Chuck turns 27

Last year you may remember I basically failed at celebrating Chuck's birthday in Seattle. We went to brunch and I gave him a gift, but overall it wasn't a very exciting birthday. I forgot to make him a cake or dessert of any type and gave him a lame (in my opinion) gift. In my defense, we had JUST moved to Seattle, our furnished apartment had no baking appliances or pans, I had only a day or two to find a birthday present, and we didn't know anyone else in Seattle yet who could celebrate with us. On top of all that, he had to fly to Phoenix the night of his birthday, so spent most the afternoon packing and getting to the airport.

So this year I made an extra effort to make the whole weekend fun and birthday related. Unfortunately, Chuck's birthday weekend happened to fall right before the due date of the first draft his thesis. Stupid thesis trying to ruin my plans! So he had to spend a majority of the weekend writing, but we got to squeeze in a little fun here and there.

On Friday, Valentine's Day, Chuck had made reservations for us at a restaurant in Cambridge we've been meaning to try forever. It was really good food and a lively atmosphere so we had a lot of fun.

Before dinner, Chuck gave me a Valentine's gift in the form of donuts. He knows me so well....  But seriously. Who wants a box of chocolates when you can get heart shaped donuts?

For his birthday gift I had purchased tickets to see a comedian, Mike Birbiglia, at a theater in Boston on Friday night. So after dinner we killed some time in a bookstore and a Starbucks and then headed into Boston for the show. Mike was pretty funny and I'd definitely recommend going to see him if he ever comes to your city. Also the Wilbur Theater, where we saw the show is a great venue to see a show in and it has this trippy ceiling thing going on that will entertain you while you wait for the show to start.

The ceiling design is oval, so it looked like the ceiling was crooked from our seats. Or is the chandelier crooked? (Neither are but tell me it doesn't look like something is off here?)

Saturday and Sunday we barely left the house on account of a blizzard and Chuck's thesis. At one point we left to go to a friend's house for dinner and some Olympics watching, but other than that we didn't really leave the house.

 On Monday, Chuckie's actual birthday, we were both home due to the President's Day holiday. He still had to write his thesis AND do homework for his Tuesday classes, so I tried to make his day still a little fun by cooking him brunch and a late lunch. I basically just kept bringing food to his desk all day.

A french toast sandwich, chicken and cheese quesadillas, and birthday strawberries, because Chuck isn't a huge lover of cake.

That night he took a break from working and we met up with friends at Green Street Grill, another restaurant we've been meaning to try forever that is literally 2 blocks from our apartment.  It was so nice of our friends to come out and celebrate his birthday, even though some of them were also in the middle of thesis writing!  We had a lot of food, a lot of drinks, and sang "Happy Birthday" to Chuck not once, but twice at the table.

Pinkies up!

All in all I think it was a birthday win this year, especially because on Monday night before bed Chuckie told me it was "one of the best birthdays ever." Mission. Accomplished.

Happy 27th Birthday, husband! I think this will be your best year yet!

Winter:1 Chuck&Rachel: 0

You guys. It's cold. Lately Chuck and I haven't felt like doing much of anything that involves going outside, even for just a minute. With the exception of work, we haven't left our apartment much because frankly it's just too much work to get that bundled up all the time and also, staying under a blanket on the couch just seems like a better idea than going out there.  Winter is defeating us.

When we HAVE ventured out into the cold and snow, here's what we've been up to.

A couple weekends ago, my friend Kate invited me to the U.S. Figure Skating Championships which were held in Boston at TD Garden. She received tickets from her family as a Christmas present and I was lucky her husband was out of town and she asked me to go to a couple of the sessions! We spent the entire day there and saw all of the Pair's finals and the Women's Finals. It was especially exciting this year because the winners go to the Olympics in a couple of weeks! It was also fun because Kate knows basically everything about figure skating so not only did I get to enjoy the skating, but I got to learn too.

Here are a few of the skaters you'll see competing in the Olympics in February.

Meryl Davis and Charlie White

Gracie Gold

Marissa Castelli and Simon Shnapir

This past weekend, we drove to Connecticut with our friends Clayton and Christen to watch Louisville play UConn in basketball.  It was a big game because it was College Gameday, so we were the game of the day. The arena is small, so tickets on stubhub were WAY expensive, but luckily we were able to score some cheap tickets from the UofL ticket office a few days before the game!

