Another free Monday

Tonight is another break from orchestra rehearsal.  Tonight is for the strings only.  That means that Josh and I were able to go to the grocery store tonight.  Josh helped me financially by paying for it tonight.  My student loans kicked in this month so now it’s going to be tight money-wise.  I’m hoping that I’ll be able to sell my house in Canyon this summer to my aunt and uncle and use the money from it to pay off a few things and the rest for a down payment on another house.  We’ll see how that goes.  I do want to get my own place that I can do with as I please.  I especially want a pet door. 

Today I worked on a lesson over dictionary skills for some of the English classes.  I’ll teach it to three classes tomorrow and see how it goes.  Tonight I’m watching the episodes of American idol that I missed.  I think I’ll start my next Sue Grafton book and just take it easy tonight.  I got blisters on my feet from walking to church on Sunday so I don’t want to do anything but sit. 

Matt emailed me today and said he would pay my entry fee for the next Scrabble tournament.  I guess I’ll try it again.  He assured me that there will be more people at my level this go around.  I don’t know about that, but I guess I’ll give it a try.  We have to decide whether to go up late on Friday or leave really early Saturday morning.  I’ll get some studying in and some practice and see what happens. 

I suck at Scrabble

I was thinking that I was relatively decent at Scrabble.  Certainly not a top competitive player, but thought I could hold my own in a tournament in the 3rd division.  Turns out that I’m either not a very good player or have the worst luck in the world.  But first let me offer the excuses.  There were only four people in the division.  Two of use had never competed before.  The other two have been active competitors and aren’t really “novice” players.  I also had relatively lousy draws.  In one game I drew all vowels twice in a row.  In another game, I had all vowels, exchanged most of them, then drew all four S’s and more vowels.  S’s are considered power tiles, but you don’t want all of them in your rack at one time.  I only scored over 300 points once in 6 games.  It was a pretty disheartening day.  I also didn’t like the fact that most of the time I played on really closed boards – meaning you couldn’t play any long words because there were no open spaces.  I had several bingo word possibilities that I just couldn’t play.  So I don’t know if/when I will do it again.  I guess I will try to just get more practice and see how things go.

In other news, Matt heard from his mother.  He has been relatively estranged from her for a number of years.  He sent her a letter around the first of the year and she sent him a note back to him this week.  He had mentioned me in his letter and she commented about him bringing me up sometime to visit.  I may be the bridge between them building a relationship again.  We are now talking about a time that we can go up to St. Louis to visit her. 

Matt and I went to church together this morning.  Since I’ve been here and going to church, I have not really attended the same church twice with the exception of the church that I went to confession at – and then later a service.  The thing about the churches here is that they are simply beautiful.  They are older and very ornate.  We went out for breakfast afterward and then I headed back home and took a nap.  I still need to catch up on sleep.  Matt is coming over this evening for pizza.  I need to pay bills and do some house cleaning. 

The month of February is going to be a busy one for Matt and me.  Next weekend we are going to a Spurs game.  The weekend after that will be the symphony and then a Scrabble competition in Salado.  (Though I’m undecided on competing.)  The weekend after that is my band concert followed by the orchestra concert the following weekend.  Josh leaves around 17th.  My friend, Kirsten, is coming around the 8th.  Somewhere in there we are going to go see One for the Money. 

Sleep must be overrated

I tried getting some sleep last night.  I was in bed before 11:00 at least.  And wouldn’t you know it, we had two major thunderstorms roll through the area last night.  The first one came in around 1:30 a.m. and the second rolled through around 4:00 a.m.  So I didn’t get much sleep last night.  Now it is 11:22 so I hope I get some sleep tonight.

