Preludes And Nocturnes

I know. I’ve not blogged forever. I suck.

Anyhoo, enough of that. I’ve been a busy girl!

I arrived in TO on tuesday night after finally getting out of GODFORSAKEN LGA airport. So I got to find out that the thing with LGA is that there are too many planes for the number of gates and runways. This means we’re sitting at the gate, slowly thinking that it is time to board. Then past time to board. And the woman keeps looking down the walkway thing. Then she phones here and phones there. Then she finally announces that this gate has a broken plane blocking it so we have to find another gate.

So we wait.

And she finds one. But when we get there we have to wait for Jetblue or something like that to finish loading, sit there, sit there some more, and then pull away. Then our plane comes up, unloads, and we finally all get on there.

At this point a woman decides she needs go get back out to grab her one bag she left sitting in the waiting area. Lady, it is soooo not going to happen.

And we’re off!

To sit in line to take-off.

We were 9th in line.

It took us 35 minutes to finally take off.

I finally got myself out of customs and into the greater TO airport at 8pm. A full two hours later than I should have been there. Poor Laura had expected I’d be at her house by 7:30 at the latest. In a move that made Jim proud, I grabbed a cab direct rather than shuttling to downtown and cabbing from there. For future reference, this decision was iffy as the cab was stupid expensive as there is some bylaw crap that makes it a flat rate. Meh.

So I’ve had a busy time in TO. Had some time with laura, met up with Allison (Costello_girl), spent the day with Angela (Podgy), spent more time with laura and some of her friends, met up for the TOWD potluck with allison, grant, angela, fred, Kim (Nerdgirl), marc, laura, and Dene (Jadde). Much food and conversation goodness. Now is a bit of mellow time as Laura has a sore back so we’re watching Buffy episodes, reading, and pretty much taking it easy. I leave for Van tomorrow and look forward to seeing Julia and everyone there. I’m very excited about getting back to BC and getting back home the following week. I miss kitten-head and Ativan and Coral and Leone. Not to mention the rest of the crew (Cali and she who remains un-named and the grad office bunch). But not the girl who stares. I don’t miss her.

*sigh* but I certainly do miss Jim. I wish they’d hurry up and make those insta-transporters available to the public! Silly technology.

Kisses to all,
jenn

I know, I know. Jenn loves her lists. Really need one right now and figured it would be a bit of an insight as to what I’m up to right now.

• Phone Allison about getting to see her.
• Phone Laura about direction, plans, etc…
• Email Liz about any wedding plans (I don’t know that we really have any to speak of… we’re really just playing around with a whole lot of ideas on that right now. But she asked specifically.)
• Tidy Kitchen: unload and load dishwasher, tidy up.
• Swiffer and vacuum apartment
• Handwash delicates that have been sitting on bathroom floor for a week
• Read some stuff for Jim
• Watch another episode of Alias - and maybe email Dad that he’d really like that series
• Print directions to Laura’s house from airport
• Yoga
• Bath
• Email mom
• Make Lentil Salad for one part of dinner

Also to consider: play Sims2, start packing or at least gathering things together in some fashion, read some more of Blink, paint toenails, stare at ring.

And all the while: be preoccupied with excitement about seeing everyone in Toronto, sad about leaving Jim, excited about going to Vancouver, sad about leaving Toronto, excited about going home, worry about what to do with all my things when I move to NYC, worry a bit about Immigration and all that, maybe look at Monster.com yet again to try and find some job that can’t be taken as not done thesis and timeframe still unknown, wonder if really getting the best rewards possible with current MasterCard.

Welcome to my brain.

xoxo
jenn

side view!

From my chatting on the WD:

I actually spent most of yesterday either staring at pics of my ring on the computer - then followed by a squeak when I realised I also had it on my finger and I could stare at it there!

Jim was amused by me all day.

I’ve also realised that I can defeat evil like wonderwoman with my ring to counter their attacks! *holds fisted hand infront of face with ring pointing out and twists wrist while yelling BLING BLING!*

No evil can reach me!

(Will post more later *dance*)


We went and looked at engagement rings today. We narrowed it to three, and then two.

The are purty!

