Things have finally started slowing down...

It's been a while since I've written so I thought I'd give a quick update before I left work today :) Let's see what has happened this week...

I've spent the majority of the week recooping from the past month or so and having comps on Monday just really pushed me over the edge. Needless to say, I didn't do too much! On Friday night, Casey, Tara, Reid, and I took Alex to Outback for his birthday. Alex loves Outback so he had a good time :) He threatened us all night about having them sing to him so we were nice and refrained from telling them it was his birthday. After we ate dinner, Alex had to go on to work so our night ended there. On Saturday night, I did go out with the Casey and Tara which was a lot of fun. We went to El Ricon and ran into Alex and some of his friends. Several of his college buddies were back in town so they got together last minute to grab something to eat and go bar-hopping. Anyway, we ended up sitting with them so it wasn't necessarily the girl's night I was hoping for, but that's okay :). Alabama was playing so Alex's friends were going to Wilhagen's to watch the game and Casey and Tara decided to go back to their apartment to watch. I just went back to my apartment and did some housework. The girl's called me and said they wanted to go to the Library when the game was over so I got ready again and we headed to the bar. Alex wasn't actually bartending but he was in and out and unfortunately when we got there, he was out. When he came back, I did get to spend some time with him and listen to the awesome band, Til Two. We hung out for a little while and then decided to head out. I knew I had to get up early on Sunday morning so I went straight home and went to bed.

On Sunday, Alex's parents came down to cook brunch. We had caviar, cheese from Oregon, eggs benedict, hashbrowns, and fruit salad. Everything was so yummy!!! Alex got some fun birthday presents including some really cool drinking glasses :) His mom is an amazing cook so I love eating with his family! They hung out for most of the afternoon so we got to spend some time with them. After they left, Alex ran out and did some errands and I ran home to rest. He called me later asking if I wanted to come over and watch American Gangster and he even bought my favorite food from Qdoba (That's one of the perks from dating someone so long, they can order for you :)) Note: I have some pictures from the brunch, but they are on Alex's camera so as soon as I can get them from him, I'll upload them :)

Other than that, this week has been pretty uneventful. I did start working out with my personal trainer again last night, and although I am extremely sore and exhausted, I know she's going to get me back in shape for all my upcoming events :). Josh has a baseball tournament in Daphne that I might go to with my family, but I'm not totally sure. Other than that, my weekend looks pretty calm as well but it will be a nice change from the past few weeks :)

Have a great weekend and I'll try to update later! :)

Maegan

Alex's Birthday :)

So Alex's birthday was yesterday, and I promised I'd update today on everything. I made dinner reservations at 8 so I headed over to his house a little after 7 so we could do the gift thing :) He LOVES watches and he has 3 already, but his idea about watches is similar to my idea about shoes: you can never have too many!! So I bought him a brown Diesel watch to add to his collection. He also recently started liking cufflinks so I found him a pair to go with the watch. And he's been wanting a watch case to keep all of his accessories in, so I found him this really cool one online that I had his initials engraved on :) He loved all of his presents and dinner was fabulous as always when we go to the Globe. The best part was, we got to have our favorite dessert ever, The Chocolate Torte!! :)

After we left the Globe, Alex wanted to stop by the bar to check on things. Our quick little visit turned into an all-night venture though! He rarely gets to take off the boss hat and have fun so it was a nice change for him. His friend Skinner (the assistant manager) was playing a 2-man acoustic with one of his friends so we had some awesome music to listen to (and he is amazing). Alex was so sweet the entire night and he showed everyone his watch which made me proud :). When the rose lady came in, he bought me a rose. The rose lady LOVES Alex because he gives her red bull everytime she comes in, so she always gives me 2 roses instead of 1 and gives me the babies breath spray to go with it. That is exactly what she did and she gave me the prettiest roses :) (I now have like 3 vases of flowers at my apartment which is of course never a problem with me)Then he went up on stage and started talking to his friend Skinner, his friend then came over the mic and said "I love you Maegan, but I can't play brown-eyed girl tonight but I will play this for you guys" and he started playing "Drive" by Incubus which is one of "our" songs. Apparently, Alex had asked him to play Brown Eyed Girl because that is obviously one of my favorites :) however, he had just injured his hand and the other guy didn't know it well enough to play it for him so he played Drive instead :) So sweet!

