62. March 6th, 2011 Picture.

March 6th was an unseasonably warm day, a whopping 50 degrees!  It felt like a heat wave smack in the middle of one of the worst winters I can remember.  The worst/best winter was that of my junior year in college, where there was enough snow to cancel classes for 5 days, with a weekend in between.  It was epic!  You 7 ladies know what I'm talking 'bout!

Anywho, I was sitting at my apartment when my sister in law Sybil called, saying that they were taking a walk through the North End and wanted to see if I want to join them.  I ended up declining, but the second I hung up realized that I did actually want to go.  I got ready quickly and booked it over to NeBo [North End Boston] to surprise them.  I got a wicked awesome parking spot and called them to see where abouts they were.  They were just walking into the Old North Church, so I made my way over to meet them.  I must have walked by the Old North Church about 1 million times in my life, but I cannot remember if I'd ever been inside.  It's pretty spectacular, as you can imagine, as it's the oldest standing church in Boston.  Some of you  might have heard of this guy, Paul Revere?  Well he did some big things at the Old North Church in 1775 and now it's crazy famous.  Officially.  On their website it says 'Crazy Famous'.

After taking a lap through the church, we made our way to the Copp's Hill cemetery to check out some of the historic gravestones.  Will it sound downright horrible of me to say that the only time I've walked through this cemetery was after a night of drinking?  Probably.

My brother Ronny knows quite a bit of history, and explained that soldiers used to take up target practice in the cemetery, trying to hit specific letters, and here you can see where some of musket ball's hit.  And yes, I actually googled 'Musket Bullets' to see what came up.  According to Wikipedia they are simply called balls.  

Quick shot of Little Miss Chlo pointing out all the bullet holes, followed immediately by a random photo shoot of Cam and Chloe just standing near a grave stone.

This is where Chloe thought she could rise someone from the dead with a simple spell.  So she stood here, repeated creepy chants and hoped that a body would pop out of the ground.  I'm the adult here and was totally freaked out.  I grabbed her and quickly tried to change the subject.  She kept looking behind her being like 'but the BODY!  We need to see the body!'  Kids these days.

We were heading out of the cemetery when I saw this little green sliver of a house.  It only took me a minute to realize that it's the skinny house, the narrowest house in Boston.  We walked over to it and all but trespassed, trying to figure out how one could lay out furniture and actually live in a space that narrow - I might have been able to reach across the front and the house reached from fingertip to fingertip.  It is pretty adorable though!  It has it's own Wikipedia page too!

After finishing up being absolute creeps, we walked down Salem Street to Push Cart pizza for some lunch.  Ratty was heading back to his apartment around this time and stopped off to meet us for some pizza and a beer.  It was a great, impromptu little outing!

62. March 5th, 2011 Picture.

I was heading off to a party at my brother's house and I stopped in at the liquor store around the corner from my apartment to buy a few yummy beers to bring.  I was hoping to grab a few bottles of Cisco's Grey Lady (my all time favorite!) but when I got to the case, it turns out they were all out.  That didn't stop one of the employees from absolutely scouring for some.  He swore he'd just seen a box of it and started climbing all over the boxes and standing on shelves.  As you can see, he was naht giving up!

No matter how many times I told him I was okay, that I'd just buy something else, he was absolutely insistent that he wanted to find it.  Eventually he didn't even care if I wanted it or not, he was determined to find it based on pride alone.  I stood there awkwardly for 10-15 minutes while he searched before I actually begged him to stop.  I don't doubt that there was some in the store, but I felt downright foolish to have him looking for it for so long.  I bought a few different kinds of beer and headed out.  I didn't have any Grey Lady but I had a funny story with pictures to prove it!

62. March 4th, 2011 Picture.

On March 4th I headed out with Ratty, Bill and Jamie for a night of cheap beers and good company.  We'd planned on going to Harpoonfest at the Harpoon Brewery which is in South Boston, but they changed the rates and it was just too expensive for just a meh time.  Friday nights used 2 for the price of 1 admission for 'Friends of Harpoon', which totally offset the $5 a beer price tag.  This year they opted out of the FoH benefit, which meant that we'd be shelling out $20 each just to get through the door.  We decided to head to Sissy K's in Faneuil for some $1 drafts.  I ended up having an absolute blast and spending all of $11.  Isn't that the BEST?!

