It's done. The documents are signed. The vows said. The only thing left is...the wedding banquet.

I really should be more excited. But trying to make everyone happy is an impossible task.

A couple of days ago I talked about almost reaching a balance. Tonight, I feel the exact opposite. I'm stressed! About my upcoming class -- I know nothing, but I am supposed to pass a critical test in 2 days time.

Help!

...was too excited to really sleep the day away. For some reason, the thoughts of plants and greenery has me incredibly excited.

At the Farmer's market, Jeff and I selected 3 variety of herbs to start our patio garden. Because we don't know anything about herbs and it is too late to really start an herb garden this year, we instead invested in herb plants that were being sold in our Farmer's market. For our three tiny plants, we ended up paying $5. Hopefully, this will be a lasting herb garden.

Behold, an update!

At least an attempt at an update. After so much time has passed who knows if I can make myself make sense anymore.

Today started off rather auspiciously. The sun was glaring through our window at approx 6:45 this morning. And not being one to laze around in bed while the sun is obviously shining , I betook myself to the window and drew the curtain shut. But that only afforded me a 15 minute respite this time. My body would not allow sleep to return, so I energetically hopped out of bed -- at least as energetic as I could be after the last 2 days spent in near continuous sleep trying to get over my cold.

Not only did I have a desire to hop today, but my mind was also jumping eagerly ahead in anticipation of completing the next item on my to-do list which was to seal the granite counters in our kitchen. I have been procrastinating and for some reason today was the day that this long neglected chore would be accomplished.

Only my brilliant plan hit upon a slight snag -- all my supplies were stored in the attic -- and no way was I going up into the dark, dank attic if I can get Jeff to do that for me! So, since the boy likes to laze in bed until at least 11 a.m. and I had 4 hours in between, I took myself off to heat up the rice porridge I've been consuming for the last 2 days and set myself to read the remainder of the morning.

Towards 11 a.m. there was a buzz of a police helicopter outside our complex. Very loudly, they started broadcasting "...male, about 6 ft, 150lbs, ...call 911..." This is not an uncommon thing in my neck of the woods. Since moving to this area, the boy and I have witnessed several of these police helicopter search above our heads at all hours. In this case, there was an armed robbery and the police was searching for the criminal. I took the precaution of securing all our doors and shooed the cats into the bedroom where I immediately jumped underneath the covers and asked Jeff to protect all of us. And he mumbled, "...I'm tired, I'm going back to sleep..."

Being the only one awake and capable of defending our home, I immediately turned on the TV to catch the breaking news, but no updates were available. I searched online and some 25 minutes later, found the story just as the helicopters sound disappeared above. I'm not sure if the suspect was caught or not, but there hasn't been any police activity since.

After the helicopters disappeared, I finally had to threaten to pass on my bug to Jeff before he would get up and get my sealing and paint supplies from the attic. I was planning on doing at least 2 coats of the sealant and while waiting in between each coat, I would put a second coat of white paint on the back of our front door. At least that was the plan. I managed to put one coat on the granite before Jeff took off to his meeting and my parents arrived at my doorstep with my grandparents in their wake.

Since Jeff and I announced our engagement, my parents having been showing up at least weekly at our doorstep to give us an update on our wedding preparation. They are doing all the wedding planning. Apparently, Jeff and I will pretty much only need to show up, the rest will hopefully be done without much interference from us.

My dad took off with my grandparents leaving my mom to help me around the condo. I managed to apply a second coat of the sealant on the granite before I needed an afternoon nap. After an hour later, I woke up and my mom had already cooked us a couple of dishes for dinner, sorted/folded my laundry including the socks, threw out the trash we had laying around in various trash cans, and cleaned and wiped down my counters. I feel grateful, but also as if I'm back in grade school at the same time.

The painting will need to wait until next week...

Here are some pictures:


* The kitchen with the new stainless steel refrigerator -- the 1st frig I've ever bought. It is a beauty, I just hope it will hold up. When I clean it out (yeah, b/c I live with men and they don't clean), I'll showcase it then!



* My attempts once again to commune with nature (in a limited sense). The bamboo stalks are aliiiive once again! I nearly killed them last year -- which just goes to show you how destructive I can be.


* I've created a "Cats' Corner" for our feline friends. It's a work in progress.


* Here's the division between the living room and the dining room.


* The living room in it's naked wall glory. I will get around to finishing up the walls one of these days.


* The back of the front door needs a 2nd coat of white paint (I've been telling myself this for weeks now.)


* The very clean bathroom (of course, you can't see the cluttered counters from this angle!)

The title of this entry says it all, but I'll tell the story in the sequence that I experienced it.