Anyway, I need to get busy doing something productive. His parents are coming down this weekend to cook us brunch but for the most part our big events are over and done with for a while :)

I'll write more later :)

Maegan

Boo Comps & Happy Birthday Alex!!!

Yep, today's Alex's birthday...we are finally the same age again :) Although I have been super excited about his birthday, it's been overshadowed by my Master's comps today :( Thankfully they are over and I can celebrate with my guy :) They went okay...I never know about those kind of tests. I'm just glad they are finally over and I'm going to try not to even think about them until I have to. I'm about to go wake Alex up and maybe take him to lunch somewhere. If nothing else, we're going to the Globe tonight for dinner, which is one of our favorite places so I'm really looking forward to that!! Anyway, I'll try and do a birthday update tomorrow at work! :)

Have a great night!

Maegan

This weekend's events

Hi all!! Studying for COMPS is driving me nuts, so I thought I'd get away from it for a little bit and update my blog. It's been a busy weekend and is going to be an even busier week next week! Anyway, as I mentioned before I had to go home this weekend for Josh's fashion show. I headed home early yesterday to swing by Bridesmaids Inc in Birmingham to pick up my bridesmaid's dress for Crystal's wedding and make it back home by noon for a haircut. Last night, we just hung around the house and relaxed. Even though I should have been studying, after spending several hours looking at it on Friday, I just couldn't make myself look at it anymore. This afternoon we had Josh's fashion show to attend. He looked so handsome!!! I think he and his friend Anna were so sick of pictures by the end of the day, but they made such a cute couple, we just couldn't help ourselves (check them out below, you'll see what I mean :)) We were so proud of him because we thought he was just escorting his friend Anna, but he had to do a little walk down by himself. He did a great job and overall the show was very entertaining! (Me being a little OCD and an event planner, I kept thinking of how I would do things differently, but that's just me ;)) I just got back in town a little while ago and will be spending the rest of my evening studying for COMPS tomorrow :( Say a little prayer for me from 9-2 tomorrow...I'm a little nervous about this test!! Tomorrow is also Alex's birthday and I'm taking him to dinner tomorrow night so I'm hoping I have enough energy to make it through the day :) I'll definitely update tomorrow!

Much love,
Maegan

P.S. Here are pictures from Josh's show. As always, you can check out pictures on my SmugMug page http://maegz2685.smugmug.com/

Josh in his tux :)
Josh and I
Josh working the runway
Josh & Anna (This was the first of two dresses she modeled)
Josh & Anna (Anna's dress number 2)

Valentine's Day

I heard on the radio yesterday that most girls don't buy anything for their guys on Valentine's Day. Apparently, most girls see it as a day for the guys to pamper them and see no reason to turn around and pamper the guys. According to several of my friends, a lot of couples don't do anything but go out to eat. Both of these things shocked me because A) I always buy Alex something and B) We have always exchanged presents and even though it is smack in between our birthdays, I usually get decent gift (meaning something like jewelry rather than just candy and flowers)

Anyway, I had to work from 9-2 yesterday, but I did follow the whole "pamper the girl" thing and decided before heading into work I was going to forget my diet and go get Krispy Kreme doughnuts. Doughnuts (original glaze) have always been one of my non-chocolate weaknesses and back home, it was a rare treat to get to go get fresh ones because the closest place was in Huntsville. However, when I moved to Tuscaloosa I've had to make myself forget that there is one about 10 minutes away from my apartment because if I thought about that every day, I would be as big as the side of a house :) I've only gotten doughnuts three times (including yesterday's trip) in the five years I've been here and once was to share with Alex, and the other two times were to take for the office. I decided to get a dozen to take with my to the office and to my surprise, they were doing all of their original glazed doughnuts in a heart shape yesterday. So I carried my heart-shaped doughnuts back to the office for everyone to enjoy.

