moments in time in 2022

Well, guess who did not finish the bullet list mentioned in the last entry? shrug I only got like 2 bullets in before I got distracted and never returned. Let’s try again: [also bullets ended up too long. oops]

The moments to remember:

• My brother finally met EC last night [7/19]. We’ve only been dating 3 years. ha. Don’t think I’ve even mentioned he’s back in town [well the next town over] and he needed help with stuff. Came to the office and I helped him out and bought him lunch. Invited him for dinner kinda hoping he’d say no, but that backfired. Thought about cancelling but might as well get it done. He’s been here for months already and they hadn’t met. So, I threw a little extra food into the dinner I was already planning to make for Tuesday’s get together. Taco salad with a corn/black bean mixture, a bunch of toppings, and rice. Not bad. We sat outside. They chatted a bit. Watched jeopardy and wheel of fortune. haha. Then EC had to get home and my brother left too. Brother reported that EC “seems cool” and EC thought it went well. All good things. And may or may not get together at some point to train the dogs.

• Went to my first White Sox baseball game back on July 3rd!! They just happened to be playing the Giants in San Francisco, which is EC’s team. I hesitated at first [mostly covid, and crowds, and not being spontaneous] but knew we had to go. They don’t play each other often and I didn’t want to regret missing that opportunity. So I thought about it for like a day and then told him to jump on the tickets. We left super early, before 7am, and got there a couple hours later after stops for “tailgating” snacks. The parking lot was basically empty by the stadium since we were so early, but that was great. We did our tailgating all by ourselves. Drinking beer, listening to loud music, and eating pre-made sandwiches and snacks. It was fun although I’m sure more people would make it more interesting. I liked enjoying my first tailgate with EC alone. He did wander off at one point to talk to people a few rows in front of us and then as the crowd started, he made friends with people parked a couple spaces away. Not a surprise. He’s so damn outgoing and I knew it was killing him to only have me to talk to. haha. The people next to us said they parked close to enjoy the music coming from his truck speakers. Nice people. It was fun.
  I was able to walk to the stadium just fine. We got a couple pictures together. The food wasn’t bad. Our seats were great. And the White Sox kicked butt so I was more than happy! We left around the 7th inning and avoided all the traffic. Had a shitshow in the parking lot trying to get his big ass truck out of the tiny spaces, but we made it and I’ll remember that day forever!

• The neighbours got married back on June 10th. Their venue was out in the middle of nowhere so we camped out in a tent. [we were told several people would be camping but we ended up being the only ones!] The ceremony was nice. I looked amazing [cut my hair professionally pre-wedding for the first time in probably 10+ years!] The reception was fun! I mostly ignored the fact that I wasn’t invited to participate in any part of the wedding despite every single other person being asked. Whatever. I’m learning to live with the fact that I went from being at their house 5 days a week to them apparently not liking me. It is what it is. And I get satisfaction out of the fact that I took a ton of pictures/videos and they used one of those pictures on their instagram posts and have it as a background on their phone! [Though of course I got zero credit from them…sigh] We had plenty of funny stories from that weekend. Two broken down cars, lost phones and cologne, and one guy’s drunken shenanigans. Good times.

• The neighbour’s daughter also celebrated her promotion from 8th grade with a huge inflatable water slide. The big kind with the palm trees and double slide. Yeah. I figured I was healthy enough again to give it a go and promptly fell on my face on the very last step and slid all the way back down. Hitting every hard rubber step on the way and nearly taking EC down with me. The bruises on my knee lasted weeks, but luckily my pride was only slightly damaged because no one else was around to see it happen!

• EC and I celebrated our 3-year anniversary!! Can you believe it?!? It was a Thursday so we celebrated with our favorite salmon dinner, wine, and gifts. I think this is the first year we’ve done gifts for our anniversary, but he was anxious to gift me the Hello Kitty presto shoes [which are so damn cute and I still haven’t worn because I don’t want to get dirty lol]. I kinda felt obligated to return the favor and got him a cooling blanket/pillowcase because he sleeps like he’s got a heater installed. I also got us both BlendJets; which every one should own because they’re amazing!

• We spent two nights camping at the lake in the middle of July, but that turned in to a pretty terrible experience with EC that I’d rather not discuss. Pretty sure he and I will have more conversations about it in the future and it’s kind of ruined the excitement of the lake for me.

• In other happy news though! We saw SANTANA live in concert at the mid-state fair! It was his first show back post-collapse and he looked, and played, great! His wife is a badass drummer too!! It was my first time seeing him in person though mom and I have been trying to get tickets for years! EC, mom, and I had a tasty dinner beforehand and then went to the fairgrounds. Had a drink and killed time. The concert was pretty packed but despite all the annoying people I tried my best to have a good time. I definitely could have enjoyed it more if the guys next to us didn’t need to continually get out of their seats. Mom was also very popular with randoms that walked by. Overall good show and good times!

• Last but not least: I went to my first reggae show last weekend. It was being held at the place where EC and I had our very first date and run by a friend of ours that promotes shows. I was worried it would be too small a place but it worked out great. We had delicious lasagna and our favorite pizza. Plus we got there early so we were seated at the perfect table tucked into the back by the bar, which kept most people away from us. The band started late, and the service staff basically ignored us the whole time, but whatever. We got chisme about our friend and we had a nice time together. Until everyone started smoking that mary jane. haha.

That pretty much wraps up my catch-up. This has taken me multiple days to finish and weeks since I originally started. But hey! at least it’s done and all the memories are tucked away on here.

rose.