Upon waking up on a Saturday morning, I found myself once again crawling in between the covers of an Agatha Christie's (who shall be referred to as AC from this point on) book.  It was a compilation of her short stories and being an obsessed reader I, of course, could not put the book down or devote more than a cursory interest in anything else beyond my field of vision.  The interesting thing about this short story collection is that the first four short stories is about romance and engagements combined with her usual elements of mystery/detection...  So, it appears that my particular choice of book was quite aligned with the theme of my weekend...albeit, this was all unknown to me at the time.

The attraction of AC was so great that I woke up around 7 am so that I would not squander a moment of my weekend sleeping, but could instead devote myself to the pleasure of fiction.  And so, I fried up two eggs for breakfast and settled myself to enjoy both eggs and AC peacefully on Jeff's puky-green couch.  And there I remained until Jeff woke up around 10 am.  We reheated and ate some left-over fried chicken and went into our separate worlds: I, into AC land, and he, buried in the news found in the WSJ.  After an hour, I began to feel guilty at ignoring Jeff.  I always feel that the only time we get to spend any quality time together is the weekend because the work days hold so many other commitments.  So, even though I was slightly tortured at the thought of parting with AC even momentarily, I felt that self-sacrifice was called for at that moment and suggested that we endeavored to plan a staycation for the remainder of the day.

An hour later, Jeff and I were cruising down I-8 looking for the Sunset Cliffs exit to Ocean Beach (OB).  It only took five minutes after we got off the onramp until  we felt our tennis shoes sinking into OB's sand.  The day was slightly cloudy so there were much fewer sun worshipers than usual.  To me, the temperature was perfect -- not too hot or cold -- and the sea breeze was uplifting.  Jeff and I wandered along the water and down the length of the pier, stopping to check out the cafe situated on the pier but deciding not to partake in any of the choices offered.  While walking the pier, I was eying the fish buckets of various fishermans.  The only man who caught my interest was wearing brown camouflage military fatigues.  He had a weathered face, resembling worn leather.  It appears he is the only good fisherman on the pier because while others had no fish in their bucket, his bucket was completely fun of fish.

We made our way to Newport Ave, the mainstreet of OB's shopping district, and looked through window fronts and popped into a pet store to look at adorable kittens on sale.  I fantasized about bringing one home, but the time/energy of trying to get three cats of different ages to get along is a little beyond my ability.

As we strolled along Newport Ave, we checked out the dining establishments for a late lunch.  Jeff had a few places he wanted to try courtesy of Yelp.  After taking an inventory of our choices, we chose to go with Newport Pizza and Ale House.  The atmosphere was laid-back, as befitting of OB's rather hippy-ish vibe.  And the menu was simplicity itself -- great beers and pizzas.  Their motto is a study in subtlety -- No Crap on Tap.  Jeff ordered The Hulk (a green cocoction that tastes better than it looks) and the David Hasselhoff pizza slices.  We washed it down with a Victory Pilsner -- their beer special for $3.50.  I believe that Jeff & I had more fun at this venue than we did at the much more upscale Serious Pie pizza/beer venue that we tried while vacationing in Seattle.   And with seriously fewer dollars out of pocket.  This place is definitely worth another visit in the near future.

After eating and drinking our fill, we walked the neighborhood around Newport Ave and meandered back to our car.  I fell asleep on the lazy drive home, took a shower, read some more AC, and crawled into bed for a nap at 5:30 pm.  I promptly felled asleep, lulled by the food, beer, good companionship, and the unexpected fun I had had.  Unfortunately, my nap lasted until 7 am the next morning, and as a result, I completely ruined our plan for a nice romantic dinner.

When Sunday evening rolled around, Jeff made us some noodle soup and a chinese dish of Tofu and veggies.  We decided to go out for dessert at another restaurant recommended on yelp.  And while the setting was not as grand as I had imagined of a place where the Chef used to work for the Ritz-Carlton I found myself enjoying the spontaniety of the evening.  After the Budino (chocolate on the bottom, covered with egg custard, topped with whipped cream/chocolate shavings/strawberries), Jeff popped the question.  He said something to the effect of "Lan, would you make me the happiest man on earth by marrying me?"  And my reply was, "You're finally asking me to marry you now?"

I told him I was not going to give my answer until he got on his knees.  We agreed that he would do that when we got home (he's not into public displays).  Unfortunately, when we got home, Jeff was feeling sick to his stomach.  He claims that he may have eaten something that disagreed with him and promptly ran to the toilet.  I heard him make retching noises.  The rest of the evening, we curled up on the couch, where he blended in with the sickly green colored of his couch.  I did my best to comfort him.

But he never got around to getting on his knees, and so, I am still waiting for a proposal...