Work was not all that eventful and was thankfully overall very quiet. I decided on my way home from work that I was going to treat myself to a pedicure. So, I headed to my usual nail salon and got a pedicure. I got the least expensive package, but I would pay that just to have my feet rubbed - forget the actual polishing part :) It was a nice and relaxing so I was in a good mood to head home and get ready for the night.

If you know Alex, he's always so good at holidays and special occassions. Last week was my birthday and as I mentioned, we went out to a fancy dinner so we decided to do dinner in for Valentine's Day (plus it meant no waiting in line in crowded restaraunts!). Alex is an amazing cook so staying in and cooking is never an issue. I have to say, last night I think he topped himself though!

He had class until about 7:30 last night so it was obviously going to be a late dinner. I was so anxious, I got ready fairly early so I was definitely ready to go as soon as he called. He called when he got home and I thought I would be able to come right over, but being the perfectionist and gentleman that he is, he said I had to wait until everything was ready. About 8:00 he finally called and I headed over to his apartment.

When I got there, he opened the door for me and I walked into a dimly lit room, with Frank Sinatra crooning from the surround sound. He even had a dozen roses in a purple vase on the coffee table (the picture was taken with my camera phone) :) He of course greeted me with a kiss and immeadiately made me go sit down while he finished preparing the meal. He did take some time out for us to open presents though:

As I mentioned in a previous post, we are both huge fans of the Rat Pack and all of its members (especially Frank) so I had taken him as part of his present to go see the Rat Pack: Live at the Sands show at the BJCC. Even though that was part of his Valentine's Day present, I hated not to give him a few little things on the actual day. I ordered him a CD of the real Rat Pack's show at the Sands and a DVD copy of the show we saw at the BJCC. I also got him a bluetooth ear piece for his cell phone because he is constantly complaining that it's hard for him to talk on the phone and try to do something at the same time. He absolutely loved all of the above and even played with his ear bud all night! :)

Alex is one of those guys that has amazing taste when it comes to girls. Every girl that he has ever dated will gladly admit he knows how to buy presents. I even had one of his friends tell me after we dated in high school, "I can't believe you didn't stick around long enough to get one of his presents!" and now I see what she meant. He has bought me a lot of jewelry which I absolutely adore so when I saw the usual gold bag from Kay's, I knew I was getting some new bling. I used to be able to tell what he was going to get me because it would be a missing piece from the set, but he's gone beyond the set and just purchases extra things so I'm always thrown off. This time, he got me a cute necklace that he described as "You Have the Key to My Heart" :) It makes a great addition to my other 2 necklaces, watch, bracelet, earrings, and ring from Alex :) Oh and back when we dated in high school, Alex had a goatee. I had been trying to convince him to shave it off, and on our first Valentine's Day together, he did. Well he decided to grow it back a couple of months ago, and I along with everyone else have been trying to talk him into shaving it again. Well I didn't notice until he pointed out, that he shaved off the goatee yet again :) I was so excited!!! He said he didn't promise for how long, but for now it's gone :)

After opening presents, we started on the meal. For an appetizer, he brought out homemade shrimp cocktail and Moet. Then he brought out the main course: rock lobster tail, a piece of flank steak stuffed with spinach and provolone cheese, green beans, homemade roasted red potatoes, and a croissant. Don't get me wrong, Alex is an amazing cook and he always makes amazing and sophisticated dishes, but this was probably one of his best and most sophisticated he's ever made! It was so yummy! We decided to watch a movie and since neither of us went and got one, we got "No Reservations" off "On Demand". Alex normally doesn't like to watch movies like that, but being such a great guy and putting my interests first we chose to watch it. It was actually a really good movie and he actually enjoyed it.

