It's a Love Story Baby Just Say Yes!

Ok, the story you've all been dying to hear in more detail....how Chase proposed!

For starters, Chase sometimes takes a really long time to do things.

Let's go back for a minute, shall we? We met on May 1st of last year (almost a year ago already!). About 2 weeks later after a couple institute and break-the-fast nites, a lame ysa dance in Virginia, and a VERY chilly night at the drive-in with a bunch of people, I was a total goner, he had most definitely stolen my heart. And I was pretty sure he liked me back, but at the same time I couldn't figure it out. We acted like we'd known each other for years and he would tell me things like how he would die if he didn't come visit me in Philly all the time. BUT he kept a clear physical distance away from me. Close enough that I could tell he was comfortable with me and liked me as a human being, but not even a hug or anything at the end of the night! HAHA I remember the 2ish weeks that this confusion lasted seemed like AN AWFUL ETERNITY that I thought would never end, and I had decided having only gotten home from a mission a few weeks before, he probably just wasn't ready for/didn't want anything yet. Either that, or I was on the verge of thinking I had been friend-zoned. Yikes, I thought that only happened to guys. I immediately tried to banish that thought from my mind while accepting it as a very real possibility, because it made me depressed.

But then, FINALLY (as in like a week later) he confessed something to the effect of "sorry I didn't even hug you goodbye tonight...I act all cool but I'm a complete weenie when I'm with a beautiful girl" and a week or so after that I was officially girlfriend-zoned. =)

So even though this whole long process of Chase taking forever to make a move was in reality only about 4 weeks of seeing each other a handful of times aka the month of May last year, the point is, he sometimes takes awhile.

Back to the proposal.

I knew I was gonna marry him last summer already.

He knew he was gonna marry me last summer.

By Thanksgiving, I started thinking to myself that the proposal would be happening any week now. Time went by...

Christmas Eve?

Nope.

Christmas Day?

Nope.

New Year's Weekend/Eve/Day?

Chase suggested spending that weekend in Philly and going for walks and taking a nice camera. AHA! Here it comes!

False alarm!

I felt sad and he wondered why and I finally give in and explained and then HE felt sad for letting me down. But he made me laugh by saying, "Sheridan, you know how long I take to do things sometimes!" and it got the ball rolling.

Or so I thought. I smelled a proposal over every little thing after that.

So another 2 months go by. Chase suggests we go to NYC and find poet's walk since he knows I've been wanting to go there for like 7 years. And then I REALLY smelled a proposal and say "woooohoo ok when?" And Chase thought spring time and warmth would be best, so we planned on Easter weekend, the very end of March. Then I got scared he would ACTUALLY wait that long and I thought I might die. We had already picked a wedding day and he had picked out my ring and I don't even remember what all, but I really was just dying. I told a few people I was getting married in the summer and they were like "You're getting married?!? Are you engaged??" Me: "Well, no...I mean, not officially. But we ARE getting married".

I eventually calmed down and was resigned to the fact that Easter weekend was when it would go down.

On Friday March 8th, Chase came to visit me for the weekend. He had just arrived at my apartment, and we were in my room talking, catching up on the week. I was sitting on the bed and he was standing at the foot of the bed. He nonchalantly kneeled down at the foot of the bed and we kept talking for a few minutes and I didn't think anything of it. Then he told me "come here" and so I scooched over and sat in front of him and continued to blab away. A few minutes later I looked down and the open ring box was sitting in my lap! After that things get hazy because I temporarily was struck dumb, but I think I gasped a little, Chase said "I can't imagine my life without you, will you marry me?", I started to well up, somehow thought it wasn't real life/it was a joke and said "are you serious??" Chase responded "yep babe, that's for you!" And I said "Oh I'm gonna cry", grabbed his face and gave him a big kiss, then realized I hadn't said yes yet and so I said "yes of course!"

He confessed to the poet's walk plan, but he got the ring and decided to just do it on a whim. And boy am I glad he did! Despite being suspicious and on my guard for a proposal CONSTANTLY, he managed to surprise me and it was meaningful and simple and perfect!

