Sunday, January 09

I decided to treat my girl to a nice homemade breakfast of cinnamon rolls this morning, and I think they hit the spot. We really didn’t do a whole lot today, which was kind of nice, considering that we’re both back to the grindstone tomorrow. Originally we’d planned to go pick up books today, but since we knew that SBS was gonna be a total zoo, and since it wasn’t exactly life or death to get them today, we decided to put it off until tomorrow afternoon. Stef and basically just hung out at the pad for most of the day, and we watched a few episodes of Chappelle’s Show and “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” on DVD. We finally got up the gumption to leave the apartment mid-afternoon, and headed up to Lake Lansing to E.L. Video to check out their selection of $1 movie posters. I didn’t see any that were really jumping out at me, but Stefy picked up quite a few: The Prince & Me, The Terminal, Mary Poppins, and The Stepford Wives. I really want to go back to this place sometime though to check out their movie posters again, because they had a bunch that are still on the walls that I want, like Curb Your Enthusiasm, Seinfeld, The Sopranos, Napoleon Dynamite, and a bunch of other ones. Plus, you really can’t beat the price. Anyway, after our little scavenger hunt we popped up to Eastwood again for dinner, this time at Max & Erma’s. While we were eating Stefy and I were brainstorming for somewhere fun to visit this weekend, since neither of us have Friday classes, and since we’re off next Monday for MLK’s birthday. We didn’t really decide on anything yet, but hopefully we’ll come up with something good on such short notice here. After dinner, we swung back by the apartment to hang out for a little bit, and eventually made our way over to Holmes to move Stef’s stuff back into the dorm. I got back to the pad a little after 10, and spent the rest of the night getting my stuff around for classes tomorrow. I made a last-minute switch to join a Sociology class which is at an unthinkable 8:00 a.m. on Mondays and Wednesdays, but since I’ve heard rave reviews for the prof from several people, and since I would’ve been going into work that early anyway, I decided to give it a whirl. Plus, it means I’ll be sparing myself from a fourth English class this semester. You can check out my spring schedule by clicking on my weekly schedule above. Anyway, I guess that’s about it. It’s an early class, so I guess I should get my beauty rest.

Saturday, January 08

Well, considering the gravity of this afternoon’s familial introduction, I felt a good night’s rest would be necessary. I didn’t roll out of bed until well after 10 this morning, and I took plenty of time to get up and around so I could psych myself up as much as I could for my dad’s party. Okay, so I’m definitely over-hyping the Pohl-Spiro parental introduction, but for some reason I was really worried that Stefy’s parents wouldn’t have anyone to talk to at my dad and Sherry’s open house, and would feel like they came all this way for nothing. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Five minutes after we showed up at the house, all of my fears were allayed as Stef’s mom dove right into conversation with practically everyone at the party. In fact, in retrospect now, I don’t think this afternoon could’ve gone any better. We stayed for at LEAST a couple hours, and I felt like Mr. and Mrs. Spiro genuinely had a good time. The four of us bugged out of the party at around 5, and the Spiros followed Stefy and I up to Eastwood for a nice dinner at P.F. Changs. If anyone wanted to skip the dinner I think it might’ve been Stef, because she had a pretty bad headache that had been lingering all afternoon, and she pretty much wanted to go home and get some rest. Still, we had a pretty great meal, and Stef’s parents managed to chat my ear off while we sat and ate. The one piece of good news that arose from our conversation at dinner was that it sounds like I might be joining the Spiros for a trip to Orlando over spring break, but for now those are still very loose plans. Anyway, after we were done eating Stefy and I came back to the apartment, where she pretty much proceeded to pass out after I gave her a couple of Aleve for her headache. It was really great to finally have my girl back in town with me, but it just sucked that she wasn’t feeling well!

