Amazing Weekend!!!!

Oh my gosh, this weekend was so much fun! Even if we hadn't done anything, I still think it would have been great just because we were looking forward to it so much after not seeing each other for 2 weeks!

A recap...

I arrived in Valpo Friday afternoon. Even though I took the day off, I went to the dentist in the morning to get my two of my teeth bonded and one filed down (long story), but it was quick and I was on the road by 11am! So, by gaining an hour by heading to the region, I arrived 12:30pm Valpo time! This gave us a little over an hour of hang-out time before Jeff had to go to his one and only class. We weren't feeling like cooking Friday night, so we went to Don Quijote, as Jeff said we would. I wasn't very hungry, but we got tapas (Jeff ate most of them) and a HUGEEE pitcher of white sangria (soo good, I really want to try to make it myself soon). I was not prepared for it to be so large, but we almost finished it, and according to Jeff, I was fairly tipsy. I beg to differ.

We watched like 10 movies on TBS, HBO, etc. over the weekend, so that's what we did Friday night. I can't remember all the movies - Failure to Launch, I Am Legend, a little Mean Girls, Baby Mama and many more. Saturday morning, we got up and made breakfast and basically just hung out all day. We went to Fridays for lunch, went grocery shopping, made tacos for dinner, and went and saw All About Steve with Sandra Bullock and Bradley Cooper. Bradley Cooper makes this movie a little comical, but I wouldn't recommend it all. While it has a nice message, the plot is totally unrealistic and un-funny. (The funniest part though, was a line by Bradley Cooper's character, Steve. Sandra Bullock - Mary Magdalene Horowitz, a Jewish/Catholic crossword creator, is constantly quoting famous people. She asks Steve if he knows who said something, he doesn't know, but the answer she says is, "Jesus." He asks, "Did Jesus tell you to come here?" because she is a socially awkward girl who he thinks is crazy and is basically stalking him. Pretty funny when said, maybe not when written. Oh well.)

Sunday was relaxing with more eggs for breakfast, more movies on tv, and our leftover tacos for an early lunch. We worked on the websites for my friend Stacy's and my new card business - SK Cards. (See twitter.com/skcards and skcards.blogspot.com to learn more!) Then, we headed over to Crown Point to see my mom's extended family. My mom's cousin lives there and was throwing a birthday party for her dad (my Great Uncle George). My grandma was also attending, and her birthday is also this week, so I wanted to go since I never get to see her, and Valpo is only about 20 minutes from Crown Point. It was a nice time, the Serbians treated us very well, and we really enjoyed the food - especially the delicious steaks!

After the cookout, Jeff and I headed to Four Winds Casino in New Buffalo, MI for an impromptu meeting with his sister Jen and brother-in-law Chris. We had a few drinks, Jeff dabbled in 3-card poker, and we all played our hand at Roulette (my first time ever gambling). Only Jen won at Roulette, but Chris won big right as we arrived at 3-card poker, so he called us his good luck charms! It was a nice evening - we all had dinner together in the casino, and Jeff and I headed back to Valpo. We were evidently exhausted from the day's events, as we layed down at 10pm to take a nap and didn't wake until 8am! At least we got some good sleep in!

Monday was pretty uneventful, as we were bummed our extended weekend was over. Jeff had class at 2pm, so we just hung out in the morning and went to lunch at a pizza place. (Jeff will have to remind me of the name, but it was really good!) After lunch, we had about an hour to kill, so we watched tv and I went through Jeff's iTunes to decide what I wanted to take for my new iPod! Jeff just ordered a new Macbook Pro and got a free iPod touch with it, so I am the lucky one who is taking it on! I'm excited to download all my music on it tonight when I get home - Thanks Jeff!!

Overall, it was a wonderful weekend. There were no stresses, no arguments, and we were just very happy together. It makes me miss him even more now that we have another 2 weeks apart, but we are definitely falling into a routine of Jeff being at school and me working at home, which is good. I always look forward to seeing Jeff and wish I could see him more, but I think it's good that we have lives separate from each other - it gives us more to talk about and a different perspective to see the world from.

Weekend Preview

So, Kara is coming up to Valpo to visit me this weekend and I am super excited! What's even better is that it is pretty much a four day weekend because of Labor Day. So Kara will get up here around 12 or 1 p.m. tomorrow and be able to stay until around that same time on Monday!

I have high hopes for this weekend seeing as it has been two weeks since I have seen Kara. I just want to be able to spend as much time together as possible, no matter what we are doing. But...I do have a general idea for the weekend's activities.

