Seven Years!!

Today Erik & I celebrated seven years of being together. It's hard to believe how much has changed since we've been together: we graduated from college, I worked and then went back to school, Erik started work on his PhD, 2 of Erik's cousins have gotten married, 3 of my cousins have gotten married, babies have been born, family members have passed and too many friends to count have gotten married. We live in a different state now and live together (which is still an adjustment!). We've lived in different states and been away from each other over summer and winter breaks — and will be doing that this summer again.

What's amazing is that I still remember the first time I met Erik. I remember the day that we decided to stop pretending that we were just friends and become a couple. Over the last 7 years, we've been through a lot but it has only made our relationship stronger and more lasting. I can't wait for 70 more years (yes, I'm planning on living well past 95!).

We celebrated by going to Bacaro in downtown Champaign. It was very delicious and had fabulous wine (which is a complete must!). Here's us toasting to 7 years:


We then ended the night by watching old tv show episodes on DVD. We changed into sweatpants and just relaxed —> our favorite pastime.

Save the Dates (Revisited)

Tonight while "outlining," I ordered the Save the Dates!! Erik helped me design (well, he acted as quality manager). They turned out perfect! We got them online via MagnetStreet.com. We ended up picking out exactly the ones that I wanted originally.

Turns out that we could change the color scheme so now they match our wedding colors (see earlier post for details). I'm so happy we ordered samples and a catalog before ordering because things look very different in person rather than on the computer.

Ordering the Save the Dates, makes this so much more real now. In a good way, of course! I'm hoping to have these puppies sent out between Christmas and New Years. And hoping to have some b-maid help with stuffing envelopes. . .

Now to get on the groom (and myself) to get some addresses!

Irony

So, today many of my friends are protesting laws such as Prop. 8 that have denied them the right to marry. I, unthinking, put up a status message on FaceBook about my upcoming wedding (9 months from today). [I'm still cringing about it.]

Fortunately, a friend of mine brought this to my attention relatively quickly. The thought of my status message hurting people I care about and especially about something that I personally feel strongly about was very upsetting. It just doesn't seem fair that I'm able to marry the person I love but others are not able to do the same. I only hope that this will go the way of Loving v. Virginia.

Yes We Did!

America, we did it! We entered the 21st century!

I am happy to be able to add another post to this blog in celebration of Barack Obama's victory yesterday!

After cite check last night (we had cite check, which I feel is un-American on Election Night!) I joined Simon (best man) & Erik at the apartment with 15 minutes to spare before the election was called for Obama. Thank goodness we got let out early!

In preparation for President-Elect Obama's acceptance speech, we popped open the bubbly! See pictures below for the celebration.

Highlights from his victory speech:

We are, and always will be, the United States of America.

It's been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this date in this election at this defining moment change has come to America.

And to all those watching tonight from beyond our shores, from parliaments and palaces, to those who are huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of the world, our stories are singular, but our destiny is shared, and a new dawn of American leadership is at hand.

That's the true genius of America: that America can change. Our union can be perfected. What we've already achieved gives us hope for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.

This is our time, to put our people back to work and open doors of opportunity for our kids; to restore prosperity and promote the cause of peace; to reclaim the American dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth, that, out of many, we are one; that while we breathe, we hope. And where we are met with cynicism and doubts and those who tell us that we can't, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people: Yes, we can.

Election 2008!!

This morning, we attempted to get up at 6am to vote at 7:30am. This did not happen. Instead, we slept in until about 7:30am and voted at 8:30am. This actually worked to our advantage because, as I was told by a polling place volunteer, we successfully got there during a lull between the people who had to be at work by 8am and the students who will probably not get there until later in the morning. Yes! The entire voting process only took us 15 minutes from registering at the table and getting our ballots to walking out the door. Erik and I were voters #403 and #399 respectively.

This was Erik's first time and my second time voting – I voted in a mid-term election in Nashville, TN in 2006. Apparently I was too liberal for Nashvegas (or to be technically accurate Tennessee) because none of the things I voted for passed. Hopefully, I didn't just jinx Senator Obama. Something tells me I didn't - considering I'm voting in Illinois!

As is obvious by the picture above, Erik and I are both dorks. We brought my camera to capture our taking part in history. Whatever your political persuasion, this is a pretty historical election - we have the first black man to be on a major party ticket - and as president at that! - and the first woman to be on a major party ticket as VP. That being said, Erik and I voted for Senator Obama (as is evidenced by the pictures below).


Hopefully, I will be able to add a post tomorrow or later tonight with us toasting the champagne I have chilling in the fridge to celebrate the Obama-Biden victory! (Fingers majorly crossed).

Us at Our Best

We celebrated Halloween on Friday night at one of Erik's engineering grad school friends' place. Despite the fact that neither Erik or I are really that into Halloween and dressing up, we made a fabulous showing (in my honest opinion). As you can see from the picture, Erik was a tavern wench and I was symbolizing the "walk of shame." If you don't know, ask someone who went to undergrad in the U.S. - most will be aware of this phenomenon.

We were both pretty nervous to show our faces in public dressed like this. It was our task to bring playing cards and dice to the party. We stole them from our Cranium game and took a deck we already had so as not to have to go into Meijer dressed like this! Needless to say the second we showed up at the party, we went right to the keg. ;)