Every week that goes by it gets more and more difficult to only see him on weekends though. I will be so happy when we're married to be in the same place all the time. And we'll probably get so annoyed with each other because we're not used to that haha.

As for wedding plans, I have my decorations envisioned and half of them bought, temple, church for reception, and honeymoon booked, dress and all accessories bought, dress fitting scheduled for next week (need to add some modest measures) and catering ideas in head.

Marriage license will soon be in the mail, playlist made, and decoration materials bought. Invites are here and will be sent shortly. Registry created. A Chase job and house to call home hunt is currently happening.

Catering is the only part that is scaring the pants off of me right now. If you know a good inexpensive baker willing to make me a couple cheesecakes and a 150+ count assorted cupcake tower, let me know! I'm considering making my own cupcakes with some help. But also thinking to myself "when the heck would you make this?"

As for the other reception food, we have an idea. It might cost a little more than other things but will be oh-so-worth it and fun and make us both very happy!

Serious question: my reception by no means, is the kind where there's assigned seats and people pick which main course they want to eat and everyone gets fed a very expensive 5-course meal. So everyone who's planning on going, please don't expect that! It's more of an open house. We will have snacks and desserts to feed an army. HOWEVER if we get some food that's more of a main dish, but there won't be enough for everyone if 250 people unexpectedly show up and they all want some, is that rude? I have no idea how many people will be there and when they'll be in and out and if they'll even eat food. And I REALLY want this particular part of the meal there because it's one of our favorites and it's our wedding so we do what we want right? I just don't want people to be like, "oh, you should have come earlier, they had this amazing baked potato bar but they only had 50 baked potatoes. Isn't that rude? There's still some chips left though. I can't believe they didn't have enough for everyone. They invited 200 people, what were they thinking?" To which I will say yes, but darn it only 50 of you officially told me you were coming and not everyone would be bringing a guest, and THEN that doesn't mean everyone will eat either!

First world wedding probs.

Someone please assure me that it's our wedding and we should do what we want, snacks are ok, and the other extra will be for the lucky people who showed up at 6 on the dot/want to eat more/I knew were coming. OR please explain to me that yes Sheridan, that is rude, don't have food that might run out early on. And I may or may not listen to you if you tell me the second. Sue me. ;) I do want your opinion though!

And that's how wedding plans are coming along!

As for our trip to NYC, we still went of course, and decided to have Chase's dad take a few pictures of us there on poet's walk. It was a gorgeous day, Chase was grumpy, I ignored him and got to check off a bucket list goal, and it's actually called Literary Walk. It's directly in front of the Plaza and near the ice skating rink. And I loved it!

These next 2 are my favorite. Good eye, Adam!

Times Square...you can see the teeny little dot that the New Year's ball is in real life. Don't let Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve fool you.

I promise I am older than 12 years old. *sigh*

The addition of people, artists, and musicians only made it more poetic to me. =)

We-eee are never ever ever...

Hey friends!

Man I wish I could have blogged for the past 5 months...so much has happened! I wish I had 10 free minutes in any given day to just, ya know, breathe and think and that kind of thing. Even that would be nice. I AM SO BUSY ALL THE TIME. I hate that. I miss updating my life, even though y'all see it on facebook anyway (except my random viewers from Russia, Europe, the Middle East and else where...you guys have probably ditched me by now, whoever the heck you are.) But you don't know the nitty gritty and fun! So hopefully in the near future, I will update on the following: the engagement story, wedding details, adventures, being robbed (crazy story...sneak peak: some thug defiled my poor little car in broad daylight in a busy street, made off with $48 in Panera gift cards and the keys to my car...but left the car), achievements, disappointments, school, life, etc. etc.

In the mean time, here's a short story. Chase really likes Taylor Swift's music. I like it too. Neither of us really care about her as a person...living 30 minutes from where she grew up, I've heard it all. I don't exactly love her, but her songs speak to me and/or they're fun to sing along to. Chase thinks she dates people just to make money, but he likes singing along as well (especially making up his own lyrics) and he likes her hair. =) Annnyways, clearly we don't hate her, because we listen to her all the time and we're not ashamed. I'm also not annoyed, nor do I feel weird, that the middle schoolers I work with enjoy jamming to her music as much as I do. I'm just glad they're not listening to Little (wait...Lil?...don't care!) Wayne or Pitbull, or basically any music that screams "SEX SEX STRIPPERS WOMEN ARE OBJECTS SEX MONEY NAKED WOMEN DRUGS SEX STRIPPERS...SEX". You get the picture.

