how to have a romantic picnic dinner in the city....

step 1 have a terribly long and annoying week. hello monday:

step 2 decide tofu is something neither one of you want deal with on a friday night.

step 3 mix a{n accidentally super strong} "to go drink."

step 4 walk up a giant hill to your favorite carryout place, aka one that hasn't made you sick and isn't chipotle {yes, i could eat burritos for the rest of my life}.

step 5 head to the liquor store next door, grab a couple of beverages and forget to snag two extra paper bags.

step 6 wander over to the neighborhood "commons," which in your opinion has far too much concrete to be seriously considered a park.

step 7 find a spot to sit in the park, which also happens to be across from the courthouse.

step 8 wrap his tallboy {hehe} in said extra paper bag, then pour yours into your now empty sippy cup {wow, where'd my drink go? i must've been pretty thirsty....}.

step 9 open up all of the containers and chow down. start off trying to be lady-like, then realize most of your options are basically finger food {or have handles!} and forgo using real utensils.

step 10 give your fiancé sad puppy eyes when he starts to use pita bread to scoop with {hello cross-contamination....and jealousy}.

step 11 laugh at your fiancé when he admits that 3 yrs ago {to the week} he was on vacation and freaking out to his girl BFF about this new cute girl he met.

step 12 kiss, canoodle, giggle and be obnoxiously romantic and cute.

step 13 stand up to leave, and realize how much youve had to drink, oops.

step 14 then insist that ice cream will make you less wobbly for the walk home. down the giant hill.

the end.
 

what's more american than apple pie....?

baseball!! monday, mid-afternoon greg sends me an instant message at work and asks if i want to go to a red sox game. silly question.  because his bff has some extra tickets from work. free tickets? double silly question. i haven't been to fenway park since my 3rd day living in boston:

you know, back when gluten and i were still friends. 

so we hop on the T, make our way down to fenway, and meet justin at the gate. i didn't even glance at the ticket i was handed, i was focused on making it through the purse check with my water bottle and gf backup snacks intact. next thing i know, we take a sharp left and up the nearest set of stairs we go.....shit.

we were headed for the suites, and i wore jorts...whoops....

yep, those were the faces we made once we opened the door. 

there was quite the snack selection: pizza and chicken fingers and ceasar salad and all kinds of beer and baseball hat sundaes....

 as usual, i ended up with an eclectic mix: chips&salsa, popcorn, chardonay, and a hat full of reeses pieces...

realistically, that sounds like a single-girl-dinner kinda night

as the night cooled down, we opened the giant window, and i finally paid attention to the game.

i may have been watching it through the bottom of my wine glass though :D

we talked about how cool it would be to have seats on the green monsta {to the right of greg's face}

as we were leaving, we stumbled upon this gem, and i'm kinda jealous i didn't hop in {but was also genuinely concerned greg would drive off in it}

finally, we made it back to the T, and i sat on the back stairs for the ride home. in my jorts. with my smuggled  tin of that stale, weird, but oh so delicious movie theater/ball park popcorn. with this knee level view from the green line:

snow day = crazy, ethnic grocery store adventures

our biweekly grocery trip regularly takes us to the other side of boston, where we are the american-born, white, and monolingual minority.  we have no qualms about taking home some of the *non-traditional* things we stumble across here. usually, we're trying to call each others bluff, but no one gives in, and we try it anyway.  that's how we end up eating frog legs, giant canned sardines, and a regular fave, squid stir-fry.

so after a leisurely brunch at the vegan-friendly, super hipster, allston diner, we wandered across the street to the crazy russian grocery store. i had been to this store before, but greg hadn't, and oh boy, did he get excited. 

a lovely selection of eastern european beverages, but this shelf reminded me of my grammy....

so many pickled things.....

and freshly pickled things

even marmite {you know, like vegamite}

back in september, greg was looking for a local place to find some yummy german sausage for oktoberfest. too bad he didn't know about the selection at this place. even sausage shaped like a piggie, with ears and all!

after your pickled and sausaged dinner, treat yourself to some.....

mmmmmm, ice cake! while we were out and about, we figured we'd stop at the asian place just down the street.

chicken feet anyone? even the package says to *spice up your life!*

or maybe fruit flavored pork jerky, if that's more your style.....

don't confuse your peanut oil with your laundry detergent.....

whirlpools of lobster......

peanut soup with milk, anyone? it has a spoon built into the lid, great for on the go!

alas, we came home with some pretty tame stuff. but, of course i had to have chopsticks with ducks on them, who could say no?

and i finally picked up some loose-leaf tea for MR TEA!!!!

we're not gonna talk about how i think he needs a mohawk, or the fact that i keep calling him mr pee-pants...... :/

how's your winter going? leave a comment!

does it make you uncomfortable when i use the word 'dongle?'