It was a pretty decent work day.  I had classes in doing testing and I worked on the magazine order for next year.  I dropped a bunch of magazines that nobody ever read like Texas Monthly and ordered a bunch of new stuff for the students.  Hopefully that will encourage a few to read more.  I left around 12:45 and had to go to the bank.  I was charged a “maintenance fee” on my account this month and I had them take it off because I’m not supposed to be charged as long as I have monthly direct deposits.  I think the issue was the fact that I was paid much earlier last month and it more than 31 days passed before the next deposit.  Thankfully they put the money back in my account.  I picked up some lunch and then headed to our monthly librarian meeting. 

After the meeting I stopped by the store to get salad fixings and stuff to back a pineapple upside down cake for dinner.  Matt and his friend Jason were going to come over for dinner.  At 6:30 Matt arrived but said that Jason couldn’t make it for dinner but we would go over to his place for Scrabble practice after we ate.  So Matt and I had spaghetti, salad, and garlic toast for dinner.  We took the cake with us to Jason’s house and everyone enjoyed it as we practiced. 

Matt brought me home after practice and we cuddle for a bit.  He left a little while ago and I’m going to try to finally get some sleep tonight.  Tomorrow we have our regular Scrabble practice and we are meeting at Taco Cabana for dinner.  I’m not sure if I’m ready for the tournament this weekend, but I think I’ll do ok if I draw reasonably well. 

Still tired, but still moving

I hit the snooze on my alarm clock twice this morning.  That’s all I could afford and still have time to take a shower.  I barely made it to school by 8:00 this morning which is when I am supposed to sign in.  I usually get there 10-15 minutes early.  I also made some coffee and took it with me.  It helped for a while, but I was dragging again this afternoon.  I spent the day cleaning out the textbook room.  I’m making a bigger mess, but that’s how I clean.  It always gets worse before it gets better. 

I left school right at 4:30 and picked up Sonic for supper.  I ate and then watched t.v. until I had to leave for band rehearsal.  I just got back and my mouth is sore.  I’m still tired.  I’m going to head to bed shortly and hope that I can finally get enough sleep. 

It’s a Monday

It wasn’t really bad, but I’m dragging today.  I actually did get to bed early and slept well, but had to get to school early.  I got there at 7:30 to get things set up for the professional development today.  The presentation that another teacher and I had to do seemed to go well.  We ended up with a longer lunch so I picked up something and came home to eat it.  I changed into jeans and a t-shirt so I could do some cleaning in the afternoon.  I worked in an extra classroom that has been used for storage so I could move some stuff out of the back of my library storage area.  I got a pretty good start, but I hope to keep working on it this week and then get all the textbooks that are sitting in the front of my library put up.  I came home and felt the need to take a nap before going to orchestra rehearsal.  I did sleep and was having some weird dreams.  I dreamed that my sister was pregnant and about to have a baby, but she had a hysterectomy when she was 29.  It was very strange.  The alarm on my phone went off at 6:00 so I could get up and get to rehearsal on time, but I decided to not go.  I am one of four clarinets so it’s not like I’m going to be completely missed.  I did email someone to let them know, but I decided I just needed a quiet night at home.  I had lots of dishes that needed to be washed, laundry to do, and I just wanted to take it easy tonight.  So that’s what I’m doing.  Tomorrow I have band rehearsal and then on Wednesday Matt is coming over for supper and we are going to do some Scrabble practice to prepare me for the upcoming tournament this weekend.  Things just seem to keep moving fast here – which isn’t bad, but I’m finding I simply needed a break this evening. 