Bill actually carries around the 'Back to the Future' picture in his wallet as if that's his family.  It's almost as good as the time I bumped into an old college friend randomly and he took out his wallet to show us pictures of his family.  They were all head shots of cast of 'Full House' and he went photo by photo being like 'And this is my Uncle Jesse and my cousin DJ'.  It was pretty hilarious.  We said the only way it could have been better was if he showed us pictures from 'Family Matters'.  This is my crazy neighbor Steve Urkel...

62. March 3rd, 2011 Picture.

As you're all well aware, I love the South End.  Ratty does too.  We love the restaurants, shops, parks, vibe, energy and all the other cliche things people love about neighborhoods.  We seemed to be spending increasing amounts of time in the South End, March 3rd being one of those days!  I was walking to meet Ratty at a nearby restaurant, and coincidently had to walk down my favorite street, Union Park.  So naturally I snapped some pictures!

The street is set with brownstones and a beautiful iron fenced park in the center of the street.  I just love how it feels like it's own little world.  Granted, the snow makes it look less than stunning, but take my word for it, it's beautiful!

I would definitely love to live on this street, but as you can imagine, demand is high.  Most places on this street are ridiculously overpriced, I recently saw a 1 bed condo for about $650,000.  I guess walking down the street will just have to do because I am naht gonna be living there anytime soon.  I need to be saving for my Nantucket house, obviii.

62. March 2nd, 2011 Picture.

My roommate Jamie got a new job!  Isn't that so exciting?!  She had been looking for a job for a long while now and I was totally thrilled when she landed one right down the street!  Since college, J had been working with severely developmentally disabled and/or autistic children at a few different residential institutes in Massachusetts.  She also worked part-time as a speech therapist for autistic children, and she was honestly just getting burnt out.  For one job she worked overnights, through the weekend, and at her most recent one, worked at 7am to get all the students up, dressed and on school buses before teaching an entire class.  She really wanted something that was in Boston, no more commuting to the Cape, where she could work 9am-5pm and have nights and weekends off - I mean, isn't that really what we all want, a real work/life balance?!


She'd been looking for an office job for years now, but with the economy the way it was, she was having a hard time getting her foot in the door.  My cousin emailed me a job opening for a receptionist at an architecture firm, and I immediately thought of Jamie.  She is totally into design and decorating, so I forwarded her the email and asked for her resume, if she was interested in it, of course.  She was, and I sent her resume along to my cousin, who then sent it to his contacts at the firm.  Did you follow that?  Lots of emailing and forwarding going on here!  After a round of interviews, Jamie landed the job!  I was so excited for her that we opened a bottle of wine to celebrate!

{Don't worry, virgin chardonnay just means that the wine never comes in contact with oak.  What would the point of non-alcoholic wine be?!  Come on.}

62. March 1st, 2011 Picture.

Keeping in line with my inability to understand how so many people have so much money in this world, I read 'Richistan: A Journey Through the American Wealth Boom and the Lives of the New Rich'.  You can pretty much guess what this book is about, but here is a blurb from Amazon to round it out for you:

When Frank, a columnist for the Wall Street Journal, began noticing that the ranks of America's wealthy had more than doubled in the last decade, and that they were beginning to cluster together in enclaves, he decided to investigate this new society, where $1 million barely gets you in the door. The Richistanis like to consider themselves ordinary people who just happen to have tons of money, but they live in a world where people buy boats just to carry their cars and helicopters behind their primary yachts, and ordering an alligator-skin toilet seat won't make even your interior designer blink. But Frank doesn't just focus on conspicuous consumption. He talks to philanthropists who apply investment principles to their charitable contributions and political fund-raisers who have used their millions to transform the Colorado state legislature. He also meets people for whom sudden wealth is an emotional burden, whose investment club meetings can feel like group therapy sessions. It's only in the final pages that Frank contemplates the widening gap between Richistan and the rest of the world—for the most part, his grand tour approach never loses its light touch.

