It's November?

Year 2 Marriage Goals (in no particular order)
1. learn to make coffee (CHECK)
2. learn to make a MANhattan
3. attain a house
4. get into grad school for me (Lauren)
5. puppy (after house)
6. once a month recipe cook off (CHECK *for September/October/November)
7. new comforter and sheets (new mattress after house)
8. raise/promotion/new job for Alan. (CHECK)
9. take actual vacation
10. do another race together

I no longer remember the html codes for putting a strike through words. Alas.

I wanted this to be my second entry because it promoted change and hope, but I lost the list and most of the motivation for this piece is gone now. I made a promise though to myself, to her and to him. So here I am. My apologizes if it all comes out wrong.

(learn to make coffee)

1. Coffee has always been Alan's thing. Something he can fall back on, something he can enjoy, something that is all his own. I didn't grow up in a house of coffee. My father was the only one I knew that drank it and he got his at the nearest 7-11. The only familiarity of the coffee brewing process I had was old Folger's commercials (and then much later whatever process the restaurants I worked in used). Alan is not that guy. He doesn't drink coffee from a can or plastic packet and very rarelly if ever drinks coffee from 7-11. He treats his coffee beans like wine. Sniffing them, weighing them, judging them solely on where they're grown. He created his own grinder out of an old popcorn machine. When we first started dating I found his whole process overwhelming, exhausting and completely unnecessary. I would never open a can of Folger's Coffee on a Sunday to find coffee bliss and then wake up the rest of the house with its intoxicating smell. It is his thing and I respect that. He loves coffee, it doesn't have to have anything to do with me. So it slighting shocked me to discover that one of his marriage goals was to get me to make him some.

Three days ago, I did it. I made him shout out all the directions from bed and stared at him as he drank it to make sure it didn't taste like piss. It was fine and he was happy. ONE MARRIAGE GOAL COMPLETE.

Unfortunately for him, I don't plan on doing it often. I like that he has something that I'm not apart of. Something that he can be neurotic and obsessive about that I don't get an opinion on.

(learn to make a manhattan)

2. See most of the explaination of 1. I don't drink. Rather I'm an awful drunk and don't see the point of it at all other to get drunk. So sitting around the house with a "beverage" seems like a waste of time and money. I will of course still learn the ingredients and surprise him with one some day soon.

(attain a house)

3. I have moved 12-13 times in the last 27 years. I have lived in NYC, in CA, in cars, in a single bedroom, in a hotel, in a basement, in a loft, in a ranch, in a mic-mansion, in a rental home. I have loved just about every second of it, including the nomadic nature it's conditioned me in to. I settled with the hubs. And please don't jump to conclusions. I merely mean that in that I am settling my life with this person, not with a negative connotation but with a sense of intamacy and partnership. Even though I am 27, I still feel this heavy weight on my shoulders from thought of buying a house with him. I see it as a permanence of OH MY GOD THE REST OF MY LIFE LOCATION! It probably sounds completely crazy but I don't know where I want to end up yet. I love MI, but I also love warmer weather and mountains and beaches and the opportunity to experience a new me in a whole new place from time to time.

We left our old apartment for a smaller one bedroom in an attempt to save money for a house by July. I'm in love with it and could see myself living there for a long time. I wouldn't even mind if we had a baby there. Seriously that's how much I like it. When I picture a house, I try to imagine building a garden in the backyard and painting walls and buying more furniture and attempting to make my own art/photo room. But then I think about how big it will feel when I'm alone. All the sounds it might make and weird neighbors that might live next door. I think about buying a house in an area I'm comfortable in only to discover a brand new why haven't I driven up this road location that will make me depressed.

I guess for now the important part is that we are saving and planning together. It is one thing we are relatively on the same page with.

(get into grad school)

4. The deadline for OU is in April and while I've been enjoying these first few classes I still doubt myself every day on the decision to go back to school and what I'm choosing to go back to school for.

(puppy *after house)

5. I want a golden Labrador. Alan wants a golden Retriever. They are not at all the same dog and we'll probably just end up with a Husky.

(once a month recipe cook off)

6. The hubs is a professional chef and a selfish chump who waits on me hand and foot. No joke. I am a lucky lady. It goes against who I am though and makes me feel lazy and horrible so I wrote down that I wanted us to share this passion together by exploring new recipes or at the very least take pictures. So far so good.

(new comforter and sheets)

7. Our bed is covered with the ugliest man blankets ever. After I moved in with him, I didn't want to instill too much of my womanhood into his bachelor pad so I let a lot of things go. One of them were these hideous depressing brown blankets he's in love with. I seriously cant' wait to be rid of them.

(raise/promotion/new job for Alan)

8. My husband works hard. Harder then most people I know (discounting my father who has such a fear of failure I don't know how he functions in the world). The flip-side is that he is also obsessed with his job and there are a lot of detrimental aspects to that. This isn't the time for those stories though. For the purpose of this marriage goal, I wanted him to stand up for what he deserves and take some pride in himself and stop letting everyone take advantage of him at work. A few months ago, he finally though tentatively did. And it worked! And he got a raise! And I'm so proud of him!

(take actual vacation)

9. I just want a vacation you guys. Like a real lets not worry about how much money this is going to cost and sit on the beach and not fight vacation. Is that so much to ask? Chicago for the weekend? DC? Boston? NYC? Florida? Etc. I don't care. Take me anywhere.

(do another race together)

10. The hubs and I used to be in great shape or at the very least less shapely as we are now. He used to run and bike and train for triathlons and I used to try to impress him by being the last person to cross the 5k line. Oh the good old days. I offered this marriage goal in an effort to rekindle emotions from our past and to you know get in shape again. We shall see.

So there it is. Long winded goals for our partnership.