Well, it’s been a really long time since I’ve posted anything. And in this time of massive positive change in the world (President Obama!), what could have possibly compelled me to write something?…
The fact that I made gnocchi last night with Hannah and Ali :)
The food was super delicious, and fully due to the fact that Hannah bought me a foodmill on Friday. I used the recipe from here, if you were curious, and topped it with a delicious pesto cream sauce.
So, this is a little late coming, but my birthday was a couple of weeks ago. The day of my birthday was pretty quiet — I picked up my little one from school and headed up to my mom’s for a quiet little family get-together with my mom, dad, brother, sister and Ali. The night before I had met with Robb do crank out some frames for an animated sequence of one of his short flicks, and afterwards he and I got together with a small group of my closest friends for drinking and good conversation at the Chatterbox in St Paul. That was the night of the second debate, so we had plenty to chat about, and it seemed everyone had a good time — I know that I certainly did.
Hannah had told me weeks in advance to save the weekend following my birthday for a big surprise she had planned for me. We had joked about it for a while, with her asking me “what do you think we’re going to do?” and “where do you think we’re going to go?” and me offering up ever more ridiculous locations: “I hear Des Moines is nice this time of year”; “What’s going on in Bismarck?”; “I’ve always wanted to go back to Winnipeg.” At one point, I even suggested she might take me on a staycation to St Paul, since I have a special bond with the city I attended college in, a city Hannah lovingly refers to as “East Minneapolis.”
Little did I know the adventure that was in store for me on Saturday at 2:00. She told me to pack a days worth of clothing, as well as some nicer “out on the town” clothes, and we headed eastward. At this point, I was thinking “well, maybe we’ll go to her dad’s in Afton, or we could even go as far as Madison.” When we exited in St Paul, then it hit me: We really are going to St Paul for my birthday.
Our first stop was Heimie’s Haberdashery, the finest mens’ clothing shop in the metro. I had never been in before, despite having spent a fair amount of time wandering the streets of downtown St Paul, but I had heard great things from Hannah’s dads. Upon entering, I was surprised (but not too surprised) to see Richard, Hannah’s dad there. He and Hannah informed me that we were to be picking out some fancy new clothes for me, which we then proceeded to do. I got placed in a pretty sharp pair of slacks, button down shirt, sweater, sport coat and scarf, a few of which I ended up leaving the store with, the rest staying behind to be tailored to a perfect fit (I have to admit, I look damn sexy in the whole shebang).
After the clothing adventured, we walked the edge of Rice Park to the St Paul Hotel, where Hannah had arranged a fancy suite for us, right in the heart of the city and across the street from Rice Park (the cutest little European-inspired park in the city). We unpacked our bags, watched some TV, ordered some room service, and just hung out and relaxed for a few hours before dinner.
Hannah hadn’t planned dinner (she did try to get us in at Meritage, but it was booked), so I decided on Pazzaluna, an Italian restaurant I’d heard great things about but also never checked out. We got all fancied up and walked outside and across the street for dinner. The drinks at Pazzaluna were superb, and the gnocchi was seriously to die for; it just melted in your mouth (my mouth is watering right now just thinking about it…).
After our amazing and romantic meal, we decided to take an evening stroll around the city. We wandered up and down the river, stopping to chat and kiss and explore the buildings. We eventually made our way back into the downtown, to the area I referred to as the “dimly lit part of St Paul.” Eventually we ended up passing by a little bar called Señor Wong. The bar was new, and I had never heard of it, but since the night was still young and our hotel was within stumbling distance, Hannah suggested we take a peek inside and maybe grab a drink or two.
We got inside, and Hannah seemed to be actively looking for something, but I wrote it off as her being curious. Then it hit me:
“SURPRISE!”
You know that moment when you run into someone, like a business associate or a school acquaintance, but they’re out of context, like at a grocery store or a Death Cab for Cutie concert? That was the experience that I had seeing my family in this bar I had never heard of, in a city they rarely come to, at 9:00 in the evening. When it hit me that I was actually looking at my family and friends, and yes, Hannah had indeed arranged this whole thing far in advance, and had thrown my the first surprise party in my 28 years on this earth, I was blown away. Hannah had even arranged for the bar to mix a special birthday drink for me: a sort of a caipirinha with fresh limeade. My friends and I all drank and chatted and ate and had a great time (watching Michael fail miserably at drunken pool was a particular highlight). Hannah had pulled off the perfect surprise party for me, and given me a birthday day to remember… I’m most definitely the luckiest guy ever to have managed to end up with her.