The book talks about people who just happened to fall into money suddenly, like a man who became a multimillionaire because he created porcelain Bavarian villages (totally not kidding!), as well as those with old money.  The book describes the growing gap between the middle class, i.e. me, and the 'Richistanis', those whose wealth is topped at more than 10 million.  They look down on those with less, and try to outspend their neighbor (usually incurring massive amounts of debt) in order to keep up with the Joneses.  They are filthy rich, but some are going broke to try and fit in with all the other rich people, helloooooo that is SO NOT SMART!  It was absolutely insane to read, but extremely interesting.  The whole time I was reading it, I was wondering 'okay, how do I get in on it?!'  I'm still working on a plan, but as of right now, winning MegaBucks is still really the front runner.

62. February 28th, 2011 Picture.

Ratty and I both took the day after the Oscars off because were supposed to attend a black tie party downtown and thought we might need the day to recover.  Sadly plans fell through and we ended up watching it at his apartment, but we still had a great time!  Monday afternoon we ordered Chinese food which of course came with fortune cookies.

My fortune:

Ratty's Fortune:

Enough said.

62. February 27th, 2011 Picture.

I randomly set out during the Oscars to reach 300 Twitter followers.  I was about 20-30 people shy of 300, and I thought that the rapid fire tweeting that takes place during the Oscars would be the perfect time to try and recruit some new followers.  I ended up getting retweeted by a few VPs at my alma mater Bridgewater State, who actually started tweeting and campaigning on my behalf.  Needless to say it worked and I ended up hitting 300 followers shortly there after!  Success!  Honestly, it's the little things in life, right?

62. February 26th, 2011 Picture.

Since I was out of commission for about week due to my wisdom teeth and the fact that I lost my illegal wireless signal at my mom's house, I felt the need to seriously get some blogging done once I was feeling better.  Ratty and I set up shop at a Starbucks in the North End and had a 4 hour platonic work date.  During this work date I accomplished a lot, I wrote and scheduled all my posts for the next week and a half.  I love having everything planned out and scheduled, but I found that when things are posted automatically, I don't check on my blog as much, and therefore I lose my writing motivation.  Going to have to find a way to balance being organized and staying motivated!

62. February 25th, 2010 Picture.

I was at the TJ Maxx in Dorchester, doing a little retail therapy, when I came across Laguna Beach Season One on DVD.  For the record, I already owned it, it was the first DVD I EVER owned, fun fact, but somewhere along my multiple moves, I lost it.  I don't know where went, but I'm sure it's gone for good.  I LOVED Laguna Beach when it was on, really only seasons 1 and 2, once LC and Kristin moved on to college, the series was dunzo.  I never really dug The Hills, I missed the high school drama, and most importantly, Steven Colletti looking longingly at Kristin while Dashboard Confessional played in the background.  Sighh, isn't it just the best?!  Obviously I HAD to buy it, I mean, obviously.  I need to know who Steven is going to ask to Prom and how.  I mean, hi!  It was only $9, such a bargain.

62. February 24th, 2011 Picture.

I was walking out of the hair salon when I saw a car with this bumper sticker on it.  While there are absolutely no plans to be a mommy in the near future, or even not near future, I do love the idea of being a Beach Mommy SOMEDAY.  I'd be really great at it, sitting at the beach while the little ones napped or played.  In my head my future children are going to be amazing sleepers and beyond well behaved - hey I mean this is what a dream is, right?  Something that isn't really realistic?  Thought so.  ANYWAY, me, stay at home mom, beach, perfection.  Better start saving up for that beach front property!

62. February 23rd, 2011 Picture.

My roommate had been talking about getting a dog since the day I moved in.  She'd put it on hold since our other roommate had a cat, but once the roommate with the cat moved out, the dog was back in the picture.  She'd talked to lots of breeders, since she wanted a very specific type of dog, and went through countless ups and downs before finally bringing home Brooks.  He is a mastif, meaning he will eventually be about 200 pounds.  That's me plus a small child, um I mean very large child.  Now, I know what you're thinking, this sounds absolutely insane, and you know what I have to say about that?  You're kinda right. While I'd never tell my roommate not to get the dog she really wanted, I did throw out the idea of going to a shelter and adopting an adorable dog who really needed a home  She eventually opted to go for the mastif, and I totally get it, though when I decide to bring home a little puppy, I'm road tripping to a kill shelter in Texas.


Brooks is pretty cute though.  I mean, just look at his droopy eyes!  He won't be this teeny for long, I'm pretty sure I can physically watch him grow right before me.  I go to bed at night and he is one size and when I wake up I swear he has gotten bigger!  Better enjoy the puppy phase while we can!

