My Fabulous Valentine

I had such a blast visiting B this weekend. Sure, going five weeks without seeing him was sure to bump-up the enthusiasm, but it was also just a fun weekend.

Work has been great, and they let me work from Durham on Friday, so I took off Thursday night, randomly flying with a coworker (my would-be dinner date during the Atlanta layover), which made the trip there go by so much faster. She and I hung out, sharing Wendy's in the A terminal before heading out on our respective final-destination flights.

When I got to Durham, I was sooo excited to see B. So excited, in fact, that I didn't even really mind that they'd made me gate-check my bag through to Atlanta, meaning we had to wait at baggage claim for a good 40 minutes before little red bumped its way down the conveyor belt.

We packed it in and headed home. Funny, I typed that without thinking, but B's apartment really is going to be both our home soon. Our first home. Aww. It didn't hurt that the "first home" also had a pile of chocolate, a pretty necklace, and the most beautiful pink roses I've ever seen waiting for me.

Anyway, I got up on Friday and got to work while B headed off to do a session at the tax place. I have no idea what he really does, except that he helps people who can't afford to pay do their taxes. It's fun, because I get to hear stories of him helping the single mom or the guy with three jobs. It's giving back, B style, and it makes us both happy.

He came home and brought a late-lunch picnic, which was fantastic, then we headed out for a walk to the grocery store to stock-up on ingredients for our much-anticipated Valentine's dinner in. That night, we headed to a super adorable local Italian restaurant with pretty much the best service I've ever had, and at a much more reasonable price than expected. If you're ever in the area, Tosca is a much-eat. We had a fabulous dinner, then headed home for a couch night of movies and orange sherbet (my favorite).

Saturday, Valentine's Day, was a hoot. I re-celebrated my presents (including a fabulous one-- a framed copy of Mom and Dad's Christmas letter with B and I as top billing), then we headed out to pick up my niece E for a special lunch. Saturday was also E's sister's birthday, so we thought we'd get double point by having a fun lunch with E and letting her parents get ready for the party with at least one kiddo out of the house.

We took E to the mall where we stopped first to get B measured for his tux. Hilarious. I'm pretty sure everyone thought that she was our kid, which just made it more funny. E is really smart, and was so taken by everything. Why was B only wearing one shoe? Why weren't all his shirt buttons buttoned? Why wasn't he wearing a tie when all the other tux models in the pictures were? Questions, questions, questions. So fun, plus I got to explain to her what she was to do during the wedding. Fair Warning: If you get pelted with flowers by an over-eager flower girl, it's all my fault!

We walked around the mall then headed to Chick-Fil-A for lunch, then let E play in the playplace before getting strawberry milkshakes ("Why do they make strawberry milkshakes if they don't make blueberry?" Excellent question, if you ask me.) and heading home in time for E's nap. Let's just say that the ride home was verrrrry quiet without the slightest straw noises coming from the backseat.

Back at E's house, we walked in and witnessed a very fun and sweet moment. E went over to S (birthday girl! turned one that day...) and popped out her pacifier. Before my sister could reprimand her, E stuck the milkshake straw right in S's mouth. She turned to us and said, "Do you think she likes it?" Sweet!

So we hopped everyone up on sugar then headed out so that naps could ensue. B and I lounged around for a few hours before going for a walk, then heading back to the girls' house to celebrate the first birthday party where everyone had a blast, including the birthday girl, who ate her entire mini cake, plus any leftover bites of cake left in bowls on any table within reaching distance.

B and I headed home and passed out from our own sugar coma, then I got started on dinner, Coq au Vin, which is surprisingly easy and over-the-top delicious. We'd marinated it overnight in the red-wine sauce and everything, everything about it was amazing. We toasted a Valentine's Day very well done with more sherbet and a little Bourne, though I'm still not sure which one we saw.

Thanks to the long weekend, Sunday was just perfect. We didn't do much of note, just grabbed sandwiches from Foster's for lunch, then delicious cheesy goodness for dinner from a local Mexican joint.

Monday I went to school with B, sitting in on one class and hanging out like a cool kid in the student area during lunch before heading back to the airport. The countdown is on to the next visit (March!) and I can't wait. 81 days until the wedding, and it can't come fast enough.