Adventures

Four years ago today, Dustin drove up to Atlanta and we met in person for the first time. After meeting on LJ two months prior to that, chatting online and countless hours on the phone talking, we decided to make the leap and meet in person. You can read my account of the weekend and his account of that first weekend together. The best part of his LJ entry is this: Then we (and Cody) went outside and walked down the creek towards the waterfall. THE WATERFALL WAS GORGEOUS! She told me the story of how her parents had met on the waterfalls (which are on her dad’s family’s property), how they had gotten engaged on the waterfalls, and how they had gotten married on the waterfalls (sounds like we need to start a new tradition ;-D ).

Two and a half years after that day (and exactly 31 years after my dad proposed to my mom), we got engaged at that same waterfalls. Three and a half years after that day, we got married at that same waterfalls.

Happy anniversary, Dustin! I love you!

I spent my Valentine's Day with a sweet, handsome guy named Brenden. Of course, he was three years old and still wears diapers, but it was still a good night. :-) He had a bit of trouble falling asleep, but nothing I couldn't handle. I went to Brenden's house 30 minutes before his parents were scheduled to leave, so his mom could show me around and Brenden could get used to me. It was obvious they haven't had many babysitters, because Brenden spent 20 of the 30 minutes saying "Mommy I need you" and "Mommy I love you." But I managed to get him to start playing play-doh with me, and he loved that and then was totally fine with letting his parents leave him for the night! They must've been impressed with me because they paid me $50 instead of our earlier-agreed-upon fee of $35. Wahoo!

Dustin and I didn't really celebrate Valentine's day, although he is taking off work on Friday so he can come down on Thursday, instead of Friday night! He also has Monday off of work (yea president's day!) so we'll have an extra-long weekend together. I know it sounds cheesy, but spending such a long weekend together is a much better treat than any flowers or cutesy teddy bears or anything like that. Lately I've been so bummed out about being long distance again, all I can think about during the week is "How many more days until I see him again." I just do my homework and do what I need to do to get through to the weekend. It doesn't help that the one other thing I've been looking forward to most weeks, w(h)ine Wednesday, hasn't happened these past two weeks. Blargh.

I talked to my brother today for nearly two hours. That was an interesting conversation. He told me all about his weekend and what he got his girlfriend for Valentine's Day, and while I'm glad I'm not in the "beginnings of a relationship where things are so new and you're trying to figure out what to buy the SO for a holiday/birthday" stage, I wish Dustin and I did more couply things. Last weekend when I went to visit him, we went out with his friends for dinner. And then went to WalMart to buy him some deodarant and some tampons for me. Oh, the excitement. I know we can go out on real dates every weekend or anything, but a real nice date would be nice. We go out to eat a lot when we're together, since I don't have a kitchen in the dorm and dining hall food sucks on the weekends, and when I'm up there it's usually not worth it to go buy ingredients to cook for just two meals, but it's not like an exciting "we're going on a date" dinner, so much as "we're hungry and need to eat." So I kinda miss those early times in our relationship, where we planned out day trips for our weekends together, and had dates, and did other exciting things. Or maybe I just miss him.

For Thanksgiving, Dustin and I went down to visit his family in North Florida. The last time we visited Lake City was over Labor Day, so this was the first visit since our engagement and of course everyone wanted to hear about it, see pictures, and see the ring.

He drove to Atlanta on Tuesday night and we left for Florida late Wednesday morning. The traffic was horrendous - we were in stop and go traffic for nearly two hours just south of Atlanta. Ugh. Once we got down to Macon, the drive went much better, and we ended up in Lake City after 6.5 hours (normally it takes 4.5 hours) of driving. I was quite relieved when we finally got to Granny's house and we could unpack and just get out of the truck for a bit. That night, we went out to dinner with Kevin and Kristen. It was so nice to see them and hang out again. I only wish we all lived closer to each other so we could hang out more often! Dustin officially asked Kevin to be his best man (awwww). Then we went home and talked to Granny for awhile before going to bed.