Friday, January 07

All this planning about getting up at 7:30 to drive from Bloomfield Hills to Lansing? Yeah, not the best idea in the world. It was pretty painful to drag myself out of bed that early, and things only got worse when I still had to scrape off the foot of snow that was burying my car. Traffic on the way to the highway was atrocious, but once I was on I-96, it was smooth sailing all the way into Lansing. We had the usual Friday blitz going to hurry up and get deposits done for the week, but it really wasn’t too bad. The only rough part about my day at work was surviving it without my trusty iBook, since it was sitting at home in my room at the apartment. I stayed and worked until about 5 o’clock, and then came back to the pad to spend the rest of the night on my ass with “the family”. Yep, I think I set a personal record for the Sopranos today, watching 5 or 6 episodes (I honestly lost count after 3) in a row. Well, I take that back—I did take breaks for dinner and to go to the bathroom, but that was about it. Anyway, tomorrow is the big Spiro-Pohl introduction at my dad and Sherry’s annual holiday open house, so I suppose I should get to bed so I can save up my energy. This should be interesting…

Thursday, January 06

The original plan was for me to drive back to the apartment late last night, but after seeing the condition of the roads on the way back from the movie, I decided to wait it out and drive to the office early this morning. So, I had Stefy set her alarm for 7:30 to come wake me up so I could get ready and head back into Lansing. But, as soon as I woke up I realized that the roads were worse, not better, and when I heard that they’d cancelled most of the schools in town, I decided not to go in at all. That opened the doors wide open for a pretty lazy day at the house, and I was more than happy to do so. Stefy and I got up and enjoyed some Fruity Pebbles in the kitchen before turning on some vintage Nickelodeon in the living room. We sat on the couch for most of the morning thru the early afternoon watching shows like Double Dare and Picture This, neither of which I’d seen in probably 12 years. It was a good day for TV nostalgia I guess. Anyway, the rest of the day was pretty uneventful, but it was actually really nice to chill out and not have to worry about anything for one of the few times during this entire break. Stef’s mom made us this fantastic chicken parmesan for dinner, and we spent the rest of the night doing what we’d been doing all day—watching the TV. At least we relocated to a different room, if that makes it sound any better. I thought about driving back to the apartment tonight for all of about 2 seconds, and then decided it would be better to just spend another night in the B.Hills, and head into work in the morning.

Wednesday, January 05

Well, it was a great morning to sleep in. Stefy came in and woke me up in the guest room at like 11:30, and we pretty much just lounged around for the next hour or so. We finally left the house at around 1:30 to go pick up her dog Zoey from the Vet’s office, since she’d been at the doggy motel while the Spiros were on vacation. We doubled back into Birmingham after taking the dog back to the house to grab some lunch at the Pita Café, and we were both totally starving by then. The restaurant was dead, so our service was lighting quick, and we were in and out of there in no time. Stefy and I stopped by Kroger on the way back to her house to do some grocery shopping for her mom, arriving just in time for the mid-afternoon rush. We came back and unpacked all the stuff, and then plopped down on the couch to watch about the first third or so of “Napoleon Dynamite” with Stef’s mom, who hadn’t seen it yet. Don’t get me wrong, we still love Napoleon, but I think Stef and I were a little tired of it, so we ducked out after a little while to go watch some TV. We decided to make one last trip out to Birmingham later in the evening to catch the 9 o’clock showing of “The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou”. Now, this is probably the one movie I’ve been looking forward to seeing the most since about September. On paper, it looks like a winner: Wes Anderson & Bill Murray, and it was actually pretty decent. Still, it was certainly no “Rushmore” and definitely not as good as “The Royal Tenenbaums.” So, Stefy and I left the theater feeling a little underwhelmed. We decided to stop by Java Hutt for a drink, and ended up sitting down and chatting it up about our respective classes for the spring semester for quite a while. It was close to midnight by the time we got back in the car and started heading back home, and by then the roads were pretty horrible. We did a little slip-sliding on the way back to the house, but managed to make it back in one piece.

