It's all happening

I'm a month late with this post, and I'm still not going to give all the details yet...but this picture should clue you in!

More details to follow!

The Holiday Season

Every time I post now, there’s so much that I’ve missed. Before it didn’t matter as much, because I was catching some of you up on the phone, but now I’ve stopped doing that as well.

I don’t like the fact that I’ve lost touch with some of you, but I hope that I get better!

Anyhow, this time of year is exciting. I love the holidays, especially Christmas. It still feels a little strange to be in North Carolina during the holidays though, since it’s 72 degrees outside today! But I’ve already been to one holiday party and have a few coming up.

I didn’t get a chance to post about Thanksgiving, but I had a nice one. I brought TK home with me, which was sort of a big deal. I’ve never brought a boyfriend home to celebrate a holiday before. It felt great. TK’s family was having a big celebration, but I didn’t want to leave my Mom, Stepfather and brother home to celebrate on their own. It would have been just the three of them whereas TK’s family was going to have 8+ people there. I think my parent’s are starting to warm up to TK more, though they’re still trying to hold onto their “little girl” as much as possible.

Unfortunately, TK and I are going to be apart on Christmas. My family is driving up to NY for Christmas since our extended family is up there. We haven’t been to NY for Christmas for a few years now, and my mom really wanted to get everyone together. I was bummed that I wasn’t going to be able to celebrate with TK, because he and his family don’t celebrate Christmas. He’s Bahai, and this would have been his first time celebrating Christmas. But all is well, because our family is going to celebrate Christmas early so that we can exchange our gifts on our own and so that TK can get a taste of how we do it up. We’re going back to my parent’s place next weekend to have our faux Christmas. That’s fine with me, since it means I get my presents early! Ha.

Speaking of early gift giving, I think that I’m going to give TK his presents today. I was planning on giving them to him before we went to my parent’s place anyway, but I can barely contain myself anymore. I’ve had them for a few weeks, and I’m having a hard time letting them sit there.

I still have a lot of shopping to do though. I need to buy my family presents before next weekend, and I need to buy Twin something. Our group of friends is getting together to do a Secret-Santa party, and I drew his name. Twin is obsessed with Macy’s – he has a dance and everything – so I might just get him a gift card so he can shop his little heart out. ☺

I also love the fact that the semester is wrapping up at school. Classes finished on Friday, and now I only have grading standing in my way. I should have started grading this weekend, but I decided to take some relaxation time. Grades are due on the 20th, so I have some breathing room.

It’s crazy to think that I’ve been teaching for a year and a half. I’m no longer the new kid on the block. Four out of the six people in my office just started this semester. On a daily basis I still feel like I’m going to be “found out” by my students, as if I am still making things up as I go along. I still struggle to break through to students who really hate writing and question whether or not I know anything about writing in the first place. But I also had students who thanked me at the end of this semester for teaching them a lot. A few students emailed me their thanks, and one student even gave me a present (which was a first for me). It’s that kind of thing that is really rewarding. It felt especially nice to get feedback from the students at the other university I’m teaching at. I really enjoyed working there this semester, and I’m looking forward to teaching the course again next semester.

But I’m still grateful for the semester break! The time between semesters is necessary to recharge and forget all the reasons why teaching is frustrating so that you can do it all over again in January!

Fashion disaster

Last week was a bad week. Or really, it was a clumsy week.

I spilled coffee in the computer lab that I teach in. Coffee went all over the table under a document camera that is nailed. to. the. table. I had to gingerly slide a paper towel underneath to clean it up.

On Thursday I was walking down the sidewalk on my way into work. I was wearing relatively new cuffed black trouser pants and cute heels. Before I knew it I was flat on the ground. The heel of my shoe got caught in my pants. Near death by fashion. I exclaimed *f*ck* has I slammed to the ground. My knees hit hardest and first, but luckily I was wearing gloves, which saved my hands.

Later that day I dropped my phone in a sink full of water. It's working for the most part now, but it's still a little funky.

This week has been filled with meetings, emails, conference, and grading. It's not letting up anytime soon.

But tonight should be a joyous tonight, because a new season of Project Runway starts in a few hours. But it is NOT a joyous night.

Time Warner Cable doesn't carry the Bravo channel in this area. DOES. NOT. CARRY. THE. BRAVO. NETWORK.

I'm going to go pout now.

I’ve been sinking through the drain of love

(Long post)

Last Wednesday after I finished teaching my last class of the day, I met up with TK for dinner. We kept exclaiming, “We’re on vacation!”

On Thursday TK, Twin, and I left for Myrtle Beach. From now on I’ll refer to TK’s fraternal twin as “Twin” and his fiancé as Irish. Irish couldn’t get Thursday off from work, so she planned on meeting us down there later that night.

Over the past few months, TK and I have been spending a lot of time with the two of them. TK and Twin are very close (naturally), and they’ve both been very pleased with the fact that Irish and I hit it off right off the bat. We’ve established a friendship outside the guys, and she even asked me to be one of her bridesmaids in their wedding next year. Since we’re one big happy foursome, Twin and Irish are quickly becoming one of my favorite couples to be around. I’ve said before that I’ve gained a lot of friends from dating TK, and I’ve become closest with the two of them. We passed a point where they’re not just TK’s family members or his friends. I definitely feel like they’re my friends too.

So when we started planning this trip down to Myrtle Beach, I was super excited. We were going down there for the wedding of one of TK’s and Twin’s oldest friends (they’ve known him 17 years). They were both groomsmen in the wedding, and Irish and I got to tag along.

TK was excited about going because it was his first chance to introduce me to a lot of his friends down there. He lived down there for three years after he graduated from college there before moving to this area, so he has a lot of roots there. I really hope that we can take another trip soon so that I can introduce him to my friends in New York and Boston.