A hangover

I have to admit I drank too much this weekend.  But I guess I should start with Friday.  Matt and I went to see the move “The Artist” on Friday and then we went out to eat at an Italian pizza place.  I stayed at his place and came home Saturday morning since he had to work on Saturday.  On Saturday, I did a little work on the website, started reading the next Sue Grafton, and mostly just lazed around.  Matt went to mass at 5:30 and I didn’t go with him because I was supposed to go with a friend from school on Sunday morning.  The friend (who is the school nurse) called and cancelled around 5:00 while I was in the shower and it was too late to meet Matt.  She was coming down with the flu or some other crud she picked up from the students and didn’t think she would be feeling up to going.  I texted Matt, but he doesn’t always carry his cell phone with him.  We were supposed to go to his friend Jason’s house for Scrabble, but those plans never came through so Matt came over around 8:00 with steaks and we cooked those for dinner.  We had some wine with dinner and then more wine.  And then we both had way too much.  I probably had a glass too many because I ended up getting sick.  It was not fun.  But Matt was good and he took care of me.  He wanted me to come over to his place with him this morning and hang out, but I still wasn’t feeling all that great and I had to work on a presentation I’m doing tomorrow during inservice.  I slept in a few more hours, worked on the presentation some, took tylenol, took a bath, slept some more and then finally pulled myself together enough to get ready for church.  Matt took me to the Cathedral for mass at 5:00 and then I took him to dinner.  After dinner we hung out at his place for a few hours before I had to head back here.  I have to get to bed early because I have to get to school early to set up for the professional development tomorrow.  Even though it wasn’t an ideal situation to get totally blitzed, we did have fun and lots of good conversation.  I think he is going to be a keeper.  I haven’t scared him off yet and he still seems to adore me.  He tells me all the time how lucky he is to have me in his life. 

So much for being a player

I guess I’m not a complete loser.  I won one game tonight (by a point).  I got called out on stupid mistakes and lost turns.  It was a bit frustrating.  On the upside, I did play four bingos.  One of them was pretty impressive with the word ‘massagers’ where I had to play through an ‘a’ and an ‘s’ already on the board.  I feel like my vocabulary is very limited and I really need to take time to really study.  I’m slowly learning my three letter words, but I also need to learn the bigger q, j, x, and z words.  I’m not sure if I’m ready for the competition on Saturday.  It may be a huge disappointment for both me and Matt. 

Today at school I had to take another teacher’s class all day and give a test.  It wasn’t too bad as her classes were all small.  Tomorrow I am dealing with more make-up tests as well.  At least it gives me time to study words since I can’t get much library stuff done. 

Tomorrow Matt and I are going to see the silent movie “The Artist.”  On Saturday we are playing scrabble with friends.  Sunday I’m going to church with the nurse at my school.  She has befriended me and wants to get together this weekend. 

There’s not much more to tell.  Life is about the same as always.  I’m still happy, but also still really tired.  I’ve been drinking coffee every morning if that tells you anything.

Just another day

It was a busy morning for me as I had to deliver dictionaries to 13 classrooms.  After that, I had to prepare for testing students in the library.  Testing took about 3 hours.  After that, I didn’t do a whole lot.  I did some reading – library magazine and a book called “How they Croaked” which was interesting and a bit gory.  I left school around 4:40 and headed home.  I was feeling pretty tired so I rested for about an hour before I got up to make dinner.  I finally decided on a website host for the scrabble website that I’m going to create for Matt’s club.  I spent most of the evening looking at other sites and jotting down ideas for it.  I also watched the season premier of American Idol.  And that’s all the excitement here.  I’m really just tired and need to get more sleep.  Last night I woke up several times and I’m not sure why.  One time was due to a nightmare, but I don’t know about the other times.  I probably need to get back on ambien.  I think I’m going to call it a night and try to get some better rest.

Last Minute Attitude

One of the things that drives me the most crazy about working in this district is the last minute attitude it perpetuates.  For example today during 7th period (the last period of the day), I was told that I needed to have dictionaries in each teacher’s room for testing tomorrow.  I also found out after school that instead of relieving other teachers tomorrow, I will be testing students.  It is very frustrating to have to make changes and do things at the last minute.  I had to stay until five getting all the dictionaries ready to hand out to other teachers tomorrow. 

I came home from work and just felt tired.  I didn’t even want to cook so I had an ice cream instead.  I finally made myself get up and go to band rehearsal.  I stopped at McDonald’s on the way and ordered a happy meal for supper.  Band rehearsal was ok, but once again, we are playing too much music without enough rehearsal time.  I don’t know how much longer I will want to stay with this band.  I would rather play fewer pieces well, than more pieces badly.  The only good thing is that playing first part is more of a challenge for me. 

