5 posts tagged “john”

After lengthy pool trash-talk from me, I shoot one of John's few remaining solids in.

John: See, now it's awkward. You got me a present, but I didn't get YOU anything.

"We're going to Maine."
"I don't know anything about Maine."
"Me neither."

This is the announcement I made to my husband today, about thirty seconds after I decided we needed to go to Maine. We, of course, will not be going to Maine anytime soon (you can reference the fact that I was supposed to be flying back to Cincinnati from JFK today, but I canceled my plane tickets because I seem to have run out of money). This is yet another thing on the ever-growing list of things I think I should be doing.

The list isn't limited to vacations, though there are a lot of them on there. Maine is the newest addition, but it's in good company with Tuscany, Paris, Austin, Seattle, San Francisco (again), Chicago (again), and a growing list of places I try to convince him we could make a day trip to from the Cincinnati metro area. (And for the record, that list of cities is just the sampling from this week.)

We will build a second story on the house that involves a master suite with a bathroom (!) and walk-in closet (!!) and sitting room or office that opens out onto the second story deck. (We have owned the house less than a month and haven't even made our first payment on it yet.) We will buy a BMW if we continue living in a city that requires us to have a car. We will move to different cities because we don't really know how to get attached to one place for too long. We will own a loft, we will plant gardens, we will get involved with our community.

The point is that these are all "we" goals. It doesn't have much to do with the fact that we're married, either, as if that's something that just forces you to change who you are as a person. I say all the time that John and I are contentedly independent people, and that's true. When I go to a new restaurant with friends, I enjoy it, but leave even more excited because it's a new place I get to share with him. I didn't get married out of some "need" to be married, some ticking clock (got married at 21, kids, I couldn't even find the clock yet). We chose to marry one another because we're the people we want to share everything with. What could be more important than that?

As a complete side note, the mushy factor of this post is brought to you because I just finished reading the entire archives of Deb's old blog. Four years of bad dating followed by meeting the perfect man and marrying him. I'm a little smitten with their story myself. It took five days to get through it and it's finally over. I feel like I just read a really fantastic book. It was a good break from the real-life books I was reading. It also gave me something to do to kill time, because I am super bored with all this new-found free time on my hands.

Oh, and if anyone needs a freelance for anything, feel free to hit me up. I need JOBS.  

There are lots of internet surveys floating around right now intended to make the writer/blogger/emailer reflect on their 2006. They ask where you went in 2006, your major purchases, what your birthday was like, what you did that you've never done before. It's an interesting idea, because it makes people think about their year in a way that they might not have on their own. People tend to expound on the answers past yes or no, adding information that leads you to know how they felt about whatever situations they're describing. They work really well for some people, but for people like me who already spend most of their time reflecting on their own experiences, they're not really necessary.

When I reflect on 2006, years down the line, the best I'll probably be able to come up with is "interesting". I wouldn't be able to say that 2006 was a bad year by any means, but it's a little difficult to refer to something as a good year when you spent seven months living over 600 miles away from your husband.

But 2006 was an interesting year, to be sure. I fulfilled a nearly lifelong goal of moving to New York. I landed an incredible job at one of the world's top architectural firms. I turned 21 and spent the night forgetting who I was with ten of my favorite people in the whole world, even though I was far away from my home and my comfort zone.

I had the wedding of my dreams, even though it sent us into a pretty massive spiral of debt. Almost every single person we care about was able to come and spend the day with us, and the day was perfect. The week surrounding it gave me an opportunity to spend time with the people I love the most - my mother, my husband and my best friends. At the end of it all, I was married to an incredible man who supports my every endeavor, even though he realizes I'm a little crazy.

I got to live with my best friend and form an incredble friendship with his roommate. I spent seven months taking pictures, making food, watching Mets games, taking long train rides and having drinks with friends. It's difficult to sum up a whirlwind seven months, but I think those might be the high points. I had people come to visit me and I got to take ownership of this city that I had attributed to my best friend for so long. The night he moved away, our toommate told me that he felt the city had finally been given to us, and I think he might be right.

I spent time getting to know people that I considered good acquaintances before. We went out, we shared stories, we became good friends instead of the people we see from time to time. We created inside jokes and said goodbyes every three months or so when we had to move to new locations, but we returned with even stronger friendships.

Of course, I'm over-romanticizing a bit here. The year wasn't all easy. I worked harder this year than ever before and put in so many hours that it's shocking I ever got any sleep. There were fights, there was drama, I worried about money every single day. Tears, screaming, accusations, and all sorts of things that just aren't worth talking about anymore. They ended with hugs and kisses and reassurance, and we're all better people for it. That's the way things should end, always.

