An unexpected twist

So a few days after Swing met my parents, I got to meet his family…

His whole family…

At the hospital, after his father passed away unexpectedly.

It definitely wasn’t the most ideal way to meet his family, but they were all so very sweet and everyone mentioned how happy they were that he had me to take care of him.  They also said how nice it was to have him “back” since he had been so unhappy for so long – I guess I brought his smile back.  I overheard him telling several relatives how happy he was that we found each other and that he has a whole new life now.

The memorial service was yesterday.  I knew that would be hard – and it was.  It was hard seeing someone I love be so sad.  But it was also hard because I’m a crier (a big blubber would probably be a more accurate description).  If I see someone crying, I cry.  If I hear emotion in someone’s voice or hear them choke up on their words, I cry.  Even when I see really strong emotion (even when it’s happy), I cry.  Yes, I even cry when they crown a Miss America because of all the emotion that you see – yep, I’m just a big blubber.  The funny thing about me is that I know that I shouldn’t be crying at things, which can sometimes make me laugh.  So imagine me crying and laughing at the same time – boy I’m a mess, huh? 

So, being a big crying/laughing blubber, the simple act of attending a memorial service is not easy for me.  I took LOTS of tissues because I knew I would need them.  Plus, I did give Swing the head’s up that I would cry because that’s just what I do.  At one point towards the end, I started to cry (again) and he looked at me to ask if I was OK.  I started to laugh a bit because I knew how silly it was for me to be crying (again) and he started laughing too.  He said that I could always make him laugh… It was a very sweet moment.

We spent the whole day after the service (which was beautiful, by the way) with the family.  I fit right in so it felt really good that I was there.  We’re heading down today again for a while to visit with relatives who had come in from their hometown, so it will be a more casual get together.

This whole experience has really brought us closer in a very, very good way.  I know it was a hard way to start out 2012, but I look forward to the happy times that the rest of this year will bring. :)

Meeting the ‘rents

Since Swing and I had been going strong for over a month now, I knew eventually I would have to take that big step and introduce him to my parents.  I wasn’t sure how or when I would do it, but it was getting to the point where it felt like the appropriate time to do it.  Then, the other day, my mom called me to tell that the city’s annual art festival was happening on Saturday and she wanted to know if I wanted to meet them there.  This was perfect – a nice casual way for them to meet Swing.  We would all meet at the farmer’s market and then walk over to the art show.

It was a bit of a chilly morning… according to the Weather Channel app, it said mid-60’s, so I grabbed a denim jacket and off we went to grab some breakfast before the art show.  We ate, and by the time we walked out of the restaurant, I swear it was like 20 degrees colder than it was when we walked in. I was beginning to doubt my choice of a denim jacket (mind you, I have several San Francisco-appropriate jackets and sweaters, but I didn’t choose any of those). We got to the farmer’s market and I texted my mom to see where they were.  I was standing there shivering in my denim jacket so Swing took off his jacket to give to me and he went back to the car to get himself a sweatshirt that he had in there (awww, he’s so sweet).

Now, yes, I was shivering in my denim jacket because it was a pretty lightweight material.  I would guess it was in the mid 50-s with a breeze, so it was a chilly day.  I found my parents while Swing was getting his sweatshirt, and by the way they were dressed, you would have thought it was snowing outside!  Now, I do tease them because they’re always cold, and in their defense, they were warm and I was the one who originally wasn’t dressed appropriately… but they were decked out head to toe in jackets, scarves and gloves.  All bundled up and ready to face the cold, arctic weather here in sunny Florida. LOL

Swing met back up with us, I introduced him, and we started to make our way to the art festival.  We quickly found a nice bench to park my dad on – he would rather sit and relax than try to keep up with my mom who goes a mile a minute.  With dad comfortably parked, off we went to see what the local artists had to offer.  My first stop was a place that sold cute little woven bracelets.  I wanted an ankle bracelet since I’ll be spending more time walking barefoot on the beach with Swing… :)

We caught up with my mom (who was half way through the art show by that time) and then eventually made our way back to pick up my dad.  It was time for lunch… now they had all sorts of food vendors with just about every type of food “on a stick” that you could want, but they wanted to go to a regular restaurant.  We walked up the street and found a little café – mind you, Swing and I weren’t hungry after our big breakfast, but we split a nice crepe while my parents had a nice lunch. 

All in all, it was a nice time.  The only awkward thing was that my mom kept wanting to call him by a different name *eye roll* but at least it wasn’t my ex’s name…

Speaking of ex’s… Swing had a few run ins with his ex over the weekend about some issues with the house that they’re trying to sell.  From what I can tell, she’s controlling, needy, can’t do anything for herself and doesn’t want to take responsibility for anything – OMG, she’s the female version of my own ex (you know, good ol’ DBE)!  It’s no wonder that Swing and I get along so well – we’ve had such similar experiences of what we had to deal with, we can totally relate to one another!