62. February 22nd, 2011 Picture.

I'd be wanting a clutch wallet for a while now, but each time I saw a cute one in a shop or boutique, it was priced outrageously, like $80.  Does it magically generate money?  No?  Well then it's not worth it.  I kept an eye out when shopping at places like TJ Maxx and Marshals, but could never seem to find one that I liked.  Finally, one night I was at Target, picking up a few things, and I checked out the accessory section and found lots of cute wallets, all for $12 or less.  I wasn't absolutely crazy about this one at first, but it has definitely come to grow on me.  I get compliments on it all the time, and I love being able to tell people it was only 12 bucks!

62. February 21st, 2011 Picture.

As I am sure you can guess, the most recent posts all revolve around me being home sick from work, recovering from having my wisdom teeth out and having my mom take care of me.  I was still feeling pretty rough on Monday, but I'd arranged to work from home, i.e. still at my mom's trying to illegally steal someone else's wireless signal.  Cassie and Abs came over yet again for another visit, as it was February Vacation week and the girls had nothing but free time.  Here you'll see them, being absolutely adorable and getting a crochet tutorial from my mom.  Abby didn't quite get it, so she just sat there, wrapping the yarn around the hook, thinking that she was making a hat.

That's about all the excitement I could handle for one day.  I'm sure that once the girls left, I crawled into bed and took a nap.

62. February 20th, 2011 Picture.

The Sunday after having my wisdom teeth out my mom invited Ratty, Eddie, Christine, Cassie and Abigail over to visit my sickly self.  I was not joking when I said that we could pretty much throw a party for any occasion.  She made lots of yummy food, most of which I couldn't really eat, but I did eat plates and plates of Demonico potatoes.  

Just sippin' on some ginger ale.  No biggie.

{My little Abby and me.  Once again, I've looked better, but I'm thankful that I didn't swell up and look like a football - I was really concerned that I was going to look like a chipmunk storing nuts in my cheeks for the winter.}

{Seriously, how cute is she?  A little modeling can make almost anyone feel better!}

This is when Abby handed Ratty a yellow rose and asked him to marry her.  Totally unprompted.  He handled it very graciously, telling her that she was just a little too young to get married.  She took the news as well as can be expected.

A little family shot, Cass, Ratty, me, Abby and Christine.  It was really nice for everyone to come over and visit.  Even though I wasn't feeling up to snuf and couldn't really enjoy all the yummy food and drinks, I still had a great time!  There isn't anything better than hanging out with my family.

What was supposed to be just a little afternoon get together, starting around 1pm, turned into an all day party where lots of food and lots of beer was consumed.  As you can see, right around 7:15 Ratty dove into some Duvel with my brother.  Just a casual little Sunday in the Deveau house!

62. February 19th, 2011 Picture.

I guess one of the perks of being sick is that people tend to dote on you.  I got LOTS of goodies in the mail the day after my surgery, which I definitely did not hate.

Since the birthday cake/flower arrangement was a HUGE hit in the Deveau household, Kate decided to send me one of my very own.  It totally cheered me up!

Then Ratty sent me a care package of chocolate covered strawberries and apples from Edible Arrangements.  While I couldn't really eat them, they LOOKED pretty!

And last but not least!  I had ordered a new laptop sleeve from Bertie's Closet on Etsy, my second purchase from their shop, first time I got an awesome Kindle case.  This time I got a multi-colored viewfinder print and I absolutely LOVE it!  I love getting things in the mail, even if I did pick it out, order it and pay for it myself!

I guess there is small, and I mean REALLY small upside to being sick!  People send you things!

62. February 18th, 2011 Picture.

I am glad that I can relive this now, now that the pain is gone and the memory has been partially wiped away.  I say partially because I am sure that parts of me will never, ever forget how miserable getting my wisdom teeth out was.

