Katie: JON! The traditional gift for 3rd wedding anniversaries is leather!! (Smugly) Looks like I'm getting a fucking leather handbag this year.
Jon: I think you're asking for ass-less leather chaps.
Katie: (glares) I'm totally blogging this.
As I mentioned on Twitter yesterday, just like that we are (not) homeowners. It is so much easier to be on the seller's end of the table at closing. It's more wham, bam, thank you, ma'am and less sign, here and here and here. That doesn't mean that it wasn't painful, because oh boy, was it ever painful handing over that check, but nonetheless it is done and over and I'm once again a road warrior.
Which brings me to the reason I fell in love with Jon all over again yesterday. I noticed a random cd sitting on the console in my car yesterday while sitting in traffic. It was a Rascal Flatts cd and I thought, "Oh, I'll just pop that in and escape from the endless drone of afternoon radio shows." Then I noticed there was already a cd in my stereo. I popped it out and it was a cd entitled "Songs for Katie".
Yes, folks, Jon made me a mix tape! Well, a mix cd but I prefer the term mix tape. He knew how much I have been dreading this commute so he put together a cd of some of my favorite songs, songs that remind me of him, our songs and songs that are commute appropriate. I drove home with the biggest grin on my face.
Some of the tracks include, "Can't Help Falling in Love" - UB40 (our original wedding song), "No Tears" - Scarface (from the hilarious scene in the beginning of Office Space), "Pussy Control" - Prince (one of my favorites), "Move, Bitch" - Ludacris (in homage to my aggressive driving), "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" - Wham (I always give my sleepy-doo a smooch before I leave), "Would You Go With Me?" - Josh Turner (one of our songs) and "Better Together" - Jack Johnson (a song that reminds me of him).
Le sigh. It totally made my commute a lot less dreadful. Gosh, I love him!
As promised, here is a picture of me and our sweet set-up from Sunday night. Forgive the shiny forehead and the general messiness.
I'll miss our first little home together; the home that we bought just before our wedding and the home where we created our own family and own traditions.
I won't miss the shared walls, the noisy upstairs neighbor and the one sink in the tiny bathroom.
I'll miss walking to work and being able to come home for lunch to walk Lola.
I won't miss dodging traffic and cars who don't seem to know what a crosswalk is and I won't miss using my lunch break to clean our house and do laundry.
I'll miss being just a mile away from what are arguably two of the best malls on the East Coast. Banana Republic Petites, J.Crew, Sephora, Bloomingdales, Old Navy, H&M, Gap, Neiman Marcus, Anthropologie, Ann Taylor Loft, Saks Fifth Avenue, Williams-Sonoma just to name a few.
I won't miss the dent it's made on my wallet.
I'll miss our proximity to our nation's capital, just 15 miles away, and everything it has to offer in terms of enterntainment, culture, history and dining.
I won't miss the D.C. traffic nor the bad drivers, though I will be driving around in it for a bit more.
I'll miss the wonderful neighbors we met and our other fabulous friends who live just moments away.
I won't miss the creepy neighbor who stares and stalks and lingers and won't stop friend requesting me on Facebook.
I'll miss being able to buy wine and beer in the grocery store.
Err, there's not much about that one that I won't miss!
I made Jon pose for a picture with me in front of our door this morning. I plan to take a picture in front of every home we own for the rest of our lives because I'm sappy like that.
SCENE
It's about 5:45 PM and I'm in the kitchen, knee deep in boxes and bubble wrap, after coming home from a long day at work.
JONATHAN
(calling to check in from lovely, sunny Arizona)
Hey hon, whatcha up to?
KATIE
Not much, just packing.
JONATHAN
Still?????
KATIE
(Head explodes)
Oh, Jonny, that one will come back to haunt you, my dear :)
On a brighter note, I don't think we could have asked for a more perfect moving day forecast:
It's nice to take a little break from the internet every now and then, isn't it? We had a busy weekend of visiting Jonathan's family in Pennsylvania and then it was back to work today as I started my new position. I spent the whole day in orientation so it doesn't even really feel like I'm in a new role yet, but tomorrow I'll move cubes and start working with my new team. So far, my anxiety has been minimal and I'm hoping it stays that way!
