Week from Hell (Sort of)

In the last 36 hours, I've: gotten into a (minor) car accident, fallen on icy stairs, realized I might owe Comcast more than $200 for a mix-up involving cable boxes, and gotten (unwarrantedly) pulled over for an expired registration sticker.

Oy.

However, in other news, Barack Obama is now President Obama, we got a Wii, and I'm still engaged to the love of my life. So, it's not all bad. :)

Inauguration Day

You guys, in about thirty minutes, America is going to have its first ever multi-racial president! Seriously, the son of a black father & a white mother is about to become the leader of one of the most racially conflicted countries in the world.

How f-ing amazing. :)

Perspective

Very interesting op-ed piece in the NY Times yesterday about what Lincoln might have thought of Obama. Co-authored by a great scholar, Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

An especially fitting piece given that Obama reminds me of both Lincoln & MLK in many ways. Today, of course, is the day that we celebrate the man we lost on April 4, 1968, to the detriment of the civil rights movement & American society as a whole.

Big Brother, Little Brother

Well, I guess this photo means that Thing 1 & Thing 2 are finally old enough to start actively playing with each other! We're gearing up for a good decade of bumping, bruising, and "he hit me first!". ;)

Also: Thing 2's jeans are falling down, showing a white expanse of diaper & prompting his picture-viewing auntie to involuntarily throw out a "Pull your pants up, young man!" Then, giggle.

New Music!

So The Boy got me a Zune for Christmas and paid for a 3-month Zune pass (& its eventual renewal). I call this the {His Name} Scholarship Fund for Music Education. ;)

Since we set up the account last night, I've downloaded over 100 songs, from a variety of artists (mostly old punk & reggae and new-ish indie Brit rock): The Kooks, Bad Brains, Vampire Weekend, Sex Pistols, The Clash, X-Ray Spex, The Hold Steady, Siouxsie & the Banshees, Junior Murvin, Mikey Dread, The Pogues, Buzzcocks, Pixies, early Black Flag, Mission of Burma, M.I.A., The Ting Tings. . . Obviously, there's lots more to do, but anyone have any favorite band suggestions?

By Way of Explanation

Finally . . . I've been itching to write this post for awhile now. Since I've told you all so very little about The Boy, it'll be a combination "how we met" & "how we got engaged" post. ;)

At this point, we've been together for a little over three months. However, we first met last May & saw each other often (about once a week) as friends over the summer. We were on a weekly trivia team together. He was actually interested in our third team member, a good friend of mine, when we first met. After a couple of weeks, though, they both had decided the spark wasn't there. By about mid-August, he & I were interested in each other, but not sure how to begin something.

Eventually, after everyone (including us) knew we liked each other, we went on a proper date. And things just fell into place from there (although I did joke to him on our first date, "I hate dating someone I know! You know all of my cute, funny first-date stories already!"). With the exception of a few scattered days in the very beginning and a 3-day conference I attended in November, we haven't spent a day apart since September. We said "I love you" at 1 month, "forever?" at 2 months, and made the latter official with a ring around 3 months.

I had a hard time believing it was real at first. I've had some major break-ups in the past few years. However, as I've told him, my past relationships have actually helped me figure out the elements of our relationship that are fundamentally different than others I've been in. And every day with him strengthens my conviction that he's really the one for me.

Besides, I've never been anything but completely myself around him & I've thrown some pretty strange, vulnerable, and nerdy parts of me at him. Somehow, they make him love me more, not less. I guess it must be right, then. ;)