Pure Michigan

Sunset at the Speedway

Racin'

Me and Red Wings Fan...our backs at least.

Oh wait...that's better.  :)

This is just a small piece of the weekend but the only part of the weekend that I have pics of right now.  Saturday night we went to the stock car races with Red Wings fan's dad, step-mom and extended family.  Being a man that has made a living in the automotive industry, Red Wings fan's dad was excited to take us to the local track for a night of racing.  We laughed and joked and picked our favorite cars each race and had a fun night capped off with a bonfire and s'mores.

We made our way out of STL around 6 on Thursday and spent the night in Chicago with RWF's aunt, uncle and cousins before finishing the 3.5 hour trip early on Friday morning.  By the time we got to Lansing it was lunchtime and we had planned to meet RWF's mom at a place close to the MSU campus.  We had lunch, chatted about the weekend ahead and about everything else happening here at home and in Michigan.
RWF's was not about to spend the afternoon just catching up with his mom though, we had too many places for him to show me around town.  We ended up visiting campus, the college bookstore (yep, I got another MSU shirt!), the dorm & apartments he lived in while in college, the bars he partied at while at school, his childhood neighborhood and the store he worked while going to school before heading to his grandparents and eating perhaps the greatest pizza ever with his family and spending the rest of the evening going through some of his childhood treasures that have been packed away for years.
We woke up Saturday morning with one mission for the first half of the day...take me to a Meijer because in RWF's eyes, this is by far the greatest store in the world and nothing we have in the Lou comes close to this sort of awesomeness.  I must say, I was impressed.
Sunday was a big family BBQ with RWF's mom's side of the family.  Everyone came to celebrate the holiday weekend, meet me (yeah, I felt like a big deal!) and as luck would have it, be let in on another surprise... RWF's cousin E is going to have a baby in January! Woo hoo!!  So many exciting things going on with the whole family!
We said our goodbyes on Monday morning and while it was sad to be leaving already, we reminded everyone we'll be back in July for A's wedding.  It was so nice to be able to say, "see you in a few weeks!"  I truly felt welcomed, I felt like I belonged and I felt part of the family and in my book, that by far is one of the best feelings I've ever experienced.

Learned my lesson

I could kick myself in the butt for not looking at my bill at little more closely 4 months ago but I guess my mind has just been elsewhere and as long as my monthly bills are being drafted right from my account, I typically just write them in my checkbook ledger and forget about them. 
Last night though, after making the 7 hour trip from Michigan to my place, I decided to sit down and pay bills and actually go through and read each of them.  Don't ask me why I chose last night to do this, since I was plum tired and really not even in the mood to pay the few bills that absolutely had to go out but I sat down and analyzed all my monthly bills while Red Wings fan watched the Red Wings-Blackhawks game.

Come to find out, since getting my DVRs at the end of January/early February, I've been paying for both DVRs and a Digital Receiver, of which I returned the Receiver to get my DVRs.  I'm not sure why this didn't occur to me to check the first month but I was oblivious.  I decided that tonight after work I'd call and find out what exactly I was paying for and if I could get a credit for the extra equipment I didn't have but quietly paid for each month.  After 15 minutes on the phone with the cable company, they came to the conclusion that I had returned the receiver and have been overcharged since February.  Right now I have 5 months of equipment credits they will apply to my next bill...over $30 in fact!  Great news for me!!

I just don't get it though...over the years, I've gotten so good at watching other people's money, somehow I've forgotten to monitor my own.  Pretty sure, I won't make that mistake again.

Heading North

Another weekend and I'm heading out of town once again.  I'm starting to think I should be renting an RV and not an apartment.  Ha!  This time, Red Wings fan and I are headed up north for Memorial Day and the BIG reveal.  Ok, maybe its not that big of a reveal, I'm just getting to meet some of his family for the first time; visiting with his mom and sis, who I met back in January when they came to the Lou; and checking out the almighty MSU campus.  It's my first trip to Michigan ever and I'm pumped for this chance to see Red Wings fans' hometown and learn more about his roots.
It's a jam packed trip for us visiting both sides of his family and a preview for my next visit in July for A's (Red Wing fans' sister) wedding.  We both took tomorrow off of work so that we could head out tonight to tackle the first leg of the trip and hopefully will make it to Chicago before midnight.

Enjoy your long weekend and wish me luck with the fam!  Catch ya on the flip side!

Memphis in May 2013

I'm home from a great weekend and getting ready to head out again in a few days.....more on that later!
Here are a few pics from our weekend down south.

Welcome to Memphis!

We met the King of Rock N Roll or at least took a pic with his statue!

There are no words for this!

Hurricane, anyone?

Honestly, I don't know....

We told our co-workers, he won this at the casino!