Anyhow, the trip, as a whole, was fantastic. Unfortunately it rained nearly the whole time and we didn’t get in any beach time. But it was full of great food, good company, and quality couple time. Thursday night we spent the night at a friend’s house after a yummy dinner at a Japanese steakhouse. Friday we checked into our hotel and did some outlet shopping.

We stayed at a Hampton Inn again, at my insistance. I just LOVE their beds. They are seriously the most comfortable things ever. Our hotel was right across the street from one of the larger outlets in the area. Irish and I were psyched and definitely in a shopping mood. TK and Twin graciously tagged along for a while. We started off in Perry Ellis where we got the two of them some snazzy new shirts. TK was actually willing to let me dress him up, for once! He’s regularly a t-shirt and jeans type of guy. The real coup was when I bought him some cologne – Perry Ellis Red. He suddenly discovered that some extra smell-good scent wins points with the gf!

After the damage we did in a few stores TK and Twin were quickly tiring of the shopping, and they had to head off for the rehearsal dinner anyway. So they left us to continue shopping. I went nuts with dress slacks, a sweater, and perfume for myself and a sexy pair of shoes from Nine West. Irish bought TWO purses and a wallet in the Coach Outlet store. The bags are nice, of course, but I’m so happy that I don’t have a purse habit. I can’t afford that, even at the reduced prices! I recommend it to others if Coach Purses are your thing though – Irish said they were almost half the regular price.

On Saturday the guys went off again (for haircuts and football) as Irish and I did some more shopping. This time we were looking at wedding gowns. I’ve already been out shopping with Irish for her dress, and she’s been out a few times with others, but she hadn’t yet found THE dress. There were a few places she wanted to check out in the area, so we went off to see what we could find. The first two places we checked were total duds. She didn’t even try a single dress on, but then we headed to the third place. It was an old house that had been converted to a store, so it already seemed unique. When we went inside I pulled two dresses close to her size so that she could try them on, but we had to wait almost thirty minutes before the one dressing room opened up. We were close to leaving so that we could get back to the hotel to get ready for the wedding we were going to that day, but finally the dressing room freed up.

The first dress was a total dud, but the second had real promise. The longer she stood there, the more I liked it. My face started to get red (she later told me), and I reached for a veil to see the full effect. She started crying, and I got goose bumps. We found it. It was so exciting. The dress is absolutely gorgeous, and even though it wasn’t the size she needed, we could tell that it was the one. She bought the veil that I had grabbed, because it, too, is perfect. We had such a successful shopping weekend!!

We headed back to the hotel to get ready for the wedding. I got to see TK in a tuxedo for the first time. I had been looking forward to it since he’s generally such a casual dresser. Also, one of the pictures from his Match profile that initially caught my eye was a picture of him in a tux the last time he was in someone’s wedding. One word: S-E-X-Y! ☺

The wedding itself was a decent time. It was probably one of the quickest ceremonies I’ve ever been to, and it was nice to meet a lot of the people TK has told me about. I had been super excited about being able to dance at the reception, because I hadn’t yet had the opportunity to dance with TK before. Unfortunately, the music at the reception left a lot to be desired. They played a few too many older songs, and there was no real structure to the reception. People started leaving just an hour or two into it, and by the time we had been there a little over two hours, half of the guests had left. We stayed a little longer and tried to dance some, but once they played the Electric Slide for the second time, we knew it was time to leave.

Irish and I were still in the mood to dance, so we convinced the boys to go out to a club. It was still relatively early, and neither one of us wanted to go back to the hotel yet. TK was reluctant at first because he was tired and still getting over a cold, but like a trooper, he agreed. After a quick change at the hotel we headed out to the clubs at Broadway at Beach. A lot of people were there in costume celebrating Halloween a little early. I’ve never seen so many scantily-clad women in my life. There was one girl with her butt cheeks hanging out, literally. Since when did Halloween become an excuse to barely be covered in public?

We didn’t stay out too late, but it was a lot of fun to go out dancing. We had been talking about dragging the boys out for some time. TK loves to car dance and goof off, but I wanted to see if he could keep up on an actual dance floor!

When we left Myrtle Beach on Sunday I was totally basking in the vacation glow. It was so great to get away and not think about school for a few days. I answered emails while I was gone, but I didn’t grade any papers. I had so much fun with TK and everyone else, and I didn’t want the trip to end. As we drove back to Raleigh I was smiling like a total goofball.

On Monday TK called me and said, “We should have stayed on vacation.”

I agree.

On the road again

Today TK and I are leaving for our trip to Myrtle Beach.

I didn't quite get through all the papers I had planned on grading before leaving, so I have to take some with me. However, I'm not going to let the papers ruin my excitement.

Yay vacation!

I'll catch up with all of you when I return.

Can't you just feel the moonshine

Last night TK and I went out to a friend's house for dinner. He lives on a lake, and it's beautiful. The weather is finally starting to get a little cooler here in North Carolina, and it was a beautiful crisp night.

I wish that we could spend more nights like last night, but today it was back to the grind of grading. I found an unmistakable case of plagiarism.

I just need to get through the next three days before our weekend excursion to Myrtle Beach.

Yipee!

The world is laughing at me

Today I made more of an effort that I have been making the majority of the semester to look stylish. I'm wearing my brand new silk blouse, my brand new jeans, and a pair of kitten-heel black pumps.

I jaunted into work this morning, dropped off my stuff in the classroom, and headed towards the bathroom. I fell in the hallway in front of the bathroom because my slick, worn heel glided too quickly across the slick, polished floor. I skinned both my knees.

Falling girl has struck again.