Thanks, honey… you’ve set quite a bar for me to try to hit for your birthday next month ;)
So much has been happening in my world. So much, in fact, that I haven’t even had time to touch my blog. Here are just a few of the major events for those interested in what I’ve been up to lately:
Well, all in all, I had a pretty great Memorial weekend. Hannah and I spent much time hanging out with our friends — poker Saturday night, dinner party on Sunday. We ended up seeing both Iron Man and Indiana Jones, and made a trip out to the Minneapolis Farmer’s Market, which lead to getting some much needed gardening done at the house. As anyone who happened to talk to me or watch any local news knows, the town I live in got hit by a pretty severe tornado. I wasn’t home, and so had no idea what the state of my place was, but Hannah came up with the brilliant idea of calling the gas station by my house, which let us know that everything was fine. So, all in all, not too bad of a three day weekend :)
For those who have seen the recent status change on Facebook, or who have noticed that I’ve been smiling uncontrollably for the past few weeks — yes, the rumors are indeed true. I am seeing an amazing, intelligent, wonderful, compassionate, empathetic, passionate, deep, introspective, hilarious, perceptive, cute, romantic, extraordinary, cultured, inspiring, attentive, sensual, appreciative, liberal, open-minded, wise, creative, generous soul by the name of Hannah. She is… unbelievable. Really, truly. I have no idea how we found each other, but I am so thankful that we did.
Two things are on my mind right now as I’m getting ready for bed.
First of all, I really need to not be sick. I was sick, and then I got better, and then, literally a day later, I started feeling like crap again. Fricken winter and it’s dry air. I thought I was done, I thought my winter cold was complete… but no. I hope this ends soon, because I feel it moving into my ears and I do not want to spend the next week in a congested fog.
Secondly, I have a book sitting on my shelf, just begging to be finished. I stole Tanya’s copy of As Aventuras de Ngunga, because it was little and in Portuguese and I really need to practice reading real Portuguese sentences. I’m halfway through, and even though it’s small, I’m proud of the fact that I burned through the first half in such a short amount of time, because IT’S NOT IN ENGLISH. Granted, I looked up every 10th word in the dictionary, but I still consider that an achievement. Only 80 pages left… just waiting for me to read them. I need to get on that.
I should really not be typing right now. It’s only 11:00pm, but I’m really tired. About and hour and a half ago, after having watched the latest Reaper episode off iTunes, I promptly went to bed, knowing that Ali would be waking me up near 7:00am tomorrow morning and hoping that I could get some biking in beforehand. Yet, here I am, disrupted from a half-completed journey into a REM cycle, typing on my computer because Tanya needed me to do a favor for her.
She woke me up, and I’m feeling like maybe I should really take this time to type something up on my blog. I don’t really know if there is an A -> B causality relationship there, but my brain managed to find a path to my blog nonetheless.
So, I’m sitting here thinking how my plan for losing weight, which began about a year ago (and 30+ lbs down so far!), had unintended consequences. Sure, I’ve lost weight, and I feel healthier. I knew I’d need to get new clothes, and that’s already been started. But little did I suspect that losing weight would make the winters worse. It’s obvious in hindsight: less fat = less insulation. But damn! Really? This bad? I’m shivering in my room right now, and I’m the guy who used to sleep with the windows open mid-December.
I really should have timed my weight-loss with a move to warmer climates…
It’s been a while since I posted, and as I’m really tired right now but can’t seem to sleep, I’ll give just the quick overview of my world as of late:
I’ve maybe posted something along these lines before, but I feel like I live for the future. Ever since I can remember, I’ve pined for a world where my life had finally worked out. Where I could start living in the moment.
I remember being 10 years old and having been invited to my friend Ryan’s birthday party. It was a co-ed party, which at 10 is a pretty big deal. And I remember the other kids were running around outside, playing tag or something, and all I could do was sit on the front porch of Ryan’s house and think. And wish. And wait. I don’t know what compelled me to do that, or what I thought would happen, but apparently I seemed troubled enough that his mom came out to ask me what was wrong. Some of the other boys had killed some frogs, and she thought maybe that that had made me sad. It bothered me (and thinking back now, that may have been one of the formative experiences in making me a vegetarian), but I was really just waiting for the future. I was hoping that my life would start without my forcing it, that things would just… happen.
And that’s been a trend for me, the trend of just waiting and seeing what the universe throws my way. And you know what? For the most part… it’s worked. There have been so many forces in my life pushing to make me successful. And I am infinitely grateful for that. But deep down, I’m still waiting. I’ve never put the effort forth myself to actively cause something, right up until the beginning of this year when I started exercising and bettering my health and body. It was like I finally realized that I couldn’t wait for some magic event to change my life. This was something that I knew I had to do on my own, and I had to actually and actively work on it. And I feel good about that, because I’ve been getting compliments so I know that it’s obviously working… but I’m still waiting.
I’m trying to reinvent myself, and I feel like this is the year where that’s really started, but I’m also willing to accept that it could take a few years to become the person I always imagined I would be: the person who didn’t wait, but actively did. I’m getting there… I’ll just have to wait a little longer…
I once read that relationships work or don’t because of the little things. Couples learn to work through the big things: children, moving house, loss of a job, even adultery. But it’s how the little things stack up that determines whether a relationship will survive.
Does he consistently neglect to unload the dishwasher? Does she always mess up balancing the checkbook? Does he keep stepping on her feet every time they try to dance? Does she criticize him every time he wears a certain shirt?
They may seem minor, but they add up. Eventually one of those little things triggers a wave of repressed outbursts, an overwhelming surge of overlooking past annoyances and, like a wrecking ball, destroys the carefully constructed wall built up from the memories of what you love about the other person.
Relationships may end with a scream, but they fall with whispers.