Lunch at Rendezvous, watching the Red Wings-Blackhawks game on Beale Street, checking out the BBQ championships, dinner at the Kooky Canuck and finishing our night with a visit to the casino.  On our way home, we made a stop at another Southern Missouri staple and Red Wings fan got to experience the Home of Throwed Rolls, Lambert's.  We had a lot of fun and packed a lot into less than 24 hours.
Not only that, but Red Wings fan and I went out Friday night and met up with our boss and JP and his wife and listened to the band our boss' boyfriend plays in.  Needless to say, sleep was hard to come by, but it was worth it.

Expanding our tradition

2008 my bro and I started a tradition and vowed to make it an annual weekend road trip.  2009 we planned the 2nd road trip and then somehow life got in the way 2010 through 2012 and we postponed our tradition.

Early in our relationship and probably even when we were just talking, I mentioned to Red Wings fan about Memphis in May and the BBQ Championships.  He has only stopped through Memphis for work and really hasn't seen much if any of the city and said it might be fun to experience it.  I jumped at the opportunity of planning what has always been a fun road trip for me. Red Wings fan also suggested we invite my bro along since it was our tradition to begin with.  It didn't take much to get Bro on board with the trip and a few weeks ago, I booked our hotel and put the finishing touches on our plans.

Tomorrow morning, we're getting up bright and early and making the trek to Memphis for BBQ, Beale Street and more fun than I can possibly imagine with two of the most important special guys in my life.  Somehow I think this trip will be filled with me laughing hysterically for 36 hours straight because when you put Red Wings fan and Bro together for any period of time, all I do is laugh.  Who knows maybe we'll even come back with a few tricks to be the champs at Ribfest with Red Wing fans' family in Chicago in July.  Either way, I'm super excited for the weekend ahead!

Swaping stories

A few weeks ago, my Dad went on a date and ever since, he's been spending quite a bit of time with his "Lady Friend" as my Bro calls her.  First of all, I think its great my Dad has found someone to share his free time with and from what I've heard she's extremely nice and my Dad is having fun going out and getting to know her.
It's hilarious when I call my Dad and check in anymore -- tonight we had an hour and a half long conversation, catching up, sharing dating stories and tentatively planning a double dinner date in the upcoming weeks.  As I got off the phone, my first thought was who would have guessed those would be the kinds of conversations I'd be having with my Dad these days?

I know, I know...its such a surprise

Ummm, you may or may not be aware by my St. Louis Blues were knocked out of the playoffs by the LA Kings....yeah, its was disappointing and a sad night when they lost.  I had some major thinking to do over the weekend and Sunday night I had to decide if the Red Wings pulled off a game 7 win against the Ducks, would I root for them in Round 2.  Decisions!  Decisions! 
I watched the first two periods of the game Sunday night but then I fell asleep and even missed the little celebration going on right next to me in bed since Red Wings fan stayed up to watch the entire game.
I woke up Monday morning and while I was getting ready for the gym I checked the score of the game just to see if Red Wings fan would be excitedly happy or if I should avoid all conversations with him until he had time to grieve over his beloved team and I was glad to see that they did pull off the win!  As soon as Red Wings fan found out the Wings first game of round 2 would be Wednesday night, somehow that became our weeknight together this week.  As you can probably guess, I'm on board and rooting on the Red Wings in the playoffs and yes, tonight we're watching the game.

Hey....I have to earn brownie points somehow even if I'm wearing my Blues t-shirt.  LOL

The cat is out of the bag

It's been 2 and a half months since the guys found out about Red Wings fan and me and finally over the weekend when we had our Saturday Night Girls Night, I spilled the beans to KP and B. Dilly.  Sure they pretty much knew something was up but there was always a little bit of doubt for them too since I did deny and make excuses for any "suspicious activity."  But over the past few months, I have felt guilty for not enlightening them on all of my happiness and telling them about all the exciting things I've been up to since January so with a night of just fun girl stuff planned, I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to fill them in.  As luck would have it, KP beat me to the punch and got it out of me.  Incidentally while this all was happening, Red Wings fan was in Chicago at a bachelor party but checking in with me via text throughout the night.  I told him the girls finally knew and he started joking with them via text too.
It was a huge weight lifted off of me and we can finally act normal when our group hangs out outside of work.

Yesterday another surprise came about as I was on the way to have lunch with my Aunt and Nicole when I unexpectedly ran into my Dad and his new girlfriend as I was leaving home.  It's only been over the last couple of weeks my Dad started dating.  And this is a bit crazy (not in a bad way!) because in the time my parents have been divorced (19 years), I have never known my Dad to date, at all.  I'm happy that he is finding happiness as well and really all I want for him is to enjoy life.  As luck would have it, Dad was driving to show his GF where I lived.  They were out and about and I guess close enough to drive by.  He wasn't expecting me to be outside and getting in my car so the somewhat awkward meeting occurred.  She's super nice and I think is the type of person my Dad needs.  I just hope the next time I see her I'm more prepared.

Last night when Red Wings fan came back from Chicago, I spent nearly the entire night talking about all of the weekend's excitement.  I also talked his ear off for about 40 minutes before he got here since I called him after lunch with my family.  I'm sure he was ready to go back to work this morning just so I would be quiet for a change.