Wildlife Sighting!

I knew this would probably happen eventually…

I was walking into Trader Joe’s the other day, passed someone and immediately thought “I wonder where I know him from...”  I don’t even think I finished that whole thought in my head before I realized who he was… yes, it was our old friend the honey badger. *eye roll* Go back to the September – October timeframe if you don’t remember him.

I just walked past him and I don’t think he recognized me.  After I passed him, I did give a little snicker because I know that I’m happier now with Swing then I ever would have been with him.  

Everything (and everyone) happens for a reason, and he was definitely NOT my reason. 

And now, back to our regularly scheduled programming… ;) 

Long time no see :)

Yeah, yeah, yeah…

I totally know that I haven’t updated in, like FOREVER, but I have a darn good reason – the two main parts of my life (work life and personal life) have both been busy. I’ll skip right over the work life portion to get to what you’re all dying to know about – my personal life.  Specifically, my personal life with Swing. *girlish grin*  Having a wonderful time with someone I love is great for me, but doesn’t provide much blog fodder and doesn’t really leave me with a ton of extra time to share said fodder with all of you, but I am not complaining AT ALL! 

Now a lot has happened over the past few months (besides adding to the ol’ shoe collection as you can see).  Honestly, I’ve thought about updating the blog a number of times, I just never actually had the time to do it. I even thought of cute titles that I was going to use and everything… so here is a condensed version of two months worth of updates. :)

Keys to the Kingdom

Swing officially moved into “the Inn” at the end of February.  As in any case with selling a house, there was a little last minute drama, but after a few days’ delay, the pending sale was back on and everything was finalized in the beginning of March. 

Once he moved in, he promptly had a key made for me (BTW, I had given him a key to my place a few weeks before).  It’s nice that we can easily meet at either place or even just hang out if we want to while we wait for the other to get home.   Plus, since I can work from anywhere, I’ve started to work from down there a few days a week so we can spend more time together.

We’re now in the process of getting everything all fixed up at the Inn.  We did little updates here and there, but really made a dent last weekend with not one, but two trips to IKEA.  I could make a joke and say that we picked up everything but the kitchen sink, but we actually did buy a kitchen sink (LOL).  Swing is a pretty handy guy and he’s taking care of all the plumbing with the sink so we’ll actually be able to cook and have a regular meal down there that doesn’t involve paper plates!

Oh, where did I leave my heart?

In the beginning of March, I also had to head to San Francisco for a week for work.  Since Swing had never been there, it was a perfect opportunity to stay the weekend and play tourists for a few days. 

He arrived on Thursday night and did stop by my office on Friday to meet some of my co-workers (and yes, they approve LOL). After I got done working, we enjoyed the rest of the weekend and spent a wonderful two days touring the area.  We spent Saturday in the city (Ferry Building, Coit Tower, Cable Cars, etc.) It was great, especially since I had never been to Coit Tower – I got to see something new too.  We even rounded out the day at a place that I’ve missed since I left California – In and Out Burger!

On Sunday, it was time to head up to wine country.  We headed to my favorite winery (V. Sattui in St. Helena) and enjoyed the afternoon there.  We tasted some great wine (and yes, took a few… OK, 7… bottles home with us).  We joined the wine club since we really like their wine and I’m happy to say that we got our first monthly shipment earlier today (a Zinfandel and a Syrah).  After our tasting, we had a bite to eat on the winery grounds, then headed up the road to see what else we could find.  We did stop dead in our tracks when we saw a sign that said “Crazy Good Cabernets” (how can you pass that up?) and did one more tasting (and yes, they were crazy good… but at about $50 a bottle, they better be).  We didn’t buy any more wine, but had a wonderful time.  This time, we rounded out our day with an amazing Chicago style pizza at Zachary’s in Oakland (I swear, this pizza is like 2” thick!)

