Progressing through grad school

To liven up this year of grad school, I'll just ramble off a few things we did and show you some pictures. Then, we'll graduate and move on.

When I got to Rochester I realized we were so close to Canada that we would go at some point. Someone didn't have his passport....no worries. Happy birthday. I bought you your passport. The weekend after he got it we drove up to Kingston just because we could. Went to a bar and to the movies. I still don't have any stamps in my passport but I'll be changing that for my honeymoon.


Of course we went to Niagara Falls. Several times actually. The first time just the two of us, then with my mom and little sister, then with some friends. The last time, we visited the Canadian side. This was during football season because the UA v LSU game was that Saturday.  Our friends (Northerners) thought we were kidding when we said it doesn't matter where we eat, as long as we can see the TV and the game is on it. But we aren't laughing though. I literally called the restaurant to see if they could seat 8 in an area visible to the TV.  They said yes, but when we got there they couldn't. We sat at the bar. Think it's a game. No. LSU won that night. He was happy. It's cool though. Because who won the championship? That's right. Roll Tide. I don't remember the point of the Niagara Falls trip. But it was a good time.

Camping is one of those things I like to do that people say black people don't do. And surprisingly enough my honey can appreciate a good camping trip. My only request is plumbing. I don't pee in the woods. Since there's not much to do in upstate NY we went camping before the winter, because no one is camping in the snow. We went on a nature walk and did I mention I'm afraid of snakes? When they're slithering, mostly. But DO NOT LIKE. As we're walking this snake crossed the path and I F.R.O.Z.E. Granted he was a skinny worm of a thing but IDC IDC IDC!! It was a snake.  And he laughed at me because the snake was so small. I mean does the size of the snake change the strength of his poison?? I'm pretty sure it does NOT. Ugh! Hate those things. Then, that night while sleeping in the tent my dog begins to bark at noises outside. I am not familiar with the wild animals of upstate NY so in my head there's a pack of deer out there. Or bears! (What's a group of bears called?) So I'm like "Hey. Babe. What's out there?" As if he knows...he doesn't... And certainly doesn't want to go see! We really wanted Raven to shut up so whatever it was would leave. We'd left the cooler outside of the tent but it didn't sound like the animal was in the cooler. We tried peeping out of the tent to see and of course there are no street lights. So we can't see...and then....I had to pee....hahaha. He told me to hold it! hahaha Sir. No. I gotta pee. We eventually got the flashlight on this animal: Racoon and her 2 offspring eating Raven's dog food. Our bad Raven. Have a hotdog. The racoon ran away when it saw us and I got to go potty.

Since you know what I'm afraid of, let me tell you about my guy here. We were riding along I-81 and he was checking something on his phone. Out of nowhere he throws his phone at me and says, "GET IT!" I'm like WTF?! Get what?? "Spider on my phone!" hahahaha Oh sweetie. I love you. From then on I try to kill spiders on the sly. Especially if they're near him.  He's convinced his life is in danger. And don't let him see a spider web. Find that killer and kill it!!

Ignore the drunken Busick

In December we went to a military ball. I love getting dressed up. Shopping for formal wear is probably my favorite thing to shop for. Next to shoes. There was an older man there (I don't remember his rank) that really was jamming. Like old school doing the mashed potato. It was adorable. Penny wouldn't let me dance with him LOL. We were the life of this party because we like to dance. Throughout the night people would comment on how great we were. I'm bragging a little. But I like to know the chemistry between us is obvious.  Anyone you spend this much time with should make you happy. I am able to tune out the world when I am with him or opt to let them in. Either way I'm happy.  At the end of the night one of the military wives asked me how long we'd been married. When I told her we weren't married, we'd been dating for a year and a half she seemed surprised. And told me it looked as if we'd been together forever....either that or we were still in newlywed bliss. LOL I liked her.

Random snippets

My stories during grad school are all a blur. I have very little recollection of the order of these events so they may be a bit random unless tied to a particular holiday. Enjoy these random nuggets.