On Thursday, we woke up and went to Thanksgiving lunch at Aunt Sue's house to see his mother's side of the family. There was so much food! In my family gatherings, everyone is instructed what to bring, so all the dishes and food groups are covered. In Dustin's family, everyone makes what they wants, so you never know what you'll be eating until you get there. It's crazy, but cool, too. Anyhow, the food was delicious and there was much eating to be had. I stepped a way for a few minutes to call my family and wish them a happy Thanksgiving and request that a slice of peanut butter pie is saved for me. After lunch, we went back to Granny's and hung out there for awhile, sitting and talking with her. I worked on my senior paper for a bit before Dustin and I decided to go to WalMart to pick up some Christmas gifts before the Black Friday rush and see RENT! RENT was amazing. I was quite impressed. I wasn't too fond of the dream sequence part of Tango Maureen, the scene for "Take Me or Leave Me," and Roger's trip to Santa Fe reminded me too much of a 90's Michael Bolton music video. But other than those small things, the movie was incredible. I cried at a few parts, and despite the fact that I dragged Dustin to see it with me, he enjoyed it and actually cried a few times, too! If I had any doubt that we shouldn't get married, him crying over RENT sealed the deal. He's the one for me. ;-)

On Friday, we went to lunch with Dustin's father, Wayne, and his girlfriend, Molly. Dustin's sister, her boyfriend, and his cute five year old daughter came along, too. It was nice to see them again and get to talk to Wayne and Molly, even if I didn't have much to contribute to the conversation. It's a little difficult to join the conversation when they're catching up on how the town has changed, who's living where now, who's doing what, etc. But it was still very nice, and I hope we can get together with them next time we're in town! That afternoon, Dustin and I were planning on taking Granny to Gainesville to visit Aunt Sharon in the hospital (gallstone trouble), but Sharon was tired and wasn't in the mood for visitors, so alas, no trip to Gainesville. Instead, we met up with Kevin and Kristen again and ate dinner with them before they went back to Gainesville for the UF/FSU game on Saturday.

On Saturday, Dustin and I went to Lisa's wedding! On the long drive there, I worked on my senior paper a bit more, although it was hard to write a paper with a laptop on my lap and a book that Dustin was holding up so I could copy quotes out of it! The wedding was so pretty. The retirement community where the wedding was held was nice. The weather cooperated for her pictures, luckily. There were a bunch of older people there, presumably members of the retirement facility where Lisa works. Dustin saw a bunch of old friends from high school, although being the anti-social butterfly that he is, he didn't really go and talk to them. Anyhow, it was a lovely wedding, and I wish them many, many years of a happy marriage! After the wedding, Dustin and I went to his fraternal grandmother's house, to visit the rest of that side of the family. There were 10 of us gathered in the small den, but it was nice to see everyone. His grandmother seems to be doing much better than the last time we saw her. She had a stroke a while back (nearly a year ago, I think?) and since then, it's been hard for her to comprehend things occasionally. But when we were there, she immediately recognized me, said "Hi Elizabeth" and asked to see the ring (and then exclaimed "What a big diamond!" tee hee), and continued to be quite alert through our nearly one and a half hour visit. So that was nice. Afterwards, we went to Wayne's house 'cause I wanted to see the pig, Sarah, that they've had ever since Dustin was a freshman in high school. The pig is so freakin' huge! Apparently, she used to be sweet, but she's not so much anymore. I still want a pet pig, though. It'd be great! Then we went back to Granny's house and helped her decorate her Christmas tree and do other chores for her around the house.

On Sunday, we left early in hopes of beating the rush hour traffic back to Atlanta. While the drive back was shorter than the drive down, we still hit some traffic around Atlanta and Macon. But it wasn't so bad. We went to my house, hung out with my parents and talked to them about wedding stuff, and then went over to the farm to eat dinner with my family. Then we came back home, watched the Simpsons, and went to bed!

It was such a nice trip. I really wish I had had more opportunities to work on my senior paper, but it seemed every time I tried to sit down and write more on it, Granny would want to talk and I'd get sidetracked and talk to her for awhile, instead. I wish there was some way to spend Thanksgiving with both his family and my family, because there were some points where I just missed being with my dysfunctional family. Although his dysfunctional family made me feel right at home. :-)

After Tuesday's desecration of my dorm room, I didn't expect Christin scottiegirlc and Casey tworedmaryjanes (even though she denies her involvement...) to strike again so soon.

But of course, they did. After all, they knew I was getting engaged on Wednesday. Seems like another great opportunity to deface Elizabeth's room when she's out!

This time, however, the results were much prettier than the earlier toilet papering. :-) They gave me balloons and flowers and pretty streamers and confetti, in celebration of our engagment!

( Pics of my (prettier!) dorm room: )

I'm engaged!

Story and pics to come tomorrow. I've got a paper to write tonight, and then I need to spend more time with my fiancé!

Fall break!

