Love Isn't Some Place We Fall

Once upon a time, a senior bio major and a freshman English major fell in love. He went off to med school, she finished up college and honed her skills at writing. We plan on living eloquently, adventurously, and nerdily ever after. Ask/tell me anything! I love talking to people. (My personal is starlightswitch. You may get a response from there.)

[somethingthatwedo]

Been thinking that I'd like to keep this blog as an archive and keep doing these "my adventures (which are frequently with my almost-husband-give-it-about-two-months*)" posts on a fresh new blog with more of that theme. Been thinking it for almost a year, at this point. Been sitting on a blog that's basically ready to go for almost a year, because I couldn't think of a good way to start it off.

Finally landed on something I'm happy with, so let's do it!

The story continues here.

[kuroken-lovechild]

If you were in a fanfic, would you be the pining idiot or the oblivious dumbass?

post it in the tags!!

[somethingthatwedo]

One of my first times seeing my new city, and some of the cool stuff we've done since then: Tipsy Hare on the way back from our Ikea trip, The Porch, The Humble Bee, and Bailey Park/Bailey Coal Pit (not pictured but also enjoyed: The Brewer's Kettle, Fair Witness, Breakfastime, Young Cardinal...)

[somethingthatwedo]

From our last day trip before leaving NY: Mama's Boy burgers, Kaaterskill Falls, and Saisonnier, all highly recommended.

[somethingthatwedo]

I am packing.

Mike is house-hunting.

We are going to live in another state in less than a month.

[somethingthatwedo]

Day trip to Lake Placid with MY PARENTS who came to visit finally. It had been over two years due to pandemic and Dad's schedule filling up. (I'd seen them twice in between but went to them both times.)

We stopped for coffee/tea and breakfast and to go to a farmer's market on the way up, then went to see the ski jumps, saw the Olympic exhibits, and walked the main street to buy some souvenirs. Unpictured (you know me and not taking pictures), the rest of the time they were here we went to a brewery for dinner, played a bunch of board games, went to an Indian place for brunch, went to a farm to buy apples and pet goats and cows, and went out for ice cream because my dad will always get on board with ice cream.

[somethingthatwedo]

Jersey trip 2 of the year. We went to a bunch of neat places new to us like this donut place and a bagel place with coffee ice cubes for your iced coffee. And we went to the beach twice, once for an earlyish morning walk and once to swim, although the lifeguards were being super strict probably because of the encroaching hurricane. Which we ended up driving home in partway before we outran it. (I was glad Mike was driving.)

And the cat was posing as always.

[somethingthatwedo]

And just like that, we know where we’re moving next year. Mike accepted a fellowship at Wake Forest (apparently if they like you, they make an offer quick, and that offer came the day after the interview) so we will be in Winston-Salem, North Carolina from July 2022 to June 2023.

...and maybe longer? Once Mike is board certified and done with his fellowship, we should have a lot more choice in where we go and how long we stay there. Which will be nice. I’m getting tired of having expiration dates on where we will.

It’s a musculoskeletal fellowship, btw. My guy likes looking at skeletons.

[somethingthatwedo]

We did indeed see Mike’s mom this weekend! Took her to brunch, and she took us to dinner at a place where Mike really likes the pizza. In between we went out on our own and explored a state park near her new (well, as of last year) house, which has an abandoned lumber/cranberry picking town with a pretty tea-colored creek and ponds and a reservoir. And his mom’s cat, the king of the castle, got lots of pets.

[somethingthatwedo]

Hey, guess who finally went to see her family!

Not a lot of pictures because we didn’t go do much (surprise surprise), but I did (1) go to a Mass on the grass which was super fun (I hadn’t been to church in person since last time I saw my family in September), (2) share a wheat beer crowler with my dad since we’re the only ones who like wheats, (3) and (4) go to a bakery and get Eastern European takeout with my grandma, see my other grandparents a couple times, listen to my sister debrief about a Bridezilla experience, get my favorite specialty pizza you can only get at this one place back home, and go to dinner with each of my best friends. And take my car for an oil change and 40k mileage service at the little independent dealer where I bought it. Not bad for three days.

Now we just have to see Mike’s mom, who we haven’t seen since before the pandemic. Hopefully next weekend.

[oaluz]

Ask Polly: How Am I Supposed to Make Friends in My Late 20s?

