Double update. I honestly haven't had the time to post here -- or stop by and visit the 405th -- until now, lol. Not only that, but they finally caught this site at work, so the at-work server restrictions don't allow me to access it during the day.
As some of you know, two weekends ago it was the long Labour Day weekend up here, and the gf had gone on a trip with her folks down to NYC to see the sights and catch a few musicals.
Given the fact I had a
whole weekend (and then some) to myself, I decided to fill up my social calendar with time spent with good friends.
Went shopping with my friends Mike and Brandy On Saturday. Just to add a little back-story there, I went through the Theatre Arts program with Brandy at the local college here, and when my ex-fiance broke things off just after graduation in 2003, they were instrumental in helping me "keep it together". So, the three of us tend to hang out regularly.
Back to the shopping excursion... I realized that, although I'd done an adequate job of adding a good amount of casual clothes to my wardrobe, most of what I had was for winter weather, so I needed to add some Spring/Summer clothing to the mix.
We did that for maybe three hours, and I could've gone on longer, but by that point they were both shopped out (light weights, lol). I'd already spent about $300.00 in clothes by then, so I acquiesced to their demands and decided to call it a day with that.
Afterward, we stopped by a store called "Games Workshop" and picked up some Warhammer 40K figures for the table-top RPG. I'd played the PC version countless times and really enjoyed it, so we figured we might get into that and add something else to our recreational repertoire.
They chose the good ol' Space Marines starter package, while I went with the Tau (got a Fire Warrior Team and the XV8 Crisis Battlesuit)
All in all, I think I spent close to $400.00 in one day, lol.
We then went back to their place for dinner -- his mom sure knows how to cook, lol -- and then they dropped me off at my friends Don and Steve's place (it was Steve's birthday, and of course they'd invited me). Hadn't seen them in a while, so it was good to hang out with them for the later part of the evening. They had many stories to regale me with of their second trip to Japan, which they'd come back from just last month, so that was good for conversation.
Sunday was pretty much just a laze-about-the-house day, which included doing my laundry, grocery shopping, cleaning the apartment and watching a little TV. Okay, so maybe not such a lazy day; even then I still had plenty to do. Also managed to finish up the front view of the SPNKr for Lee, before I spent the rest of the day talking on the phone to my parents, my nana (grandmother), and a few friends. Good way to kill a bunch of hours, lol.
Monday, got together with my friend Nick, his fiance Marnie and their two little boys. Went to the Labour Day Fair held down by Dow's Lake, then went on a stroll in the same area through the Tulip Festival (that was the last weekend for it).
The rest of that week came and went very quickly, since as I mentioned elsewhere here I was up to my eyeballs in work as a result of the firm-wide system conversion that took place over the long weekend. I'm glad that craziness only lasted a week, lol.
Which brings us up to this past weekend. It was
fantastic!
It actually started off on a rather unexpected note, as after I was done work on Friday, I got a call from my oldest friend (known him for 23 years) Riel. He mentioned he was just passing through town for a day on his way from Kingston to CFB Baggottville, but as he'd already seen his parents he wanted to know if I was available.
I hadn't seen the guy since sometime around Christmas, so of course I said yes. He came by my work, and then we went to a pub downtown to have dinner. We only had a couple hours to hang out, but we managed to catch each other up on the more significant things that had gone on with each of us.
I got home somewhere around 9:00PM, and was just so tired I barely stayed awake for another hour, lol. Then I was up at around 9:00AM the following morning, rarin' to go for the rest of the weekend.
Since the gf and I hadn't seen each other for two weeks, we'd decided to make a whole weekend of it. So, after doing laundry Saturday morning (had to switch up my regular routine as I wasn't going to be home at all on Sunday) she came by to pick me up, and off we went to go see the new Star Trek film.
I'd just seen it the week before (went with a bunch of friends on Half-price Tuesday), but enjoyed it so much I didn't mind going to see it again so soon. Besides, the gf didn't really have anyone else to go see it with, and she
really wanted to, so I didn't want to disappoint *wink*.
She really liked it -- like me, thought it was a helluva lot better than she'd expected -- and I liked it just as much as I did the first time. Only downer during the film was that the morons running the place decided to jack up the AC on high for some stupid reason. Didn't really deter too much from the enjoyment of it, though.
Afterward, we went back to her place, made dinner and watched a couple chick flicks. It was a given I would be staying the night again as I brought my sleep clothes and toiletries along with me, so after being stretched out on the couch for a while again, we then called it a night and went to bed.
Like the last (and first) time, we didn't actually go to sleep right away; just lay in bed staring at each other and talking (no, we don't ever really shut up, lol).
Sunday morning, we
finally got out of bed at 11:00AM, lol. We both cleaned up, got changed, had breakfast and then got to work on preparing everything for dinner later when her friends Tracy and Dan stopped by. We made cookies, lol.
In a completely unexpected turn of events, unlike most times where she's the one who has to do all the food prep/work, this time around she mainly just sat in the kitchen and watched me as I made the cookies and placed them in the oven. I also cleaned and peeled the veggies that were to go into the chicken pot pie that was going to be for dinner.
It was a welcome change for her, not having to do all the work (I'm the kind of guy that likes to help out where I can).
We managed to finish baking the cookies (made about two dozen oatmeal-chocolate chip
and oatmeal-raisin) and got the ingredients for the pie on the stove and cooking by the time Tracy and Dan showed up.
As soon as they were in the door, Dan offered his hand to me, which I gave a big squeeze and also gave him a hearty slap on the shoulder. Tracy, who also extended her hand to me, ended up getting a big hug instead. With all the things I'd heard about her through Mel over time, I kinda felt like I already knew her, so figured it wasn't unacceptable to do that.
I then conveyed my congratulations to them on their engagement-and-soon-to-be-wedding. Granted, I knew it had been coming for a while, but this was the first chance I had to tell them personally.
At that point Mel and Tracy went back into the kitchen to do some things, and Dan and I went out front and sat down to enjoy the nice weather, just to talk and do the whole male-bonding thing, lol.
The four of us had a lovely dinner, full of conversation, personal stories and lots of laughs. Once dinner was done, we moved to the living room and talked some more. They left at about 9:30PM. Mel and I spent a little bit of quiet time together, but finally decided I should get going at around 10:30.
The funny thing was, though... neither of us wanted me to leave, lol. She'd even commented on how unbelievable it was that only one month in, I'd already spent the night at her place twice, and now we'd spent an entire weekend together. That's not including some of the topics we've discussed over the last month either, lol. The great thing about it was, it didn't feel weird or anything. It felt normal for both of us to be where we're already at with things.
Of course, we figure the last ten years are a big part of what's really helping things along.
As much as we both would've like the evening to continue, we knew we had to get some sleep before going in to work today, so I grabbed up my things, hopped in the car and she dropped me off. Took me another ten minutes just to get out of the car, lol, but I finally kissed her good night and told her we'd talk later this week.
So... as rediculously-long and long-winded as that was, that's what's been keeping me busy in whatever off-hours I've had as of late. And don't forget, I had to update
two weekends worth of stuff, so nyah
P.S., Now I'm off to adding a few other updates around the 405th. Got a few pics and such to catch up on here, lol.