Since there isn't too much else going on in my life, save for packing, I thought I would finally get around to sharing our engagement story which I promised you all a long time ago. So without further ado, here it is...
It was 2005 and Jonathan and I had been dating since the previous September. On a whim, we decided to go on a Caribbean cruise that December and invited our parents and siblings to join us. To our surprise and delight, both of our parents and my sister decided to come along.
In the months prior to the cruise, I couldn't help but wonder if Jon would pop the question in the exotic locale of some Caribbean island. We had been talking about marriage pretty much since we started dating and I thought he couldn't choose a more perfect scenario than the cruise with both of our families there. As anyone who knows me well is quite aware, once I get an idea in my head, it's pretty much impossible to get it out. (See my obsession with learning how to dance en pointe at the ripe old age of 27. AHEM.)
I discussed it with my mom, I discussed it with Jon's mom and I talked all my girlfriend's ears off about my sneaking suspicion that Jon was going to propose on the cruise. It just so happened that someone shared my hunch with Jon, and seeing as how he knew I was onto his plan, he decided to throw me off the trail.
One night while we were eating dinner, he mentioned out of the blue that a "little bird" shared with him that I was expecting a cruise proposal. To my dismay, he also added that unfortunately, it was not going to be a possibility as he had just bought a new car and couldn't afford to buy a ring at this time. SOB!!
I was SO disappointed. And I'll admit it, I cried. Poor Jon... I reminded him of my disappointment just about every day leading up the cruise. I was very stuck on this whole tropical island proposal thing and it seemed as if everyone else around us was getting engaged except for us. All the while, Jon was playing it calm and cool as he was secretly getting satisfaction out of pulling the wool over my eyes.
December rolled around and we left for our cruise and I tried not to let my disappointment ruin our vacation. On the second day of the cruise, I happened to notice that Jon's hands were extremely clammy, which is quite unusual for him. I mentioned it and he just played it off as excitement for the upcoming blackjack tournament (which I won!). I shrugged it off and soon forgot about it.
Later that evening, we were getting ready for our first formal dinner in our stateroom. Before I got in the shower, I took off my promise ring (a sapphire and diamond ring which Jon had given to me our first Valentine's Day together) and very carefully took notice of where I placed it since I have a bad habit of losing jewelry.
After I hopped out of the shower and got dressed, I went to put my promise ring on and it was missing! I freaked out and had a minor meltdown as the ring was very, very special to me and because I knew exactly where I left it. It had just seemingly vanished into thin air. I yelled to Jon in the shower asking if he had come across it, but he played dumb, knowing very well that he was the culprit!
I continued to look for it while Jon got dressed, but still couldn't find it. It was getting late and we had to go, so I figured I would look for it later. Just as we were getting ready to leave, Jon teased me about forgetting our 1 1/4 year anniversary the previous day. We used to celebrate every little month that first year we dated, but had fallen out of the habit. I laughed at him and apologized for missing it and he replied that he loved me anyway and would still marry me one day. Not one to miss an opportunity, I sulkily said, "Yeah, someday..."
To my astonishment, Jon said, "Well, actually I have a question for you" and proceeded to get down on one knee. (Meanwhile, I'm screaming in my head, "OHMYGOD, OHMYGOD, OHMYGOD!!!) Then he pulled out the cleverest little jewelry box (it had a light in it!) and inside was a gorgeous princess cut diamond ring. Then he asked those four important words, "Will you marry me?"
I didn't hesitate at all. I threw my arms around Jon and hugged and kissed him and said, "Of course!" and ended up knocking him over on the bed! He then fessed up and admitted, "I replaced your promise ring with something better." Ah ha! So I didn't lose it! We ran across the hall to tell our parents and then went to a wonderful dinner with champagne to celebrate. It was absolutely perfect and that is how we came to be engaged in the middle of the Caribbean Sea!
Photo taken at dinner right after the proposal:
Cheap dates are the best.
