Engaged

Yep, that’s right.  Pretty straightforward, not too much to say on the matter.  

No, I’m kidding, of course you want to hear all the sordid details.  

So Ben has wanted to get engaged for like, EVER, but I’ve always been like “Eh, I don’t feel like it, it can wait.”  It was very frustrating for him, and annoying for me, because he talked about it a lot.  So I was like “Hey Ben, how about you just cede that responsibility over to me - then when I feel like I’m ready, I’ll ask you, and then you don’t have to put up with me saying no... over and over and over....”  So that’s what we did.  We had sort of been talking about getting married before we went to school next fall because logistics would be so much less complicated (and also because we love each other), but we just hadn’t made it official.  So it’s not like this was some spur-of-the-moment decision.  Ben continued to be his super considerate and kind self, and didn’t really push the matter too much.  Every so often he’d bring it up, but only about once every ten times that he thought about it (or so he says).  And every time, I thought “Eh, not today.”  I just didn’t feel it.  And every so often I’d think “Gosh, he is such a great person, how could I NOT want to marry him?” But then I’d chicken out and decide that it could wait.  

And then finally last week or so, I was like “Yeah, no, really.  How could I NOT?”  So when I went to the store on Tuesday for my weekly grocery run, I bought some ingredients for fish tacos (because somewhere down the line, I told him I’d make him fish tacos and propose to him) and cantaloupe (because he loves cantaloupe).  We usually cook together on Wednesday, so having him over for supper wouldn’t raise any suspicions.  And the next day, all the way home I was freaking out like “OMG HOW DOES ONE EVEN DO THIS TYPE OF THING?!”  So then an hour later, we had sweet corn, blackened (on purpose!) fish tacos, taco toppings, and cantaloupe on the table to eat.  

We started eating and I was like “Hey Ben, do you remember that one conversation we had about fish tacos?”

“Yeah, about how I had the BEST FISH TACOS EVER in Rockridge?!!?”  

“Um. No....... the other one....... nevermind...... do you want to get married?”  

“Like for real?  Are you asking for real?”

So then the poor guy was so excited that he couldn’t even finish the delicious fish tacos that I had made, let alone the cantaloupe!  And then we did the thing where you call your parents and text your best friends, and there was the predictable amount of “awwwww....” and “about time!” and “CONGRATULATIONS!!!!”  

Ben had to take a picture while I was calling my parents
and attempting to eat fish tacos at the same time

Oh, and I know you’re going to ask - I don’t have a ring.  Sorry!

So we’re engaged.  We don’t know much more than that, to be honest.  We’re going to probably get married sometime next June or July, before we start school.  

Cue planning madness.  My mod was like “OMG NOW YOU HAVE TO GET A PINTEREST!!!!!!”  Yuck.  Stayed tuned for lots of posts about which silverware I should use at the reception and whether I should have white or whole wheat zwiebach.

Oh, and in case you’re interested, here’s the fish tacos recipe I used.

Santa Cruz

       In the latest installment of my life, Ben had told me to pack a swimsuit and prepare for 60 degree weather for a surprise trip this weekend. Those things don't really go together, but I did it anyway. We ended up going about 80 miles south to Santa Cruz, which is right on the coast. We left at 7am for some reason, so it was a chilly morning, but we got a GREAT parking spot, which is really something to celebrate around here. 

The Santa Cruz boardwalk and amusement park is supposed to be the “World's Best Beach Boardwalk” or at least that's what all their banners say. It was pretty cool, but mostly empty, since it was by that time about 830 in the morning. 

 We waited until the park opened and then bought a fried Twinkie and a fried cheesecake, which we both wanted to try. They were really good! Then we went walking some more, to work it off.

Not healthy.

       We had dinner on a long pier. It was more fried things. Fish things. We also saw a sea lion super up close, which was exciting. He mostly just stared at us and barked a couple times. 

Faux hawk

 After dinner the sky cleared up a bit and it came up sunny, which was nice, because then it warmed up somewhat. We then walked over to a little green park on a cliff and took a nap in the grass. Neither of us had gotten much sleep in the last few days. Later, we got up and watched a bunch of little kid surfers. They were crazy. They were like 12, and they were surfing all over the place!

         After that, we visited a couple of beaches. One was sand – a pretty standard beach. As we were getting ready to leave, this big black Lab came up and just kind of sat down on Ben! His owner was like “Oh my gosh I'm so sorry, he just won't socialize with other dogs, just people!!” It was hilarious. Then we visited a rockier beach, which was basically a bunch of tide pools. It was SO COOL. It was like Cabo Blanco in Costa Rica, complete with sea anemones, starfish, and sea urchins! I poked the sea anemones and they felt really sticky. A quick Google search told me that they were trying to sting me. I also tried to pick up some starfish, but they were stuck tight to the rock. They were also super close to the wave zone. I wasn't watching very closely and ended up drenched to the knee. Oops. So I let them be.

       

 
It was a real winner of a day, that's for sure.  