I'm up in Tennessee/Kentucky for the long weekend visiting Dustin. I drove for 5 hours and immediately went to WalMart to buy groceries since Dustin has nothing in the apartment. Typical male. ;-) When I got here, there were sticky notes for me all over the apartment. These are the ones I've found so far:
I love you. - on the front door.
I love you because you really do care about my day, even if I don't. - on the garage door.
I love you because you take care of me. - next to the toilet paper roll.
I love you because you have more patience with me than I could ever have for you. - in the cabinet with the dishes.
I love you because you are very beautiful, whether you think so or not. - in the cabinet with the snack foods.
I love you because you are the kindest, most giving person I've ever known. - on the closet door.
I love you because you bring out my emotional side, even though I don't think I have one. - the inside of the washing machine door.
I love you because you are the only person I could trust to raise my children the way they should be. - on the tv remote control.

Awwww. And he put a sticky note on Lisa's wedding invitation that says "Take notes- we will do this soon." :-)

The secret agent lady didn't call me this morning like she was supposed to. I called her at 11 a.m., reminding her that I'd be in class until 2, but please call me so we can arrange to get together. She called at 1:45 (while I was still in class, of course). I called her back, only to get her voicemail. Grrr.

For your amusement, a Smurf Name Generator.

I'm back in Atlanta. Blah.

I don't want to be here. I left my heart in Clarksville, TN.

So we've moved everything from the apartment in Atlanta to Dustin's ("our") new place in Tennessee. We have a lot of stuff. And most of my stuff is at my parent's house! I drove up here on Thursday with the cats and a carload FULL of boxes full of Dustin's stuff. On Saturday, we rented a UHaul trailor and towed it back to Atlanta and filled it up with furniture Saturday night and Sunday morning. We checked out of the apartment in Atlanta on Sunday afternoon, then drove back up here. We spent the night at his coporate apartment last night, and all day today we've been moving and setting up things. The cable internet guy and the satellight guy came today, so we have t.v. and internet. Yea! Dustin has Tuesday off of work, so we'll be doing more organizing and such tomorrow. Unfortunately, the new apartment does not have carpet like we thought it did, so we have to buy our own rugs. Blech.

Three good things have happened, though.

1. On Saturday, we went to Lowes to look at how much rugs cost. We found one in the remnents section that didn't have a price on it, so the Lowes guy priced it for us at $44. As we were leaving, we saw a rack with the exact same rug (except ours was already open, like someone returned it) for twice the price! We bought a $100 rug for $50. :-)

2. On Sunday, the apartment leasing office in Atlanta was really busy so the leasing guy didn't have time to walk through the apartment with us to make sure we had cleaned it well enough. Even though we did a great job cleaning, I was worried that something wouldn't be up to par and we'd have to clean again. So we escaped that!

3. Today we returned the UHaul trailor. We rented it "in town" (meaning we pick it up and return it to the same place) because that would be over $140 cheaper than renting it in Atlanta and dropping it off here in Clarksville. Well, when we returned it today, UHaul had a technical error with their system and they didn't have a record of us. So we didn't have to pay anything! We got $60 worth of UHaul usage for free!

And that's all the good stuff. I'll write about the bad stuff later.

"I should be happy my boyfriend makes more than $19,380 annually. I should be happy my boyfriend makes more than $19,380 annually."

This is what I've been chanting to myself all day as I get turned down for apartment after apartment after townhome. Because this is a military town, the town caters to military families. Unfortunately, unless you're high ranking in the military, you make sh*t for income. And if your family makes more than $19,380 annually , then you are unable to live in certain complexes. The apartments and townhomes are tailored to meet military income. But $19,380 a year is boardering on poverty level, sadly enough. I think it's awesome that the community does this, so military families can have really decent apartments at a really decent price.

What I don't think is awesome, however, is the sheer amount of housing communities that implement this policy, and the number of housing communities that don't tell me they enforce this rule until I'm at the leasing office, all excited that I've found "The One." Or "The Two." In fact, all of my top 10 apartment/townhomes are unavailable to us because Dustin makes much more than the maximum allowed income. *head desk* When I tell the apartment/townhome people that we want to save money this year for our wedding and to buy a house next year, and Dustin's still paying a pretty hefty truck payment each month, they shrug and say "sorry", and point me in the direction of complexes in Dustin's price range. According to Dustin's income, he should be paying about $750/month for an apartment, excluding utilities.

Perhaps I'm more spoiled than I originally thought, having snagged an apartment in Atlanta for $550/month. Houses in Atlanta are well over $200,000. Houses here are less than half of that, for a comparable style and size. Then why are the apartments so much more expensive here?

Oh yeah. Because my boyfriend makes too much money. *head desk*

"I should be happy my boyfriend makes more than $19,380 annually," indeed.