Memorial Day Fun

This past weekend, Matt and I took a trip to northern Michigan with our friends Mary and Jeremy. It was a great getaway!

On Friday night, we grabbed pizza and wings at a local dive bar and then headed out of town, spending the night in Benton Harbor after a stop at the fireworks store for some important supplies. We made the trip up to Traverse City the next morning, stopping only to purchase much needed swimsuits and famous Michigan cherries. Mary and Jeremy found us and we made a trip to the grocery store before we arrived at our final destination, Snodport (the name of the Snodgrass family cabin).

The cabin was fantastic. Rustic (with a few spiderwebs and a great fire pit) but not too rustic (running water and electricity). We fired up the grill for burgers and made a big salad. Other friends Greg and Gabby arrived just in time to join us for dinner, and they were incredibly thoughtful - they brought s'mores supplies! The evening was topped off by a trip to the casino (Matt broke even, Jeremy won big, Mary and Gabby lost a little, and I won $20!), a stop at the bar to watch the end of the Pistons game and a bonfire with s'mores.

On Sunday it was pouring rain, so we nixed our plans to go fishing early and made a huge breakfast - eggs, potatoes, bacon, toast, etc. Greg and Gabby continued their trip of Michigan and headed up to Mackinac. Later that night, we hard the good news - they got engaged! We spent the afternoon browsing wineries, then going out fishing on Lake Michigan when the weather cleared up. Jeremy's uncle was kind enough to take us out on the lake and though we didn't catch anything, the boat experience was fun. (Though I spent all day dreading the possibility of having to use the "Pee Bucket". Ick! I only drank one beer all afternoon out of fear.)

We rounded off the night with more burgers and Euchre. It is worth nothing that Mary and I beat Mary and Jeremy 2-0. Alex joined us the next morning and we had a quick breakfast with everyone before we left town.

Now, we're back in Chicago. It's incredibly hot and stuffy in our not-yet-air-conditioned apartment. Work is tough but good. Boyfriend Matt is working hard on his bar review course. For once, it is my night to help out around the house (he's been taking care of almost everything for us), so I must go down and shift the clothes to the dryer! Aww. Domesticity.

Congratulations, Jos!

My little sister graduated from Notre Dame today. In the fall, she's off to graduate school in Oregon. I'm so proud! Boyfriend Matt and I got to go attend some of the graduation festivities yesterday, including the closing mass and the banquet dinner. Both of my parents and both grandmothers were also in attendance. It was delightful to celebrate Jos's accomplishments with everyone.

One week of work is finished; the second week is about to begin. It's been harder than I was expecting, but it has also been exhilarating. The opportunity to go to interesting restaurants around town has been fantastic - so far, we have been to Blue Water Grille, Sushi Wabi and Blackbird. I've tried eel, suckling pig and lamb's tongue. (Not bad! Really!) I look forward to a summer more of interesting eating. Anyone have any favorite Chicago restaurants I should check out?

Big city girl

So, I've officially worked three days at my brand new job, and I've been living with a BOY for five days. Pretty crazy, eh?

Living with Boyfriend Matt has been great so far. I was incredibly nervous moving in, but he has been quite the calming influence. Also, his bar class doesn't start for another week, so he's been incredibly helpful: unpacking the house, making dinner, keeping the place clean. I am so spoiled.

Work has been good so far, though I'm worried that I'm getting in a little over my head! The projects are tough but interesting. The people have been friendly and welcoming. Tomorrow night is our first big firm event: a cocktail party to welcome the summer associates. I'm looking forward to meeting more of my co-workers!

Moving on up!

Today is the day. Boyfriend Matt and I are headed to Chicago, and taking the ginormous step of moving in together. I am excited and nervous at the same time. Almost all of the important parts of my apartment are packed up, and I'm about to head over to Matt's place to get his things. Au revoir for a few days, until we figure out the wireless internet situation in our apartment!

Idiot

The last of Boyfriend Matt's family left this afternoon, and I finally tackled all of the projects I've had sitting around. One of these projects is to write and print up the invitation for Former-Roommate-Emily's bridal shower. FRE's sister-in-law-to-be lives in Ann Arbor and graciously offered to help me stuff and address the invitations; I was quite grateful for her offer.

However, when she knocked on my door at 4:30 today, I was a bit surprised. I had somehow imagined that we were meeting tomorrow. I later checked our e-mails; she was totally right that we were supposed to meet today. However, we couldn't do anything: I hadn't even gotten the invitations printed yet. What an idiot. FRE's SILTB kindly agreed to come back tomorrow at the same time to write the invitations, but I can't help feel like a bonehead. How do you apologize for being such a dork? (My thought: fresh apple pie?)

Pie!