Massage Chair Revolution

     For the first time in my employment history (I think), I had the 4th of July off!  I was so excited!  I think I freaked my boss out a little when I shrieked "WE GET THE 4TH OFF?!?!?!!?!?"

    After sleeping on a variety of futons and couches at the VS house, I headed back home on Wednesday evening.  BART still wasn't running, which made the trip about 3x longer than it should have been.  After I left the VS house with my big duffel bag, I took a bus downtown, then walked to the Transbay Terminal.  The next Transbay bus wasn't leaving for another 40 minutes (of course), so I decided to try my luck with the casual carpool section of the terminal.  People just stand by the road and wait for some strange person to pull up in their car and offer them a ride across the bay.  It's a win-win - the drivers can use the faster commute lane and the riders get a free ride over the bridge.  It sounds super sketchy, but doesn't seem to be dangerous.  I didn't see any white unmarked vans driven by creepy men with rat-tails, anyway... So I stood there for about 10 minutes and a lady pulled up and offered to take me across the bay.  People have been super nice about the whole "Oh, yeah, I see that you have no car and the unions are on strike and you need to get across the bay but BART isn't running because unions, so just hop in my car and I'll drive out of my way to get you where you need to go!"  So after taking 40 minutes to drive from the casual carpool to the on-ramp of the bay bridge (approximately 6 blocks, no kidding), and 20 minutes to drive across the bridge to a BART station (approximately 8 miles), Ben picked me up at the station and drove me home.  Total elapsed time - 2.5 hours.  It was kind of terrible.  

      Like I said before, I had off for the 4th, so Ben and I went into town at noon to go to the VSers potluck barbecue.  I was going to buy sweet corn at Safeway, but all they had were a few gap-toothed ears.  Disappointment.  There was a lot of food though, so it was ok.  And a lot of sun.  And the Madison VS unit!!!  The boy, Ted, knows Jonathan, and the girl, Taylor, went to Bethel and lived with Alyssa.  It was good to see another Bethel face.  We just sort of sat around and talked and got super sunburned (or maybe that was just me).  There were hamburgers and hot dogs and plenty of cider and plenty of no-bakes that slowly melted in the sun.  It was a great barbecue.  

Alyssa, Nora, Ted, Jonathan, Taylor

Alyssa, Ted, Jonathan, Taylor

No bakes!

Lemons don't grow in Madison backyards

   We left around 6 because we wanted to be across the bridge before all the festivities started in the city.  Festivities + no BART = traffic congestion like you wouldn't believe.  Around 9, we tried to go to the Berkeley Marina to watch the fireworks, but that was a no-go, so we headed up to a high place in Berkeley to watch instead.  It was thickly crusted with a solid layer of humanity, so it was less than ideal.  And the fireworks were 7 miles away in the city, so my pictures are terrible and I didn't keep any of them.  Disappointment.  That night, I got like zero hours of sleep because my neighbors were lighting firecrackers and I was freaking out about having to take the casual carpool on Friday to get to work because BART STILL wasn't running.  I woke up at 5:15 and gave myself 2 hours to get to work.  Guess what.  I didn't need it.  So I sat in the hospital cafeteria and read Harry Potter for an hour before work.  

    Work was crazy - all of my dispatchers were on vacation except for my director, so he and I ran the office.  And then two of our four Spanish interpreters called in sick, and somehow a really long Russian assignment was missed, and there wasn't enough coverage for any of the languages that we offer and all of the departments were frustrated with us because of it and it was just hectic all day.  After work, my director gave me a ride home, we talked about Mennonites and Guatemala on the way, and then I took myself out to eat because Ben wanted to go to a house party in the city but I thought I'd be pretty pooped if I tried to do that after getting zero hours of sleep.  So now I'm doing laundry and planning to go to bed early.  Cuz that's what the cool kids do in Berkeley on a Friday night. 

    I'm not sure what we're doing on Saturday - Ben emailed me and told me to pack a swimsuit and plan for 60 degree weather.  I don't think those two things go together.  Guess we'll find out.

Pride has the best signs

In the wake of the recent SCOTUS-overturning-DOMA party in San Francisco, the annual Pride parade also happened. Evidently it was the biggest parade in the history of the event, probably because DOMA was overturned three days before, and people were lined up outside of the courthouse to get married. There were SO MANY people with “just married” signs and stuff. It was the best. My favorite part was the opener, led by the Dykes on Bikes – a bunch of lesbian women with some seriously noisy Harleys. 

 Also Safety Kurt – the safety supervisor for the parade. He was a very enthusiastic dancer. 

 AND THEN NANCY PELOSI SHOWED UP AND IT WAS AWESOME!!!!! Evidently Michele Bachman said some sort of ridiculous thing about gay marriage, and when asked about it in front of the press, Pelosi was like “Eh, who cares?” which is pretty much the best response anyone could ever give to Michele Bachman.

 

In other news, BART workers are on strike. So I'm trespassing on the VSer's hospitality so that I can save a 2-hour one-way bus commute across the Bay to get to work. Hopefully both sides get things figured out soon, because it's really inconvenient.