The one is a round diamond with a pretty band much like www.antiqueengagementrings.com page one, eighth one down. Not the same sized diamond (hello! I’m not that much of a pretty pretty princess) - but that is the style. The diamond really stands out and it is such a striking ring!

The second one is an interesting setting for the diamond where the stone is held in the brackets in such a way that it looks square. But it is actually round. (You can actually see some rings on that site that do this - in particular third page, sixth one down and the last one on that page. Not the same ring styles at all, but that is the vibe of how the diamond is held.) The one I’m considering is the “square” centre stone with *thinks* three diamonds on either side along the band. Compared to the first one it has a more contemporary or less classic feel with the square vibe on the diamond. This is great as I love the square cuts but they are not as sparkly as the radient cuts. Win win!

Is very very exciting!

I have to blog about 47th Ave (diamond district) and all that insanity. Quick story is that it is very intimidating as guys are standing on the street yelling “Diamonds! You want Diamond?? Buy them here! I Sell you DIAMONDS!!” as you try and walk along. I think “yeah, dude, this is going to make me come in your store??” [/rolleyes]

The two first stores on the street look like some mega-discount warehouse with windows up two stories, bright flashing lights, and a feeling like we should be buying a full set of bamboo rice steamers for dollar ninety-nine, and cheapola party streamers. Bargain Diamonds! in neon in the window.

*gah*

We almost lost our nerve. Then there were all these little hole in the wall type places with guys who look like the guys who show up as extras to the calls for “scuzzy dudes” - er, no diamonds from you thank you.

Then we start finding the “stall” shops. This is a big open area inside a building with all these booths. Fifty and upwards in each one. Couple floors. We wander through and the sales people at each individually rented booth are asking if we want anything - as we look at one stall dripping with diamonds, and the next with cheesy yucky garish gold baubbles and so on. Dear god! Why don’t we just head on down to Tiffany’s and pay double -but at least we’d know what we’re getting into??? It felt like a flea market for jewels. I pulled this one guy’s address out of my purse. The guy I had found online. I had seen his rings on the website. They were pretty. I had looked him up online - people said good things about him. I had though I just wanted to look around a bit - but now I wasn’t sure about all this.

“We’ll find him - see how that goes, and then we can leave if we want!”

We worked out a code phrase for “I want to leave NOW!” and headed into the address I had marked.

It took two passes around the specific ‘flea market’ to find my dude. The one from the internet. He smiled. He didn’t lean over and try and eat our faces - er sorry - I mean hard sell us a bunch of crap. He was a really really nice guy. We were there for about an hour and half. It was really really neat. We looked at rings, he talked about the different styles we were drawn to and suggested some other rings to look at and try. He then did something we wouldn’t have tried to even suggest - he pulled out a loose diamond for us to look at. He suggested this would go well in any of the setting we were considering. And as it was a diamond better than the ones in the rings already, we’re getting that one.

Is very interesting!

We went for a walk then and talked about the rings. We came back and looked at the three we were considering, asked our questions, and then realised we were starting to short circuit. We were able to narrow to two.. but beyond that we didn’t know. So tomorrow the dude is going to do something for us. He’s going to pull the centre stones from the two rings we’re considering, put the diamond in, and let us see! How cool is that?!

So we left to sleep on it (and go for a wonderful dinner at Gotham Bar and Grill - fancy pants restaurant despite the casual name… thank goodness Jim told me it wasn’t a jeans affair *wink*).

As well, we ended up walking over four miles today. Good exercise, good food, good diamonds… good day!

And I got Jim some new pretty placemats with napkins, some big candles for the dinner table, a very nice bottle of red wine, and a gift certificate for Amazon. He got me the “combo” valentines/birthday gift of the laptop and the special edition of the soundtrack to Amadeus.

I will post more in the next day. Is time for bed!

All engaged and all!

Pretty darned nifty, I tells ya. One thing at this point is the ring. Jim did not buy a ring beforehand. Wise wise boy. He knew how much excitement I’d get from picking it out myself. Thing is - and this makes me sad - my trip is really rather quickly wrapping up. I fly out in 12 days and we’re wanting to be able to take our time in finding a ring.

But with me going home - taking our time could mean MONTHS.

*ack*

Jim and I are going to go take a boo around a bit - but we’re also aware that some places send the rings out for any sizing. This could also push the time beyond what we have (even if we did find a ring on the first go).