I've spent the last month writing every single day. I missed two days, one because it was really before I decided to take on the daily writing project, and one because I had just moved back and was simply too tired. I had hoped to learn something, but I wasn't sure what it was going to be. The other day, I received an issue of one of my favorite magazines that was filled with things you can do with fifteen minutes of your day to make life easier and more pleasurable. It made me think of the project. It takes me anywhere between fifteen and forty-five minutes to write an average post. I probably spend part of the day thinking about it before I actually write it, and of course, there's the picture taking and the process behind it if it's a more involved post. Making the decision to write every day made me actually sit down, take at least fifteen minutes out of the day, and focus on just one thing. I am the type of person who "never has time" for anything. No free time for this girl. And yet, when I made the decision to take fifteen minutes a day to write, I found the time. So what's to say that I can't use that fifteen minutes for something else? I might not write every day anymore - in fact, I probably won't. But I could take those fifteen minutes to sip a cup of tea and watch a favorite TV show. I could lay in bed and kiss my husband. I could make those phone calls that I just never have time for. I could compose an email to an old friend. Ultimately, fifteen minutes just isn't that much, but it means the world when it gets us to do something we really love.

So here's to you, 2006. I'll raise a glass of Asti to you at 11:59, I'll watch that great big ball drop on the television, I'll kiss my husband and ring in 2007 with some of my closest friends. Here's hoping that 2007 goes a little easier, but has just as many great moments.

Over the past week or so, I've concluded that John thinks the time-honored tradition of cooking began roughly around 1995.

You have to understand that I find my husband to be absolutely brilliant. He looks at things in a way that I never could and seriously inspires me to learn new things every single day.  He is an incredible designer and does things instinctually that wouldn't come to me after hours of slaving over a sketchbook. All those things being said, sometimes he says things to me that make me wonder if he's just messing with me.

The other day, I had just finished watching the Good Eats episode about bread, and I thought he'd be happy to be the first to know that I was about to embark on this journey. Instead, he looked at me and said "Don't you need a bread maker to make bread?"

The decision here was tough. I could be a great big liar and say yes, upping my chances for a bread machine. (Note that I don't really want a bread machine and would be much happier learning how to do it on my own, but at that very moment, the temptation was high.) Then I'd get a bread machine, and we'd be eating delicious bread every day without all the waiting. Of course, then I'd have to be a great big liar, and I try to avoid that, even if it does lead to presents. I could also look at him like he was stupid and suggest that people might have made bread before electric bread machines were invented - maybe even before electricity came around at all.

It's probably evident which one he chose.

So, the incident passed without any major issues. Then, yesterday, he decided he wanted to make breakfast. He's on this low cholesterol kick, but still wanted fried eggs, so he asked me what I would do. I told him to make a fried egg using one egg and one extra egg white. Healthier that way. And even knowing the look I gave him after the bread machine comment, he looked me straight in the eyes and said "Don't you need an egg separator for that?"

The closest Williams Sonoma to us is still about a 15 minute trek. It's a good thing he doesn't cook, or he would be getting in the car every time he saw a new recipe. "Separate the egg yolk from the white? Shit."

Today is the Rizzo family Christmas party at his grandparents' house. No matter how long we're together, it's still incredibly intimidating. There are a lot of Rizzos. I mean, a lot. And the house is sort of like my grandmother's house was - huge when we were kids, but then we all grew up and it's a little tight for the adults. So it's crowded, and very family-ish, and there are a lot of people we don't know very well... and we're the newest couple there, so it's only a matter of time before we get attacked with questions of when we're going to be adding new little Rizzos to the clan.

Don't get me wrong - I love John's family. It's just a lot to handle. His grandmother is the sweetest woman on this earth and I just love her. The whole evening is worth it when she grabs my hands and tells me she's really happy I came. She moves a little slower now and can't do as much as I'm sure she'd like to, but she's so sweet that we just overlook that.

Merry Christmas eve, kids.

There is a beautiful moment in the second season of Grey's Anatomy where Cristina is getting ready for work. She's alone in the apartment she shares with Burke, her boyfriend. She's got her iPod headphones on and the music cranked, and she's dancing around like an idiot with a toothbrush in her mouth. Burke walks in unexpectedly and catches her in a moment that was never meant to be seen by anyone. There's a moment where they're both uncomfortable, and then they both start dancing together. Dancing like complete idiots - dancing the way you do when your favorite song comes on and you're home alone and who cares that you couldn't keep a beat with your hips if someone paid you?

Thanks to my good friend youtube, I found not one, but a million clips of this very moment, so I can stop with the descriptions and allow the video to speak for itself. Watch it.

I mention this moment because not only is it one of my favorite moments on television ever, but it is the very clip that I watch when I miss my husband. And more than ever, I really miss my husband.

I haven't been doing a lot of writing lately, for a few reasons. I was in Cincinnati for a week and busy with family and friends, and this week has been overly saturated with work. I'm doing a somewhat challenging project for my final days at SOM. I've got 16 days left in the city, and so I've gotten myself pretty wrapped up in it. I'll be back in Cincinnati on the 17th for good, and then it's back to the daily grind of school on the 3rd of January. I'm mostly looking forward to the two weeks of recovery after I get back. Last time I moved back to Ohio, I stepped right into the wedding madness. Now I get to step into two weeks of relaxing with my husband, a kitty, my kitchen, and Food Network. I don't think anyone has ever been so excited to be in Cincinnati, ever.