Thursday, May 24, 2007

Officially off the market



Last night - Bryce is fixing something in my garden and I am baking a Red Velvet cake for my friend's birthday, peeking out at him occasionally from the kitchen window. It's a normal evening, albeit a little warm for this time of year - so warm that I've been forced to turn the AC on already.

He pulls me outside under the pretense of showing me the new soaker hose he has installed. "Stand here", he tells me, while he runs around to the front of the house to turn on the water. I watch as water starts weeping out of the hose, just as it should. He comes back and stands next to me and we watch the water soaking into the ground around the vegetable plants for a minute.

"I need to ask you something", he tells me. "It's really important." I look away from the plants and wrap my arms around him. "What's up?", I say. He unhooks my arms from behind him, hanging onto my hands.

"Carolynne, you make me a better person and I can't imagine my life without you. I want you to spend the rest of my life with me. I love you. Will you marry me?". He is kneeling in front of me, pulling a red box out of his pocket - a bulge that I hadn't even noticed earlier.

I almost can't talk because I'm looking down at the most beautiful ring I have ever seen. It sparkles in the evening sun. I'm crying.

"Hell yes!", I say. He stands up and wraps his arms around me. He is shaking like a leaf. He tries to put the ring on my finger and is so nervous that he almost puts it on the wrong hand. We're laughing and then I'm crying. He's kissing me all over my face and neck. "Thank you", he keeps saying. "Thank you, thank you."

As if I could have said no.

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Looking on the bright side - or, rather, the side with booze

What is it about The Biggest Looser that is so addicting? I'm watching a Looser marathon on Bravo right now and I forgot how much I love this show. There's something about a boot camp mentality that I just really enjoy. That's the kind of workout I love - something that is really going to push my body to its limits. That's why I wanted to run a marathon in the first place. It's why I love spinning classes and kickboxing. I love a workout that is going to kick my ass.

This weekend was suppose to be a crazy intense kick-my-ass kind of a weekend, as I was suppose to be running 26.2 miles on Saturday. Instead, I'm going to make the best out of things and just enjoy an amazing weekend up in Traverse City. I raised almost $2500 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma society, and part of that included a 2-night stay at the Grand Traverse Resort and Spa. So Bryce and I are going to go up, root my other team members on, and enjoy the weekend in Michigan wine country.

I'm not even bummed anymore about the marathon. I'm just so excited about this vacation . Just me and my wonderful boyfriend and some good wine. Does it get any better than that?

Plus, I'm going to run this freaking marathon in the fall I've decided. Yes, yes I will. I'm signed up to run the Detroit marathon in October. And I will make that marathon my bitch!

On a side note, I just saw a preview for a horror movie with Kevin Costner and Dane Cook. WTF?

Friday, May 18, 2007

On keeping EPT in business

I get so freaked out about getting pregnant that about once every 4 months I panic and buy a pregnancy test, only to have it come back glowingly negative and obviously mocking me. But still totally worth the $9.

Today was one of those days.

Life has just been incredibly stressful lately, what with the marathon that I'm training for that I just found out I won't be able to complete due to a knee injury that just isn't healing in time, and finding out that my friends have been saying not-so-nice things about me behind my back (what is this - high school?), to the fact that my boyfriend is planning to ask me to be his in a permanent, forever kind of a way and I want to be over the top excited but I can't act like I know anything and I can't talk about it until it happens. And so life goes - when it rains it pours.

My best friend Sarah and I had a girl's night on Tuesday. We drank wine. We watched the Gilmore Girls Series Finale (and cried, of course). We baked cupcakes (ok, when I say "we" I mean that she baked and I watched and tasted the batter - I like to think I'm the best kind of cooking co-pilot). It was great.

Sarah has been my best friend since college, when we roomed blind and ended up together. She thought I was going to be freakishly obese because I told her, in the first conversation we ever had, that the year before I had broken my bed (which was the truth, actually. I broke my bed. And not from hot sex either!) And so it began. 8 years later and still going strong.

Hey, maybe I should make us matching sweatshirts that say: "Carolynne and Sarah - Rocking it since 1999".

Anyway, here I sit. Not pregnant. Not engaged. Not running a marathon. Not much of anything besides overly stressed. But life could be a whole lot worse. I could be freakin pregnant, right?! And at least it's Friday. So I'm officially going to stop whining and start enjoying the weekend. ... Right after I eat this cupcake.

Wednesday, May 09, 2007

I love rainy days



Things I am loving right now:
- grilled ham and provolone cheese and tomato sandwiches

- working from home

- spending my "lunch hour" finishing my book and starting a new one

- smelling the rain through the open windows of my house

- my dogs head in my lap as I type this

- a vase full of blooming lilacs on my kitchen table

- thinking of my boyfriend and I, curled up on the couch, watching my newly purchase copy of Stranger Than Fiction later this evening

Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Spring Fever



Churchill Downs has comfy grass. Especially when you've had a few Mint Juleps.

This weekend the boyfriend and I drove down to Kentucky to watch the most illustrius of horse races - The Kentucky Derby. We only decided to go about a week ago. I'm like that sometimes. I hate to plan anything, I'm more prone to last minute "let's get the hell out of here", pack up and leave style of travel. As you can imagine, the airlines love me. But not for this trip. For this trip we drove the 6 hours down to Louisville, arriving at about 4am Saturday morning. We slept a few hours in the car and then headed over to the downs. We spent all afternoon drinking whiskey and betting on horse races and speaking with Southern accents.

We didn't actually get to see the big race because, by the time the actual Derby came on, the infield was insanely crowded with sweaty, drunk people and we couldn't even see the track. Plus we were sweaty and drunk ourselves, so we headed out to a restaurant to ring in Cinco de Mayo with margaritas and yummy Mexican food.

And even though we got pulled over because Bryce was going 35 in a 45 (seriously? who pulls people over for going too slow?), I had a great time.

I love running away for the weekend.

Thursday, May 03, 2007

Eeee ...

I just bought a MacBook!

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Quiet brain, or I'll stab you with a toothpick

I wouldn't say I'm high-maintenance, rather I'm high-energy. That sounds worse than it is, I guess. I just am one of those people who starts 5 projects to every 1 that I actually finish. I'm always moving, always working on something - usually more than one thing at once. I'm constantly changing courses, depending on what's holding my interest at any given moment. I've been known to change trains of thought in the middle of a sentence even.

Wait, what was I talking about?

Anyway, my boyfriend just got off the phone with me to take a nap. The whole concept of a nap at 6:20 in the evening doesn't make any sense to me. It's benefit eludes me. I can remember a period in college when I got my best sleeping done during the day, but that was when I didn't really have a set schedule most days and was up at all hours of the night. Besides, I didn't really sleep all that much in college - mostly I drank a lot of coffee. Sometimes I used to nap on the couch in the Natural Science 4th floor lounge in between classes. That couch seriously rocked. Although, now that I think about it, god knows what nasty business went on there when I wasn't napping on it. Ew. But I digress.

I've been feeling really antsy lately, and more scattered than usual. I go through periods of change like this from time to time. I can usually tell that my mind is working on something in my life that needs to change because I end up awake at 2 in the morning cleaning out my closets or organizing my junk drawer (like, seriously, why? I mean the whole concept of this drawer is that it's suppose to be in shambles). It's like my mind won't let me in on what it's working on, but yet at the same time won't let me sleep, so I clean. I know most people would watch tv or read a book, but I clean. Don't judge me.

In the meantime, I'll be over here - alphabetizing my DVD collection.