Not much to report on other than the birthday...which was totally EPIC.  So I guess this'll be an epic post?

It took a lot to get through the week.  Monday was President's Day and that was good, because I was kind of tired.  I had lunch with Eric over at his place of employment and then did a little shopping, and then went to book club.  I didn't manage to get to the book this month, though I'm kind of glad, because apparently there were a lot of rape scenes.  I really don't need to see any more of those.  Ever.  EVER.  Other than that, it was fun to catch up with the girls, ask Kelly and Meagan about their impending nuptials.  And play with their dog.

The rest of the week was really just a run up to the weekend, which was very difficult because I had NOTHING  to do at work.  Really.  Nothing.  I know it won't last, and I'm really okay with that, because it's really pretty dull when there's nothing to do.  I don't want to go back to being stressed out and overwhelmed by my job, but I like being engaged.  It'll get better, I just think this was the lull-in-action week.

Friday came about and I was all excited for the weekend ahead.  And then I poked my head over the wall to look out the window and saw that it was snowing like crazy.  What the what?!  So that caused some panic, but it was so warm, that the snow didn't stick around too long.  However it did get a lot chillier than I expected, so I dressed fairly warm to meet Eric at his house, before we headed downtown to our photoshoot with the fair and talented Chelsea.  Very good Valentine's gift.  We did our photos in the Passageway in the Old Market, which was pretty neat.  It was all lit up and the plants were pretty, and it was warm in there.  We did some outdoor photos, which lasted as long as Chelsea could feel her fingers.  Not too long, because I felt parts of me going numb.  Thankfully, also, my boyfriend is warm, and keeps a blankie in his car.  But first, dinner at Trini's, super tasty and convivial.  Then we headed over to swing dancing where I received a most impressive birthday present.  Cecily, Dianna, and Adam had spent most of the week testing and creating Angry Birds cake pops especially for me.  I have to admit, they were one of the coolest birthday cakes I've ever had, second only to the Great Mouse Detective cake, but that's a whole different thing.  Kudos to Adam for making the smug green pig.

Then there was the longest birthday jam I've ever had, I probably danced with about twenty people.  Cecily and Eric made the effort to keep from ending the jam with creepy Steve, many thanks to Cecily for taking that bullet.  I then managed to somewhat avoid creepy Andy (alas, on your birthday, you cannot always get a pass on the creepy guys).  He kissed my hand but I managed not to dance with him.  Seriously, why is it that when a guy kisses your hand, rarely is it ever by a guy you even want holding your hand?  Oh, well.  After the dance, I needed salt in my system after those enormous Angry Bird pops, so we all went to VI to hang out and in my case, eat onion rings.  Nobody sang to me in there, thank goodness.  There was plenty of singing throughout the weekend, also plenty more sugar.

Saturday I slept in, and had a low key day.  Poor Eric was under the weather, feeling pretty icky, but he put up a lot of effort to give me a nice birthday.  I really think my friends gave me a pretty good one.  Though Saturday night I went to bed early and foolishly left my phone by my pillow without turning it to vibrate...

And slept straight through until about 7:30 without hearing the dozen email notifications or the text message that made no sense at all.  I was a lot more tired than I thought.  I slept for another hour or two, missed a few more emails, and then met Eric, Joe, and Frank at church.  Frank and I sat together because Eric and Joe had important parts to play, and the church was pretty packed, but it was the first Sunday of Lent.  Not a bad day for a birthday, I suppose.  After church, we went to the Bella Italia fest where I ate some great meatballs and treated myself to a birthday cannolli.  Nom.  Then Eric and I found First Street, and spotted a giant chicken, and then I dropped him off at his car, not his house.  Then I went shopping again (got to get rid of those birthday gift cards), and went home to hang with my parents.  Talked to my grandma, then went over to Susie's house where Carroll was having her annual Oscar party.

Oh, Carroll.  She made me a cake, Susie made me a cocktail, and I brought the Angry Birds pops to share.  We played with Jen's new baby Nathan, Susie's little girl Ellie, heckled the awards, and enjoyed pizza.  I also drooled over some Robert Downey Jr.  And the girls sang to me.

I went home late and tried to go to bed immediately.  It was one heck of a birthday.

Let's blog about Valentine's Day.  Yes, I am going to be that person.  Yes, you should be prepared to vomit with all the cuteness to follow.