I’m still debating whether I’m going to give Matt the link to my blog.  I do wonder how much I would self-censor knowing that he reads it.  I do some censoring already because people I know in real life do read it.  But a part of me thinks that I should be completely open with him.  He should know the real me – all the good and the bad.  And if it doesn’t scare him off, then he is definitely one to keep.  I’ve only let one other boyfriend have access to my blog – and that was Marty.  I did it because I felt I could trust him.  And honestly, I didn’t censor much – I actually did some venting on the blog knowing that he would read it.  So I will give it some thought for a few more days and decide.

To Share or Not to Share

I’m debating about whether I should give Matt the link to my blog. Surprisingly, he hasn’t made the effort to find it though I’ve told him that I’ve blogged for several years. I asked him why he hadn’t tried to find it and he said that he would wait for an invitation from me. It’s not that I have anything to hide, but I realize that there are probably some things I’ve written about that he may not want to know, or would be surprised to know. Then again, I doubt he’s going to get through 7 years worth of blog entries which totals 2,009 posts including this one. I skimmed through several entries over the past few years and I discovered a few themes if you will.

1. I don’t like to clean my house and only do it out of desperation.

2. My garage will never be clean.

3. I don’t understand men and probably never will. (Hoping that Matt is an exception to this general rule.)

4. I like to sleep in. Sleep is good.

5. Teaching was frustrating and overwhelming.

6. I’m an overachiever.

7. I’m very proud of my son.

8. I’m not afraid to give my heart away, but unfortunately, I’ve given it away the wrong men too many times.

9. I’m a hopeless and sometimes hopeful romantic.

10. Sometimes I’m really lazy, but I also thrive on being busy.

I’m sure there are a lot more themes, but these are a few that seem to stick out in my blogging. Perhaps some of my faithful readers can share a few more. I must be feeling pretty serious about Matt if I’m going to let him read and get a view into my daily life.

I’m going to go take a shower and then head up to his place. We are going to go to dinner before I have to go to orchestra rehearsal tonight.

New Territory

For those that have read my blog for a while, know that I’ve have my share of dating and relationship experiences. It seems that most of them ended up being very one-sided. Either the guy was more into me and I wasn’t into him so much, but most of the time it was the other way around. I seem to have have the ability to attract perverted and/or commitment phobic men. Or maybe it’s just that I had to kiss a lot of frogs to find my prince. I mention this because my relationship with Matt is unlike most of the others. It’s the first time I’ve been with someone that I like a lot and the feeling is completely reciprocated. Matt wants to spend time with me. He talks about me to his friends. He tells me how happy he is that I’ve come into his life - that I found him. He said that he waited a long time for someone like me. His friends told me last night that he has changed for the better since I came into his life – like he’s a new person in many ways. I’m not sure what to make of all of this. It is a very wonderful feeling and I know that this is still the “honeymoon” stage of our relationship, but I’m thinking that is the way things are supposed to be. Perhaps it is just finally my turn. Sometimes I still wonder if there’s a “catch” in all of this. Is it really ok to find happiness in multiple aspects of my life?

Successful Scrabble

Tonight I played pretty well. I won two out of three games and two of them were over 400 points. I had four bingos as well. The game I lost was only by 22 points and I had some good potential bingos, but the board was very closed and I couldn’t play much. We had a good turnout tonight. Two new guys showed up and played and there were several other “regulars” that I hadn’t seen before. I visited with Cathie (Matt’s friend Jason’s mom) and got a little more information from her about the conversations that occurred about me on Monday. I’m guessing that like most “girls” do is that they planned out Matt and my future together. She did say that he liked me a lot and that Rose is very anxious to meet me. Before the practice we met for dinner at Taco Cabana and Josh joined us. They seemed to hit it off with talk about movies and such. Josh has met him before but I think it’s good that they can converse well with each other.

