I'm Going to Grow Old Alone, OKAY?!

So, next week I'm headed to Charlotte to see my most favorite little kitty in the world and her handsome dad. I am super excited for this trip. I mean, duh, I have a hot boyfriend who wears a uniform every damn day and I finally get to see him after a month (I know, shut up. A month is literally nothing but I'm feeling dramatic). But I have to confess that there's one little thing I'm not excited for- all of the questions I know I'm going to come back to. Every time I return to regularly scheduled life after seeing Sam everyone's eyes go straight for my left hand; I don't even get a "welcome back" first.

I wish that I could say this phenomenon only occurs after visits, but I am constantly being asked when I'm going to get engaged. Like, why do you think I would have the answer to that? Because I don't. Maybe never. I don't fucking know. And did you maybe ever think that could be a touchy subject in a relationship? Because it totally kind of is in mine. In fact, I would LOVE to get engaged. But, there's thing I'm missing called someone who wants to marry me. And I'm actually totally cool with that, but not when you ask me about it all the fucking time.

When people ask when we're getting engaged I used to say things like "Oh, we haven't talked about it yet" or just flat out "I don't know" but no one can ever drop the subject with that kind of answer. Nope, this leads them into questions like "Do you want to?" and "Do you think you will someday?" I really don't know why people think it's any of their business to ask me that. I've taken to responding with "Never, I'm planning to get 15 cats and die alone." No one ever knows what to say after that, but for some reason it doesn't stop them from asking again a week later.

And you know what's even worse? When people who know me ask him. What in the world makes you think that's an acceptable thing to do? What are you thinking?! 

I really just wish people would realize that when I get engaged, they will know because of the overflow of sparkly diamond pictures on their instagram feed. Okaythanksbye.

So tell me, do you also have the single-girl-in-a-long-term-relationship problem? Does it drive you nuts when people ask you about marriage? Do you fantasize about punching them in the throat? Oh, just me?

And since I don't talk a wholeee lot about my relationship on my blog, I'll answer all these FAQ's really quick- just don't ask me about it! Yes, I want to get married someday. Yes, I think Sam and I will get married. Yes, we talk about marriage. No, I don't think it will be anytime soon. No, I don't want to know when. No, I don't think four and a half years is a long time to wait. No, I don't want to end things if he doesn't propose soon. Yes, people ask me that question.

There's a Boy On My Blog

Have you ever seen those blog posts where girls interview their boyfriends and the boyfriends say really weird things and then blog world laughs at them? Well after being inspired by Jessica's interview, I decided to do one of my own. Surprisingly, Sam cooperated.

This is normal.

ME: Do you want to do this really fun thing where I interview you and write what you say on my blog?
SAM: Uhhh, sure.
Okay! What is the name of my blog?
I don't know.
You don't?
No. I know you blog, but I don't know the name, or what it's about, or what you do or anything.
Oh.
If I knew the name I'd probably read it, and I bet you don't want me to read it.
You're right. Okay, next question. What's the best place to shop for women?
For what?
Anything. Where do women like to shop?
Ummm, Bath and Body Works, Bed Bath and Beyond, and wherever you buy clothes at.
I do like to buy clothes. What's your opinion in Pinterest?
Silly.
What! Silly?
Yeah. It's just never interested me.
Do you even know what it is?
not really.
You're dumb. What's your favorite thing for us to do together?
Well, you probably won't want to write it on your blog...
Ohhhkay, moving on. What's my favorite thing for us to do together?
Cuddle with the cat and watch The Nanny (I don't even watch the Nanny, but he swears I watch it all the time)
What do girls keep in their purse?
You or girls?
Uh... me. (Wait, I thought I was a girl?)
Cellphone, chapstick... that's about it.
That's it? Okay. What's an acceptable amount of money to spend on a makeup item?
Whatever makes you feel pretty, sweetie.
*Asks his roommate what is an acceptable amount to spend on makeup*
ROOMMATE: Twenty Bucks!
Okay, sure. Is there anything else that you think everyone who reads my blog needs to know about you?
I don't know, what do you think they need to know?
How much you love me.
I think I'm gonna reheat my pizza.

Men are Hard to Shop For

Happy birthday to the love of my life! No, I'm not talking about Elsa- her birthday is in December. I mean the other love of my life.

Today is Sam's birthday- something I dread every year. Why? Because men are hard to shop for. So stinkin' hard. This year was especially difficult because ever since he got a grown-up job he started just buying everything and wanting for nothing. It's not like he has a diamond ring to be saving for or anything... SO ANYWAYS, I decided to just buy a bunch of random crap, throw it in a box, and call it a birthday care package. That works, right?