i hope by now you have all of your holiday shopping done, if not be nice to the retail people, working retail sucks. conserve some compassion for greg though, because this is what its like to go shopping with me anytime of the year...

b&g proposal, part 2

check out part 1 here

so the rest of the day goes on, business as usual. greg's cool-as-a-cucumber, not being nervous, not being overly affectionate, not tipping his hand in any way, shape or form. just the usual goofy greggie. once again, i haven't the slightest clue that he's up to anything.

later that evening, everyone is hanging out around the bonfire and i'm giving his cousin a hard time. i'm razzin him because he's been dating this super awesome girl(that everyone LOVES) for 5 years. and they're still just dating. ugh matt, pull it together and pop the question. i think they're such a good match and i'm getting frustrated that he hasn't proposed yet. all the while i don't know what their plans in general are or if they've talked about it or if they don't even want to get married, blah blah blah, she's awesome, hurry up and ask!

so i'm getting close to being obnoxious and greg says he wants to go for a walk. not unusual, sometimes he gets all lovey dovey and romantic, sometimes he saves me from making an ass of myself. so we walk down to the other campsite, down by the gorgeous moon-lit lake and he starts taking about how much he loves me and wants to be with me. all sentimental and mushy. i don't know if i'm still distracted about harassing matt or if i'm just being totally oblivious.

either way, greg pulls a box out of his pocket. and i just stare at it. like a deer in headlights. staring. he says something else mushy and lovey and i say: 'no way.' a shock and disbelief kind of 'no way.' and i may have started to back up. and kept saying no way. i'm pretty sure somewhere in there he did ask if i would marry him. but i kept saying no way. finally he gently reminds me that i really haven't said yes, technically all i've said is no.

thankfully no *action* shots of the happy dance

so i hurry up and say 'yes, yes, yes' and he shows me the ring. and he puts it on my finger :) then i start to jump around and do my awkwardly flailing happy dance. you know, the one where i punch the air up, down and around while simultaneously kicking and jumping up and down, that one. and yelling 'i get to be a nif, i get to be a nif, i get to be a nif.' so i pull myself together and give greg a big hug and a giant kiss, and then realize one of the cousins has been in his nearby tent, reading a book. so i run over and shove my left hand in his face. and he says congrats and gives me a hug.

a reenactment for everyone

so then we head back over to the other campsite/bonfire and i stand in front of everyone and just start doing my happy dance. no words, just flailing. then i run around and put my left hand in everyone's face. then i snap a picture and send the photo to both his and my parents. who, on a separate note, happen to be meeting each other for the first time ever, unsupervised.

photo we sent to the parents, some caught on faster than others ;)

and now he keeps calling me his beyonce. i'm not sure if its because he *liked it and put a ring on it,* or if he thinks it sounds just as funny as fiancee. either way, i think i'll keep him.

the b&g proposal, part 1

at my brother's wedding on August 3rd

so we went camping with a bunch of greg's cousins (and uncle). there's nothing like getting together a bunch of single, childless 30-somethings for a long weekend in nature. lots of day drinking, lots of late nights around the bonfire, beautiful views, an uncomfortably friendly skunk, lots of drinking, and lots of being shushed by the park rangers. well one didn't even shhh us, he was a total stoner dude who, without saying a single word, did the "lower your volume" signal thing with his hand, but then there was another who preemptively asked us to keep quiet that night. to our defense we weren't really being that loud, but there is a cousin who feels the need to fill any type of noise vacuum, either way it was a good time.

so greg and i go out for a beautiful kayak paddle around the island we're staying on and its a gorgeous, gorgeous summer day. he's in and out of coves and all over the place. i'm just paddling along, drinking my coconut rum and iced tea out of my disposable coffee cup. (yes i was accused of being a 16 yr old girl quite a few times that weekend, but i didn't feel the need to be drinking whiskey all day and all night for 4 days in a row). we're just chit-chating and hes being lovey dovey(i think we even attempted a cross-kayak kiss), anaaaannnnd then we paddled back for lunch.

not greg and i, but i recognize the kayak/paddle combo......i can't really tell who though

later that evening he says we should go for a sunrise kayak the next morning, but continues to let me refill my coffee cup, over and over again. i'm having such a good night that i think its fun-times to hop on the wimpy air mattress and bounce greg off the other side. until he does it. and i almost go flying out the extra door that hooks up to my jeepy, that i for some reason thought was a window and had unzipped. but i digress.

so the next morning the alarm on his watch goes off and i'm super annoyed. i've long forgotten about the sunrise kayak idea. i'm annoyed because the sun isn't up yet. i'm annoyed because i'm hungover. in hindsight, i'm surprised he didn't pester me much more, but he knows how stubborn i am and knows to choose his battles. so i roll over and he goes out to see the sun come up. alone.

stay tuned for part 2....