Made in Richmond

(Credit to Patience for posting it first.)

During my freshman year of college, my friends and I listened to Pat McGee Band’s Shine on repeat for about 7 months.

I walked into the office this morning and heard it playing - probably for the first time in about 6 years. It instantly took me back to sitting in my dorm room listening to Haven’t Seen For a While over and over again, brooding over how much I missed Ross who was all the way in Blacksburg.

It’s funny because I don’t really listen to music like that anymore. And because as I was curled up on my bed crying, Ross was probably gathered around a computer, laughing with his friends to this.

Love is when your husband has a fancy grilled cheese sandwich* waiting for you when you get home from work, even though you’ve been too busy to talk to him for the last two days.

*homemade bread, fresh mozzarella, pesto, and a slice of tomato

Ross and I spent a lot of time talking about some major decisions coming down the road for us, the most expensive of which involving where/when we are going to move. We’re not sure what the best decision is yet, but whichever path we choose will require big fat checks with more zeros than I want to think about.

Back when we were getting ready to buy our first house, we spent essentially no money. We ate at home, we hung out at home, we got the occasional dinner out when my in-laws were in town, but that was it. It paid off and a few months later we wrote the biggest check of our entire lives.

It took us a while to realize that we didn’t need to live such a stingy life once our savings account had been replenished. But eventually, we settled into a fairly relaxed (but by no means decadent) approach to money. Blessedly, we have never had a situation where a financial need arose that we didn’t have the cash on hand to cover it. We both work very hard and have somehow managed to become fairly comfortable pretty early in our life together.

We’ll be down-shifting back to a spending freeze over the next few months. Fewer nights out, more meals at home, and and no more impulse buys for anything at all. And while I’m somewhat dreading having to be super-conscious of every penny, Ross and I do so well when we’ve got something like this focus on. Solidarity comes out of shared sacrifice and I’m excited for what these lean times will bring.

This:

Ross turned 27 about 30 minutes ago. We went to Cous Cous for drinks with many friends and had a great time. Thanks to everyone who came out.

I love you, hubs. Happy Birthday! I love you.

Rather than spending this evening cleaning or putting up Christmas decorations or, I don’t know, functioning as a human being, I watched every existing episode of Quarter Life. It is now my new favorite thing and my heart aches at the thought that I have to wait until the next episode.

Jed is my favorite, played by Scott M. Foster. Every time he’s on screen I think, “Oh my gosh, he is SO CUTE.” And then I realized something. Take a look at this picture of him. The light blue eyes. The defined chin. The wavy brown hair that curls up at the ends. The belly flip-flop-inducing smirk. He is just my type.

He just spent 2 hours at Costco by himself, buying the food for tomorrow’s Loaves & Fishes. He hates to go to the store even to buy food for the two of us, so the fact that he was getting us ready to feed 30-40 people was wonderful.

He and I haven’t really seen each other since Wednesday around 7:00 when he tossed a black bean pie into the oven before running off to a finance meeting for our church. He was home for about 10 minutes to eat and then was off again for Beerble. Thursday and Friday were a blur of work, sick, and previously scheduled obligations.

Now he’s off watching the game with friends - a well-deserved break.

I just miss him.

“I wish eyeballs had cameras, don’t you?”

When Ross and I got married we decided that if he cooked, I would clean.

Lately, I’ve still been cleaning but the cooking hasn’t so much been happening. To his credit, Ross has taken ownership of the situation and is doing his best to make amends.

And make amends he did…with the spectacular baked potato of spectacularness.

I would have taken a picture but I ate it too fast. The potato, not the picture. But I can tell you that it involved mayonaisse (otherwise known as the juice of the gods), butter (the other juice of the gods), sour cream (the other other juice of the gods), chives, and REAL bacon (as it said on the package).

Now, I’m wondering where the chocolate ice cream is.