We took a ton of pictures, including one of the bathroom towel that the maids folded like a monkey (really!)  Once we got home, we bought some frames and each made a fun collage of photos to help capture the trip for each of us.  I think that will turn into a fun ritual after each trip…

Here bunny, bunny, bunny

Easter was a very long day… I had church with my mom (so early that even the Priest asked if everyone was awake), then dinner at 1:00 at my parent’s (also known as lunch), and then dinner later on with Swing’s family. 

My mom has a fun tradition of hiding my Easter Basket, complete with “you’re getting warmer” tips to help me find it.  I surprised her by making her a basket too and slyly hid it as I walked in.  It was fun and I’m still eating jelly beans and peeps.

We brought some wine and beer to my parent’s… we brought Dos Equis and we joked about who would have a worse pronunciation of that name between my mom and dad – mom won with something like “Dose Eck-quise” (but she really enjoyed the beer!)  We also brought cake pops, which everyone loved.

Dinner (at a normal time) was a bit more relaxed with his family.  We brought cake pops there too and made a great Easter Basket for his niece.  It was so much fun picking out everything and then building the basket together.  The only downer is that the poor child isn’t really allowed to have sweets (um, so peeps were definitely out), so we did fun things like bubbles and a bit lollipop-shaped soap. 

But the best part of Easter was actually the night before… we were relaxing down at the Inn and Swing gave me a card.  Inside said something about the “Crazy Good” times that were ahead of us… Yes, he found a place to buy a bottle of that “Crazy Good Cabernet” that we tasted in wine country!  We’re going to save that for a really special occasion when only something “Crazy Good” will do.  ;)

OK, I guess I’ll wrap up there.   You’re officially up to speed with what’s going on with Swing and I and I’m ready to call it a night.  I promise I won’t stay away so long next time – I’m sure I’ll have more “Crazy Good” times to tell you about!

Love is in the air…

Swing and I had our first Valentine’s Day together and it was wonderful.  He sent me beautiful red, white and pink roses (they came with a cute little teddy bear) and got me I LUV U peeps and Valentine’s M&Ms (boy, does he know the way to my heart!)  I made a nice dinner for Valentine’s Day… complete with candles, sparkling wine and a little chocolate heart shaped cake for dessert.  If you’re curious, I got him a book by his favorite author that he was able to get signed last weekend and I got him a new digital camera. 

Now, I’ve been in love before, but it’s never been like this.  I’m very much in love with him, but the difference for me is what I feel in return.  I feel so loved by him, and it’s wonderful. :)  We kiss all the time (and yes, we’re still keeping our tradition of kissing at red lights).  We hold hands… we walk with our arms around each other… we stop and kiss for absolutely no reason…  We’ve become that couple – you know, the ones that are so hopelessly in love with each other and so stinkin’ cute together.  Yep, that’s us!  I’ve always wanted to be part of that couple, but never was, until now.  It’s such a great feeling and one that was a long time coming (for both of us).

Speaking of love, a sweet Valentine’s tradition that I love are those wonderful little chalk-like candy hearts.  Anyone who is addicted to them like I am knows that they’ve changed over the past few years and just don’t taste the same (boo).  The sayings have changed too – you know, to keep up with the times.

You have your old favorites like XOXO, LOVE ME, SOUL MATE, CUTIE PIE, PUPPY LOVE, MY LOVE and FOR EVER.

Now there are some new ones like TWEET ME, EMAIL ME, TEXT ME and YOU ROCK.  FRIEND ME and PIN IT can’t be far behind…

There are some that are a bit questionable:  LOVE HIM (am I giving this candy heart on behalf of someone else?), GAME ON (ohhh, a challenge), U CAN DO IT (for a little inspiration), LET’S RIDE (um... OK), GO GO GO (away?), SHAKE IT (aren’t these targeted to children?) and JUMP 4 ME (which, if printed crooked, just looks like JUMP ME). 

Then of course, there are the lovely little hearts pictured to the right (OK, I couldn't get the picture to load correctly into blog, so I had to improvise...)

