One Year

It's hard to believe but a year ago Monday (March 18th) Dan and I met for the first time.  I'm not really sure how much I have talked about how Dan and I met.

When I decided to get back out in the dating world I knew I would end up online dating.  It has worked in the past and it's something that I felt very comfortable with.  I had never really used one of those dating websites, but that's not really a big deal.  I chose to use OKCupid.  The reason I chose that site was mostly because it was free.  I just wasn't at the point that I wanted to pay for a service to find someone.  One of the beauties with online dating is if there's something major that you don't like then you can immediately rule a person out - like I didn't want to date anyone who had kids... or was shorter than me.

I noticed there were some different schools of thought on the whole online dating thing.  One is that you meet someone in person pretty quickly after you begin talking online to see if there's a spark in person or whatever.  I understand this concept but I wasn't comfortable with it.  It was never how I had done it in the past.  What I like to do is build a connection online first, get to know them, build a rapport (as Susan says) and then when it feels right, decide to meet.  I like to be able to talk/chat with a person and see how it flows before investing in the time to meet them.  I feel like it just establishes something before you take the time to meet a person.  This also helps with my anxiety as meeting a person off line made me extremely nervous (I'm a nervous person in general)

Before I met Dan I did meet one other person from OKCupid... I had a good time with him and we went on 3-4 dates... but in the end he just wasn't the right fit.  I had kinda decided to lay low on the online dating at that point.  I had downloaded the OKCupid app so I could tell when I got a new message.  Since that website shows the last time you'd been online and I hadn't been online in almost a month at that point I wasn't receiving any messages.  One random day though I did get a message and thought what the heck and checked it.  That person ended up being Dan.

We messaged back and forth and exchanged cell numbers and texted back and forth.  He was ready to meet me but I still wanted to chat and put off the actual meeting for awhile.  I think he was starting to get annoyed with me - like she'll never meet me, but I did.  We met at his apartment (worked for me, not the recommended way to meet someone online though).  We hung out and watched TV and overall just had a good time.  A couple of nights later we went on our first real date... and that next weekend we hung out again.  I honestly wasn't expecting it to turn into a real relationship... just a kinda have fun sort of situation.  We were both smitten though. I guess, the rest is history haha (that phrase is a bit lame)  But it's one year from all of that and we're still together and happy.  Just goes to show you never know what's going to happen, just experience life instead of planning everything.

Last night we celebrated our one year together.  We went to Drunken Fish (which I've been craving for awhile now).  I bought a Living Social deal for them.  It was a very nice dinner.  I had a glass of wine and he had a beer.  We ordered the Crispy Roll, Spicy Tuna Roll, Fried Philly Roll (my fave) and the BLT Roll. 

Since Drunken Fish has one of my all-time favorite desserts - we had to get that too.  It's basically a strawberry cheesecake fried roll - yum!!!  It comes out warm and delicious!

Don't worry, we finished it :)

I wanted to get a picture of us... but first, here's a picture from my birthday last year when he took me to the hockey game - it's our first picture together.

And here's us like a year later... yes I took three because Dan doesn't like to smile pretty the first time...

Why aren't you looking at the camera Dan??

Awesome smile buddy

I'll take it, although he could smile more, don't you think?

Someday hopefully we'll get a really nice picture together.  Maybe I'll force him to on my birthday... which is coming up next week!

Weekend in Review - St. Patrick's Day

Another weekend in the books - time seems to fly by when you put it into little blog posts like this.

Let's see what was I up to this past weekend?

On Thursday night Dan cooked us a nice dinner - at my request.  He's so good with the grill - so he made brats, asparagus and baked potatoes - yum yum!

Friday morning I finally went and joined the gym.  Back in December I bought a LivingSocial deal for a one year gym membership at Club Fitness.  I wanted to wait until after January because I always hear people biotching about the 'resolutioners' so I wanted to try to avoid that.  That excuse doesn't really explain why I didn't go in February... but the deal expired on March 18th... so I got it in!  Hopefully we when we get back from our DC trip I'll figure out a good routine that works for me.

Friday night Dan and I went to dinner with his sister and her boyfriend to Circle 7 Ranch.  It's this nice place near Dan's apartment in Town and Country.  This is the second time we've been, but the first time we went later at night and only ordered one appetizer and drinks.  This time we ordered dinner and I have to say it's a pretty good place.  We had the toaster ravioli and pretzels with cheese dip to start.  Both were excellent, especially the pretzels!  It comes with this pepper jack cheese dip that's just amazing.  For dinner I had a BLT, which was good, the bacon was cooked just right.  Dan had a burger, their thing is burgers - it looked really good.  I would have tried a bite, but he got blue cheese on it.  Their other 'thing' is some of the tables have taps of beer in them.  Then you can fill your own drink and get charged by the ounce.  I have no idea how much it costs, and I'm sure it's not the best deal in town - more for the novelty.  We haven't sat at those tables, but maybe sometime we'll be able to try it out.