A few weeks ago my friend Maren (aka: Boyfriend Matt's Roommate Mike's fiancee) kindly offered to teach me how to make pie. You see, we both bake for our boys pretty regularly. However, my "brownies from a box" were clearly outshone by Maren's homemade fruit pies. Also, I am always a little intimidated by pie making. The crust in particular freaks me out. The cold butter, the slicing and mushing, the scary warnings ("don't roll too long or dough will toughen and be ruined" - what the heck is too long?).

Maren has totally calmed all of these fears. I went over to apartment yesterday and she went through the process with me. Twice. We baked a blueberry pie and a cherry pie, and the results were spectacular and delicious. If only I weren't sick during the baking the afternoon would have been perfect. Anyhow, the real messages:

1) Thanks, Maren!
2) If anyone wants a pie, Steph's Pie Shop is now open for business. It's located in Ann Arbor for two days, and then will be moving to Chicago for the summer. Frankly, the cost of the pie is not money - just flattery. ;-)

Boyfriend Matt graduates!

Sorry that it's been awhile since the updates - frankly, I've been doing too much celebrating to write! Here's the rundown: Wednesday night was a fantastic last dinner party with the group. Boyfriend Matt's sister and brother-in-law arrived on Thursday night. We went to a delicious dinner at Rush Street, and then they dropped us off at Rick's for a night of excessive partying. (Pictures from that night of some of your favorite Michigan law students are here.) The next morning, I got to see Seattle Joe and his wife for an early breakfast at Cafe Zola. The rest ofBoyfriend Matt's family arrived later that day, along with my mom. We had an introductory dinner at Champion House and came back to my apartment to open presents, eat cake and drink champagne.

Saturday was the actual graduation. It was so emotional to see Matt, my roommate and some of my closest friends and classmates walk across the stage. It was one of the few times that I regretted getting a joint degree - during the ceremony, I desperately wanted to be a part of the celebration.

After graduation, we headed to the reception in the quad (some pictures posted here). We met up with Mary and Jeremy for dinner at Palio with our family members and then caught a quick drink at Charley's. Many folks went out to Rick's; I headed home to get some sleep before this morning's Burns Park 10K, with Running Adrienne! We had a nice time catching up over a reasonably flat six mile course. Boyfriend Matt valiantly got himself out of bed to come cheer. Our families (including Adrienne's) all gathered for a huge breakfast at Cafe Zola, where we feasted on their delicious frittatas, omelettes and crepes.

Family members started leaving this afternoon. It was great to spend time with Matt's family, and it was nice for my mom to be able to meet them. I wished that my dad and sister had been able to join us as well, but we'll see them at my sister's college graduation in a couple of weeks!

Tonight I am relaxing with the tv and a nice long bath. :-) Hope the rest of you had similarly wonderful weekends.

Relaxation at its finest

4 p.m. yesterday marked the end of finals! Since then, I have been relaxing in an absolutely indulgent fashion. Mary, Meredith and I met at Rush Street for half price wine and tapas and a ton of girly chatter. After dinner, we headed over to the spa to enjoy pedicures. This was only my second pedicure - it's quite a treat! The paraffin wax thingy that they did was especially cool. We went from pedicures over to Mary's house, where we met up with our better halves ;-) and watched Match Point, a recent Woody Allen movie. It was extremely different from any other Woody Allen movie I've seen. A bit disturbing but enjoyable as well. While at Mary's, we ate a ton of ice cream and shared a bottle of champagne.

I didn't get to sleep in this morning, but that was okay. Instead I went on a run, ran a few errands, got a new pair of flip flops, did some cleaning, and started cooking for our Asian-themed final dinner group tonight. Mary and Jeremy are leaving for Seattle at the end of the month - hopefully the food we make will make for a delicious send-off!

Word Wars

Boyfriend Matt and I engaged in quite the epic game of Scrabble on Saturday evening. Technically, the game is not finished as yours truly got quite sick right in the middle of it. In fact, the board is still sitting on the kitchen table, just waiting for us to resume the game.

The game itself raised a few questions:

Is zoot a word?
(Matt: of course it is! As in zoot suit.) (Me: okay.) (Result: Matt puts down word, gets a kazillion points. I don't challenge it.)

Is zoots a word?
(Matt: of course it is! As in zoots suits.) (Me: this is like the times out thing. To pluralize the phrase zoot suit, only 'suit' should be plural. Hence: Zoots isn't a word.) (Result: Matt, already ahead by a kazillion points, gets a kazillion more. I don't challenge because I'm so far behind I'm scared to lose a turn.)

Is "fi" a word?
(Me: maybe? You know, semper fi? And fee fi fo fum?) (Matt: semper fi is a different language. And it is fee fie fo fum.) (Result: I wimp out and don't put it down. It doesn't matter when you're down by two kazillion points.)

Though we resolved the word questions post-game, I think there is a deeper problem. I might be too lax with made up words (see, e.g., zoots). Also, I may be too easily deterred from using my own made-up words. I mean, would he really have challenged fi? What would you have done?