It was another busy day at school. I was working on the library order this morning when I found out that I couldn’t buy the materials for the subject areas that I was planning to. Instead I had to focus on reading, math, and ESL. So I shifted gears and went about choosing books that have high interest but lower reading levels for the struggling readers. I also went over research skills with two English classes and then worked on the math make up stuff for tomorrow. I stayed at school working on it until 5:15 when I had to leave to meet Matt and Josh. I’m not finished, but I’ll try to get there early to get everything done.

Matt is coming over tomorrow evening and I’ll make something quick for dinner and then we will probably watch a movie. We’re going to play some Scrabble with his friends on Saturday and hopefully I will get to meet Rose. Matt has to work Sunday, but we’ll probably go to church that evening. I have Monday off so I’m looking forward to sleeping in. I still feel like I’m not getting enough sleep. And yet, I’m up late once again. Oh well, it is a busy but really good life so I can’t complain too much. After all sleep is overrated, right?

Is it the weekend yet?

Now that I’m dating, it takes too long for the weekend to get here. Things have been busy at school with math testing this week. I was also told on Tuesday that I have to spend $695 by Friday on library materials. Today I also had to go to a training session so I had to make sure that the math teachers could handle things while I was gone. I got a parking ticket while I was at Matt’s place this weekend so I tried to go pay for it today and it wasn’t “in the system” so I couldn’t pay for it. After my meeting, I went and picked up a free parking permit where I can park at parking meters downtown for free since I drive a hybrid. Hopefully that will prevent another ticket.

Matt said that some of his scrabble friends were talking about me on Monday night at their practice in Austin. When I asked him what they were talking about he said he couldn’t tell me. When I asked why, he said that it was embarrassing and he wouldn’t tell me. You know that is going to drive me crazy now, don’t you? He said that the people in the Austin club were very happy for him. Unfortunately, he’s also telling them that I’m a pretty good player which means a lot of pressure for me to do well when I go to the tournament up there at the end of the month.

Tonight I had to stay late at school because of a parent meeting where only about 4 parents showed up. I came home and made spaghetti for supper and overindulged as always. Tomorrow is scrabble practice so I’ll get to see Matt again. I think we’ll go out or do something on Friday and then we’re supposed to play scrabble and his friend Jason’s house again on Saturday. Matt has to work on Sunday and do some volunteer stuff for the library on Monday. I have Monday off which I’m looking forward to.

To answer Jan’s question – the animals have settled in and for the most part they are not having accidents in the house as much. Of course part of that is the fact that Josh is home during the day and can let them out. Lucy is able to go outside on her own but doesn’t stray far. Mollie has bouts where she’s afraid of the backyard, but then forgets in a day or two. Max desperately needs a haircut so I’ve got to get him an appointment soon. I can’t lock them out of my bedroom any more since Lucy’s litterbox is in my bathroom so Mollie sleeps right next to my bed on the floor and Max is usually by the window.

I think I’m going to call it an early night if I can. The last two mornings have been coffee mornings as I’ve been so tired when I get up.

Going and going

It was a busy weekend, but I enjoyed it very much. It was nice to sleep in on Saturday. I didn’t do a whole lot during the day, mostly just piddled around and goofed off. I started getting ready around 3:00 and headed out at 4:45. I stopped at a convenience store to have my car washed and it was getting kind of nasty. Of course it rained today. Oh well. I guess we need the rain. I met Matt at yet another new church Saturday evening. The church was very pretty inside but the priest was very hard to understand. He is Vietnamese and does not speak English very well. After mass we went back to his place. He did tidy up, but he is definitely a bachelor. We tried a new Mexican restaurant in the Pearl Brewery area and it was pretty good though my entree had beans on it and I’m still not a fan of beans. I kind of ate around them. After that we headed to the movies to watch the current release of “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.” We both liked the movie but there are some scenes that are difficult to watch.