Unfortunately, we didn't get to finish the movie because the one guy that was working at the bar injured his hand and was unable to bartend during heavy times so Alex had to go to the bar and take care of things when it got busy so he left me here while he did that. We don't get to spend much time together as it is thanks to the bar, so he was not happy with all of his bartenders that flaked out on him at the last minute. While he was gone, I watched TV and took a nap since I knew he'd be late getting back. When he got back, we finished the movie and had dessert. Normally he forgets to get dessert, and I usually make chocolate covered strawberries just in case. Yesterday, I went to Target to pick up a few things and of course they had no strawberries. I sent him a text asking if he had gotten dessert, but I figured he hadn't so I picked up a Cheesecake Factory chocolate cheesecake. To my surprise, he had picked up dessert and gotten a Valentine's Day cookie cake from the Great American Cookie Co. in the mall. He laughed and said it was cheesy, but Alex never really goes the cheesy route so I thought it was cute and it was so yummy! We decided to save my cheesecake to eat later :)

So that's my Valentine's Day in a nutshell. It was wonderful (despite Alex having to leave for the bar) and I hope Alex and I have many more Valentine's Days to share :) I hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine's (or Single Awareness) Day! I'm off to pack to go home tomorrow (Josh is in a prom fashion show on Sunday that I'm going to - I'll post pictures when I get back) Have a super fabulous weekend!

Love,

Maegan

My Birthday

My birthday this year was wonderful!! It fell on a Wednesday so I of course had to go to work and unfortunately I have to be at work at 8:00 for meetings on Wednesday so the getting up early was not too exciting :(, however I got off an hour earlier so that was nice. At our staff meeting that morning, Jenny put it on the agenda that it was my birthday so the director Dr. Bridges played the clarinet and everyone sang which was really sweet. The rest of the work day was fairly uneventful but about 2 hours before I was supposed to leave, Dr. Bridges announced that someone at the door had something for me. I thought maybe it was one of my student org kids bringing me dues but when I walked out from our little "hole" a girl was standing there with an adorable bouquet of flowers and a happy birthday balloon. I was so excited but a little confused at who might have sent it. My first thought was of course Alex because this was an Alex type gesture, but when I opened the card, I saw it was from my Mom and her coworker Nancy. I immediately called her and let her know I got it and asked her how on earth she knew my work address (I had forgotten that she had one of my business cards and the address was on it). When I was younger, my mom would surprise me every few years with balloons or something, but it was the first time she had done it since I was in college so I was really excited. So Jenny and I had some fresh flowers to enjoy for the rest of the afternoon! :)

After I got off work, I headed home to just relax. Alex had called and said he had special dinner plans for us that night and I had to be ready at 6:00 sharp (he knows me...I'm always late ;)) so around 5ish I started getting ready to go. I had to meet him at his apartment so I headed over there and when I got there, he gave me my birthday present: a collector's edition of "Wizard of Oz" and a gift certificate for a 1-hour massage from Nancy's. He then told me that dinner was going to be the big part of my present.

Since Alex and I have been dating awhile, we have pretty much exhausted all restaurants in Tuscaloosa so we usually head to Birmingham for special occasions. However, there was one restaurant we had not been to in Tuscaloosa: Kozy's. We knew they did something called a Chef's Playground, but every time we had attempted to go, they were full. Little did I know that on my birthday they were having a "Chef's Playground" and Alex had been trying to get us in and at the last minute on Wednesday, there was an opening! I was so excited to be able to go (and a little nervous because I wasn't sure what to expect!)

When we got there, we immediately fell in love with the place. As I have mentioned many times, we love the old Hollywood style and this place was perfect. They had a live piano player and the pretty little tables...it was amazing! :) Anyway, since it was the Chef's Playground, it had a fixed menu which I was excited about. Alex warned me that it would probably be a little strange, and
when I looked at the menu, I was a little nervous because none of menu items were anything that I would normally eat, but I decided to be a trooper and try them (it even included Kangaroo!!). The waiter was amazing and even the owner came out and talked to us in between each course so we got his take on it which was really cool. (Check out the menu...it's crazy!) Surprisingly, everything was really good except the calamari manicotti and even the owner said he was a little disappointed in it as well because it was a huge piece and it was very chewy. However, the rest of the meal, including the kangaroo was really good!! In the beginning the portions were tiny so we could eat the whole thing, but as the night went on the portions got bigger and I unfortunately couldn't eat all of the last 3 courses :( Poor Alex had stayed up late the night before so I had to keep nudging him awake (I have to admit, the atmosphere and lighting were extremely relaxing! ;)) After we left the restaurant, we went back to Alex's to watch a movie. If you know me at all, I'm a huge fan of scary movies so we watched Hostel Part II...I know super romantic, but it was my choice! :)

Anyway, overall my birthday was wonderful!! I feel so excited to have such wonderful friends and family who thought about me on my special day :)

I'm going to get some stuff done here at work so I will update later :)

Maegan

Our Birmingham Date

This has been such an eventful weekend! With my party Friday night and my date with Alex yesterday I'm exhausted. I know I've already blogged about my party, but I thought I'd give an update on my Birmingham date with Alex yesterday.