One day, my 10-year-old nephew Tyler was over at our house, running around and playing Wii and singing "WE-EEEE ARE NEVER EVER EVER, GETTING BACK TOGETHER, WEEE-EEEE". And I was kind of taken aback by it (and totally cracking up too cuz it was so cute). But THEN my dad, whose age I will not give, surprised and shocked me times 10 by saying "Tyler, do you know who sings that song? She wears red lipstick.....she has long blonde hair!" What?! Dad. Who are you? How d..you did not just say that...how...how did you know that? And then I laughed even harder. I love my family.

Without further ado, here are my top 3 favorite Taylor songs:

#3: Mine

#2: Red

#1: Ours

P.S. "Ours" is also my favorite vid. =)

Yep, I just went there

My election thoughts:

Disclaimer: I am aware that everyone seems to have election thoughts these days and everyone's getting tired of it, but it's my blog and I have some things to say. If you don't want to read them, I totally understand, you don't have to.

1.) It's over, shut up.
2.) Dems, not all Reps are homophobic white-supremacists who hate minorities. Neither are they uneducated trailer-trash who hug their guns and have five teeth. And even if they were, you have NO right to belittle them, make them feel foolish, talk down to them, and treat them like they're less than you. And don't try to feed me the line that Reps are SUCH sore losers and are the only ones who complain about wanting to move out of the country and refuse to support the president, but every person in your party is completely innocent and open-minded and would never dream of doing that if your candidate lost. PUH-lease. I lived through Bush being elected twice, you can't lie to me.
3.) On the other side of things, when a Rep wins, they make the same darn argument! "Oh Dems, they're so rude and such sore losers blah blah blah". RAWR! It makes me SO mad. Neither party is more of a sore loser. Both have equal amounts of obnoxious, loudly-opinionated ignorant losers who refuse to support  a president of the opposite party. Let's remember (and hope!) that this is probably a small minority in both parties, but it is indeed IN BOTH PARTIES. End of story.
4.) On a similar note, "Reps have soo much more of those negative awful ads on tv". FALSE. "Dems have soo much more of those negative awful ads on tv". FALSE.
5.) No, Romney is not some greedy soul-less zombie who thinks women should be barefoot and pregnant (from being raped, of course) in the kitchen. He does not stand on other people and say anything to get what he wants. He doesn't take advantage of the government and secretly hides money. Don't you realize how freakin ridonkulous that sounds? He's just a guy. He is a businessman. A very successful one. He is good at what he does, and if you know any businessmen, you know they are naturally money-minded, because that's what they know how to do. Are they normally a little shady and untrustworthy? (*Thinks of a greasy car salesman.*) Yes, definitely. Would he have made a good president with a mindset like that? We'll never know, so frankly I don't care.
6.) No, Obama is not Satan. He is not an all-powerful being who will take over our country and government and run it into the ground. He isn't pure evil...you don't need to use scriptural references to preach that he's the anti-Christ. He's not going to try to take away our rights. Don't you realize how freakin ridonkulous that sounds? He is just a man. Doing the best he can. And he is our president. He needs our sincere prayers, our support, and our unity. Could he be wrong sometimes? Yes, absolutely. No one is perfect or right all the time. Could he be deceived? Of course. But he DOES have just as much capacity to do good as to follow after the bad. I can relate with the fear that people have, but understand that this should not be candidate-specific. Everyone can be deceived and mess up. Obama is well-liked by the majority of people and he gives them hope. Please stop making end of the world remarks. God's hand is in all things and He knows what He's doing. Have some faith. Pray that Obama will be up to the expectations and hopes of those who voted him in. Stay involved; encourage him to do good.
7.) Along with the whole all-powerful thing...if you're upset about what's happening in your country, realize the impact and power YOU still have as a voter. Pay attention to decisions of the House of Representatives and the Senate. Our government is made of 3 branches you know. Our inspired forefathers knew power was dangerous and should be split, and they left the ultimate decision up to YOU. Vote in your local and state elections and realize the importance that those people also hold in the grand scheme of things. I repeat, stay involved. Stay informed.
8.) Staying informed does not mean 2 months out of every 4 years you should suddenly create an opinion BASED ON NO RESEARCH, KNOWLEDGE OR CANDIDATE STANCES/ISSUES/POLICIES WHATSOEVER and turn into a heartless inhuman monster, personally and viciously attacking your friends, your associates, political candidates who you have no idea who they really are as a person but will act like you know as if it were your best friend, etc. It disgusts me.
9.) Maybe I was just sheltered from it, but I was surprised to not see any negative comments about my religion this time around. Realize if you have said something, that in so doing you have just offended and insulted not just one political candidate or a few Reps in Utah, but 14-15 million people, Rep/Dem, men/women, gay/straight, black/white, old/young from ALL OVER THE WORLD who are members of the church. Get your facts straight, or show how ignorant you truly are.
10.) The presentation "Liberty Rises" I think it's called at the Constitution Center in Philadelphia is SO powerful. I love living where our nation began. People are so passionate about it here. Anyways, you should go see it.

