DPF: Finnegan's Wake

New song stuck in my head. One that makes me want to dance.



I have grown a huge fondness for Darby O'Gill's version of pretty much ANY song on my Jig Rock Pandora station. I think it's his fans that make it fabulous. They remind me of RPI hockey supporters.

As You Wish

Oh sweet wounded baby Jesus do I have a story for ju!

I flew down to Virginia last night for the weekend. Jason picked me up and we had some dinner out but nothing special. We had Outback, for those of you who are truly thirsty for details. I had the Chicken on the Barbie with veggies (sans squash) and Jason had a steak with potatoes (he loves his meat n'taters) and we had a few margaritas.

Came home and Jason wanted to watch the Princess Bride. (Which in hindsight should have been a huge give away since he doesn't often volunteer to watch movies he'd rather play a game or go out and do something.) But I love the Princess Bride, in fact I can recite it word for word (I'm not proud), so it's not like I was going to say no to watching it.

He started the movie and said he needed to re-wrap his knee (he has a softball injury so this wasn't really odd). The copy of the movie he had though was awful, the sound was a good 3-seconds off and I was about to go find Jason and refuse to continue watching it but I figured I'd just wait for him to get back.

So cue to me, sitting in the living room watching the beginning of the movie well into the part where the kid is asking his grandpa if "This is a kissing book?", and somewhere along the scene this photo of us popped up. We took it in Canada when we were there on Spring Break. It's probably one of the only photos we have of the two of us on the day we got together (3/11/06).

At first I thought that he had been streaming the movie from his computer and his screen saver had turned on but then the song "Say Hey" started playing and that's kind of our song I guess. The first time I came down to Virginia to visit after Jason moved here we were stuck in traffic from Norfolk to Newport News (big shocker!) and the song came on the radio and we started singing it to each other. This turned into us txting lyrics to each other every once in awhile and it just developed from there.

Anyway...this photo montage started up of us throughout the years and he popped out of the bedroom wearing a suit and singing along a little to the song and that's when I knew I was done for.

After we finished watching the little photo show he took a knee and asked me to marry him. It was adorable. I'm still laughing (giddily) about it.

So those of you who are wondering, no I didn't cry. I was too busy laughing. But for those of you who know me really really really well, you'll know that when I'm excited or terrified I laugh. (It's kind of amusing to sit next to me on a roller coaster, I spend the whole time giggling like a school girl.)

The ring is perfect (ArtCarved Kayla) and has Nanny's diamond in it which Jason secretly got from Mom and Dad back in February! Apparently the weekend of his grandfather's funeral, after we drove to my house and we sent his three cousins off on the train, I had to get to work (gotta love that second job!) and Jason and I said goodbye so he could start back down to VA he didn't actually go anywhere! The sneaky little devil drove off at the same time and then doubled back after I was on my way to the store so he could ask my parent's permission.

According to Jason my Dad had Nanny's ring in his pocket because he "thought he might be asking for it". My Dad is almost as sneaky as Jason is!

A little additional backstory here: My grandmother's engagement ring was split between my mother and my aunt. My mom got the diamond and my aunt got the setting. My aunt has been proudly wearing the setting for years but my mother was waiting to reset the diamond until this year. In fact my mom has been really excited about getting that diamond into a new setting since her engagement ring has a chip in it and although I can't see the damage it bothers her and she doesn't wear it.

When my sister got engaged Mom thought I was so upset that Julibean (three years my younger) got engaged before I did. She knew that Jason and I were waiting till we were both financially stable enough which could be surmised as we were waiting for Jason to have a full time job instead of a contract position that could expire at any time. So cue to my mother and my grandmother worried that I was so upset that Julibean and Chris got engaged first. In reality (as I've mentioned many times) I don't take much personally. I was super happy for Julianne and Chris makes her happy and to me that's all that's important. If she is happy I am happy and I don't care if she got engaged first. But since my mother is someone who takes a lot personally, she thought I was upset.

Mom and Nanny both agreed (at the same time allegedly) that I should get Nanny's diamond so it was one less thing we had to worry about. I knew exactly how much this diamond meant to my mother. She was literally waiting for years until she lost some weight and got healthy again with skinny little fingers to get the diamond set into a new ring, so I knew it was sort of a prize at the end for her. The fact that she still wanted me to have it just makes me want to cry. And the fact that Poppy bought this diamond for Nanny is also really important to me given how close we were.

So Julianne and Chris also just happen to be around when Jason asked my parents so literally they've all be keeping secret what's been in the works for months. And apparently everyone else knew too! Laura and Chrissy knew, Casey would have known if she hadn't told my sister NOT to tell her anything because she'd probably say something stupid...even Jason's friend Shawn knew when we took him out for his birthday! THE INSANITY!

I love and hate you all for keeping this from me!

I had inklings. There were definitely instances where I thought Julianne was keeping something from me and after the last time I visited Jason the first thing my mom did when I got home was casually glance at my hand...like she expected there to be something there! *sigh* My family is special.