Alex is always stuck at the bar so when I started planning this date, I wanted to go all out since I'd be pulling him away from the bar for the night. About a month ago, I saw an advertisement on TV for "The Rat Pack" coming to the BJCC this weekend. Obviously, all of the original players are dead so I was a little skeptical about it. I did some research and read some reviews and this particular traveling show had some wonderful reviews, plus it was part of the Broadway Series and all of those shows have been amazing. Anyway, Alex and I are both huge Rat Pack fans. Being a dancer, I have always loved that time period and all of the music. I would have loved to been alive during that time period - guys wearing suits all the time, girls wearing dresses, going to shows and to dinner and dancing - I love it! A few years ago, for my birthday, Alex made me dinner at his apartment and when I walked in, he had the Rat Pack playing from his computer. Alex is a very multi-faceted guy and continues to surprise me every day. This was something I never expected. This is the guy that usually listened to the heavy stuff, but that night I learned that he LOVED the Rat Pack and to my surprise had many songs on his computer by them. Every once in a while in the car, Frank, Sammy, or Dean will come up on shuffle and we both start singing and we usually bring up the discussion about how we both adore their music. It's one thing that we do have in common :) So, when I saw that this show was pretty well reviewed I decided we had to go. I bought tickets and told him he had to get off that night so we could go see something in Birmingham, but I wouldn't tell him what we were seeing. We do a lot of surprises for each other, and most of the time we go on the honor system - you can probably peek around and figure it out, but if you do, you've ruined your surprise so I was hoping he wouldn't go searching for it.

After I booked the concert, I decided I'd take him to dinner beforehand and we'd make a date out of it. Besides our love for the Rat Pack, Alex and I also share a love of fine dining. We both love getting dressed up and going out to a fancy restaraunt. Since we've exhausted pretty much every location in Tuscaloosa, I decided to do some research and find a really cool restaraunt in Birmingham. I didn't really want to do a chain and I wanted an upscale, preferably Italian, restaraunt. I spent about two weeks researching to find the perfect place that wasn't too quaint, but not TOO modern that we would feel out of place. Since we were going to the see "The Rat Pack", I wanted something classic that would fit right along with that theme. After some research on the internet, I found this place called Nonna's Ristorante Italiano. Their website was very neat, the menu was gourmet, but not too over the top, and best of all the place was gorgeous and very classic. It was exactly what I was looking for! I called the place and got us reservations for 6:00.

As I mentioned before, Alex and I do a lot of surprises for each other and one of our favorite things to do is to drop enough hints that keeps the other thinking about it, but not enough for them to actually figure it out so of course, I hung this over Alex's head for the entire month. I had told all my friends, his friends, and even his parents and they all thought it would be something he'd really like so I was pretty confident about it. This time, since everyone else was in on the secret, they gave him a hard time about it too :) At my party on Friday night, Frank Sinatra started playing and he actually mentioned how much he loved The Rat Pack and everyone kinda smiled cause they knew about the date :)

I told Alex that we'd have to leave the house by 5:00 to get to the restaraunt by 6. I was ready about 4:30, but Alex wasn't even up yet. Thankfully it doesn't take him long and he called about 5 till 5:00 saying he was ready and he was heading to pick me up. A few seconds later, I get a phone call saying he can't find his house keys, which I had on my key chain because I had came back to his apartment on Friday night while he was cleaning up. So, I headed over to his apartment to give him his keys. It was a few minutes after 5 when we got to the car and headed out. He then remembered he forgot his jacket, so we had to turn around and get it. We would have been fine, but of course traffic was horrible so when we saw it was getting close to 6 and we were no where near, I called the restaraunt and pushed our reservations back to 6:30.