Sincerely,

someone who knows its important to be involved, but hates politics for all the things just discussed especially #8,  is unhappy with the 2-party system and is neither here nor there but tends to stand slightly left on the political spectrum

Have a good day.

What to know about driving in Philly

I've lived in Philly for a couple months now, and here's what I've seen so far, several times.

Per day.

1.) Need to park? Stop right where you are in the middle of a busy road, put your 4-ways on, and leave your car there. Or, don't turn your 4-ways on. Just sit there and confuse the crap out of everyone.

2.) If you are the first one stopped at a red light, you will get honked at. There's no avoiding it. No matter how much you pay attention, watch the light, and according to your own judgment, gun it the second it turns green, there WILL be someone behind you with a super-human reaction time. And they will be completely irate that you are taking FOR-EV-ER to go.

3.) Come to think of it, a true Philly driver never stops at a red light. You slow down to .15 mph and inch brake inch brake inch brake inch brake inch brake inch brake inch brake inch brake inch brake inch until the light is green and you're already basically through the intersection. Either that or you slow down to .0025 mph and c  r  a  w  l       s   l   o   o   o   o   w   l   y   until the light turns green.

3.) Never take 76 into the city. Just. Don't. Do it. Unless that is, you are very much not claustrophobic, have nothing to do, and enjoy heavy traffic moving 2 miles per 3 hours.

4.) Going straight and there's a long line of traffic in front of you going the same way? Look to your left and right. Are there empty left or right turn only lanes? An exit or on ramp? Or perhaps enough space at the side of the road to fit your car? Well, OBVIOUSLY you should swerve around and book it down one of these, pass 15 cars patiently waiting, and cut someone off to merge back in. Totally acceptable. Congratulations, you just moved 50 yards. Or in true Philadelphian fashion, don't bother to use the correct lane at all. Example: By PCOM, there is a stop light where most people turn right at, and so it has it's own right turn lane. Most of the time, a lot of cars are in that lane. I constantly see cars fly by using the straight lane and then turn their blinker on and expect everyone to let them in at the front of the line, like they didn't know better. And what's worse, people DO let them in. Sometimes instead of the "oh I'm in the wrong lane and I didn't know any better" act, they just squeeze through, fly past and go. On a red light, into oncoming traffic. Giving me panic attacks from all the near-accidents I've witnessed.

5.) New Jersey drivers. No, no they're everywhere! The horror! (And they are ALL, every last one of them, terrible drivers. This is no stereotype.)

6.) Look up an address on google maps, "oh, it's only 2 miles away from me, I'll get there in no time." WRONG. Give yourself half an hour. And even then you'll probably walk in 5 minutes late.

7.) Only in Philadelphia will you see Maseratis, Bentleys, and other "holy crap, a _____________" kind of car...pulling into a Target parking lot, or randomly driving around the ghetto. Umm, what?