A bluetooth shower speaker. Sam will absolutely love this. It's perfect because he always listens to music in the shower, and he loves anything to do with technology. Bonus: since the speaker will be in the shower with him he won't have to turn it up so loud, and I won't be bothered while I'm sleeping in. Win-win!

A whole bunch of their favorite candy. Sam adores Sour Patch Kids, so I get them for him for every holiday and/or occasion. Hopefully he never gets sick of them! This year I got him the regular kids, the Extreme kids, and the new Sour Patch Kids gum.

A polar bear rug for their iPhone. Sam loves his iPhone more than he loves, well, me. When I saw this adorable incredibly masculine charging rug on Etsy I knew he had to have it. It keeps the charger on their night stand instead of lost on their floor, and the faux fur muffles any vibrations from the phone for a disturbance free slumber!

A manly print for their wall. Sam and his roommate are both big Top Gear fans, so I made him this print to hang in his apartment. I'm also sending a gift card to buy a frame- I don't really want to risk putting one in the mail!

Some stuff that smells good. There's nothing wrong with getting a little something for yourself on his birthday!

I hope he likes it! Feel free to use my gift ideas for your boyfriend, and let me know if you have any brilliant ideas of your own; I need to start planning for next year!

An Open Letter on Our Anniversary

Or two weeks later, same diff.

February 19, 2014 marked four years that Sam and I have been together, and it's been four of my favorite years so far. Every year I write Sam a letter looking back on the last year, looking forward to the future, and just explaining how much I appreciate him. So, without future ado: a (slightly edited) copy of the letter I gave him this year! And my title still counts since I actually wrote it then, right?

Sam,

four years in and I am more in love with you than I ever thought I would be. It still blows my mind to think about what this relationship has grown into. I don't think I could accurately put into words how happy you and your kitty make me, but you both bring so much joy into my life and you can brighten even the cloudiest of days. I am so thankful for you both.

This past year we spent more time apart than we did together- in fact we hardly spent any of it together. Being away from you has been a challenge, but it's also been a blessing. There have been times where it's been tough- where I've missed you so much it hurt, or when the only thing I wanted in the world was your arms around me. Along with the bad, however, there's been experiences I wouldn't trade for all the days in the universe. The kisses have been sweeter, the hugs have been longer, and every minute spent with you over the last year was much more appreciated. Being long distance gave our relationship the opportunity to change, for better or worse, and luckily I've been very pleased with the results.

My favorite memory from the past year was definitely when I came to visit you in July. I had the best time with you, and you really spoiled me with your big surprise. It was also pretty awesome living near you for those two months- I wish it hadn't been so short lived!

I honestly have no idea what our future holds, but I'm really excited to find out. I'm hoping to spend a million more years with you at least, but if we broke up tomorrow I'd always know that not a single day was wasted, because this relationship has given me so much and has been so special to me. There's no one I'd rather share the last four years or the rest of my life with.

You are my boyfriend, my best friend, my biggest support, and my greatest inspiration. I love you so much, and I can't wait to spend today by your side. Happy four years!

Love,

Maybe Being a Crazy Cat Lady isn't so Bad...

I've never understood why old ladies with lots of cats have such a bad rap. I mean, what's so great about having a husband anyways? Boys are smelly, gross, sometimes mean, and often unreliable. Cats, on the other hand, are great. They're always down to cuddle and they never cheat. Yeah, cats are definitely superior to men.

& I'd chalk that up to a win

Why Having a Cat is Better than Having a Boyfriend:

All boys are really good for is cuddling, and cats are better at it anyways. Cats take up so much less space, since they do tend to be like a 20th of the size of a boyfriend. Plus there's never any arguments about who's gonna be which spoon.

Body hair isn't gross when it's on a cat. But on a guy? Keep that back hair to yourself, mister.

Yep, I definitely prefer my cats with fur

Cats won't judge you. They don't care if you wear sweatpants all day and they won't say a word if you skip shaving your legs for a day or seven. I'm pretty sure they enjoy your singing, too.

Cats will never ignore you to play COD... but they might just ignore you. Fortunately they only weigh about seven lbs though, so you can just pick them up and force them to hang out with you.

A cat will never accuse you of being a stage 5 clinger. In fact, I think cats prefer clingy girls. Oh, you want to hang out all day every day? Yeah, your cat is down for that.

A cat will never cheat on you, and if they are acting sneaky it usually leads to laughter, not tears.

So there you have it! Having a cat is obviously better than having a boyfriend.

