Handy Dandy Timeline

I read from this website daily: soyourreengayged.com. A new contributor was added this week and she tells her story. I enjoy reading it...how they met, how they dated, how they proposed, etc. But I am always curious about the past. Not sure why that is...I attribute it to my nosiness. Maybe it's because once you find that SOMEBODY, you don't need to look back at the past. Your past is why you are the way you are NOW tho, right?

But I find comfort in reading about others coming out process, if I can possibly relate? It was painful for me, it left me with some scars, but I did it, and I survived...and I continue to. If you have your story documented or would just like to share, I'm all ears.

She had a handy dandy timeline of events...which, coincidentally, my Wife and I were discussing just last night when we considered our first kiss. We were watching the Tonight Show and theywere interviewing couples and would ask that question while one spouse had ear phones on so their S.O. couldn't hear them. She turned to me in bed and asked "when was our first kiss? In Phase I or Phase II?". I sometimes wish there was no Phase I, but other times I wouldn't trade those high school years we "fooled around" for anything. It helps me to know HER, her history, her family, where we came from. I love a commonplace. I love that we're from the same small town, both got out of that small town and experienced some life, then somehow through aligning of the stars and planets came back together to enter Phase II.

We determined Phase I first kiss was Feb 3 (2/3), Phase II July 23 (7/23). We have always remembered the 2/3 (first) kiss in high school because it's my dad's birthday. Our Phase II first kiss was in Las Vegas. The rest is history...

Dying

I want it to be documented, so I'm writing it here in cyberverse where nothing ever really disappears.

I was talking to my mom on the phone Thursday before going in to work. We were talking about getting old, aging, taking care of yourself, etc. She said she wondered recently if there was any one out there whose heart would possibly never stop beating. I guess I had never pondered that scenario. I don't think that medical condition exists. She said my dad used to jokingly say he was going to live to be 110 but that recently he has said he wouldn't want to. I told her maybe she and dad would have that "condition" she speaks of. She said "i wouldn't want to die because of you two (meaning my sister and me) but if it weren't for ya'll, I'm ready right now". I think I was in too much shock to say anything so I told her I needed to get in the hospital and get to work. Afterwards I got to thinking about what she said, and analyzing. It came across that she is miserable. That she is truly ready to leave this world. I can not conceive or comprehend that. I have SO much to live for! I take into consideration her age, 61, but that still seems young to say such a thing. Maybe I am putting too much thought into it and she was just meaning she's ready to go, in a religious sense. But she qualified it by mentioning my sister and me, so I know what she REALLY meant. She has never been a happy person, so it's fitting she would say such. My dad once told me a long time ago that if it weren't a sin he would have done something with his own life.

So...when my mom and dad are no longer here, I can come back to this post and KNOW they were ready to go, almost WANTING it. It makes me sad.

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

I need to play the lotto, slots, or a game of 21. I won Natasha Bedingfield tickets from a social networking site. This is the third thing we have won in the last few weeks. I am so excited, I love her music!! "A-N-G-E-L..." The concert starts at 9 pm...and I have to be at work at 7 am the following day. Can you say coffee?? I bought a My K-cup off ebay this week. Hoping I will use my Keurig more now.

We booked $40 flights to Chicago. We're going to stay with my cousin. That will be late September...hopefully the smell of fall will be in the air. We will most likely be on a budget...serious budget, but life is too short to sit at home and worry about money, right?

xoxo

This is life...

So the biggest difference in the life I had before my Wife and now...MOVIES! We rarely watch them. There never seems to be time. Our DVR is constantly full, and we feel some sort of mysterious pressure to watch something from the DVR queue when we are home. I miss my movies...We had planned for a date night, Saturday. I could hardly wait...a MOVIE!! YAY!! My Wife got cheap groupon tickets, and I also found more this week from living social. That means two movie date nights!!

I registered for free Bonnaroo tickets on a social networking site. I WON!! I couldn't believe it. I didn't even know who was playing but after looking at the list I got excited, then I began thinking about the reality of the event. The sweat. The no showers. The crowd. The heat. YUCK! We have been planning a little min-getaway with my MIL and her BF. After the Wife and I talked about it, we decided to sell our B'roo tickets and use the money for our vacation. We put them on ebay and craigslist. After several no-shows and scams, I finally sold them to a girl who was "thinking" about going. $400 cash in pocket. Funny thing?? Our vacation rental was exactly $400!

