together to celebrate our 1-year anniversary. It was very nice and relaxing. We had a fun time walking around downtown, strolling through Pike Place Market, etc. Oh, and we also spent the afternoon at the 40th-floor Starbucks, finishing up our wedding thank you cards. :/ But the etiquette rules all agree, we had until one year after the wedding. Perhaps the rules didn't mean it quite so literally, but there you have it. ;)

For the evening of the anniversary itself, we went out to a fancy steakhouse in Seattle, the Metropolitan Grill — best steaks I've ever had. They did not disappoint.

Jambool reunion dinner

Jambool reunion dinner

Near the end of the month, all the ex-Jambool folks got together in San Francisco for a 2-year post-acquisition reunion dinner. It was great to see everyone again and catch up.

Weddings Are Just Special Dinner Parties, No?

I spent some time at Barnes & Noble yesterday, looking at wedding-planning books. I've concluded that I must be a bad female, because I just don't get a lot of what goes into the "traditional" expensive wedding and all its assorted related parties.

bridesmaids, maid of honor

What does a bridesmaid do? What does the maid of honor do that's distinct from that?

groomsmen, best man

Ditto the bridesmaids question, but for the guys. And what if all but one of the single guys are also my close friends?

rehearsal dinner

If you go through the whole thing as practice run, doesn't that make the wedding itself feel like "hey, we've done this before"?

bachelor and bachelorette parties

We're supposed to celebrate our soon-to-be-gone life as singles, "one last hurrah" before we're no longer single. But... what if we've been living together for 4 years now — I haven't been single in a long time, as far as I'm concerned. And pretty much all our friends our mutual, and male. I would feel pretty left out if Forrest went out partying with all my friends but I wasn't invited, especially since I have like one close female friend so I couldn't even do "my own" party.

escort card tree

...the hell? Never even heard of such a thing until today.

wedding favors, invitations

I have to agree with a lot of websites on this one: Who actually keeps these things? Maybe the mothers and grandparents of the bride and groom. But I'd be surprised if my friends, cousins, etc are really going to hang on to a wedding favor or invitation for any reason but guilt over throwing it away.

bridal shower

What goes on at such things? And why are there no "groom showers"? Men so need more showers than women do. ;)

The more I look at books and web pages about wedding planning, the more it seems like the reception is just a big dinner party shindig. With pretty dresses and candles. But still, basically a dinner party. If our wedding party is only 25-30 people, I don't really get how this is so much more of a big deal to plan compared to, say Christmas dinner. I am wrong?

Engagement Rings

Engagement Ring

So I don't like the traditional diamond solitaire engagement ring. I never have. On a practical level, the stone gets caught on things ("Oh noes, my favorite sweater!") and likes to twist off-center, and I hate my rings off-center. Just one of those things. On an emotional level, having a big rock on my finger would feel gaudy — it doesn't fit my aesthetic tastes, nor do I feel any need to flaunt dollar signs on my finger, y'know?

Forrest and I went to Green Lake Jewelery Works (which is apparently some big-name custom shop, not just our little local shop, go figure) to talk with the jewelers there about how much custom rings would cost. Since we're holding off the wedding date itself primarily for financial reasons, we wanted to ask about designs that would allow us a simple engagement ring now that could then be combined* into a more expensive custom wedding ring later.

We came up with a design that we really like: a subtle two-tone band, with engravings across the ring, like combining these two rings (plus tiny inset gems on mine). This design even allows for wearing plain bands that later become the final ring.

Unfortunately, the plain bands weren't going to be in our immediate price range (although the final price the custom wedding rings is okay, I think). We decided that, if we can't get the engagement-ring-that-becomes-the-wedding-ring thing working for us right now, we might as well keep the engagement rings super simple and inexpensive. After all, we're only wearing the engagement rings for a small amount of time; it makes more sense (to us) to splurge on the the custom wedding rings instead, since those are the rings we'll be wearing for the rest of our lives. (Omg! I'm getting married!! Sometimes it just hits me, like this thing is real, y'know? Hehe...)

Anyway. We've been wearing these plain silver bands on our right hands since 2007, when we were long-distance for the year that I had moved to Seattle but Forrest still had a couple quarters of college left to finish. Forrest suggested that we just use those rings as the engagement rings, then "upgrade" to the custom wedding rings when we get married. Sounds like a brilliant idea to me! The only problem is that, while Forrest's ring fits on his left-hand ring finger, mine was too big. So I went back to Something Silver (where we originally got the rings) and bought myself a size 4 silver ring to wear on the correct finger.

So now I'm properly engaged and ring-ified! It's really pretty awesome. :)

* I don't like the tradition of wearing both the engagement and wedding rings after the wedding. I want just one ring on my finger, and ideally I'd like the engagement ring to become the wedding ring. Alas, that's not happening, but it's not really a big deal.

Wedding Cheesecake

Forrest and I just had the following IM conversation:

Me: some book suggests wedding cheesecake
Forrest: ooooooooooooh
Forrest: i looooooove you
Me: but that would clearly be a bad idea
Me: because I'd find you hiding in the kitchen even before the ceremony, bloated from eating allllll the cheesecake, and you'll just burp instead of saying "I do," and that's not so romantic ;)

Engaged!

Forrest and I have been dating for four and a half years now. We've discussed marriage off and on for the past two or three of those years, but we never made anything official.

The surgery helped clarify some things for us, like how the things we disagree on are so petty in the face of the big things that matter to us. When I really needed Forrest, he was right there for me, taking care of me, making sure I was okay, worrying for me, and sometimes just holding my hand to comfort me. He has just the right amount of seriousness and playfulness, emotion and strength. I was so grateful that I didn't have to go through that long night of my gallstone attack alone, nor have to make the decision to do emergency surgery alone and scared.

In so many ways, we're on the same wavelength. We talked a lot after the surgery, especially today when we had some time to ourselves. (My mom has been staying with us this week to help take care of me. She's been awesomely helpful, but it has also meant less private time for us to discuss what we're going through.)

We've definitely talked about marriage and long-term life goals before — quite a lot, in fact — so this isn't some rash decision rushed into just because of the surgery. But the surgery, for me, did stir up some strong emotions and opened up the conversation again between us. So when we were talking more tonight (at the bookstore, where else?), it just seemed right to ask Forrest if he would marry me. He said yes.

:) :D :) Omg!! ;)

We have no date set — we want to pay of credit cards and rebuild our emergency fund first. But we've been together for more than four years now; I don't think either of us is going anywhere. And that, really, is why it seems right that we're getting married: it's what we've practically been doing anyway. We want each other in our lives in the future, indefinitely. So let's make it official already! :)