My co-worker sent a mass e-mail yesterdaytrying to get rid of movie passes for a special advance screening of the new comedy, I Love You, Man, playing tonight. It's been a while since Jon and I have enjoyed a movie in the theater (I think Quantum of Solace was the last one), so I immediately e-mailed back, pleading "Pick me, pick me!".
I think I might have been the only one who responded because she gave them to me. HOORAY!! The previews actually look pretty funny and it seems guy-oriented so I think we'll both enjoy the movie.
As a treat, we're going to our favorite wings place, Chics and Wings, before the movie to take advantage of their awesome happy hour specials (½ price wings) in addition to the buy one-get one free coupon we have.
Our whole date will probably cost less than $10, unless Jon decides to splurge on some overpriced popcorn at the theater. He just loves that stuff, but all the butter makes me sick to my stomach!
Yay for cheap date night!
Jonathan is on spring break this week and next and we are both loving it, albeit for different reasons. He's just happy to not have homework looming over him and I'm happy to get to see my husband for more than just a couple hours a day.
After this semester is over, he only has one class left before he graduates with his MBA and I feel like this is a nice glimpse of what life will be like then. I'm so proud of him for all the effort and time he's put into this, but I can't wait to have him back full time! I fully intend to take advantage of our extra time together these next two weeks. :)
Overheard in our living room last night...
Jonathan: Pffffffffrrt.
Me: Jahhhhhnnnn! The vibration from your fart hurt my teeth!
Jonathan: You have no sympathy from me there. I already told you that you shouldn't worry about the color of your teeth because you're married to me and I don't care.
Me: I'm not letting myself go just because I'm married! What if you die? I need to look good so that I can meet other men!
Jonathan: Sweet! That means I don't have to keep on you about keeping yourself up for me. I can care less about how I look!
Me: <shakes head condescendingly>
Jonathan: Honey, let's face it. You are way out of my league, I'm not going to do much better. You're stuck with me!
Two and a half years of marriage and look how romantic we still are!
Last night, out of the blue, Jon asked, "Where do you want to meet in Heaven when we die?" The question caught me off guard as a) I was engrossed in the Oscars and the ever important critiquing of fashion do's and don'ts and b) more importantly, I've never entertained the idea of either one of us dying. It's something I don't like to think about.
And besides, I've always quite imagined the whole tunnel with the white light at the end of it thing, with Jon there to meet me as I step into the light. Of course, that's presuming that he goes first, a notion at which he scoffs. According to him, my recklessness makes me the likely candidate to go first, to which I sweetly replied, "Well, baby, I hope I do because I couldn't live without you." Booyah!
AHEM. Anyhow, Jon suggested we meet at Whitlows, the bar where we met back in 2004. While I understand the romantic meaning behind that, there's something about reuniting in a bar in Heaven that just doesn't do it for me. I didn't have an answer for him last night, but I've had the whole day to ponder it and I think I've come up with one.
When I see my love again in Heaven (after a long lifetime together, of course), I want to meet him here:
"And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand, they danced by the light of the moon, the moon, they danced by the light of the moon." ~Edward Lear~
(picture taken on our first anniversarymoon in Jamaica)
You know what I really hate about having our place on the market? It's not the keeping it in the constant "nobody lives here state" nor the having to clean out most of our booze nor the keeping of Lola at my parent's house (though that one is really killing me too). It's the thought of strange-ass people walking through my home, running their fingers over my countertops, peeking in my pantry, sitting on my furniture and everything else that strangers do when viewing your home. It completely creeps me out and really kind of annoys me off.
Yes,I know it's a necessary evil in order to get our condo sold but I just can't seem to get over it. For an OCDish, never-leave-the-house-without-antibacterial-hand-soap person like me, this is going to be torture.
We had our very first open house today and six separate groups stopped by, which apparently is pretty good. One couple stayed for over a half hour and, according to our realtor, oohed and ahhed over everything. He said that people don't stay for a half hour if they don't like the place, especially in a one bedroom condo that doesn't take very long at all to see. That doesn't necessarily mean that they'll make an offer, but still, it's promising.
And now, after the day of being "kicked out" of our home for the open house, I'm thrilled just to be sitting on the couch and taking in the Oscars with my hubby beside me. Home is always where he is, no matter what.