Before the game, we found one of the only restaurants in Storrs, Connecticut, and it happened to be Chuck's Margarita Grill. I think the restaurant was made for us! We spent a few hours there, eating appetizers, our meals, and of course, enjoying margaritas.  The game was pretty intense because I would guess the stadium was 75% college students. In the middle of the game, their coach got thrown out and things got really heated, but luckily no one bothered us. Louisville came out with a victory which made the trip a lot more fun than if they had lost like they did last time we drove to Connecticut to see them play.

Other than those two events, we've pretty much been hiding in our apartment, watching football, watching movies, cooking food, and... yeah that's about it.

We also saw this gigantic teddy bear at the grocery store.

We lead an exciting life.

"Hagan Luck"

So there's this thing in my family called "Hagan Luck." I'm pretty sure my grandpa had it, I KNOW my dad had/has it, and now I seem to have inherited it.  "Hagan Luck" is basically Murphy's Law.  Whatever can go wrong, WILL GO WRONG. This applies to any normal, supposed to be super easy and painless, situation. Sometimes it's the grocery- you get in the shortest line but it ends up taking 4 times as long to get through than all the others because all 3 ladies in front of you are extreme couponers. Sometimes it's traffic- you decide to take a different way to work than normal and you end up stuck behind a wreck and show up an hour late to work. For me, it seems like anything I try to do ends up becoming an event and a story. Nothing is ever just EASY. It's just like my dad, who goes to Chicago for the first time ever and while there, gets stuck in "The Worst Rain/Thunder Storm in Chicago in 30 years!!!"

Call the bank to order new checks? I'm on the phone for 45 minutes, transferred to 6 different people, and told things like "You've never ordered checks from us before," even though I'm holding my checks in my hand as I speak to them.

Go to the doctor because I think I have the flu? Wait in the lobby for 30 minutes, then get moved to a storage room that used to be a patient room because they are out of regular rooms, get forgotten about, and only remembered when I go out into the hallway after another 45 minutes of waiting.

And don't even get me started on trying to drive or fly somewhere. Like the time I blogged about before, when Chuckie and I came to visit LGO for the first time. Or like the time we tried to get home for our wedding. (Chuckie swears he never has a single issue with flights unless he is with me.)

So you won't be surprised to hear that we are flying to Seattle tomorrow to live there for 6 months, and Boston is expecting a "Historical Storm." More snow than they've seen in years. One to make the record books. Schools are already closed for tomorrow. Businesses will probably be closing. Travel will be "nearly impossible."  You guys, Boston has not had more than a couple inches of snow since we moved here. So why on earth would an all out BLIZZARD happen on the one day we are scheduled to fly to Seattle so Chuck can start his new job on Monday?!?!?!?!  I can tell you why. It's Hagan Luck.  Poor Chuckie. He's stuck with me and my unfortunate luck forever.

Here. Just read this article for the full effect.

http://boston.cbslocal.com/2013/02/07/snowstorm-may-be-one-of-biggest-in-new-england-history/

A Little Bit of Everything

Besides the recent visit of my best friend, Lauren, here's what we've been up to lately.

- The night before Lauren came to town, Cambridge experienced a major blackout.  Almost all of Cambridge was completely dark. It happened right at the end of the work day, about 4:30, so everyone left work all at the exact same time and it was chaos. Cars were in gridlock everywhere, people were walking in every direction, the trains were all backed up, stores were closing down... It felt kind of like the end of the world.  Our friends Ana and Jose were planning to have people over that night to pre-party before a Sloan C-Function, and even though the electricity was out, that didn't stop the LGOs from having a good time by candlelight!

 The power all came back on at about 7 pm, so luckily we weren't in the dark for too long.

- Chuckie and I got our first Christmas tree. It's only 2 feet tall but it's the perfect size for our apartment and it came in a tiny box that will fit nicely into a larger box of stuff when we start packing up all of our things to move again.

- One night last week I hosted a Holiday Cookie Swap Party.  I've heard of these before but never hosted or participated in one. It seemed like a really good idea though- invite all of your friends to make cookies and bring them to your house for a party? What's not to like about that!?