I'd been pretty much dreading this day since I realized I had wisdom teeth.  I knew they'd have to come out and I knew it'd hurt.  I'd put it off for years, blaming bad dental insurance as the key reason.  Little did I know it's actually classified as medical - there goes my alibi!  Once I got my job at Blue Cross, I realized I had no excuse, so I buckled down, found a doctor and made a slew of appointments leading up to my surgery.  I recruited my brother to drive me to MGH that morning, bright and early as I had to be there at 9am, uncaffeinated I might add, plus I needed someone to escort me home.  I would be, obviously, heavily medicated.  We got to the hospital, checked me in and began my 2 hours of prep.  At this point, I think I was still pretending it wasn't going to happen.  'Nope, something will come up, I'm just not going to do it, that's all!'  Nevermind the fact that I was already at the hospital, in a chair, with IV's and nurses asking me questions, it wasn't happening.  I think was I was most scared about was the medications.  I don't like feeling like I'm not in control and I was really nervous I'd wake up, relatively aware, but making zero sense.  I didn't want to be so out of it that started oversharing information with strangers, or worse, my brother.  I wanted to be able to walk out of the office on my own two feet and not have to be carried, drooling all over myself, talking gibberish - that would be mortifying.


Finally, around 11:30am, it was time for me to go into the operating room, where I was legit strapped to a chair and wrapped in multiple blankets.  I might have started to freak out here, mainly because, oh I don't know, I was strapped down?!  I started to panic, feeling claustrophobic and extremely anxious.  The fact that I was cocooned with lots of blankets and sheets really didn't help my claustrophobia.  They had the room pretty cold, so the blankets were to keep me from getting too cold during the surgery.  I'm also assuming that if I got too cold I might start shivering, in which case the doctor would accidentally slice my face, because obviously those kinds of things happen ALL the time.  I honestly should not be left alone with my own thoughts, ever.  


The doctor started to get things rolling, while walking me through the various steps.  They put me on oxygen, a big white mask that covered my entire nose, which didn't really help my claustrophobic feelings, not only couldn't I move, now I might suffocate while not be able to move.  The fact that the mask was pumping oxygen was obviously lost on me, hi I was panicking.  I tried to make myself relax, realizing that I was in a hospital and I am sure they would take good care of me.  I started looking around the room being like, THIS is a surgical room?  Is this safe?  Does it pass inspection?  Honestly, with the way my mind works, it's amazing that I even leave my house.  The final straw in my growing anxiety attack was when they started sticking things in my mouth while I was still awake.  Not only am I now lying down, I am going to choke on medical equipment AND suffocate, all while strapped in a chair!  Thankfully, the second my panic hit a high note, the doctor gave the go ahead and I was pumped full of awesome drugs.  Now, I am not a fan of drugs normally, I could stand on my soap box and talk about over medicating, but at this moment in time, the drugs were awesome.  I was out.


In what seemed like a split second, honestly, like I'd just snapped my fingers, I heard someone say my name and I was awake, ice around my face and gauze in my mouth.  I was done.  The nurse asked me how I felt and I started to speak, but lost my train of thought and started rambling.  I realized I was making no sense, not to mention the fact that I had so much gauze in my mouth I am positive that even if I'd had my faculties she still wouldn't have been able to understand me.  I gave up.

{I'm pretty sure I've looked better.}

I was taken to a recovery room where I sat for an hour to make sure I was good to go.  I just sat there, feeling slightly loopy, while my brother talked to the nurse about the benefits of owning chickens.  My brother can seriously talk about anything with anything.


I finally headed home, and spent the rest of the day sitting on the couch.  It hurt my face to lie down, so I tried to get as comfy as possible while sitting bolt upright.  I was prescribed some drugs, some really strong painkillers, but they ended up making me sick, so I put myself to bed for 4 hours.  Going from narcotics to 'Extra Strength Tylenol' really wasn't the best option, but it was the only one.  It can only get better, right?

62. February 17th, 2011 Picture.

After work I had to head to the mall to get my eyes checked, so I decided to pop into Old Navy and Forever 21 before AND after my appointment to hopefully grab some new things for work.  Old Navy had JUST gotten a brand new shipment in of adorable sundresses in, why they stock them in the middle of the winter when NO one looks good under florescent lighting, the idea of showing pasty white skin is about as appealing as water boarding and it is a solid 4-5 months before I'll be able to wear any of these things, I'll never know.  But, if I've learned anything from my mother it is buy it when you see it, and that's exactly what I did.  I know for a fact that if I was looking for a casual navy sun dress is June I wouldn't be able to find it, obviously because they'd be stocking fall get ups.  Old Navy had cute pink and navy jersey dresses, solid color eyelet shifts, and printed dresses with POCKETS.  So I did what any sane, practical person would do, and I bought 6 of them.  