We got there about 6:15 and were seated right away. Alex ordered Procuitto wrapped Scallops and I got a seafood pasta. The food was absolutely amazing and we were completely stuffed by the time we finished. During the dinner, we actually started talking about the Rat Pack so I was excited about the rest of the night. We headed out of the restarant about 7:30 towards the civic center. I had printed out directions that said it was only about 12 minutes away, so we thought we'd be there in plenty of time for the show to start at 8. At this point, he still had no idea what we were going to see and I was going to wait until we got seated and the curtains opened to hand him his program. However, some how we missed the turn for the civic center, went way past and had to turn around. By the time we'd parked and walked to the civic center, it was like 8:15. I was so upset because I had meticulously planned this date and I was worried it was ruined. We checked in with our tickets and they handed Alex the programs. Not exactly what I had hoped, but we were so late I was just ready to get inside. While we were walking around the world to get to the portal for our seats, he was looking at the programs. I'm not sure he knew what exactly to expect when we got in there. He just kept saying it was awesome, but he wasn't that convincing yet.

When we got in there and got to our seats (third row on the end, which were perfect because it curved right up to the stage) we'd only missed two songs. Once we got in there, he was smiling from ear to ear and kept thanking me and saying "This is awesome" (this time I was convinced). The first act was absolutely amazing, the guys looked and sounded like the real players and it was neat to see what a show would have been like. Not only were they wonderful musicians, they were amazing performers and always kept the crowd laughing. During intermission, Alex got a glass of wine (he was so excited that you could drink wine during a show) and he kept telling me how he was loving it. We then decided after the show, we were going to do desserts at the Cheesecake Factory. During the second act, they did a lot of our favorite songs including "our song" so we had an amazing time.

I had made him turn his phone off so that he wouldn't be bothered by the bar all night so he turned it on when we got out of the show. Of course he had several messages so the whole way back to the car, he called people and I was excited because he kept telling everybody how amazing it was. So we got back to the car and headed to the Cheesecake Factory. I unfortunately did not plan this part so I had no directions so Alex called one of his friends. He told us directions but somehow we missed a turn or something and we spent a good while driving trying to figure it out, which was totally okay because we were enjoying music by the Rat Pack from the Ipod :) We finally figured out the directions and got to the Cheesecake Factory. Since it was almost time for them to close, we got a table right away. We ordered our favorite appetizers: fried mac and cheese, and spinach and artichoke dip. As always, it was way too much for us to eat but we tried! Alex ordered his usual "Well-Mannered" Dirty Martini. After we finished appetizers, we got a piece of my favorite cheesecake - the Godiva Chocolate Cheesecake YUM :) Alex was almost finished with his martini, and accidentally bumped the glass. The glass of course tipped over and spilled but when it hit the table it shattered into a million pieces! There was a waitress at the next table that was even like I have no idea how that happened - I can understand it spilling but I have never seen it explode like that. The manager came over and apologized and Alex got a full, fresh (and free) martini. Bless his heart, he couldn't even finish the second one but at least they didn't charge him again :) Alex, being stubborn as usual, insisted he pay for this part since I had paid for the rest and then we headed back to T-town. When we got back, we stopped in the bar to check on things but we were so tired, we didn't stay long. We went back to his apartment and attempted to watch a movie but we were both too sleepy to make it through the whole thing :(.

Needless to say, despite all the little mishaps, the date went wonderfully and we both had an amazing time!

Well I'm exhausted and it looks like Mardi Gras has exploded in my apartment with all the party decorations from the other night so I'm going to do some cleaning and get ready for yet another busy week (and my birthday on Wednesday :)).

Have a happy Sunday!

Maegan

My birthday party!!

Okay, I don't have a whole lot of time to update since I have to do some stuff before we head to B'ham tonight for our secret date (I can't tell you where we are going because Alex doesn't know yet!! ;)) , but I'll do a quick post on my party. First of all, thanks to all that showed up. Although it was not a huge group, we had a great time!!! Everything went well and I was pleased at how all the decorations turned out so overall it was a good night! For pictures, check out my smugmug page (You can find the link under my "Favorite Links" section.

Anyway, I'll write about tonight's date tomorrow :)

Love!
Maegan