As you can see, quality control is a little lax at the old candy heart factory.  The one on the left kind of looks like it says "BONO" (for all those U2 fans).  My favorite is the one on the right that says CK ME.  I guess you can insert whatever word you can think of that ends in CK to fill in the blank…

Swing has less than two weeks before closing on his house (and bidding the ex goodbye).  He’ll be moving to “the inn,” which is, actually, a real inn right near the beach.  His family owns it and is in the process of renovating it, so he’s moving in to the main part, which is a 2 bedroom, 2 bath condo with a beautiful sunroom that overlooks the water.  Since that’s “the inn,” we’ve nicknamed my house as “the pool house.”  It will be nice to get him settled in so I can start spending more time with him.  He spends the weekends with me and now, I’ll be able to stay a few days at a time with him (since I work remotely, all I need is wireless and a place to set up my computer).  We’re both really looking forward to being able to spend more time together.

Speaking of time together, we’ve officially booked our first vacation together.  I’m going to SF in a few weeks for work, so I extended my trip through the weekend and Swing will be flying out to join me.  He’ll get there late on Thursday night – I work on Friday, so he can sleep in and relax.  He’ll join me at my office for lunch so he can meet some of the people I work with, then we’ll pick up our rental car and get settled in our new hotel for the weekend.  It will be nice – we have all day Saturday and Sunday to do some sightseeing, then we’ll leave on Monday to head home.  It’s a perfect weekend getaway that will involve Cable Cars, beautiful sights and wine tasting – oh, and kisses… lots of kisses. ;)

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. ;) 

In Full Swing

It’s been 17 days since the first “wink” and 10 days since our first date (you know, that 4 hour date), and Swing and I are still going strong. :)  We’re at that fun, beginning stage of the relationship where we spend time with idle chit chat as we get to know each other… oh, and we make out for hours on end! 

We spent a nice time together on the Friday before Christmas, then both had family time on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  We got some time to ourselves and spent wonderful day together the Monday after Christmas.  We spent time in the Downtown area of the city – having lunch and walking along the water.  Then we headed off to the beach where we had a beautiful drive and then scouted (with no luck) to find a place to park so we could walk on the beach.  After waiting in lines of cars waiting for someone to leave a public parking spot (and doing a little making out while we waited), we gave up and started to head back. We stopped for some ice cream and listened to a guy playing a guitar… just a nice, relaxing, sunny, warm Florida day! 

We did finally get a little “beach time” in on the way back… I pulled into what I thought was a spot, but it was a no parking zone, so we just say for a while by the rocks and listened to the waves as I watched to make sure Florida’s finest didn’t try to generate a little extra revenue for the state by giving me a ticket.  LOL  Hey, at least I got to enjoy the beach even though I didn’t actually get my feet wet.

We wrapped up the evening by making a nice dinner – I must say that my cooking skills are really looking pretty impressive, if I do say so myself.  I have always thought of myself as an OK cook, but I’ve made three awesome dinners that turned out pretty good (I guess all that making out is doing some good!)  We’ve got plans for New Year’s Eve, so we’ll be ready to officially start off the new year right!  2012 is looking pretty good to me and I can’t wait to see what happens next…

In other news, a good friend of mine sent me a link to her website for jewelry – check it out and show her some love!

http://valeriesoule.chloeandisabel.com/

I’ve been on it a few times and have already seen a couple of necklaces that have caught my eye!  Now that I’m going out more, I need to make sure the accessories collection is just as complete as the shoe collection!  A girl’s gotta look good, right? 

And speaking of going out more (LOL), I did check out some local dance studios to see about lessons.  You’ll remember that Swing got his name because he did enjoy taking dance lessons in the past (enjoyed the lessons, yes; enjoyed the partner at the time, no).  So I found a place that looked cool and bought a four class pass that we can share – so two classes that we attend together.  I figured that it would be a good way to ease into it and see if we like the place.  It turns out that it was the same place that he used to go to (slightly awkward), but now with his new partner (me!), hopefully it will be a much better experience.  Now I just have to find a pair of heels that not only look good, but that I can dance in too! 

I hope all of you have a wonderful, happy and safe New Year’s… here’s to an amazing 2012! :)