  I then made my way to Forever 21 where I nabbed a bunch of cute sweaters to wear to work.  They immediately went into heavy rotation in my wardrobe.  Honestly, I wish it was warmer more often, I say it all the time, my summer wardrobe is SO much better than my winter one!  I swear, if I wear one more  GAP cardigan, I may die.

62. February 16th, 2011 Picture.

Happy Birthday [er, though somewhat 'belated'] to my Mom!  Happy Birthday Steph!

I had gone home that night to spend the evening with her and I answered the door when she got flowers delivered from my sister Kate.  It actually looked as if a cake was being delivered, but the tag said it was from a florist.  I handed it to my mom and I watched her open it up, and SURPRISE it was a faux cake made of flowers.  My mom almost died.  She loved it!  She thought it was so different and so pretty, she called my sister Kate immediately and gushed about how she wanted to keep it forever and that she never wanted it to die.  I guess I am not the only one who immediately jumps to the aftermath and starts to dread it - I must get it from her!

Then, because she loved it and needed to have it look absolutely perfect, we had a photo shoot.

{Close up of the actual cake.}

{Cake with all my mom's birthday cards.}

{Then a shot of the cake, on location, on the hutch in the dining room.}

With this gift, Kate might have temporarily tied me in the 'favorite daughter' competition, but I only say might because my mother would never dream of confirming this.  I do know, however, that I'm totally the favorite.

62. February 15th, 2011 Picture.

Tuesday night Ratty invited me to a Stuff at Night party at Bond, yawn.  No seriously, sometimes those events are just rubber stamps of each other.  That doesn't mean I won't continue to go to them and drink the free drinks, definitely not because that'd be crazy!  Bond is a bar in the Langham Hotel that I had actually yet to visit.  Gasp! A bar in Boston Amy hasn't been to?!  Does such a place exist?!  Yes, rarely, they do.  Ratty and I had tried to go right when it first opened, about 2 years ago, but the line was so long we eventually gave up.  I like going to new bars, but I do not love being crammed in them.  

I got to the party so I went upstairs to peek at the space before getting in line, which I found really pretty with crystal chandeliers hanging from the ceiling and marble floors - you can definitely tell that the Langham is historic hotel, all the details are amazing.  The bar was already packed and I was utterly confused - there had to be a private room for the party, right?  Usually bars close down exclusively for Stuff at Night parties, so I was completely thrown that all the tables and bar stools were taken up by people not attending the party, who actually had NO idea that a bustling crowd of 20 somethings was about to bust into the place.  By the time all the guests were allowed upstairs the place was literally busting at the seams.  There were people at business dinners, couples out for romantical drinks, and here comes a nightlife magazine party with a house DJ.  I felt very uncomfortable, as I'm sure others did too.  I overheard the manager of the bar complain that they should have closed early, to make space for the party, but the owners wouldn't let them.  Sounds like poor planning to me, and as a former event planner, I'm breaking out in hives.

Ratty and I stuck around for a little bit, mainly until the sponsored drinks ran out and then we headed to another spot to grab a bite to eat.  This sounds like the most lackluster review of a party, huh?  I just didn't think it was that great or well planned.  I have a hard time attending mismanaged events because I'm constantly trying to fix them.  Heck, at a friends wedding I trumped the on-site coordinator and started the father/daughter dance because he just was naht cutting it.  Seriously, just another reason I should be in charge of everything.

62. February 14th, 2011 Picture.

Ratty and I had technically already celebrated Valentine's Day on the Saturday before, but we felt like we still needed to hang out on the actual day, so we made plans to meet after work at Citizen's Public House and Oyster Bar over by Fenway.  This is not to be confused with either the Publick House OR Island Creek Oyster Bar - try keeping them all straight.