Tomorrow night will start with a nice home cooked meal that Kara and I will conjure up as soon as I get back from class. After that there are two options we could go with. We can either go to a movie (or two, seeing as Kara wants to see two different movies), or have a nice night in and maybe rent some movies or go through my personal movie collection.

Then Saturday will probably be a team effort of Kara and I setting up a Twitter account and Facebook Fan Page for her new card company that she is starting up with her friend, Stacy. We will also look into starting a blog and a website for the card company (hopefully making it an e-commerce site, but I will have to do some research before getting too in-depth). Saturday night I plan on taking Kara to Don Quixote, which is a wonderful Spanish restaurant in downtown Valparaiso that reminds Kara of her semester spent abroad in Spain during her junior year at IU.

As for Sunday and Monday, I plan on just getting as much QT (quality time) in as possible. That is always my general plan when Kara and I get to see each other because we continually have to make up for lost time. I'll do my best to write a review of how the weekend went come Monday night or Tuesday.

I hope you all have a great Labor Day Weekend!

Time Management

I like Kara's previous post and I thought I would give it a shot to explain how I handle seeing my Kara, my friends, and my family. A little preface to start though, this post may sound a little cold as if I view spending time with my friends, family, and Kara as a matter of time management, and to a certain extent that is the case; however, I do not put restrictions on the time spent with them.

Anyway, I try to maximize my time with Kara in any way possible. She usually makes this easy for me by sending me emails with her schedule for the month, that way we can plan the weekends we will be able to see each other as well as the ones we won't. Once I know which weekends I will be seeing Kara, I can talk with my friends and family and see which weekends I can spend time with them. And then I try to optimize my time during the week so that I can spend time with my college friends.

It's really an in-depth procedure I go through to accommodate everyone in my life... including myself. Haha ok so maybe it's an in-depth procedure that Kara does for me to accommodate everyone in my life. Either way, I am always trying to maximize my time spent with Kara, my friends, and my family!

Friends

I have no clue what to blog about, but my vice president is out of town and my president is on a conference call, so I thought I should take the opportunity.

Jeff and I haven't seen each other for a while, so there's really nothing to report on our relationship. In fact, he has started school and is busy with all his editing and tv station stuff, and I go to bed at 10:30pm (only 9:30 Jeff's time), so we've only been talking a couple minutes here and there every day. We have also both been spending a lot of time with our friends, which is a very good thing.

While I always look forward to the times that I get to go visit Jeff (especially this weekend, as I have a four-day weekend!), I sometimes feel like I'm missing out on things at home. I know I could be sleeping in, helping my parents around the house, seeing my brother at school, and going out with my friends. I was able to go out with friends both Friday and Saturday night last weekend, and it was so nice just to hang out with the girls, go to the bars, and talk all night, just like old times.

I think when you're in a relationship, especially a long-distance one, balance is the key, as we've both said on many occasions in this blog. Moreso, though, I think you have to be willing to give some things up. Obviously it would be nearly impossible for me to keep up with all my friends from Indy, all my friends from out of town, and Jeff, so some people/activities become more important than others (not that my feelings for any of these people have changed, but there's just not enough time in the day). I'm getting much better at keeping up with people as I get more acclimated to my work schedule, and I definitely want to spend at least one day every weekend I'm in Indy with my friends.

The truth is that my family, Jeff, and I come first - and I need to find a place for everything and everyone else. (And work, which I'd love to not have room for!) On the other hand, I don't want to be in a relationship that causes me to lose my friends because that would be an unfulfilling life. I am glad that for right now, Jeff and I really do have our own time and are apart from each other so we can make sure that we always have our friendships, but at the end of the day, he is the only one I want to talk to.

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On a totally unrelated note, last night my friend Stacy and I made baby shower invitations for one of her friends, which is now the beginning of our card business! This is more of a hobby turned into something we thought we could actually do, so stay tuned for information about our upcoming website, twitter page, and facebook page and what you can order from us!

Fun-Filled Family Weekend

Oh man, I really wish I had a better video of Jeff throwing that pitch. When they called his name, he did a cute little wave to the crowd like he was some celebrity. His wind up was good (or so I'm told - my athletic abilities are nill), but as he said, the ball hit the dirt to the catcher's right, and he didn't even go for it. You can't hear it in the video (due to my laughter), but the entire crowd went, "Awwwwww ohhhh" in unison.