Disclaimer: Yes, I do have a boyfriend, but he's well aware that our relationship is 10% about me liking him and 90% about his precious cat, Elsa. Oh, I've already mentioned her on this blog ten thousand times? Well here's another picture:

you're welcome :)

Dating Disaster with a Happy Ending

Today I'm linking up with Two Thirds Hazel and One to Nothin' for their Flirting with Disaster link up. When I read about this link up I immediately thought that it would be the perfect time to tell Sam and my "How we met" story. Wait, I thought this link-up was about dating disasters? Well yeah, the beginning of our love story was quite a disaster. But it all worked out and brought us to where we are today :)

So excited after not seeing my boo thang for 6 months

It all began on the first day of my freshman year of college. There's me, a little freshman eager to meet new men friends, and in front of me was this upperclassman who's a total hunk. Score! But it was no random happenstance that had this tall, dark, and handsome stranger was sitting directly in front of me. Nope, he'd noticed me when he walked in, and chose to sit in front of me because I was pretty. Awww. And then, being the smooth operator that he is, he asked me if he could borrow a pencil. And the rest, my friends, is history.

Cute right? That's why we usually end the story right there, but I'll give you folks the long version.  

Fast forward about a month or so. We'd become pretty good friends, and one night he texted me and said "I just wanted to tell you that I would totally date you." After spending two days dreaming about being his girlfriend and getting all giddy and excited with my best friend, I finally got a chance to talk to him in person:

Me: Just for the record, I would totally date you, too

Him: Oh, um, yeah. I don't think it would be a good idea for us to date. You know, we have a class together. And, um, I like you, but, um, we have a class together and I don't think it would be a good idea...

Seriously? You can't date me because we have a class together? Whatever, dude.

My 20th Birthday! Hollaaa

Fast forward to October. We kissed for the first time, on someone else's suggestion, and even though I had multiple prospects at the time. I was kind of a playa as freshman...

Fast forward another week, I start dating Matt. The next day Sam invites me to ride with him to Clemson to get some free alcohol one of his buddies rescued from a liquor store that burned down... don't even ask. One the way home, out of nowhere, Sam says to me "If you were single I would totally date you" (we clearly said totally a lot back then). I have no idea what I said back, but I remember what I was thinking: I WAS SINGLE YESTERDAY, MORON!

Fast forward another month or two, Matt breaks my heart. Jerk. And Sam becomes my knight in shining armor by giving me a place to stay at the beginning of winter break, and driving me to the airport so that I can get home for Christmas, since Matt was supposed to do those things. Jerk.

I mean really, how cute are we?

Fast forward to January and we're back at school. Now Sam realizes what he could have had all along and he's trying to get me, hard. But I hadn't forgiven him for last semester yet. For a solid month he bought me flowers, took me on dates (What, is a girl supposed to refuse a free meal?), gave me Jersey Shore V-day cards, and asked me to be his girlfriend at least once a week. And you know what I said? "NOPE." Hey, a girl's gotta have standards.

NYC! Please ignore that woman's hiney

By mid-February Sam was pretty fed up with me, so when I showed up to a party and he was there we were both thinking "Great, just who I didn't want to see." His friend, Lauren, told him "You should make out with another girl to make her jealous." And make out with another girl he did, right in front of me. So what was drunk little me supposed to do? Well clearly start making out with another guy; what other option did I have? And PS, these people were both major downgardes. So there he is kissing another girl to make me jealous, and there I am kissing another guy out of jealousy. And there's everyone else at the party whispering about us. Alcohol leads to great decisions. 

No really, it does, because Lauren's plan worked. I was insanely jealous. After getting so much attention from him for the last month, I couldn't stand seeing him with another girl, so I made sure his attention was back on me by the next afternoon. And a week later we were Facebook Official! It took about another week until I was actually dating him because I liked him, and not just so that no one else could have him, though. That's true love, ladies and gents.

So you see, we're 4 years in and madly in love now, but at the beginning we were, well, flirting with disaster :)

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Guess Who's Back?

Well, I told you I'd try and write while I was on vacation, but it clearly didn't happen. I was busy enjoying time with my boo and napping with my Elsa. But, at least I have a super fun recap for you, right?!

So, I got there Wednesday, and Sam had to work in the afternoon but we got to have lunch together, and then I went to the gym with my Sam's bff, Alex. And then I took a longggg nap, because my flight was at 5 am. Ew!

Thursday was the 4th of July and we celebrated America right- beer, a cookout, and swimming in the lake. We skipped the fireworks, and we were glad we did. It ended up pouring and thunderstorming all night. No thank ya. Sam had to work on Friday morning so we hit the hay before it was even midnight. Lame-o's!

How cute are we?