I got there a few minutes before Ratty and grabbed a seat at the bar.  It was the first time I'd been there, so I looked around at the decor, lighting and furniture, taking it all in.  The place was dark, really dark, with a dark wood bar that ran the length of the place, dark leather booths and really delicate lighting.  The back wall was a chalkboard where they listed out all the different Whiskey's they had in house, apparently that's one of their attractions, though I'm not really all that into whiskey.  I'd been sitting in a chair, right at the entrance of the bar, when I noticed two spots at the extreme far end of the bar propped directly against the wall.  Thought those 2 seats would be much better, no one would be walking behind us and we'd have some privacy.  Once I got down there I realized that not only was it 2 private seats, it was a leather booth!  

Now tell me that is not the best seat in the entire restaurant.  It was hands down my favorite part.  I am not sure I'll ever be able to go there and NOT sit in that seat.  It's perfect.

Ratty showed up a few minutes later, and absolutely gushed about the booth/bar.  It was so great for people watching and who DOESN'T want to nose in on others dates on V-Day.  

View from our seats.  The lighting makes me think of 1800's schoolhouses.  Random?  Maybe.

I'd gotten Ratty a little V-Day gift, nothing huge, as we agreed to not really exchange presents.  I know he loved those popcorn bowls he gave Eddie, Christine, Cassie and Abigail for Christmas, so I picked up a few at Target, and included lots of candy. Just a little something I knew he'd like.

Since we were cozied up in our booth for a while, we went through bouts of ordering food.  We'd order one appetizer, wait a little bit, order something else, taking our time and enjoying our evening.  We started with cheese crostini drizzled with honey - they were AMAZING.  So simple yet really, really delicious.  I love cheese and honey together, it's so yummy.

Then we split their meatball appetizer.  I don't even know if I like meatballs all that much, but sometimes I get a craving for them, and these definitely hit the spot.  Look at all that cheese.  Drool.

Next up were some shrimp cocktail.  I can never pass it up, I just love it too much.  They were ridiculous large, cold and delicious.  I want some right this second actually.  You probably do too.

After our rounds of appetizers, that probably spanned 2 hours, I opted for their wedge salad.  I'd already eating a lot of food, so I wanted to keep it light.  Well as 'light' as you can get when a salad is topped with homemade bleu cheese dressing, bleu cheese crumbles and maple glazed bacon.  Dear Lord, it might have been the best wedge salad I've ever had.  It was out of this world.

The second I finished it, I was immediately sad.  I desperately wanted another one, but that would have been gross.  Delicious, but definitely, definitely gross.  So we ordered bread pudding instead.

Now, it wasn't as good as Eastern Standards', but I mean what is?!  The one at ES is simply the most amazing dessert on the planet, it's that simple.  I've blogged about it, so it's totally true.

But it obviously didn't stop us from absolutely demolishing the Citizen's version.

All in all we sat in that little leather half booth/bar table for 5 hours.  FIVE!  We chatted, watched awkward Valentine's Day dates from across the bar and ate LOTS of food.  Nice lil date night, huh?

62. February 13th, 2011 Picture.

My mom had a little Valentine's Day party on Sunday afternoon, as if we really need any reason to have a party, hello!  It didn't start until 2pm, so Ratty and I headed to a Starbucks near my mom's house so that we could each do a little work.  I sat diligently, trying to catch up on my blogs - something that I am still doing!  Sometimes it's just really nice to sit someplace different, at an actual table (instead of on a couch or bed, which is not really conducive to doing work).

I banged out a bunch of blog posts, which have all been posted, yet I am still behind, while Ratty worked on some professional endeavors.  I could work at Starbucks all the time, I'd be really productive.  I'd also probably be broke though as I'd want to do nothing but drink expensive lattes and eat yummy blueberry muffins all day.  Not that there's anything wrong with that.

After working for a few hours, we headed to my mom's house for a pizza party.  As usual the girls were absolutely adorable.

Abby didn't feel so hot, so she wanted to lie down.  Pretty creative way to block the light, if you ask me!  She must be pretty addicted to her sparkily eye shades!  Seriously though, how cute is she?

We also ordered a TON of pizza from Armando's, which is seriously the best pizza ever.   I'm pretty sure this is a good sampling - my favorite is pepperoni and eggplant.  Yum.  This looks like a ton of food, but there were a lot of people!  We take our pizza very seriously.  I'm sure we finished it all.  I'd be gushing about Armando's to Ratty for years, but he had yet to try it.  I just got really hungry.

We rounded out the night with cupcakes my mom had made.  I might have eaten 4.  They're really good!