The real festivities were before the game, though. We had a great dinner at Bellavita on Geist on Friday night with everyone (minus my brothers and my dad who was working late) and hung out a little after at the Murphy house, where my brother Kyle told jokes out of a joke book, we talked politics, and diets.

Saturday was pleasant. The Greco parents arrived late morning, and we hung out and did nothing all day. Mrs. Greco and Mrs. Murphy went and did a little light shopping at Half-Price Books and some golf and tennis store. We all ate at different times and Mr. Greco watched a tennis match while I popped some Tylenol and put a heating pad on my sore back (from sitting in my crappy desk chair all day). It was a pretty uneventful day.

Not for long... Jeff's mom insisted on riding in the trunk of our minivan (as we were traveling with 9 people total for the game: five Murphys, three Grecos, and Jake, the bat boy). So, she and Kyle were sitting in the back having a grand old time when my dad (a fan of wide and fast right turns) took us on an educational visit to the old Victory Field. From the back I hear, "Can we stop?!" Unfortunately, Mama Grecs was a little carsick, but battled through and had a great time at the game.

Sunday was nice, as we had breakfast together at our favorite place, Le Peep, after which Mr. and Mrs. Greco and Jackie headed on their way home. I was excited that Jeff was able to stay for the day. We saw Inglorious Basterds, which was awesomely gory and funny - I loved it and would like to see it again (a rare occurrence). We had dinner at Naked Tchopstix, which was really good, but we decided that we always order too many sushi rolls, so from now on, we're cutting it down to three rolls between us. Naturally, I was bummed when Jeff had to leave (not until 8pm though!) and was actually looking forward to getting back into a work routine so I wouldn't be so mopey.

This week has been good, as far as our weeks go. Neither of us has been emotional (excluding me Sunday night), which is probably due to my busy and good week at work (my boss isn't here) and Jeff's starting classes again at Valpo. We won't see each other this weekend, but Diedrich is visiting Jeff for the first time ever at Valpo and I'm visiting my friend Kate downtown for dinner at her new apartment and going out after. I'm looking forward to it, but I'm especially excited to spend an extra long Labor Day Weekend soon with Jeff at Valpo!

A Ceremonial Weekend

So, I spent last weekend in Indy with Kara and her family. Nothing out of the usual... right? Wrong. My parents were also down in Indy...to spend time with myself and with Kara's family. Why?

Well, Mr. Murphy got a package for an Indianapolis Indians (AAA affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates) game. The package included 8 tickets to the game, and the opportunity for someone to throw out the ceremonial first pitch. Knowing that I played baseball in college and was a big fan of the sport, Mr. Murphy asked me if I would like to do the honors. Of course I excitedly accepted his offer. And below you can see the video Kara took on her digital camera of me throwing out the first pitch, which didn't go quite as planned. Let's put it this way, the ball may or may not have made it to the backstop...and by that I mean, it definitely made it to the backstop because of my terrible throw. You can tell by Kara's laugh during the video. She's laughing at my failure... haha.

Anyhow, that was Saturday night. On Friday night, Kara's mom, Kara, my parents, my sister, my sister's mother-in-law, and I went out to a nice dinner on the lake front. Saturday during the day, my parents came over to Kara's house and we had a nice relaxing Saturday afternoon until it was time to leave for the game. And Sunday we all at breakfast together at Le Peep before my parents and sister set off to go back home.

All-in-all it was a great weekend with good fun, good people, and good food. It would be nice to do something like this again in the future, whether at my home or Kara's.

A Lot of Action

I wasn't sure how to write this post, but I guess I figured it out. Basically, I see both sides of Kara's last post. I agree with her that people should wait until they have a solid job with a steady flow of income and they have the fortitude to handle all the responsibilities of an engagement or marriage before they decide to get married; however, I also understand the people who want to get married early.

I prefer to wait until I am established and completely ready to get married. There's no reason to rush it, I do have the rest of my life to be married. Yet, I know from friends and family that some people disagree and get married right when they know they have found that special person. Some people get married because they don't see the point in waiting. If they love each other, they will make it work, no matter what difficulties a young married couple can come across.

So I guess what I am saying is that it really doesn't matter. It is up to each and every couple to decide if they want to get married young, or wait a little longer. I just prefer to wait a little longer because I feel as though there would be more strain and problems to solve. No matter when you decide to get married, marriage is a long and difficult journey with plenty of ups and downs along the way.