The same day I won the B'roo tickets, the Wife received a 4 day pass (minus 1 day because her boss was going to use them) to the music festival downtown from her boss. How lucky could we be? We should have played the lottery. I was MUCH more excited about this, at least there were assigned seats and some sort of organization to the event. The main people I wanted to see were going to be there. We got there at 8 pm Thursday night. I saw "looks" as we were making our way to our general admission seats. I even saw a girl whisper something to her friend and the friend said "shhhh". My wife always gives the benefit of the doubt, and told me they could have been talking about ANYTHING but us...but I just had a feeling they had an issue with us. We never show any PDA but my Wife wears guy clothes, and that is what gets the looks. I like what she wears, but it seems that sometimes when we are going to place that would be more conservative she wears things even MORE masculine. I honestly don't think she does it consciously, but I don't think she "thinks" about what others might say or think, either. Good for her. I wish I could be less observant...less noticing...less worried someone is going to SAY something. I often think if they say something...what will my response be? I never have to worry if my Wife is with me because she will spout some four letter obscenities at them in a heartbeat. That's not my style. I would rather ignore them or possibly embarrass the person saying the negative comments. Not her, she's always ready to spout from the mouth. I'm not saying it's a bad thing...I'm just more the type to let someone run over me. I think it comes from her competitive days of sports. She's just not gonna take shit off anyone. Most of her family is the same way, they grew up not afraid of standing up for themselves, or their family members. Something I will have to get used to.

I worked at the hospital the next day, oh was I tired!! I got a text right after lunch from my Wife asking if I could call her. I "guessed" that she was going to tell me her boss couldn't use the tickets that night. She wouldn't confirm, so I called her. She said "he can't go...do you want to?" OH MY GOSH! I was so excited because my fav band was going to be there (Sugarland). I'm totally convinced the female singer is a lesbian, and a very nice looking one at that!! We chose to enter the stadium and go to the gen. admission area a different way from the night before. WOW we got AWESOME seats!! We were parallel with the stage and had a great view, much better than the night before. The people that were sitting around us were SO friendly, what a much better night!!

Saturday we got up and went to the riverstage area and listened to Crystal Bowersox sing. Then we went to meet Robin Meade at her meet and greet booth. What a beautiful lady!! My Wife's aunt is infatuated with her, so I had been trying to think of a way to get Robin to say "hello" to her. First I thought about a phone call, but she wouldn't be able to replay that over and over, so I thought about the Flip I got my Wife for our anniversary and see if she would say hello to the camera, afterall, that's what she is used to! And she did!!! Here's the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uOjKhCGXmg

Aunt Judy about went to heaven when she viewed the video. We really made her day, I was so glad. She thinks we ROCK!!

Saturday night was date night...we used a wedding gift card and ate at Olive Garden...then we went to see Bridesmaids. We laughed for two solid hours. What a funny movie...think we'll have to buy that one!!

Sunday we went back down to the festival and listened to Robin Meade sing on the plaza. She's a great singer..awesome voice!! My fav was her cover of "Dirty Laundry". The songs she has written were also good.

Work for me is slow...wish it would be more consistent. I've got baby fever. I don't want to have a baby until I am certain of how much $$ I will bring home every month. Thankfully, my Wife has a very consistent income. I've been picking up more days at the hospital, which helps. I am hearing that insurance companies are not pre-approving people for surgery as readily as they once were. Hope this is a phase.

Great weekend....Great life.

Honeymoon Part Deux

A little hungover, we got up and had coffee and a ham & brie croissant at Gregory's Cofffee that was right across the street from the hotel. We then headed to Little Italy, thinking we were hungry. When we got there we decided we weren't. So we walked around Little Italy awhile and over in Chinatown. Did I mention I was PMS'ing? Had to find a Duane Read for those supplies, ick!

We walked enough to increase our appetites and decided upon lunch at Da Gennaro and dined al fresco. I had manicotti and my Wife had chicken fetuccini. It was very delicious. We walked over to Ferrara's Bakery and got 2 mini canoli's to share, yum!!! After this, we just walked around site seeing. Walked up to So Ho - I saw Dash, the Kardashians store. We saw a store called Teno that had some really amazing jewelry inside and we decided to check out their website when we returned home to see just how expensive it was! I stopped at a little store side mini cupcake place and we shared 3 mini cupcakes. It was either called Designs by Melissa or Cupcakes by Melissa. Very cute idea and very good and fresh. In thinking, I guess we got the mini cupcakes prior to going back to Little Italy and eating lunch. We then took the subway back to Times Square hoping to see the naked cowboy, but no luck. Then we headed over to Rockefeller Center and hung around while drinking mango smoothies from Ben & Jerrys. We saw the NBC plaza and walked around in the concourse below the plaza. Afterwards we headed back to the hotel to get ready for our play.