8.) It doesn't matter if you're on a 4-lane highway and you're driving pretty darn fast, people walk across the roads EVERYWHERE. Standing in the middle, no cross walks in sight, acting like they own the road.

9.) Wanna go to some place that's located near center city? Legal parking is nonexistent, unless you're willing to parallel park 8 blocks away on some sketchy little side street in front of someone's house and walk, OR pay at least $20/hour. Moral of the story: if you can help it, don't drive.


And on a somewhat related note, what is with men in their mid-20s driving "pimped-out" Honda Civics around and acting like they're the shiz? I have seen 3 in the past month. No matter the size of the spoiler you add to it, the shiny-ness of your rims, or the decibel level of your muffler, this does not change the fact that you sir, are driving a girl car. And if you want to argue that it's not a girl car, it IS a reliable dinky little 4-cylinder with an engine the size of my fist that gets amazing gas mileage. So if that's what you bought it for, cool. It is NOT, however, a turbo-charged meant-for-racing Subaru. It's not even an Si. So stop driving around like it is and you think girls should throw their panties at you as you drive by. "Oh, a dirty old Honda Civic, be still my heart!" said no girl. EVER.

Annnyways, I still love it here. But driving to and from work each day sure provides some entertainment and/or heart palpitations.

Oh baby, let's go to the beach

Well everyone, I'm silly, but I only discovered about 10 minutes ago that when you add a picture on here they have different sizes and I can make all my pictures BIGGER haha. Which makes me sooo happy! I was totally annoyed that they were so small you couldn't see anything. But then I clicked on one, and lo and behold, different sizes! I should explore more often. I updated my last few posts so they're better now. =)

Second order of business: I don't get when people make fun of other people for taking pictures of food. A true cook and food lover knows that food is art. The colors, the textures...just looking at a picture can make your mouth water and your stomach rumble. Can you imagine a cookbook with no pictures? Do you think anyone ever says "ooh, this recipe calls for lemons, I'm going to make that!"? No! It's seeing the delicious-looking flaky powdered-sugary lemon bar in the picture (one of my faves, btw) that makes you want to try it immediately. So you see, you silly people, food is art, and when you cook or bake, you're creating something. And I like to take pictures of my creations!

I made a goal recently to try to cook one thing that I haven't tried before, once every week or 2. It always makes me feel happy (at least when it turns out good! haha) and let's face it, some days I need an extra little boost, especially when I'm in Philly and the bills are looming in front of me and I'm wondering if I'll ever have money again. Speaking of which, good news! I got my 2nd job officially, and the pay is most excellent! I'll be doing the same thing I was at New Story, starting in a couple weeks. I guess I need to remember to count my blessings. 

This was my most recent: home made bean and cheese burritos!

Annnyways, time for my real post. Chase and I got to spend a few days at Myrtle Beach with my fam this week and we had a blast! It was my one last summer hoorah before my fall semester classes really got started.

Between seeing gators and what we thought was Nessie and/or a seal at Barefoot Landing, 

longboarding on Chase's new board that he bought at Ron Jon, 

eating at Mexico Lindo and Benito's, 

getting a pair of sweet new running sneaks for half price while walking around Broadway, 

many a good chat sitting on the beach in the evening, 

and long walks down the beach in the mornings to look for shells and go exploring in tide pools...I can't tell you which was my favorite!

I must say the exploring might have a slight edge over the rest. We made some awesome discoveries! (Well, I thought they were awesome, Chase was more like "these things are in Oregon...everywhere" haha.) I found the first sand dollar, I was SO EXCITED! It's perfect. =) Chase found the pretty orange conch shell when he went out for a run the first day. Funny story, I went in his room to wake him up that morning, he was asleep again but I saw he had showered and changed so I say "were you up already?" and he kind of mumbled into his pillow "yeah, I went for a run...I found that shell over there" and gestured toward the dresser. I turned to look, expecting a medium-sized clam shell at best, certainly not a big honkin conch, so when I saw it I did a double take and said "you...you FOUND that?!" haha. I found the ugly gray barnacle filled conch shell our last morning there, and Chase found all those sand dollars, as well as the cool snail. We really liked his shell, but we didn't wanna kill him or keep him for a pet, so he went back in the ocean. We had a good time. And I had forgotten my love for that kind of thing. Fun fact about me: I almost majored in marine biology/ecology/oceanography in college because I love it SO much! Some of the most fun I've ever had was going on the ecology club oceanography trips to Delaware in high school. Even the smelly dirty mucky parts...I might not seem like the type of girl that likes to get my hands dirty and dig through mud and sand to find creepy crawly sea creatures, but I totally am! Not many people can say that they've waded and slid through the waste-deep thick gray stanky sulfury sludge of a salt marsh just for fun. Except for us ecology club kids haha.