On Sunday, Matt and I went to breakfast at the Magnolia Pancake Haus which was very good. I had an apple cinnamon waffle. We then headed up to Austin to go to some friends of his 20th wedding anniversary. It was nice to be able to meet some of his friends and I actually also ran into my library facilitator for our district. There were a lot of librarians there so that’s no surprise. We headed back to SA around 5:30 and decided to cook the burgers he brought over a few weeks ago. We ran to the store to get buns and such. After dinner, he helped me take my Christmas tree down. (I think this is the earliest I’ve ever taken a tree down.)

Today was a very busy day with 6th graders doing math testing all day. I headed home right at 4:30 and heated up a t.v. dinner since Josh had already eaten. I then headed to orchestra rehearsal and just got back. I’m pretty tired and ready to call it a night.

Matt sent me an email today that really made me smile. I know I just saw him yesterday, but I already miss him. Have I mentioned how much I like him? He is just so nice. He told me that I was pretty the other night and tells me often how lucky he is to have found me. I think he’s a keeper.

Start of a busy weekend

I am certainly glad today was Friday. It was another busy day of work in the library, but I’m hopefully ready for the math testing on Monday. I put a roast in the crock pot this morning. I got home around 5:00 and did a quick clean up since Matt was coming over for dinner. He came over at 7:00 and seemed to enjoy the roast. He told me that I’m a very good cook. After dinner we watched the Swedish version of “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.” I thought it was pretty good.

Tomorrow I’m sleeping in (thankfully) and then meeting Matt at church at 5:30. After that we are going to dinner and then we’ll see the current version of the movie that’s in the theaters right now. He has invited me to go to Austin with him on Sunday for an anniversary party for some friends of his. Monday I have to get to school early to get things set up for the math testing.

Nothing more to report here. Life is getting really busy again, but it’s the really good kind. I’ll probably be perpetually tired, but I will certainly have a smile on my face.

Brief update for Billy (aka Abbagirl)

I’m so happy that Abbagirl has returned to the blogging world. She wanted a quick update on my life and I’m not sure how quick I can do that. Seems the last time she blogged with some regularity was 2009. So in 2009, I was still teaching and going to grad school and probably somewhat insane. No love life to speak of other than the eharmony Thomas fiasco. In 2010, I gave eharmony another chance and ended up meeting a guy named Michael who I called “Matthew” on the blog. He actually worked for the district where I was teaching and we had an on again, off again, he couldn’t make up his mind what he wanted kind of relationship. We ended up being just friends of sorts. He was a bit flakey, but it was nice to go out for a while. I finished grad school in May of 2011 and was dismayed at the fact that the job I hoped to get within my district was not going to be available because of state budget cuts. I ended up putting my application out all over the state. I went on four job interviews. Two in Amarillo (near Canyon where I lived), one near Dallas, and one in San Antonio. I ended up with a job offer for San Antonio so I took it. When I took the job, I wasn’t sure which campus I would be at, but I ended up at a middle school (which is what I wanted). I made several trips down here this summer and moved officially the first week in August. It was a very big step for me because I have never really moved away from home. But I’m now 5 hours closer to Josh’s school (he’s a junior in college at Stephen F. Austin university). I started my job as a librarian in the middle of August and I love it. It is what I am meant to do. I went on one date from an eharmony match in September and didn’t get anything out of it. I decided to give Catholicmatch one more try and I finally had success! I sent a message to a guy that seemed interesting because he liked Scrabble and amusement parks and he is a librarian. He responded and we started emailing each other in October. He called me up and asked me on a date a few weeks later and since then we’ve seen each other almost every weekend. Josh went back to Canyon for Christmas so I spend it with my new friend (Matt – real name). I got my first hug on Christmas eve and discovered that I was his “girlfriend” on Christmas day when I was introduced as such. Got a brief kiss that night and then a real kiss on New Year’s Eve. So to answer your question – YES, I do have a special man in my life. Whew! How’s that for a brief update?