[somethingthatwedo]

Here’s a little top nine photos of 2020, from the person who, it turns out, doesn’t have much to blog about or motivation to blog when she can’t visit family and they can’t visit her and she can’t really go out and do stuff.

1. January- was in Pittsburgh for New Year’s (took a selfie with my grandma)

2. January- started the Nine Pin cider challenge. (I knew it was too good to be true. I should have known something would interfere with it.)

3. January- started my yearlong challenge of baking something new every month (That one turned out to be pandemic-approved and I basically succeeded at it.)

4. February- went to see Mike’s mom and her new house (took a picture of her large kitty cat)

5. March- made a list of local restaurants to support by getting takeout during the shutdown. (We’ve done a good job of it, and I don’t think any of them have closed!)

6. May- watched the Crew Dragon launch with appropriate refreshments

7. June- used part of our week of vacation (which was supposed to be used to go on a family reunion trip to Colorado) to go on a camping trip

8. October- went to get donuts at Indian Ladder and fed the Goat of Wisdom (I think his name is actually Cider, but we call him the Goat of Wisdom due to his impressive beard), one of the few traditions we could still do this year

9. December- spent New Year’s Eve at a Zoom/Jackbox hosted by my best friend to substitute for the games-and-appetizers night she used to do in person

[somethingthatwedo]

I forgot to post about our little August one-night camping trip, and all I really have to say about it is the campsite was gorgeous, especially considering it was the only waterfront site I could get when I booked it. (Which was about a month in advance. Everyone is camping this year.) I’d love to try to get it again next summer, maybe for longer.

[somethingthatwedo]

Mike got pastries at an Italian bakery today--

Mike: Want anything specific?

Me: A cannoli would be good. Also if you see anything lemon, I've been very into lemon lately.

This afternoon

Mike: Want a cannoli?

Me: So did you find anything lemon? (tastes cannoli. looks at him in surprise)

Mike: Yes, it's lemon and a cannoli. Both of the things you asked for.

Me: You get an A+.

[inactive-339944]

describe ur emotional support jacket in the tags

[somethingthatwedo]

I forgot to take a picture of the campsite...

But here is how we used the week of vacation that was supposed to be for a family reunion in Colorado, and which Mike could not move because it was literally the last full week of the year. (He’s a third year starting July 1.)

I had the house special omelet at the diner, which could also have been called the Bethany Special (bacon, tomatoes, onions, cheese), and the Monkey Joe version of a Frap-- a Frost-- in hazelnut. Mike had blueberry pancakes and coffee, and then more coffee (Guatemalan I think?) at Monkey Joe’s. Don’t know if you can see on the cup but their motto is “...taste no evil.”

We used the camp stove and griddle my family gave us for Christmas for the first time. Slowly deciding on and buying the camping cooking supplies we want.

Went to the Rip Van Winkle bridge for sunset, and we didn’t entirely get a sunset, but we got this super cool view. (Weirdly, the weather was divided by the Hudson. It was partly cloudy over our heads and further east, and storm clouds and rain on the other side.)

And we went swimming both days. I didn’t take a picture of the lake, which was gorgeous, but I think I can forgive myself for not taking pictures at a beach, given the sand and water.

[somethingthatwedo]

Oh, in positive news... my baking challenge!

I don’t think I mentioned it on here but I should have. Mike commented toward the end of last year that I’ve gotten much more confident at cooking since we moved here and I started doing it more, so I decided I should see if the same would hold true for baking. (I’d baked about two things in my life before moving here, and then just pumpkin chocolate chip muffins and some cookies for Christmas.) So I decided I would bake one new dessert every month of 2020.

January was Snickerdoodle Bars, requested by Mike

February I forgot to take pictures of apparently, but it was Oatmeal Scotchies, using the recipe on the butterscotch chip bag

March was Butter Pecan Cookies

April was Red Velvet Gobs/Whoopie Pies with cream cheese frosting (for Mike’s birthday month, since he likes red velvet)

May was Brownie Pudding Cake, recipe taken from my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook

(Luckily, I’d just restocked on flour and sugar before everyone went baking mad...)

This month I’m going to do Mike’s favorite cake, Dr. Bird cake. I would have done that in honor of his birthday but he said he’d prefer it in the summer.

The challenge also gave me a chance to test my theory that my cookies were coming out bad because my oven runs hot. Which I’m now confident is the case. I’ve ‘underbaked’ all of these, testing for doneness, and they came out right.