On Sunday evening, Kyle and I were planning to go out to dinner. He had made reservations at Le Soir, which I had never been to. He was ready first (shocker) and took care of Indy while I was getting ready. I called him in to look at how I was dressed - I was feeling funny about the dress because I hadn't worn it much and wasn't sure I liked how it was styled. He seemed to agree...said something was missing. He had me turn around, then when I turned back he got on one knee and pulled out a ring box.

"Are you sure you want to marry me?"

We've asked each other this question repeatedly for the last few months, mostly joking, often in response to one of us getting snippy with the other. This was the best time. Thankfully, I didn't mess up my eye makeup.

The ring in the box is a beautiful art deco piece. What seals it for me - it was his great-grandmothers. She was married in 1924, the year my grandmother was married. Her daughter, Kyle's maternal grandmother, was born two years later. Despite the lady having very tiny hands, her 4.5 sized ring fits my left hand perfectly.

We had a lovely dinner at the restaurant, which is intimate and lovely. The food and wine were delicious, the atmosphere was comfortable and the service was divine. We left phones in the car and specifically waited until dinner was over before I sent the picture of the ring on my hand to my mom, sister, aunt and his mother. Phone calls ensued. Changed Facebook status led to more phone calls and text messages, as well as a flurry of FB congrats and emails.

So basically...I'm engaged!

Such a nice day

Had lovely lunch today with Angel. It was so beautiful that we had our salads outside. She then took me shopping where we found some beautiful things for me and a few for Kyle. We then got an iced coffee from Starbucks. It was, in short, a wonderful afternoon.

Turkey is in the oven for dinner tonight. There will be dressing (at Kyle's request) and green beans - a mini Thanksgiving! I'm going to try to get the house cleaned up tonight so that I can spend all of tomorrow at the DMV if necessary. But, at the end of it, I should have Virginia plates and it will be one less thing to do when I move down.

Mom and Dad will get tomorrow night late and be here for the weekend. Sadly, Mom lost her dog Sasha, who they believe was eaten by a coyote. Heartbreaking. We're all sad but hopefully our dogs will do their part to cheer her up. We're looking forward to a fun weekend with them and introducing them to Va Beach and the family here. Very excited!

Random Compliments

I was at Walgreen's buying spumante to get me through the evening, which is going to be long and exhausting. Sometimes, you need something sweet and bubbly. Anyway, the cashier had to see my ID because they card everyone, and she commented that I don't look my age. I thanked her and joked a little about the preventative cost of wrinkle creams, and moved on with my evening. A few weeks ago a man approached me in the grocery store and told me I was beautiful, before shyly returning to his shopping without another word.

Compliments are awesome. Compliments from a stranger are doubly awesome. They don't stand to gain anything out of it. My boyfriend is very good about the compliments and I know they're utterly sincere. He does them very well (one of his favorites is to call me a rocket scientist, which is the best because being pretty is fine, but knowing he thinks I'm brilliant is the best). But they are part of the fabric of our relationship - reminding each other that we think the other is smart/funny/attractive etc is just good relationship habits.

Strangers don't have that. I didn't compliment her and thus she was returning it. Nope, she just said it. I try really hard to give compliments to people when I believe them. I tell women I don't know when I like their hair/shoes/bag all the time. As a gender, we've been told that it's normal to look at every other woman as competition. I don't believe that and have been on the receiving end of such treatment and can tell you that it's no fun. But as nice as a compliment from a man is, a compliment from another woman will make your whole day better. Add a spring in your step. If women could stop looking at each other as competition, imagine how much more civil a world we would live in. Then we could turn out competitive sights where they belong - to men, who still make 20 cents on the dollar more than we do.

Random compliments to strangers today => pay raises in the future.

Finals Week Meltdown

Usually I'm very good under pressure, especially in immediate emergency situations. I'm the person you want around when a window falls in on your employees (totally happened) - I am always calm, quick and decisive in those situations.

I'd kill for a falling window.

I am utterly swamped by paper writing and just had my first official finals week meltdown. I'm currently functioning on just shy of 2 hours of sleep. I sat down to work and realized the enormous amount of writing in front of me and the very small window of time I have to do it in. I lost it.

Thankfully, Kyle wasn't in court that moment and talked me off the figurative ledge. He assured me that I could get it done, that it will not keep my from grad school, that undergrad professors are not as detailed as I think they are, etc. He gave what I usually give others in this situation - clear direction and a calm, confident tone. I can't take his direction exactly because of variables he didn't know about, but I feel better. I'm going to jump in the shower and get dressed, then finish the stuff I absolutely have to do here, gather my materials and head to school. I can work from the library and prep for my last test (at 1), which is thankfully mostly studied for.

Cross your fingers. I might be able to finish this.

Recap

I had a wonderful weekend. It would take up too much bandwidth to go through the whole thing, so the highlights (in chronological order):

1. A fantastic 5 hour conversation with my sister from New Jersey to Virginia Beach on my drive down.

2. Lots of fun on an afternoon spent with Angel having lunch and shopping (and a cute outfit from Mardy!).

3. A spectacular night out with Kyle in a hotel room that overlooked the water (in beautiful weather) and a delicious new restaurant.

