Like this:

wow it’s already been a week! i seriously suck at updating things—there’s a bunch of pictures in my camera waiting for their debut on fb still. =P

so i visited mike this past weekend. it was lovely to have the simple alone time with him in philly– even if it was just 1.5 days (the rest was in ny with his parents)– since it doesn’t happen anymore, especially not here in cincinnati. we sat around and watched house in his air-conditioned apartment (philly was horrendously hot!); played with his new guinea pig, pepé; and attempted a nice dinner.

i have to elaborate on the guinea pig—so, mike always manages to get the dumbest animals of their species. pepé is soo stupid. after 3 weeks, he still hasn’t figured out that mike is a friend, not an enemy. he is just the most stressed out little creature i have ever seen. any movement that remotely affects him causes him to tremble and cower in the corner of the cage. if you even attempt to pet him, he starts popcorning away from you. and here is the biggest indicator of just how numb-skulled and cowardly he is: mike leaves the cage open, 24/7, and pepé has never even attempted to escape, despite how resentful he is of his current situation. compare that to mochi and the late mustardseed—always chewing and gnawing at their cages, escaping magically on multiple occasions… pepé is soooooo dumb!!! but there’s a slight vulnerability about him that makes him somewhat endearing… when i’m not feeling annoyed at his skittishness.

on friday, mike had a chemistry lab that lasted all afternoon, so i was stuck in the library for 3 hours. we had talked about making a nice, romantic dinner, so i took it upon myself to research a plausible and economic recipe for scallops, since it’s one of my favorite fancy foods, hee hee. so i scourged some of the biggest recipe websites and found the most doable and best-rated recipe, which was no easy feat. i also managed to find a super simple recipe for hollandaise by ina garten—i wanted to be adventurous. after mike got done with lab, we went to the supermarket, got everything we needed, and went back to mike’s apartment to cook. it reminded me a lot of the times we spent grocery shopping and cooking back at case, so i was really happy. i was really proud of how pretty everything was looking as we prepared: the hollandaise was looking yellow and creamy, the scallops were evenly covered with breading, and the vodka sauce for the pasta was smelling wonderful. in fact, i was so pleased that i took a bunch of pictures:

then we started to sear the scallops… and all the breading came off! mike didn’t read the instructions i had painstakingly written down, so everything was out of order. naturally, i got a little upset, since the scallops no longer looked even and pretty, but my visit was too short to stay mad at him. so i decided to forgive him. we hugged, and made a conscious decision to have a good night anyway. then mike turned off the stove while the butter was still sizzling in the pan, and said, “this can wait. i have something to give you.” i asked him what it was, and he got on one knee, took a box out of his pocket, showed me the ring, and asked me to marry him. i don’t remember if i said yes right away, or if i ever did, but i was definitely at a loss for words. it was both expected but so random that it was surprising at the same time. so i said yes, at one point or another, and we proceeded to finish our wonderful dinner that turned out to be pretty good. except for the hollandaise. that just tasted like bad, sour cheese, so we dumped it. and watched ABDC as we ate.

sorry if it’s not as dramatic as you had thought it would be. there were no flowers or rose petals, no tears (i know! i’ve always imagined that there would be!), no squeaking, maaaaybe some jumping up and down… but that’s the way it happened. and it was perfect. i am infinitely blessed =) and seriously, words cannot describe how thankful i am for all of your support and loving!! because we both still have schooling ahead of us, we’ve decided to hold off on the wedding until summer of 2013, so it still feels so surreal and far away for me. but your excitement is encouraging me to be bold in celebrating in this wonderful event. thanks guys, i love you!! =)

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