Signing off (or TTFN in KateSpeak)

Well, friends, I must bid you adieu for awhile...not that I haven't done it before (and certainly much less ceremoniously and out of pure posting laziness)...but when challenged by Mars Hill, myself, God, and Diane (most notably Diane) what I would be giving up for Lent, I rolled the question over in my mind. As I asked myself, "What unhealthy thing needs to be less present in your life?" an answer quickly came to mind. (It was, incidentally, the same thing that Diane suggested...Diane, you are a prophet!) Could I do it? Could I give it up entirely? Do I ultimately want to change this part of my life? The answers were yes, no, and yes.

I am giving up the Information Superhighway for Lent.

(You know you love it, Anne. I love it too!)

Not entirely, though. I do need to use it for work, and there is critical information I get via e-mail (regarding bills, important social events, etc). I should mention here that a big reason that I want to do this is that I need to better develop my social life here in GR and I spend way too much time on cyber-socialization. And it's not good for me at. all. So if this is my goal, why would I want to risk missing out on movie nights, k-nitting parties, Law School Oscars Night Parties, and the like? Right. E-mail's not my problem.

MySpace is. Blogger is (even though I rarely post, I spend way too much time reading others' posts and checking back to see if there are any new posts). Facebook is. IKEA.com is. Random surfing for the purpose of random surfing is. Instant Messenger is. So these are the things I will be giving up. (Realize here that I am going out on a limb to admit my obscene nerdiness...)

I can do e-mail, I can do work for my job, I can read some news as long as I don't spend too much time on it. I can shop if there is something that I need to buy and I know I can buy it at a particular website.

But that's it. No more.

I am praying that my Lenten journey brings me better time management, more time actually interacting with people in person, and more time for spiritual matters. Oh, and maybe I'll actually get off my duff and go work out.

AND, in a funny (and Diane-esque) turn of events, my computer decided to crash on Saturday. I mean crashed. Windows has gone belly-up. Gotta call the IT guy to come nurse it back to health and *hopefully* I won't lose all my music, photos, and all the papers I've written since my freshman year of college. Seriously, if that wasn't a sign, what is?

So I won't be leaving you all witty comments for awhile. (For that I am truly sorry, for I am a funny funny woman.) You can leave me comments if you like, as I will be able to moderate them from my e-mail, but I won't be responding. If you want to communicado con yo, e-mail me. (laura[dot]mikrut[at]gmail[dot]com)...or you can call me and say, "Hey Laura, in honor of your boycott of the internet, let's go to the arcade and play some Pong." (Seriously...I would do it. I'm not above Pong.) You all know my number.

So I will be seeing you on Easter Sunday...or mabye after that. I might be perfectly happy to stay off the grid by that point.

PS - I'm also giving up pop. It's not good for ya, yo. But I'm not giving up WHAM! (That one's just for you, Kate.)

Hearts and flowers rings and vows (rings and vows!)

You'd better have been singing that to the tune of "Heads and Shoulders Knees and Toes." Don't make me get all corporal on you.

Today is V-day, of course. I never put THAT much stake in it, but I am a girl and thus always thought it would be nice to have a lovely person to share the Hallmark holiday with.

That didn't usually happen for me, which was just as well. My friends and I celebrated in a number of ways over the years. In college Kym and I started the AVD parties (Anti-Valentine's Day for those of you not possessing the gift of acronymical intuition)...these celebrations took a number of forms. I don't recall which came first, but it always involved a large gathering of some high school friends and some wholesome activity. There was the time we piled into cars with the mission of doing laser tag. I don't remember why that didn't work out, but I do remember that we wound up at a coffee shop over on the West side of Lansing. The best part about that one was making Matt and Emily break up for the evening...they were long-standing high school sweeties, and our rule was that only single people could participate...thus, we told them they had to break up. No touching, no kissing, no riding in the same car. They hated it but wanted too much to be part of the fun to really object. Then there was the time we had the AVD bake-off at Kym's parents' house...we made sugar cookies and decorated them with black frosting in a tube with Xs through hearts and that sort of thing. It was great fun. I have pictures somewhere. There was another year when Kym, Anne, and I shared an elegant dinner. It was like our own little romantic date. I think we even lit candles.

Then there was grad school. Most of the AVD people were long gone - moved away to faraway states, gotten married, fallen out of touch, etc. About four years ago Melissa (middle school friend), her roommate Suzanne (our favorite tree-hugging vegetarian) and I had a fun-filled rendezvous that gave a whole new meaning to V-Day. We made tacos with vegetarian taco "meat" (V #1 is for vegetarian). Then we went up to campus for a special V-day performance of the Vagina Monologues. (I don't think I need to tell you that there's a second V there!) Then, on the way home, Melissa and I were riding in her old beloved Ford Probe (otherwise known as the Anal Probe) when "All That She Wants" by WHAM! came on the radio, and of course we had to car dance. We laughed until we cried and it henceforth became known as the Vagina Dance (its moniker deriving ENTIRELY from the show we'd just been to, don't get any funny ideas, people). Not too long thereafter I found the album at CD Warehouse and it's been one of my favorite songs ever since. I love you, Closeted George Michael.



Fast forward to two years ago. I had met Josh. I had a bona fide boy in my life who I had, by that point, had decided was a keeper (THE keeper, in fact). He stretched V-Day into a week, leaving me little clues and notes around my apartment (one being in my dictionary because we're both nerdy like that). He snuck into my office when I didn't even know he was in town and left these on my desk:









Sweet boy.











Here's us a few days thereafter - look how happy we were, flush with all the joys of new love (including Josh's lopsided smile, compliments of Bell's Palsy):
















Last year? We were going insane putting together the final details for our wedding...only four days to go. We decided that Valentine's Day didn't really need to involve a big fuss, so we decided to go low-key and have a Big Fat Mars Hill Wedding.



This year? Several ideas got thrown around, including having two holidays in one, having a romantic Valentine's-like holiday in the summer instead...at one point this involved tears on my end (because despite all my practicality, I am a GIRL)...we came to a decision, and then things morphed in their own way despite our plans...last night Josh came home with a dozen roses, a bag of Valentine's peanut M&Ms, and V-Day socks. I gave him a Reese's Peanut Butter Heart (a big one, mind you) and a Tamale Pie dinner kit he'd had his eye on. Then I caved and gave him his anniversary gifts too - an iPod armband for the gym (he learned his lesson after dropping his on the treadmill) and a new gym bag. (Maybe I was sending him mixed messages with the fattening candy and the gym paraphenalia?) Valentine's Day is February 14th. Our first anniversary is the 18th. We did much of our celebrating last night...although we're going to fancy dinner and symphony on Friday and at some point this weekend we'll eat our (most likely freezerburned) anniversary cake, bust out our gorgeous crystal toasting flutes, and drink the duty-free Korbel champagne we bought on our cruise. I just love that we bought champagne in St. Thomas that we could've gotten at Meijer. So exotic. Oh well. Here's a final parting picture for you all:













Thus Endeth The History Of Valentine's Day by Laura Russell Mikrut. (This is where you sarcastically say, "Good story, Grandpa! Tell it again!")

Happy V-Day to you, however you choose to celebrate.