Sunday, March 30, 2008

Planning a trip!

Matt and I are planning our first big vacation as a married couple (okay, apart from our honeymoon). This summer, we're going to go on a road trip out west. The trip involves a lot of driving, but since we both love to drive, neither of us really minds. Here's the helpful but dorky map we (I) put together today.

He's been to most of these places before, but I've only been to South Dakota. We're even going to dig out my old tent and camp a bit -- our first time camping together. Anyhow, if you have any advice on the itinerary, places to visit or things to see, drop a note!

Edited to add: Just realized the map is a bit hard to read. Our schedule is as follows:
Day 1: drive from Chicago to Minneapolis.
Day 2: drive through North Dakota.
Day 3: drive to Glacier National Park.
Day 4: Glacier National Park.
Day 5: drive to Yellowstone.
Day 6: Yellowstone.
Day 7: drive to Sturgis, SD (or thereabouts).
Day 8: drive to Sioux Falls, SD.
Day 9: return to Chicago.

Monday, March 17, 2008

Relaxing at home

Matt and I went to Kate and Austin's wedding this weekend and had a great time. Kate looked lovely. We got to meet many of the couple's other friends, who were all terrific. I guess that speaks highly of them! I got to spend time with Kate and her bridesmaids, and Matt spent the day hanging out with a few of my close college friends. What fun.

Unfortunately, Matt has been a bit sick since the wedding, and I think I might be coming down with the same time: congestion and a major headache. So we're hanging out at home, installing our new desktop computer and working on our budget. It sounds so grown up and boring when I type it out, but it's actually a nice evening.

A couple of pictures:

The wedding party in the basilica.

The cats in a compromising position... or, in the middle of a fight. I think it looks like a photographer caught a famous person and a waitress or janitor or something in flagrante. Prop Joe, the darker one, is the celebrity. He's upset about the picture snapping and trying to hide his face. Dr. T, the lighter one, is just happy and dreamy and pretty darn proud about bagging a celebrity.

Saturday, March 08, 2008

Catching up

I see I have some catching up to do. Things have been busy here over the last few weeks. Matt got a permanent offer from his law firm, and has since accepted. He's working hard and enjoying what he does, which is terrific. The cats are still great fun. We've been rather socially busy recently, too, which is sometimes a little stressful but mostly fun. We even joined a gym, because we've both been getting quite lazy lately.

That's a lot of we statements, isn't it? Matt and I have both been working hard to maintain our separate identities in this marriage. We've known a few people who, after getting married, have all but disappeared, and we wanted to make sure we didn't turn into them. I think we enjoy our time together more because we have a little time apart -- he has Tuesday nights playing trivia at the State (his team won first prize recently!), and I have Wednesday nights hanging out with a few girlfriends (we... watched the finale of Project Runway together!). I know these things will be harder when we someday have kids, but for now, we're each doing our best.

This morning, while shopping at the World Market near our house, we saw a girl who we thought was Heather from America's Next Top Model (season 9). Skinny? Check. Long dark hair? Check. Tall, but slouching? Check. We couldn't figure it out for sure, though, so we attempted to browse the store while discreetly sneaking peaks. By the time we left, we were about 95% it was her, and I had identied a few key moles on her face. When we got home, we pulled up her picture online, compared the moles, and got our proof: it was her! A little Googling shows that she lives in Chicago and apparently goes to school at the Illinois Institute of Art. Nifty, eh?

Next weekend Matt and I will be out of town for my dear friend Kate's wedding. I have known Kate since we were seniors in high school, when we met at the state math competition (yes). We quickly became friends, and took many a road trip from our Iowa hometowns out to Notre Dame for school. We were RAs together in Lewis Hall and she started dating Austin that year, and they are finally tying the knot at the beautiful Basilica in South Bend. I even get to be a bridesmaid :) and I am so excited to see them get married and to celebrate with all of our friends. Also, their rehearsal dinner is at the College Football Hall of Fame. How cool is that?!