Pretty much after everything was said and done we called my parents and I told my Dad that Julibean and Mom could stop pestering Jason now. Again, the web of lies/secrets goes even deeper. Nanny was upset that Jason wasn't visiting for Easter and was in fact in New Hampshire and not at Zum's with us. Only after Mom told her Jason was in NH buying me a ring did she stop complaining that she wasn't getting to see him. (Jason is obviously very well liked by my family, Nanny adores him and expects him to be with our family for every holiday.)

So Nanny was calling like every few days to see if anything had "developed" and bothering my mom who in turn was bothering my sister who was forced to bother Jason lest she be publicly flogged by my family. Jason legit was getting the third degree from THREE generations of women in my family, but he maintained his resolve and did it his way in his time. I'm guessing if he can cope with my sister, my mother AND my grandmother, then he's a keeper :P

I also later found out his mother had told him to "do it properly" and wear a suit and make certain to get down on one knee. It made it even more adorable. I love his family and can't wait to be a part of it.

Actual photos of the ring to follow...eventually...

Basically right now I'm just giddy with excitement!
I'm gonna be a Koala!

One more Sleep till Christmas

Back when I was a sophomore in college I was going through a rough time. Everything just seemed to not be going well.

I had broken up with my first boyfriend, the second attempt at a relationship with another guy turned into an utter failure, as did a third, and a fourth, and plans to move off campus with some friends fell through. Not to mention my mother thought that it would be a great time to tell me Niederstein's had closed and they were tearing it down.

Niederstein's had been a huge part of my childhood. Every important event, an anniversary, a birthday, even a christening, we'd all go to Niederstein's. I'd sit there with my mom's father Poppy and he'd tell me all these wonderful stories about how Niederstein's used to be a stable house and how much he loved the history of places like that.

So when my mother off the cuff mentioned that it was gone, it added onto the turmoil I was already suffering through, I just broke down and cried myself to sleep. It was just one of those places that I could vividly remember Poppy in and now that he's gone there were certain things I was hanging onto and losing Niederstien's was like loosing him all over again.

I vaguely remember telling Jason all about this. At the time we were close friends but didn't spend much time hanging out (it was more of an online friendship), but I felt like I could tell him anything. He was on his way out - running off to class or something - but he sent me a file before he left.

It was a full length version of the Muppet Christmas Carol. I'm sure at some point over the months our friendship had blossomed I had mentioned to him how whenever I'm feeling horrible, watching the Muppet Christmas Carol always made me feel so much better. So he had gone out of his way to download it and send it to me so I could sit in bed, mope a little, watch the Muppets, and feel better about the world.

It worked. I got over everything and swore off men for the rest of the year. Nix on Dicks till 2006 became my own little mantra and I was so much happier about life. It was kind of like a turning point, in a bizarre way. When January rolled around and I lifted my ban on men, I realized how awesome Jason was and the rest is history.

So for all of you out there who are missing someone this Christmas, whether they be across the country or gone forever, I hope adding a little Muppet to your day can help you smile.

After all, there's only one more sleep till Christmas!

The Traditional Tradition

Ever since my mother was a little girl her family has taken a week out of the summer to go to the Poconos for a reunion of sorts. That tradition is still very much alive and the first week of August every year, we find ourselves packing up and moving into a cabin for a vacation of merriment, good company, and lots of games.

Since it's conception we've moved through three different places. The first was called Twin Willows, the second Tall Trees, and the third and current place is called Countryside. Although I loved Tall Trees with a passion growing up due to it's wonderful location just down the road from Carousel Park, I have grown to love Countryside with an equal passion and admire the Strand Family for keeping it so welcoming year after year.

When we were younger, we'd play Manhunt and Wolfie out in the fields. As we grew older we'd sit around the gazebo, sneaking beer from our parents, and play card games betting dimes and losing our money to a different cousin each night.

Now that my generation of cousins is grown and all of us (save two or three) are in, or have graduated college, things are a little different. We only get to come up for the weekends and try to cram a full week of shopping at the Crossings, visiting the China Buffet, or Gabel's, and hanging by the pool playing cards into two days. We bring along significant others and sip beer and share stories while the next generation of cousins run around our ankles.

It's a great feeling, knowing I have so much family and even when we haven't seen one of the cousins for almost a decade (which actually happened this year), it's easy to just catch up and fall right back into the old lazy routines of mocking, trying to toss one another in the pool, and chasing each other up the grassy hill.

But sometimes it's also sad. I love having this set time when I get to see the extended family, but we all live along Long Island and in the Bronx...some in New Jersey, but it takes a 2-3 hour ride to Stroudsburg to get us together. I mean, really! My generation is spread out across the East Coast now that some of us have settled in places near our alma maters. But we're all still relatively close and we don't see each other until August each year.

It's odd getting old. There's still a part of me that waits for the rain to pour down on the valley of cabins so I can get on my bathing suit and roll down the wet grass of the hill, trapes down into the stream, run through the poison ivy, and swing on the metal playground with all my cousins. (Yes, we seriously did all this during a thunderstorm and it was lovingly nicknamed the "Idiot Run" after we realized how many stupid things we'd done.)

Tradition is a funny thing. I can't wait to make traditions with my own family later on in life. Maybe I'll get to point at my kids and say, "Idiot" when they return from their own version of an Idiot Run like my father did to us.