On Saturday morning we went and looked at a house for rent.  I really liked it - way better than some of the other ones we looked at.  It's a small 2-bedroom place with an un-finished basement.  I really like that it's in a good area - close to my mom and cousin and some friends - and not too far from work.  It also has this amazing deck on the back.  The one downside is there is no dishwasher... but I hope that it works out, we should know later this week. 

Saturday night we went to my cousin Andy's house.  (a lot of driving Town and Country to Affton back to Town and Country back to Lemay - which is next to Affton)  They were having people over for St. Patty's Day.  While I didn't really drink much others did.  We ate some good food - Ashley (Andy's wife) made her version of Shepherd's Pie and we had some brats, sausages and slaw.  It was all very yummy.  And there were desserts - cookies, Irish creme cupcakes and green rice krispie treats.

Sunday was just a low-key sort of day - I made chili that Dan wouldn't eat because I put a squirt of ketchup in it (I wish I was joking).  We mostly just hung out and watched TV.

Another post with no picture - I really should work on that!

Weekend in Review - One More Day Please

Are you liking these little weekend recaps?  I am!

When I got over to Dan's apartment on Thursday night I got to meet the bird.  I'd like to do a separate post about her - but I need more pictures, so stay tuned!

Friday-day was a pretty casual day.

Friday night we went to Pop's to watch a band Dan likes play.  I've never been to Pop's and I'm not really sure why.  It's one of those spots that people go to after the bars close in Missouri... better known as the East Side... just hasn't been a place I've been.  It was fun though.  Got to see some local bands and critique them - you know because I'm an expert and all :)

We went to see Vibe Steady.  They were pretty good, some of the other bands were probably better... some were way worse.  This is also a place that youngsters can go... so I felt pretty old, but it was fun to watch them and try to figure out who liked who and who didn't like who... created quite the story in my head.

After the concert we stopped by Taco Bell for fourth meal... or if you're being technical for me... about my second meal of the day... whatevs.  We did get to try the Cool Ranch Doritos Taco - which I'll give a thumbs up!

Saturday was the birthday of one of the best people I know - my mom!  Lindsey and I did a gift together.  We drew pictures of 6 different activities we could do together and she gets to pick one.  We folded up the pictures and put them inside Easter Eggs.  I put all the Easter eggs in a bag - so she was able to open them up one at a time.  I think she liked it and enjoyed seeing our craptastic pics (Lindsey's were much better than mine!)  The six choices we gave her were underground barge ride, movie, museum in DC (we're going there in a little over a week), dinner at the Melting Pot, painting pottery and Chippendales, which was totally a joke that we talked about earlier in the week, but if she wants to go, we'll go haha.

My two aunts and grandma met us to go to lunch at Red Lobster.  Can you believe we had to wait nearly 30 minutes for a table at 2 in the afternoon?  Random!  Then we headed over to Ronnies to see Oz, the Great and Powerful in IMAX 3D.

This entry needed a picture right?

 I liked it pretty much, but will go with the majority of what I've been hearing and say it is a little long.  Probably could have cut about 30 minutes and still made all the points that were needed.  I do also think with 3D movies such as this that they need to show you how cool the 3D-ness can be and show you many more flowers or scenery or whatever than you really need, but still looked really beautiful in 3D.

After the movie we went back to our house and ate some cake... yummy!

On Saturday night my cousin Andy had an impromptu party at his house so we went over there.  It was casual and fun - a very good group of people.  Dan and Andy barbecued and it was delicious!  We played some drinking games and even some old school Nintendo games... which I sucked horribly at.

On Sunday I wasn't feeling the greatest... but we still went back over to Andy's and watched the NASCAR race (I had to pick up my car anyway)... I'm thinking stupid NASCAR might be an every week thing... shoot me now I know way too much at this point...

I ended up calling in to work on Monday just because I wanted another day... and I hate daylight savings...  I didn't do much hung out with Dan for awhile then went home and caught up on TV shows.  I also went to dinner with my mom at Mimi's Cafe.

And that concludes a fun-filled weekend!

If I could have anything for my birthday

 This post is sad to me... really sad...

I have to find a new home for my cats...  there I said it.

Dan and I would like to move in together, and in order to do that I have to find a new home for my cats.  It makes me so unbelievably sad.  I've had both of them since they were kittens and they love me so much and I love them... but it's just not possible (trust me I've thought through all of the possible ways)

We had thought about renting a house, and with more space I was hopeful that we could figure out a way to make it work... since the issue is his dogs are aggressive with cats.  I hoped that with time and desensitization that it could be possible for everyone to live in the same home.  I have since realized that we'll never be able to trust the dogs and the cats together... and would I really want to put my sweet kitties in a situation where they might die?