 People went all out! A lot of the ladies made more than one kind of cookie, so we had tons of variety. And they were all SO GOOD. Before the party I asked myself, WWMSD (What Would Martha Stewart Do?) so I made little tags for people to label their cookies with and I bought cute Tupperware for everyone to pack their treats in to take home. (I don't have any pictures of the labels up close or the cute Tupperware but I promise they were cute.)

Those are ornaments in the middle, not cookies, just FYI.

 I think I might have to have this party every year.

- And finally: I have found my calling in life. At work we are having a holiday decorating contest and I really wanted our floor to make a million paper snowflakes and hang them from our ceiling. So at work this week I've been making snowflakes, and discovered I'm REALLY good at it. Like, scary good. I don't follow a pattern or anything. I just fold and start cutting and then I open them up and they look like this.

If anyone knows where I can get a job just making paper snowflakes for a living, please let me know.

- Other things going on around here: Christmas shopping, counting down the days until we get to go home for a break, coming up with a plan for our move to Seattle, and most importantly, trying to keep Chuckie from losing his mind as he finishes the fall semester.

Cannolis, Cupcakes and Christmas

My kindergarten best friend, Lauren, came to Boston this past weekend for a visit and our weekend together can be summed up in two words: Desserts and Christmas.

Kindergarten us: Bangs, Little Mermaid PJs and my #1 baby doll, Timothy.

Friday night we toured Harvard and marveled at the Christmas decorations, ate dinner at one of my favorite places here- Border Cafe- and then went to the Beantown Pub in Boston. We met up with some old friends and LGOs and had a blast!

25 years old us

Just noticed the guy behind Chuck.. hahaha

So good to see Clayton again in Boston!

 After the bar, we got greasy pizza at the pizza place one block from our apartment and then went home, where Lauren and I practiced our best impressions of Blaine Warbler (from Glee). Also I lost a stupid bet with Chuck over whether or not I said the word "skip" when I meant to say "skill" and now I owe him 1 million dollars. Whoops.

Saturday we got a late start because we stayed up late on Friday. We took our time getting ready and watched the first half of the Louisville basketball game. Then Lauren and I headed out to see MIT and walk the Freedom Trail. I should add here that it snowed almost all day on Saturday. Lauren and I feel we deserve some sort of award for walking the Freedom Trail in the snow. It was cold and wet, but I do have to say that as many times as I've walked the Trail, this was one of my favorites. Just look at it!

 
 We saw a lot of Christmas decorations along the way.

After the Freedom Trail, Lauren and I thawed out at the Bell in Hand and waited for Chuck to get out of a meeting before the 3 of us headed to the North End for some Italian food, more marveling at Christmas decorations, and of course... Mike's Pastry.

Happiness in a box.

We were exhausted from a day out in the cold so we called it an early night, went home, watched Elf, ate our cannolis, and then watched When Harry Met Sally. It was perfect.

Sunday, Lauren and I headed to a restaurant/sports bar in Boston for the Green Bay Packers/Vikings game. Lauren is a die hard Packers fan and was very happy when they won!

Sunday morning football calls for mimosas!

 After the game, we walked through the Prudential Center, then to Newbury Street, stopped to get cupcakes for later, walked through Beacon Hill and looked at all the pretty Christmas lights and trees in peoples' windows, and then went to dinner and had pizza before going home. Once home, we watched yet another Christmas movie- How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and then our favorite shows, Dexter and Homeland.

Georgetown cupcakes. The best cupcake I've ever had. And I've had a LOT of cupcakes.

 I feel like all we did the whole weekend was look at Christmas lights and trees, watch Christmas movies, and eat desserts. That's a pretty great weekend though in my opinion. Now we're completely in the Christmas spirit and Chuck and I are WAY beyond ready to go home for the holidays!

Looking Forward to....

Things I look forward to in Boston:

• Finding new favorite restaurants
• Stalking Rajon Rondo
• Having friends and family come visit
• Spending 4th of July in BOSTON
• Being close to the beach
• Seeing people like this walking the streets regularly:

Things Chuck looks forward to in Boston:

• School. (Not even being sarcastic. He seriously loves school. What a weirdo.)
• Being close to Rajon Rondo

Things I do not look forward to:

• Community laundry rooms
• Snow
• Finding a hair dresser
• Snow
• Getting lost on the subway
• Grocery shopping in the snow

Things Chuck does not look forward to:

• No ESPN channels on the MIT cable we will be forced to use
• Being far away from Rick Pitino and Charlie Strong