Tuesday, January 04

Today was a pretty busy day at the office. I was originally supposed to have my annual review with Christi this morning, but since our stellar computer guy told us to stay off of the Detroit server (where the personnel files are stored), it ended up getting put off indefinitely. Still, there was plenty to keep me busy, since we had a mountain of checks from over the break to deposit. I ducked out of the office a little earlier than I would’ve liked at 3 in the afternoon, because the only time Panopolous could fit me in was at 3:15. My usual hairdresser, Angie, was out sick for the past week recovering from gall bladder surgery, so I had to see a different lady for my appointment. I didn’t care that I was seeing someone totally new for my trim though because my hair had gotten ridiculously long. She ended up doing a fabulous job, and I was definitely pleased with my new do. I came back to the apartment after my haircut, and proceeded to burn away the rest of the afternoon/early evening in front of the TV with more Sopranos. About three and a half episodes later, I finally got a call from Stefy at 8:30 saying that their plane had landed, and that her and her family were on their way home. So, I pretty much hopped right up and jumped in my car for the drive down to Bloomfield Hills. It was about 9:40 as I was pulling into the Spiro driveway when I got a text message from Stefanie, saying that they were still 5 or 10 minutes away. Being the go-getter that I am, I decided that it would be a good idea for me to go up to the corner and gas up my car so I could save myself a little time before driving back home tomorrow. I pulled into the Shell station, turned off the radio, opened my door, locked it, and then closed it…with the keys still in the ignition…and the engine still running. It was a complete “oh SHIT” moment, and all I could do was laugh. I called my mom on the phone and asked for recommendations, and she just told me to call up my GM road service plan, and see what they would/could do for me. So, I hung up and called the 800 number, and told the lady on the line my situation. She said that a service car would be there within an hour, so I took it upon myself to go inside and warm up. With my tail between my legs, I called Stefy and explained the situation. Her parents dropped her off at the station, and, being the total sweetheart that she is, she came inside to wait for the service car with me. I know it's sad, but after being apart for a week, our romantic reunion was at a Shell Station of all places. I just felt like a total idiot the whole time, but Stefanie was exceedingly gracious, especially considering the hellaciously long day of travel she’d already been through. Anyway, the repair truck showed up about 20min before the gas station was about to close, and the guy popped the car open in no time. Since we’re members of the GM road club there was no charge, so I guess there’s always a silver lining. Plus, I made up a little bit for being a complete dufus, thanks to the lovely bouquet of flowers I’d picked up for Stefanie late in the afternoon. It was close to 12 by the time we got back to her house, but Stefy still wanted to give me the gift she’d picked up for me on vacation. It’s this really simply-designed silver ring which I really like, and think looks great on me. Of course, Stef shuts me out in the gift department again. Oh well... at this point I don’t think there’s much else to squeeze out of today, so that’s it for now.

Monday, January 03

Heading into the office was originally on the menu for today, but when I didn’t hear back from Wanda about when and if she was going in, I decided to hold off. I ended up sleeping in until about 8:30, and finally got up to try and figure out what the deal was. She finally called from her house shortly after 9 to let me know that she wasn’t coming in after all. So, I decided to just stay home and do some work from here. There was actually quite a bit of work that I was able to get done from the comfort of my own room, so it was actually kinda nice to sit back and crank up my music while I worked. I took a mid-afternoon break for lunch and a couple episodes of the Sopranos before getting back to the grind around 2. Dan called me at one point to see if my offer for a spaghetti dinner was still on the table, and I told him it was. Mom left for Ohio yesterday, but he stayed back because today and tomorrow are the days the movers were coming for the final pack and move out of the old house. It was a little before 5 before Mr. Schafer finally came knocking, but I was already well into preparing my cuisine for the evening when he got here. The two of us actually had a really nice meal together, and we settled down to watch “Traffic” in the living room afterwards. Dan split out at around 7:30, which left my night wide open for more Sopranos episodes. I took a break at around 9 to attempt calling my credit card company, so I could finally get my mom’s name taken off of my account. Well, that proved to be the mistake of the day. I waited on hold…for…an HOUR! And never got through! Oh man, I was pissed. After firing off the nastiest email I’ve ever written to the friendly people at Capital One, I finished my fourth Sopranos episode of the day, wrote events, and hit the hay just after 12. It’s back to work for real tomorrow, so I need my beauty rest. Plus Stefy’s getting home, and unless there’s some unexpected hang-up tomorrow, I should be going down there to see her.