Past that the house thing isn't going to work out and we are on the waiting list for a 2-bedroom apartment in the complex he currently lives in.  I just can't see four animals in a 2-bedroom apartment... five if you include the new bird... so I know that just isn't going to work... and it makes me so sad.

I could tell you just how sad and how it makes me me start crying when I really think about it.  Or how it's hard to be around them knowing that I'm going to have to give them to someone else... Ugh... no need to bask in that sadness...

The thing if I'm hashed and re-hashed potential situations of where they could go... but there's just not a clear solution... people are either allergic, already have animals or just don't like cats... and it sucks.  It sucks I can't take them it sucks they have no where to go... it just plain sucks.

The absolute last thing I want to do is leave them at a shelter... that would be horribly awful... I just can't...

So that's what it is... I have no solution...and it just constantly makes me sad.  I am so excited to move in with Dan.  I'm excited to live with him and I'm excited to have my stuff out of storage!  I'm hopeful about living together... this cat thing just weighs very heavy on that... and it's my own fault.

So going back to the title of the post... If I could have anything for my birthday it would be a solution for the cats.  A loving place for them that just makes sense.  That's what I want for my birthday and nothing else... it's weird how serious I am about that.  So if anyone has any ideas...

Weekend in Review - Theaters galore

Let's first start off with some cuteness shall we?

We got a new picture of the bird... and we also found out that all three birds are females... so that's what we'll be getting - can you believe how different they already look?  I'm going to post all three pics.

Alright... back the regularly scheduled weekend recap... except I don't regularly do this... although I should and probably will... maybe... who knows...

On Friday day, Dan and I had lunch at Cheeburger Cheeburger.   We had talked about going here before and then he mentioned it again recently.  Then this past week there was a Groupon for it... I took that as a sign, bought the Groupon and we went.  It was very good.  I love a burger place that I can customize what I want.  I also really enjoyed the diner feel.  I had a burger with smoked Gouda, bacon (and they made it perfectly), jalapenos and 1000 island dressing, it was yummy.  I also got fries loaded with cheese and chili.  I can't remember what Dan got on his burger (blue cheese was one of the ingredients, barf) and fried pickles, which were very tasty.  They also have like a million (their claim) different kinds of shakes you can order.  We didn't get one, but maybe next time.  I also liked the retro diner feel.  Overall, it was a tasty meal!

That night my mom, sister and I went to see Book of Mormon at the Fox, but not before getting some food first.  We went to one of our favorites - The Fountain on Locust.  Sadly, we didn't have time for dessert, but our meal was tasty.  I love love love their Cajun Corn Chowder.

Then we headed over to the Fox.  I helped my grandma get tickets to Book of Mormon for my mom for Christmas.  My mom couldn't decide who she wanted to take, so she ended up getting an extra ticket in the same section so we could all three go.  It was super nice of her, and I'm so happy I was able to see it.  It was wonderful.  It was funny and fun to watch and racy and great.  I'm not sure how much you know about Book of Mormon but it is the creation of the South Park people.  So it's not for the easily offended.  (I mean I think the word clitoris was said about a 100 times).  In my opinion, it's totally worth seeing... it's really as great as they say.  Although, I think most Broadway shows are.  Here's a picture of my sister and be before we left - we're some good looking ladies!

On Saturday, I spent most of the day trapped watching Law and Order SVU... all repeats, and all episodes I could actually remember how they ended when they began yet still sat there and watched them.

That night Dan and I (along with my cousin Ben) went to Off Broadway for the Kentucky Knife Fight CD release party.  I really enjoy going to Off Broadway, seems like a fun venue.  This is the third time we've seen Kentucky Knife Fight there (once last year when we first started dating, once on New Years and this time.)  I actually enjoy their music, and enjoyed the opening bands as well.  Next time though, I need to wear different shoes, my feet were hurting by the end of the night and since I was the driver home I couldn't really drink that pain away, haha.  Still, we had a good time.  I know that I used to not like all that live music stuff and going to concerts, but I am enjoying it with Dan which makes me wonder why I didn't like it.  I think part of it is he picks good bands to see.  Maybe I just get the concept of seeing live music more these days as well?  I'm not sure.  Either way, it's one of my bigger changes since meeting my man.

Sunday was a very low key kinda day... but that's totally okay with me.  We watched a movie I've wanted to see for awhile (V for Vendetta) and mostly just lounged around.  The nice part was for dinner Dan cooked a homemade lasagna... he really is pretty talented in the kitchen, I'm a lucky lady!