I love the beach!

Oh, and I was so proud of myself! I'm kind of a little terrified of swimming in the ocean (swimming in general really, I'm not the best at it) because several times in my life I've gotten pounded and pummeled and beat by waves and felt close to drowning. So I haven't gotten in the water in...I can't even tell you how long. Years and years! But I braved the water and went for not one, but TWO swims with Chase, Keith, Daniel and Aubrey. =)

The 3 fishies of the family: Keith, Aubrey, and Daniel.

And the 3 fishies plus Chase the uber fish.

I wish we could have stayed there forever! Some day, I'll live near a beach.

Unexpected pictures

One of my favorite things in life is when you find pictures of some great memory that you never knew were taken. Well, this very thing just occured the other day, and it happened to be a bunch of pictures from "the fateful weekend" I wrote about in I'm BA-ACK when me, Chase, and some friends of ours went to a ysa dance in Virginia. This was the nite that started it all, and seeing these pictures was hilarious.

The 3 of us (on the right) drove all the way to Virginia for a dance and none of our friends had gotten there yet so we didn't know a soul. So naturally, we sat in a corner and didn't socialize or dance at all.

Immediately upon sitting (and I mean immediately...actually now that I think about it, it happened before I even put my butt on a chair) the man who is creeping in this photo began creeping on me. He walked over to our table,  put his coat over a chair, and came back every 5 minutes to "check his phone" aka check me out. Chase thought it was so funny he started keeping count of the times I got checked out. It was somewhere in the 20s. 

Back left corner. Proof.

Our first (awkward-looking) dance! We apparently can't look at the camera. What this picture fails to show is that 85% of that dance, Chase had me pee-my-pants laughing. 

We danced.

Chase checked me out.

Emily whipped her hair back and forth and looked awesome.

Ivan won prom king.

Who wouldn't be attracted to him?

Me and my date Ronnie haha.

Errbody.

It was a grand old time had by all. 

Except Jamison. ;)

A Poet's Walk

Something wonderful happened yesterday.

Once upon a time about 5 or 6 years ago, idk if they still do this, a poster company came to Millersville and set up shop for a few days in the multi-purpose room of the SMC. I would drop by every single time they came each semester and do one or more of the following: look around, and spend too much money on posters. I do not feel bad about that decision, as I still use them and am currently about to decorate my apartment with some of them. There was one that always caught my eye, a typical artsy-fartsy european urban landscape type of picture. Something about it sucked me in and made me do the whole *gasp* oooohh thing. I loved it. It was a more expensive poster, however, and despite the countless times I went in there and stared at it, I never ended up buying it.


Years have gone by and on more than one occasion I've thought about that picture and wondered where the real thing is located, what it's called, if I'll ever find the picture or see it again or recognize it when I do. I've spent time on google image search, looking up "stone walkway" "walking in the rain" "lampposts" and "tree-lined walkways" among countless others.

Well yesterday, I found it. This is ridiculous, but I don't even remember how. I think I may have lost my mind for a portion of it when I went on a frenzied google search rampage. I wasn't going to give up this time.




And I found it, I found it! Here it is:

Turns out it's called "A Poet's Walk" (I think the actual place is called that, not just the picture...I am not positive) and it's located in Central Park in New York City. Central Park! Only like an hour and a half away from me! I feel silly. But now that I know it's so close, you can bet your bottom dollar I'm finding it next time I visit NYC, and taking lots and lots of pictures.

Here are some more that I found:

A small, simple, and beautiful thing that made me really happy today. =)