Our birthdays are both in August, the 11th and 12th so we of course decided to celebrate them together.  We had no idea what Rochester had to offer since I had only been there a month so it was kind of a random chain of events. For my birthday we went to dinner at a spot called One. Then out to a club.  In hindsight this club was a bad choice.  I'm pretty sure there were a lot of drag 'queens' (read: peasants) in that place.  But we had fun anyway. The music reminded us of undergrad which is weird because though we probably attended a lot of the same parties we never partied together. He also is pretty sexy when he Dougies (it's on my list of things I find hott that I don't see enough of; I'll share that with you one day).  I don't really care how far out of style that dance goes he can do it for me any time. We drank and danced. It sounds simple, and was simple. But we enjoyed the time together. He got me pretty inebriated. I walked/stammered back to the car talking to the sparkles in the sidewalk. It's much funnier in person and hard to detail in a blog.

I'm a fairly possessive person.  That can be taken in a few ways. But when I don't like a person, it's pretty consistent.  So there's a person I don't really care for one way or the other; of course, she's an ex. I was looking for a phone charger in his apartment one day and found a birthday card from this woman. It was about how he'll always be her "go to, number 1, got it all guy." Mmmhmm. Whatever chick. Nah he won't. The card was signed but not dated, so I don't really know what birthday this was from. In either case, I didn't like the card. I mostly didn't like that it still existed. I'm gonna guess it was from when he was in Afghanistan because it was with some other cards from then. Anyway, I sent a picture of it to my friend. Yes. Yes I did. I'm petty. Who gon check me?? I really only did it so she can have that same "Nuh unh girl!" reaction as me. That's all we do that crap for. That little moment where somebody hypes you up. Because let's be honest. I wasn't going to do anything about this card or the person that sent it. I'm not a fighter....most of the time. I did, however, tuck that card into my bag, ripped it up when I got home and threw it in the dumpster. Eff her and her feelings.

I met this guy while in grad school. He was cool but something about him felt a little off. Not initially. So we started hanging out and Tharius didn't like it. He's a little possessive too. He tries to act like he isn't....but...dude. Yea, you are. Anyway I went to hang out with this guy and lied and said I was somewhere else. I just didn't want to deal with the drama and the who what where when why....I mean it's not that serious. Yes, I am aware of how stupid that sounds. Anyway so Tharius found out later that I'd lied and, within reason, was pretty hot about it.  It turned into an argument, mostly about the lie. Which is what I was trying to avoid. Because then he thought I was cheating, but I genuinely believe in the ability of men and women to be platonic friends. You would think with all of his female friends he would too. But there's the double standard for you.  The argument wasn't really like our previous arguments. There was a calm, more discussion.  I guess this is when we began to mature.  There are more, personal details to this story, but the point has been made.

Geez, grad school was b o r i n g for our relationship stories...I'm really trying to think of things that happened. But literally all I remember is working part time and going to class. It kinda sucked. For both of us because he'd want to talk and I'd have to study. So I called him one day, randomly.  And asked him what he was doing. "Nothing," he says. Shocker...."Would you like to go on a date with me this weekend?" I asked. Of course this is all kinda out the blue so he sits there. Then he's like "What??" And LAUGHS (remember that). So I had to ask again. And despite my being his girlfriend for ever a year now, I was still nervous to ask him out on a date. I guess because it was different. Of course he said yes. Imagine how the rest of this blog would go if he'd said no. HA! So that weekend I was planning to go to him. For whatever reason he came to Rochester. Kinda messed my date up but it worked out.  Saturday morning I got up and started getting dressed. Told him what time he needed to be ready, and I left while he was in the shower. I walked down the street to a floral shop. His favorite flowers are carnations (it's a frat thing). They didn't have any. So I ended up getting white daisies. I took my time getting back because I wanted him to wonder where I was and I wanted him to be dressed when I got there. I knocked on the door (of my own apartment) and he opened it with confusion. Yes, this is a REAL date. He laughed (again) when I gave him flowers.  Then, I took him to get a couple's massage and then to dinner.  He was impressed. Either that or shocked it was a real date. We decided to do the date thing often, although we've both been slipping lately. We'll fix that when he moves in August.

Dinner during our date