Sunday, January 02

I love sleeping in until 11:30. It’s just so wonderful. I got up, made myself some pop tarts, popped in “Dogma” on DVD, and didn’t get showered and dressed until about 3:30 or 4. Fantastic! My afternoon was spent working on the site, finally getting a bunch of little things organized and re-vamped for the New Year, so I felt pretty good about that. Dan called me around 5, wondering if I wanted to dinner at Bennigan’s with him and mom at around 6, so I just did a little more tidying up around my room before taking off to meet up with them. They had been packing some things up all day, and getting ready for the final push to move everything down to Ohio tomorrow—thank God they didn’t need any help though. Our dinner was really good, but I could tell that they were totally beat, so it was a pretty quiet dinner. Mom and Dan tagged along with me on my way back to the apartment so Dan could take some measurements of mom’s new computer for buying a new desk, and they ended up staying for a little while watching the wedding video I’ve been working on. I spent the rest of the night working on the project after they left, and have basically wrapped up about 100% of the editing, so I’m virtually certain that I’ll be done with the whole thing by the end of the week. So, with everything that I wanted to accomplish today out of the way, I decided to kick back with a couple episodes from the first season of “The Sopranos” that I borrowed from Stefy’s dad, and have still never seen before. Of course, they were fantastic, and only made me anxious to re-watch all of the episodes before season 5 comes out on DVD. Anyway, I made it to bed before 1 so I could give myself plenty of time to sleep, should I decide to drag myself into work tomorrow (for the record though, the office is technically closed).

Saturday, January 01

Well, after all that sulking yesterday you’d think that the Schafer family Christmas party would be about the last thing to put me in a better frame of mind today, but it was actually…fun. And I was there for SIX HOURS! That’s some sort of record for me. I got to the party around noon, and spent most of the afternoon catching up with some of Dan’s brothers and sisters and in-laws about school, my major, my girlfriend, and everything else that’s been going on lately. By the end of the day I was a very broken record, but it was actually kinda nice to talk about all those things. I guess it just reminded me that things are actually really, REALLY great right now, and I should quit my bitchin’. So, that’s a good way to start the new year, right? Anyway, we ate a lot of great food, played some games, and I got “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” for my present in the gift exchange, so it was actually a pretty good day. I split out with my mom around 6:30 and gave her a ride back to Holt so Dan could stay behind and help clean up, and then I came back to the apartment for a pretty lazy night here. Stefy called me shortly after I got back, and we chatted on the phone for about 10 or 15 minutes trying to catch up on each other’s weeks. It was really good to finally have a real phone conversation with her for the first time since she’s been gone, and it just reminded me that Tuesday can’t come soon enough. After I got off the phone, Nate and I spent about two hours beating Halo 2 in co-op mode, so that was fun. After Halo I decided to settle down with my late night dinner and a movie, “Reality Bites”. It’s a Ben Stiller movie from about ten years ago, and I had pretty high hopes going in, but my contempt for it mounted steadily as I kept watching. I’m sorry but I just think Ethan Hawke is a douche bag (pardon my French, but he IS—I mean, have you HEARD of shampoo?), and I lost all respect for the movie when they completely cannibalized my favorite U2 song “All I Want Is You” during a where-is-my-bucket-to-puke-in-scene. Okay, so enough grousing about that. Anyway, after the movie I hunkered down in front of my iMac and finally got caught up on events. Whew…now I feel better.