Sleep Catch Up

I really need to catch up on my sleep. Unfortunately, I got used to staying up late over the break and getting up in the mornings is still difficult. Of course it didn’t help that I didn’t get back until almost midnight last night. I think I impressed my principals today with the substitute brochure that I created. I got it finished today and then I cleaned out the conference room since the math teachers are going to be meeting in there all day tomorrow. I had to stay late today because one of the math teachers needed to use the computer lab for tutorials and I had to help most of the students with their logins. I didn’t leave school until 5:10. I didn’t feel like cooking much so I just heated frozen pizza for dinner. Tonight I have just sat in front of the t.v. and done nothing. I need to do some house cleaning tomorrow since Matt is coming over for dinner on Friday. I’m cooking a pot roast. My goal tonight is to be in bed by 10:00 and asleep shortly after that.

Busy schedule resumes

So the last you heard is that I finally got a kiss from my new boyfriend. I’m still grinning as I write that sentence. Matt came over on Sunday evening delivering a pizza. We ate and then played 4 games of scrabble. He beat me three times in a row, but then I turned the tables on him in the 4th game. He helped me a little, but I ended up with a pretty good score over 400 points. I spelled “jeez” for 60 points on a triple word. After that we cuddle some more. It was getting kind of late so I offered for him to stay the night. And he did. And that’s all I’m going to say about it. I’m not saying whether anything more happened or not. You can speculate to your heart’s content, but I will not confirm nor deny anything. Whether anything did happen or may in the future, it is not something I’m going to write about.

On Monday morning, he took me to breakfast at a place called the Guenther House. After that we stopped by the parking division office to see about me getting a free parking meter permit for my car since I have a hybrid. I didn’t bring my registration with me so I’ll have to go back and get it. From there we headed to the new theater that opened near my neighborhood and saw Sherlock Holmes. After that, he took me home.

Josh got in yesterday around 9:30 so I stayed up long enough to visit with him and then went to bed. The alarm went off way too early this morning. I managed to get out bed (after hitting snooze twice) and headed to school on time. I spent most of the day working on a substitute brochure and did some digging on information for audio books. I left school around 4:40, made a quick trip to the grocery store, and then Josh and I headed to downtown for dinner and a show.

We ate at a Mexican food restaurant called Acenar. I had the fajitas again because I thought they were pretty good last time. Josh had chicken enchiladas. From there we headed to the Majestic Theater to see the musical “Les Miserables.” Though our seats were not very good, I thought the music was simply amazing. I loved it. It brought me to tears. I’m going to have to buy the music online.

Well, it is way past my bedtime so I’m going to call it a night. No plans other than work tomorrow. Thursday I’m going to Scrabble practice. Matt is coming over for dinner on Friday and I’m going to his place for the first time on Saturday. We’ll go to mass Saturday evening.

And then he kissed me….

I have to say that welcoming in the New Year was pretty awesome. Unfortunately, my friend Brent couldn’t come down because he threw out his back while exercising yesterday. So tonight it was just me and Matt. He came over around 5:30 and we went to Mass at a relatively close church. After church, we went to Walmart so that Matt could use his last two free coke zero coupons. He won a contest sometime last year that gave him coupons for a year’s worth of coke zeros and was down to the last two and the expired tonight. He’s been giving them away here and there and he’s given me three of them. He also joined the 21st century by finally getting a cell phone. He got a Straight Talk phone that doesn’t require a contract. I helped him get it set up. He cooked steaks on the grill, I made fettuccine and salad. At 11:00 we watched the ball drop in New York and he gave me a quick kiss then. At midnight here, I finally got a full blown kiss. We had sparkling wine and cuddled a bit. Then the real fun began. Turns out he’s quite a kisser and very affectionate. We had a very enjoyable evening, some good kissing, and wonderful conversation. I really like him and he really likes me. It’s a very nice feeling.