midnight train to georgia

back from atlanta.

stop.

visited world of coca-cola, georgia aquarium, centennial park.

stop.

saw braves play.

stop.

chipper jones still dreamy.

stop.

also visited athens, stone mountain, cabbage patch babyland general hospital.

stop.

unpacked, re-packed and off to minneapolis tomorrow.

stop.

more soon.

full stop.

traveling pants

are you ready for the next installment of "where's frances?"

tonight EH and i are off to atlanta (and hopefully there will be electricity when we arrive) for a long weekend in the gentle south. i have never been to atlanta so i am pretty excited about it. and not just because atlanta has coke world.

we get back on monday and i'll be home for approximately 12 hours (for reals) before i head off to minneapolis on business. i suspect i will have to do laundry all night if i have any interest in taking clean underwear to minneapolis.

which i do.

and then maybe i'll get to stick around for a while.

or maybe i'll find a magical pair of jeans.

or maybe both.

who knows?

on love, marriage and paul walker

i have been browsing unmentionables for my wedding trousseau.

if you know what i mean.

i also signed up for a personal trainer today.

these things are related.

because i would like to have a flat stomach when i don unmentionable items from my wedding trousseau.

if you know what i mean.

have i already said too much?

i have also been thinking about this.

(don't worry, it's totally PG.)

while i was in colorado last weekend i had breakfast with k8 and we got to talking about dating and engagements and marriages and i confessed that, even having now gone through the process of finding someone to spend the rest of my life with, the process remains an absolute mystery to me.

i think i just assumed that, once i had actually done it myself, i would be able to describe it-- what it feels like and how it happens-- and, even though everyone's life and experience and circumstances are different, i think i probably thought there might even be a chance that i could offer some type of informed insight.

instead i am just as baffled as i ever was-- let's face it, maybe even more baffled-- about how it is that a man and a woman meet each other, fall in love with each other and decide to be with each other forever.

i literally open the door sometimes to find AWD standing on my doorstep and think to myself, "now what in the world is he doing here?"

it still feels completely weird to me that he is around to stay.

weird in a good way, though, since i don't want him to go anywhere.

and so, as it turns out, my big piece of wise-engaged-lady insight is this:

there is no magic formula and no silver bullet solution.

there is no guarantee and there is no foolproof plan.

there is only hope and effort and faith and then one day a miracle.

a miracle that unfolds something like this.

one day i woke up and thought, "i like AWD so much i think i love him." and then one day i woke up and thought, "i think i love AWD so much i want to marry him." and then when he asked me i said yes.

and that, my friends, is all i know.

helpful, eh?

i went to see "fast five" last night and it was uh-mazing. i know you probably think that the fifth installment of a car heist franchise with vin diesel and paul walker as the top-billed stars is doomed to fail, but i am pleased to report that you are wrong.

it was awesome.

and just moments after i finished watching it i executed a beautiful, perfect parallel parking job on a crowded, busy street in old town.

coincidence?

i should think not.

westerly

i am back in the west for the third time in three weeks. i really should start signing up for frequent flier programs.

this time it's for work, namely colorado springs for the warrior games. colorado springs where it is currently dumping rain with a side of tornado warnings.

my only consolations are a king sized bed, a big flat screen and room service.

so, actually, i am not doing so badly.

i've loved you so long

i made briana's favorite shortbread recipe the other night.

it came out both crumbly and slightly underdone, which remains a mystery. but, everyone said they were delicious and when people say that something i made is delicious, i always decide to believe them.

i really wished bri was around so i could call her and ask if it was normal for her favorite shortbread recipe to come out both crumbly and underdone.

and when i am driving home from work i really wish that she was around so that i could call her and catch up like i used to do.

but, otherwise, i feel so much peace and calm and normalcy that sometimes i wonder if i am doing something wrong. am i not grieving correctly? not grieving enough?

should i be doing something more? more crying? more talking? more... more?

i think the answer is no.

we all grieve in different ways, which i know in the abstract but am learning in real time.

over these past few weeks, though, i have felt like if i could talk to bri right now she would tell me not to worry about her at all. i get the impression that life is busy and happy on the other side.