4. Breakfast with Kyle's beyond cool cousins and their wives.

5. A productive afternoon of cleaning, which I didn't initiate.

6. Dinner at a really lovely locals only restaurant (seriously, it's in the middle of a residential neighborhood).

7. Lunch with one of my favorite couples and their beyond adorable baby, KET.

8. A relaxing evening watching movies with my love and hanging out.

9. A drive back enjoyed on the phone with my mother.

10. Dinner with a good friend who brought fabulous wine and test ran my ravioli (which he declared a success once we figured out how to make it not-stick).

Good? Absolutely! I'm tired and bed is calling me, but I am satisfied and happy. I have a Calc test on Thursday, so until then my life belongs to calculus, but I'm going into it in a great place.

Summary of a Wonderful Weekend

I had the most amazing weekend. Yes, it's Tuesday (okay, Wednesday) already, but the weekend went through Monday so I'm justified in being a little late.

Kyle was in this weekend, which means it would have been amazing if we had stayed in the house. We did not, however. Now, among my boy's many charms is his utter detestation of the snow. Not to mention he has no natural defense against it at all. I would not have been surprised if we hibernated this weekend for although we had sunny, clear days, the temperature peaked at about 30.

But no, we braved the cold! On Saturday, we saw Black Swan, which was fantastic. Haunting is a great word for it. They mean it when they call it a psychological thriller. Amazing, truly amazing. Everyone was really great in it, but Natalie Portman gave a truly thrilling performance. She also did all her own dancing except for the long shots that required her to be en pointe for an extended period (it takes years of training to be able to stay en pointe for long lengths of time and though she trained for a year, I'm glad she didn't risk breaking her feet). Even hours later, we were still talking about it. It sticks with you. Wow. Just wow.

After the movie, we grabbed dinner at The Melting Pot, which I always like. Kyle, who is not a fan of cheese, braved a cheese course and liked it. The chocolate course is always amazing and we shared an outstanding bottle of wine. He is dedicated to his pursuit to get me to like reds. Afterwards, we caught another movie, this time True Grit. Completely different and truly fantastic. I like westerns since they have a lot of what I like in movies. We already knew Matt Damon and Jeff Bridges could act and Josh Brolin was unsurprisingly captivating for his few minutes on screen. But hands down the movie was owned by Hailee Steinfeld. What a debut. I think it's tragic the way it was shut out of the Golden Globes, but this girl has some future ahead of her.

We came home and watched Social Network, which we both missed in theaters. It was good, I certainly enjoyed it and it was interesting. Justin Timberlake was really good - he's got some chops and I'm glad to see him getting bigger roles. However...I don't understand why everyone thought it was so groundbreaking. Maybe it's because it's the topic that was fascinating - we all use facebook, even if we hate it, and seeing how it started, and how young they were, is really interesting. Maybe it's just because we saw two really phenomenal movies earlier, but it didn't wow me. I'd watch it again and I enjoyed it, but eh.

Sunday we ventured into the city and saw Avenue Q. Everyone knows I'm a Broadway fan, but Kyle is not the biggest musical guy. I thought swearing puppets might be a good intro and, thankfully, he really seemed to enjoy it. I was disappointed that the understudy for Kate/Lucy the Slut had such a weak voice. Kate has some great songs and, more importantly, an important vocal line in the harmonies, so the performance was missing something without a strong vocal. Maybe the girl got called in at the last minute - it was the matinee. But the show was fun, regardless. We followed with the thing Kyle had been truly looking forward to - dinner at Brasserie Les Halles, Anthony Bourdain's restaurant before he became a chef at large. The menu hadn't changed since he was there and it was to die for. We had clams for a starter, then I had scallops in a champagne sauce while Kyle had steak tartar. Spectacular. The food tasted so good, I couldn't even describe it. For desert Kyle had profiteroles, which were new to him, and I had the most amazing creme brule I have ever tasted. The sugar was so thick, I had to take a good whack at it to crack it. The bourdeoux was had was eh and definitely did nothing for the scallops, but the port we had with dinner (and shared with our neighbors on both sides) was divine. Truly a fantastic dining experience. I really want to go there for breakfast...

As if the weekend couldn't get any better, Kyle gave me the most beautiful earrings for my birthday. Simple, elegant and classy, they will be added to the staples of my jewelry collection. The man has excellent taste (though no surprise there). And the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. His parents gave me a really lovely charm bracelet, which came with a puppy print (Indy), a horse (I ride), J heart K, a garnet (my birthstone) and a mortarboard (for school). Not only is it beautiful and utterly versatile, it clearly took some thought and time to put together, which I appreciate even more.

So, a week before my birthday and I'm already feeling utterly spoiled. I have 2 lab reports and a final this week - but at least I'm going into it with a smile.