I’m trying to be a big girl about the whole thing. Right now I’m wearing my Christmas ring and it is very very pretty. Mom suggested that Jim should learn to economize better and that I should just use that one. It is very pretty. And I love it.

Also, Jim is planning on coming up to visit me in Vancouver soon and we could certainly take a look around there.

In other news - so, a wedding. Or five. I really don’t think I want the white dress bit. I’m leaning more towards Miranda’s style for her wedding on Sex and the City. It was pretty. White poof has just never looked good on me. I want off the rack, baby. And maybe even discount. Ohhhh.. discount [/Homer]

I might pop down to Century 21 - discount designer. Again featured on Sex and the City. That would be cool.

Oh, and check out www.clay-pot.com

Very nice stuff. What else?

www.antiqueengagementrings.com

*sigh*

Is that what a whole bunch of them would be called? Should be!

So here’s a list of friend-activities of late. Always nice to note these.

The weekend before we went to Jim’s parents’ we had two friends over for dinner. *thinks* Friday January 15th, it was. Julia (JuliaPrime) and Peter (BostonWillowFan) arrived just after seven and we chit-chatted while Jim cooked dinner. He made Burmese curry with prawns and scallops, chinese hot pepper green beans with fermented black beans, and rice. Super amazing yummy [/drool]. Julia brought an assortment of Japanese sweets for us to all share after dinner - they were amazing! Very nice evening.

And after returning from Upstate, Jim and I had an evening on Julia’s side of the river. On tuesday, January 25th we took the Path train over (under) to Hoboken and met up with Julia to walk along the river and see the tip to top of Manhattan across the river. Then we went for dinner at Wolfgang Puck’s where Julia’s husband, Bob, joined us. We sat and ate and chatted for quite a bit before taking one last stroll along the river and then the Path train back to ‘our’ side.

That following friday night Jim’s friend Cindy and her new guy came over for dinner. Jim made Shrimp Scampi dish, tomato and zucchini thingy, and rice. Cindy brough pie and we also had mango sorbet. Another very nice evening of food and chatting.

This past monday night, Jim and I met up with Julia and Bob for Thai food (at a place on 8th) and all had a variety of dishes. Jim went for a shrimp and scallop hot dish, Julia for a Panang Avocado, Bob had spring rolls and a salad with thai sausage, and I had the classic Pad Thai. Sadly, I was not happy with my Pad Thai. It was too *meh* and somewhat greasy. But everyone else really enjoyed theirs - and Julia brough a special drink for me to try that is called Pozole (sp?) which is made from cornmeal and sweet. Reminded me of that perfect mix of cream of wheat with milk with brown sugar. But in a cup. SOOOO YUMMY!

After dinner Julia, Jim and I went to see Kinsey. I really enjoyed the movie. This was my and Jim’s first movie we’ve gone to together. Strange but true. We figured that out in the theatre. And spent a fair bit of time convinced it couldn’t be. But truth be known we’ve only just planned on going to the movies a whole lot. And then just gone with our netflix of the week. Who knew?

The following day we met up with Carey and Andrea (Jim’s friends) for lunch at Zen Palace up at Broadway and 76th (or so). Jim and I both had the Hot and Sour soup to start, Jim had these tasty sesamie meatless-thingy with brown rice and broccoli, Carey had Tofu Supreme (which was a chinese style dish also with brown rice and veggies) and Andrea had an eggplant dish also chinese style. Hers was very striking with two whole eggplants across the plate covered in this SUPER YUMMY tangy sauce and veggies. I went for a bit more low key with a veggie sandwhich and yam fries - but good god that sandwhich was amazing. So much so I’m actually getting hungry right now thinking about it. It was on a very good brown bread, with sprouts and tomatoes and shredded carrot and a meatless loaf of some kind - and some spread on it like hummus but slightly sweeter. And the fries were to die for. After lunch Jim and I walked over to the Museum of Natural History and spent about two and a half hours there. We only made it through half so we plan on going back again soon.

And now here we are - tomorrow Jim and I are going down to DC to visit with Steve and Liz and Ford. We’ll be there until monday. And based on the above, we will probably have lots of amazing food while visiting with friends. How lucky can we get!!