turns out life is also pretty busy and happy here. which is just the way i want it to be. and, i think, just the way bri wants it to be, too.

bookend weekend(s)

AWD and i spent last weekend in salt lake. it was marvelous and i did not take a single picture.

i did eat breakfast at the blue plate diner and lunch at the beehive tearoom and dinner at the market street grill (but not all on the same day). and i did spend lots and lots of time with lots and lots of relatives and AWD did live through the whole thing and even said he liked it. and i did cuddle babies (and stayed a safe distance away from other babies who had the flu) and i did celebrate mother's day with my own beloved mom and i did love every minute of the whole thing.

oh, and AWD did propose (again!), this time with my real ring (hurrah!) and i did say yes (again!) and now i can't stop staring at my ring finger all day long. thanks to the stealth photography skills of AWD's sister, we do have a few shots of that thing going down.









then it was a week of catching up and being sick for both of us (i lost my voice. awesome), which was not nearly as fun as basically any alternative, but it was back to party time this weekend.

well, actually, first there was a lot of sleeping. also i finally unpacked my suitcase from last weekend's trip (i'm speedy like that). and then it was party time.

because, you see, robert graduated from his masters' program at GW this weekend. this gave me an excuse to say "con-grad-ulations!" in an ironic, TV announcer voice. and if that is not a party, i am not sure what is.

it also meant that we ate celebratory burgers at ray's and then, because robert was wearing his gown (and medal!) all weekend, we all decided to wear gowns, too. we had some difficulty keeping a straight face. as you can see.

















we also watched "high school musical" because it was the only remotely graduation-related movie streaming on netflix. and no, there isn't actually anything about a graduation in it.

sunday was the big ceremony on the mall. we all came prepared for the promised rain and ended up sweltering and burning in the sun instead, but we saw robert on the big screen and mayor bloomberg gave the commencement address, which was pretty cool. i always forget how short he is. also, he tells bad jokes.



and that brings us to today, the highlight of which was donald trump's announcement that he will not be running for president. so that's a load off.

and now i am ready for another weekend.

big jet plane

in the ongoing saga of what might be the worst travel karma ever (in other words, mine), when i flew to utah last week i missed my connecting flight thanks to a delay in d.c. and ended up spending the night in phoenix.

but not before i had a major emotional breakdown at the front desk of the drury inn. poor rick tried to soothe me with a pool-view room, but i am sorry to say there was nothing much that could be done.

i am back off to utah in a few hours, this time for a planned-ahead trip for doobie's wedding, and a mother's day rendezvous with the mama bear, and i am keeping my fingers crossed that things go a little more smoothly.

but, i am bringing extra snacks just in case.

today was brought to you by the number five

we celebrated cinco de mayo as close to mexico as we could get. namely, the totally sketchy mexican restaurant by our office where i once killed a baby cockroach (in the restaurant, not the office).

seems pretty authentic, right?

(i mean, not all of us can be this lucky.)

ole!

take my breath away

this might have slipped your mind, what with the royal wedding and osama bin laden being killed (thanks, obama!) but saturday was the 25th anniversary of the release of "top gun."

one of the best days in the past 25 years?

perhaps.

AWD and i celebrated the momentous milestone with a special screening of the movie in the theater. doesn't get much more awesome than that.

the dialogue was a little worse than i remember, and i had forgotten (or perhaps never noticed) how much homoerotic penis talk there is, but the fighter jet scenes and flying sequences were totally rad, especially on the big screen, and i couldn't help dancing in my seat and clapping and cheering.

one thing that was exactly as i had remembered it, in all good ways, was the beach volleyball scene. oh, pre-couch-jumping tom cruise. you were a stud.

and for the first time ever i didn't cry when goose dies (spoiler alert, i guess). so either i am growing up, or my heart is colder than it used to be.

we finished up the afternoon by losing the car in the massive tysons corner parking lot. we wandered for almost half an hour through two parking terraces before we finally found it. funny now, though i was in a pretty bad mood about it then.

but, just start humming "danger zone" and almost anything seems not so bad.