After work Friday we went to The Wine Loft in Charlotte. Have you ever been? It had a great atmosphere. I had one of the Moscatos obviously & we had a pita/hummus/cheese plate that was really good. I liked it better than the wine bar in Baxter that we usually go to, and A LOT better than the one in the university area that some of our friends like to frequent.

After we left there it was time for the surprise he'd been torturing me with, but it was so worth the wait. He treated me to a weekend at the Ritz-Carlton in downtown Charlotte! This was definitely the fanciest hotel I have ever been to, and I just might be spoiled now. My favorite thing, besides pretending to be rich, was the pool/hot tub. I would have been happy never leaving that area,  but it closed at 10. Sigh.

1. Date Night! ( Read more about that later)

2. Our view of Charlotte. It wasn't that great of a view, and the weather sucked all week long.

3. Our bathroom mirror had a freakin' TV in it!

4. Mirror pic while waiting for the elevator. Losers

5. Room service breakfast! 2 orders of pancakes and a glass of OJ: $45

6. The valet gave us cookies after he brought us our car! So cute.

On Saturday night Sam and I had a date night to celebrate our anniversary/Valentine's Day/our birthdays/ everything else we've missed by not being together.  For dinner we went to BlackFinn- If you live in CLT and you've never been then go RIGHT NOW! Soooo freaking good. At first you'll be confused because it will look like a bar (they even card you when you walk in) and you thought you were going to a classy place, but then they'll seat you in the dining room and you'll be like "Ohhhh, okay."

First we got two amazing appetizers- the shrimp spring rolls (I picked out the shrimp) & the FinnFries that were super delicious. For dinner Sam had the steak & I got the Macaroni & Cheese Skillet with chicken. It may be the most delicious food I have ever had ever. Then for dessert we shared the key lime pie- yum!

Monday was my last full day and Sam had to work again; adult life is rough. So I spent my Monday Funday with one of my best college friends, Scott. After chatting, reminiscing, and exchanging gossip on everyone we could think of, we did what any self-respecting people would do on vacation- got day drunk at TGI Friday's. At this point I started really thinking about my lil' ol' blog and thinking I really owed you guys some pictures. I'm not that good at taking pictures while intoxicated.

1. "Food, Liquor, Beer" This is how a receipt should look. Oh, and I spent more on alcohol than on food. Whoops.

2. My delicious cakepop from SAS cupcakes. I forgot to take a picture until I already started eating it. My B, blog people.

3. This bathroom floor that I was just really impressed with. I distinctly remember thinking I wanted to get the bright pink walls in the picture, too. Clearly I didn't do that.

We also went to PetSmart to pet cats while under the influence. Don't even ask me why I didn't get any pictures of that. I'm dumb.

This is pretty much what I looked like.

So, that's basically it! It was an amazing weekend and I am so thankful I finally got to spend some time with my handsome guy :) Sorry I didn't take more pictures, though. My camera couldn't handle the Charlotte humidity, & it fogged up immediately every time I turned it on.

Womp womp.

Also, I'm kind of in love with my vacation toes.

We So Excited!

Guess what, Blog World? I leave for vacation in NINE HOURS! Where am I going, you ask? Well, Charlotte, NC! My boyfriend lives in the Queen City and I am finally going to visit him after 6 very long months apart. Yep, you read that right, I haven't kissed my boyfriend in SIX MONTHS! And that changes tomorrow. This pretty much sums up how I feel right now:

My flight lands in CLT at 9 o' clock in the AM and I am beyond ready to be there. This is basically what I'll look like getting off the plane:

And then I get to spend a WHOLE WEEK with my sweet boyfriend, and we're gonna eat a lot of ice cream, and shotgun a lot of beer, and go horseback riding, and swimming, and go on an extra fancy surprise date. There's gonna be a whole lot of cuddling and a whole lot of this:

JUST KIDDING. We are much more tasteful than that. I also get to see someone else really special tomorrow- my precious-baby-angel-kitty-love-of-my-life Elsa! AKA my boyfriend's cat. She looks like this:

She's a sassy B

And then on the fourth of July we're having a cookout and I get to see a whole bunch of my sorority sisters who I haven't seen since I graduated, and we're all gonna look a lot like this:

And the week will fly by wayyy too quickly, and soon it will be Tuesday again and I'll have to come home, and I'll ugly cry like this:

So basically what I'm trying to say is I cannot wait to get to North Carolina and see my hunk of a boyfriend and all my fabulous college friends. I probably won't be posting to this thing a whole lot, but as you can see I'll have a lot to do and you know I'll update you as soon as I get back :) Plus my boyfriend works a lot so I'll try to make time for this little ol' blog while he's out serving and protecting!

My sentiments exactly, Honey Boo Boo Child.