I’ll end this blog update with the two most fun words ever:  CAKE POPS!  A good friend of Swing’s was having a little get-together for his birthday and we were trying to figure out what to bring.  I had been looking for an excuse to dabble in the world of cake pops so this was the perfect time to start.  I got a pan, some cake mix, chocolate and lollipop sticks, and we were ready to go!  They’re not hard to make, but there is some trial and error involved... Take the first completed cake pop for example – I put the stick in, dipped it in the chocolate to coat it, put some sprinkles on it and then stuck the stick into the styrofoam block to let it dry… or at least that’s what I thought.  Once I put the pop into the styrofoam, the little cake ball decided to drop down the stick, much like the ball drop on New Year’s Eve.  Slowly down to the bottom, then plop, right onto the stryofoam. *eye roll* I think I was laughing so hard I was almost crying. I’m happy to report that the rest of the batch turned out fine and they were the hit of the party!

Mmmmm, gotta love a good cake pop.  And in what we learned from the art show, everything (especially cake, chocolate and a few sprinkles) is better on a stick!

The Drunk Monkeys

New Year’s has come and gone and now it’s time to start a brand new year.  I have high hopes for 2012 – filled with good times with family, friends and one very special guy.  :)  This year started out the right way, with good drinks, good food, good music, good people watching (OMG), and, oh yes, a reeeeaaaaallllly good kiss at midnight.  Here are the details…

Good drinks – After wandering around the downtown area for a while, we made our way to a nice, somewhat upscale restaurant and managed to find two seats at the bar.  We enjoyed a nice drink and had the bartender take our first official “couple” picture. BTW, we really do look good together. :)

Good food – After enjoying our drinks, we asked for a menu.  They had the normal, limited, fancy-dancy New Year’s menu (complete with jacked-up prices that just about made me fall off my barstool).  We finished our drinks and headed back outside to scope out other options. We passed a little walk-up Mexican restaurant that had bottles of Tapatio on the tables – for anyone who knows me, you know that’s my favorite hot sauce, so naturally, we stopped there.  We enjoyed tacos, guacamole and chips, Tapatio and good company!  Nice and spicy!

Good music – Our mission was to find one of the bands that was advertised to play: The Drunk Monkeys.  Now, we had no idea of who they were or what kind of music they played, but with a name like The Drunk Monkeys, we knew we needed to find out.  We wondered from stage to stage and saw a pretty good Beatles cover band, a very out of tune country band and some random white guy trying to pull off a Cee Lo song (Forget You FAIL).  Finally, we saw a band setting up – The Drunk Monkeys!  I have to say that they were actually one of the better bands that was performing and they played a good selection of music. 

Good people watching – Mullets, hooker shoes, and really (really) bad fashion – oh my!  But the best show was watching the people dance to The Drunk Monkeys (um, the really drunk people dancing to The Drunk Monkeys). These people thought they were so cool… newsflash, when you’re really drunk, you don’t dance as well as you think you do.  But it was funny to see both young and old making complete and utter fools of themselves while the rest of us just stood by and laughed.

Good kiss at midnight – Well, we actually started the midnight kiss well before midnight (gotta warm up, right?) We stopped to watch the ball drop… OK, it was just a cheesy version of a ball drop from a fire truck ladder, but I give ‘em credit for trying.  Oh, and the fireworks were a fairly lame display set off from a parking lot next to the fire truck ladder, but at least they were fireworks (he he).  We continued that midnight kiss well after midnight too (why stop when you’re having fun), and then we heard the funniest line of the night.  Some girl passing us by was yelling into her phone “THAT SUCKED!  I’M NEVER COMING BACK TO THIS CITY AGAIN FOR NEW YEAR’S EVE!”  OK, seriously, what did she really expect??  This ain’t Times Square honey…

So, since then, Swing and I have been spending a lot of time together.  We’ve spent time walking on the beach, enjoying lazy mornings together and having nice romantic dinners.  We do all those cute things that new couples do… we hold hands and kiss all the time – we even have a fun ritual of kissing when we’re stopped at red lights.  We just can’t help it (LOL)… I always wanted to have a relationship where other people would look at us and say “I wish we could be that happy.” Now I’ve got it!  I’ve waited a really long time to be this happy with someone and it feels great.

So, back to enjoying nice romantic dinners… I do a lot of cooking and it turns out that I am actually a pretty good cook (who knew??)  I asked my mom for a Tagine for Christmas because I thought it was cool (if you don’t know, that’s a Moroccan cooking thingy that looks like it has an up-side-down funnel on the top).  I’ve made pork with peppers in it and am going to try a recipe for chicken with chickpeas and mint this weekend.  I’ve been making good use of my Epicurious app on my iPad! 

But I’ve also discovered a fun new thing (OK, not really so new).  I had Groupon when I was back in San Francisco, but when you get deals that are meant for two and you’re just one, it’s not much fun.  I signed up here and we actually used our first Groupon at a nice Italian restaurant last night.  The food was great and the group of people next to us was quite entertaining.  This area has its share of retired people, so we got to listen to an awesome conversation about someone who had a double hernia and now wants to ride a motorcycle again.  It’s a good thing we had drinks! *eye roll*  The next Groupon is for a restaurant on the beach – two breakfast entrees and two mimosas for $17 (sign me up!)  We’re going to try that one this weekend…

And in true fashion, I did add two more pairs of shoes to my collection.  Swing is tall (6’2”) and I’m not, so heels make it so much easier to kiss him.  He’s only seen the tip of the ice burg when it comes to my shoes and so far, so good.  Oh, which new pair will I share with him first… decisions, decisions. ;)