I kind of left the Valentine's planning up to Eric, mostly because I was dealing with my grandma's funeral and getting back to work, and still coming to grips with the notion that he really was going to be my boyfriend.  Seriously, it's taken some time to get used to, not in a bad way, more like, wow, we really are doing this OMG YAY!!! way.  I'm really happy.  Valentine's day itself I managed to get out of my Jitterbugs operations board meeting (I don't really know what we do other than talk about stuff, but Ian is very smart and energetic, so I dig him), then I went to Eric's for dinner.  Chicken paprikash by request, and I brought his Valentine's day present, a particularly clever card (at least I thought so), and a gift card of ice cream (though he's given it up for Lent, so I guess it'll be April before he has some).  We had a lovely dinner and despite his promises, Troy did not do a shot every time Eric and I kissed.  Our quiet evening was only slightly interrupted by Frank, who was bringing over Kate, potentially Eric and Troy's new roommate.  It's an interesting story, but we'll see how it goes.  My reaction to everything was more like annoyance at our date being interrupted.  Oh well.

Eric also gave me flowers.  I *heart* that.  And him.

Thursday was our "official" going out, dressed up, fancy dinner Valentine's day celebration.  Eric and I met at the 801 Chophouse, which was very nice, he wore a suit and he brought me more flowers, and after we'd been sitting for about five minutes to consider what to eat...the fire alarm began going off.  Thankfully we were not evacuated, and there wasn't a serious emergency as we later found out.  The food was super tasty.  I haven't had onion soup that good in quite some time.  Also, the time together to talk and hold hands was just lovely.  I really like hanging out with my boyfriend.

Now I'm starting to annoy myself with the cuteness.

We also got to talk to Chef Brian, who is my kind of chef, similar to my big brother and my two cousins, laid back, likes his food, and willing to make you eat it.  He managed to talk Eric into dessert, which was an enormous slice of cheesecake that we couldn't finish despite combined efforts, but we also ate a lot of steak preceding it.  We also found out the source of the fire alarm, a very hot pan not under the proper ventilation system.  Oh, work place shenanigans.  Also, the restaurant is inside a really gorgeous apartment building with an awesome Deco lobby.  Ah, luxury that I don't really want to pay for, but maybe just borrow for an hour or two for pictures.

And I didn't really do much until the weekend, game night, shopping, and the like.  I'm kind of tired.  Maybe I'll write more later.

Wowee, it has been a manic couple of weeks...again.  I seem to vacillate between being too busy to post or too bored.  Silly me.  Well, here we go.

At the beginning of the month, my grandma for whom I am named went into the hospital because she was having a lot of trouble eating and as much as I should state all the details, it's really hard to think about, so I'll skip to the end and say that after a week in the hospital and a lot of issues, she passed away.  It was sad, but I know she's in a better place, and my mom and her siblings and my grandpa made sure she was never alone, and she went away in peace with grandpa holding her hand, so I think it'll be okay.  I was a little annoyed that I found out via facebook...in fact I was pretty upset at the time, but I'm over that.  I'm more upset about my grandma being gone.  When I saw her laid out at her rosary, all I could think was that wasn't my grandma.  I mean, it was, but she didn't lie down like that, she was always active and alert and looking after all of us.  The pictures made me feel better, because that WAS my grandma.  I was sad, and I cried a lot at different times, certain things set me off, and I'm still sad when I think about how I won't be able to see her anymore, but I know she's at peace, and she's watching out for me, and all of us.  The priest made me very happy by calling her a lovely and gracious woman, because that is exactly what she was.

In the meantime, the rosary and funeral meant everyone would be gathered together, and even though I prefer weddings and baptisms and anniversaries, it was nice to see everyone.  I love my cousins.  And my cousin Matthew and his lovely wife Jayna let me play with their new little one, Janie Lou, which helped me get through a lot of the rosary.  My wonderful sister-in-law got me through the funeral.  I have a great family, and I have to admit that I'm pretty lucky.

Family news aside, I'm pretty lucky in other ways.  The job still treats me pretty well, though this new car management assignment is a bit too ambiguous for my taste, but I'm sure we'll figure it out.  I got my bonus and my raise, which is always the awesome part of the year.  I have to meet with the head cheese tomorrow (take that however you like), but I think it'll be okay, I just need to look nice and bring a notebook.  Jack and Heather had their birthdays, Jack liked his present, I still need to mail Heather's, but since she has yet to mail my Christmas present, we figure everything will get where it needs to go soon enough.

The other wonderful news is that I have a boyfriend now.  Eric asked me to make plans with him for Valentine's day, and for the first time in almost 27 years, I will have a date for that particular holiday.  He's also been supportive and sweet while I'm missing my grandma, and he plans to spoil me.  For the first week, it almost didn't feel real, since it was something I dreamt about so many times.  But it certainly seems to be happening, and I feel so happy I can't stop smiling sometimes.  I keep waiting for someone to come up to me and flick my ear and tell me to knock it off.  I just adore him, and I don't always feel like I deserve it, but apparently he does, so I will defer to him.  Expect to be totally annoyed by our cuteness.  I plan to make everyone vomit with sappiness.

Now go listen to "L-O-V-E" by Nat King Cole and feel the way I do.