We got tickets for The House of Blue Leaves at the Walter Kerr Theater. We picked this one based on getting online and looking up broadway shoes with celebrities. This one sounded very good to both of us. Had Ben Stiller, Edie Falco, Jennifer Jason Leigh in it. We decided to take hire a pedicab to take us over to the theatre. It wasn't far, but we were a little short on time and I had very sore feet and was not wearing the most comfortable shoes. It was fun - I had to hold my dress down due to wind, and had to use my Wife's assistance at times! Good stuff!! We got drink in the theater, wine and beer. They serve each in glass with a sippy cup top on it! It was hilarious. Not sure the reasoning, but funny nonetheless. It was very cool to see the celebrities up close. Ben Stiller's dad ,Jerry, was there and we also saw Hank Azaria there, as well. If not for the celebrities, I would have been very disappointed in the play. It was alright, but wouldn't have been if we didn't get to see the famous people. In talking, my Wife said she felt the same way. It was still a good time. We left the theater and got another (too expensive $17) pedicab to take us to our reservations at Bar Americain. It was only a few blocks from the theatre, but too far to walk with my shoes.

Bar Americain is one of Bobby Flay's restaurants. Our reservation was for 10:30pm, so it wasn't very crowded. We started with a shrimp cocktail that was good. It came with a mole/wasabi type sauce that neither of us were extremely fond of. I got sea scallops for my entree and my Wife got a filet. We ordered a side of Fries Americain which came with a very yummy dipping sauce. But, the fries weren't anything special - just normal fries. Guess I expected a little more. We also got Hot Potato Chips w/ a Blue Cheese Sauce. It was pretty good. Not better than Stony River's blue cheese chips, but good. I loved my scallops and my Wife's steak was very good. Too full for dessert. We took a taxi back to hotel and off to bed.

Saturday morning we decided to go to Central Park before we had to head to airport. We got up and got coffee at Gregory's again. Checked out of hotel and had them hold our luggage. We decided to walk up instead of subway. Was good b/c we got to walk up 5th avenue and see all the shops. Saks 5th Ave, Versace, Adana. There was an Abercrombie and Fitch that we decided must have been having a grand opening or something. There was a line waiting to get in at the door and it went around the corner of the block. There were models standing inside the doors - literally like the models you see on the sides of their bags they give you. Crazy! We saw St. Patricks and got some pics. Made it to central park and decided to do a horse drawn carriage ride - was very romantic (bargained for $40). We walked through more of the park after. Saw part of the Central Park Zoo, Wolman Rink, mall and fountain. Stayed here a couple hours and headed back to hotel. Got almost back to hotel and realized we must have looked out our watches wrong, b/c we still had an hour before we had to head to airport. Decided to go get coffee and people watch in Times Square and maybe look for the naked cowboy again. Starbucks was packed so we walked across the street to Europa Cafe. Decided to get a bite to eat here as well. Sat in a window seat and watched peeps walk by. I mentioned going up to AE and getting a NY shirt so we headed there. Ended up with several shirts, a hoodie, and a bag! Stopped at a souvenir store and found my Wife a cool NY hat and we also got a picture frame, too. Sadly, it's time to get to airport.

Walked to hotel and got cab to La Guardia. The airport was dead!! We decided Saturday is a great travel day! Got on the plane and made our way back to Nashville.

Home on Sunday and I am having a very lazy and wonderful Sunday with MY WIFE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I could not be happier and could not have had a more perfect wedding and honeymoon.......except if it had been longer and never-ending. I am the luckiest and most fortunate woman in the world.

Our Slideshow

It will only be up a few more days, but thought I would share. Our online gallery will be available soon. I will post as soon as all the photos are edited and uploaded. We also received our reception photos...can't wait for you to see them, as well.

http://www.kellyprizel.com/slideshows/AmandaBrianne/

Images by Kelly Prizel Photography