First off, let me start by admitting that keeping a secret is SOOOOOOOOO hard. Last Wednesday was Teh MD-AR's birthday and after getting approval from Teh German, I set about the task of coordinating a trip to Raleigh with Teh MD-AR's sister to surprise Teh MD-AR, since that's where she would be. I couldn't even post about it on Teh Blog because Teh MD-AR reads the blog. Also, I'm the worst at keeping secrets. I get so excited and I almost told her so many times, "I'm going to see you soon!!!" It was rough, but totally worth it. Also, yay for bossy sisters to help me make surprises happen!
FRIDAY
I skipped my run on Friday morning and snuggled with Meri instead. I got up headed off to work. By 1:30, I was outie. I dropped off the drawer pulls to Coworker and socialized for a bit, actively avoiding the heat. Eventually, I headed out towards Moncks Corner on Mike to get the house tax stuff straightened out. If you don't file a form, SC will charge you the 6% tax rate as if the house is a secondary residence instead of the 4% tax for a primary residence. It was as simple as filling out the form and having the correct forms of ID, so not a big deal. The real problem is that the tax office is 20 minutes from House.. and 45 minutes from work, so definitely NOT convenient.
 |
I got to see our bench in progress since I dropped off the pulls.
IZZZZZ SOOO PREEETTTTTAAAYYYY!!! |
After that, I headed home to wait on Teh German to come home. I laid down and took a nap because I have been unreasonably exhausted lately. After Teh German suggested it may be because it is the end of the month (so almost girl time), I check the calendar and confirmed that he may be correct. Have I mentioned he's the best boyfriend ever? He keeps up with that shiznit.
After getting the dogs fed and messing around on the internet, we headed to Willie Jewell's for dinner and then to the park for Zootopia. While we waited on the movie to start, we watched kids pop bubbles that some kids beside us were blowing. It was pretty adorable.
The movie was very cute, buttttttttttt I'd like to rewatch it and actually get to hear the entire movie. The last 30-45 minutes of the movie, the sound kept going out. I was so frustrated that I asked to leave, but Teh German wanted to finish the movie. I realized that I didn't want to be the person packing up my stuff while others were still watching the movie, so I suffered through it. Although finally about 10 minutes from the end, Teh German was also willing to leave because the sound was cutting out during the critical parts. When we left, I checked the FB event page and they had already apologized for the sound issues, saying there was a short in the cable. The other issue was the lady who came in right at movie time and sat too close to me. She was actually closer to me than Teh German was. #nomegusta #getoutofmybubble
After the movie, we headed home, released the hounds, and headed to bed shortly after since we had an early morning planned.
SATURDAY
Teh German had committed to running with me on Saturday morning earlier in the week and despite my sleeping in and our lack of motivation, we got up and powered out 6 miles!
 |
| photographic evidence he ran with me! |
 |
| ^^no fucks to give about modesty. |
We got started a little later than I wanted to, which was my own fault for not getting my ass in gear when the alarm went off. It ended up being ok, but jebus it was humid. The heat wasn't so bad, but the humidity had me dripping most unsexily. I almost considered taking my shirt off, but didn't want to have to carry it. But seriously, I can tell the day is coming.. soon, very soon. Unless this "summer" shit stops, which isn't likely since this is Charleston.
I think Teh German was a little surprised by my lack of concern, and I explained that it's too fucking hot to care about what people think about my jiggly bits. It would be different if I was sitting on the couch, bitching that it was hot and exposing all my goods. But I'm outside working on my jiggly bits and I shouldn't feel bad about that nor should I give myself a heat injury because I'm worried about showing passers-by my bra. AAAANNNNDDD, we passed another lady running in her skimpy shorts and sports bra (with mostly no boobs), so I had zero remorse. He said something about me showing off my boobs (jokingly) and I reminded him that it was no different than normal and he agreed.
After we got home and showered, we packed a bag and I packed the dog's stuffs and we loaded up the car and headed towards "the dog park", aka Raleigh, where Teh MD-AR was staying with her sister. We were about halfway there when Teh MD-AR called me to ask my opinion on a dog situation and my brain was going crazy and I was afraid she was going to ruin her own surprise if she said that she was leaving Raleigh early to go take care of the situation at home. I was mentally screaming at myself, "DO NOT SAY, 'SEE YOU IN A BIT,' when you end this call. DO NOT DO IT, MEGAN." I safely got off the phone without Teh MD-AR even asking me if I was driving. WHEW.
Teh German asked me after the fact what I would have said if she asked what I was doing and I had 3 answers, "Going to the store for ____," "the dog park," or ignore the question and change the subject. The dog park was an accurate answer, because we had planned to be at the dog park when Teh MD-AR and Sister came outside to let Josie dog outside.
Teh German and I switched drivers so I could drive through Raleigh since I was more familiar with the roads. We made it around 2 and the plan was to spend the rest of the day hanging out. Teh MD-AR couldn't figure out why we were in the parking lot with the dogs when they came outside. She thought we were just passing through Raleigh for a little bit. Nope, I was happy to correct her. We were there for the rest of the day and we had an Airbnb to stay at for the night and we'd leave on Sunday morning. It was awesome to be able to do that.
After an hour or so of socializing, we contained the dogs and headed to a bowling alley at North Hills. There was a wait, so we took our pager across the street to World of Beer to pass the time. After a few drinks, we were paged and we headed back to the alley to get our bowling on.
There was a bar (and grill, less important) at the bowling alley, so we all ordered drinks. Yeah, I got a little tipsy at 4 in the afternoon. #notsorry Also, please don't be impressed by my score. I was the only one that used bumpers because I have zero
life bowling skills. Also, my fingernails are quite long right now and that makes bowling fairly hazardous. Add to this hazard that balls that weigh less than 8 pounds usually have small to xsmall holes.. yeah. I'm lucky I didn't rip any fingernails off.
After bowling, we headed back to the apartment to feed the dogs dinner. Then we headed back out to drop off our stuff at the Airbnb place and grab dinner. There were some minor difficulties getting in because I can't read, but eventually we got in and dropped off our stuff. Despite my Yelp research during the week, I hadn't been able to find anything with super great reviews that was alluring. Actually being downtown and pulling up the Yelp app yielded far better results. I suggested a "German" place call J Betskis and everyone said that would be fine. I directed us there and we were extremely happy with my dinner suggestion.
I don't remember what everything was, but the top left was housemade kielbsa, which we are HUGE fans of and it was totally worth it. The bottom left is the pork shoulder that Teh German and I shared, and the bottom right is the lemony crepe dessert Teh MD-AR and I shared. It was pretty good, but I should have went with the chocolate hazelnut tort like the waiter suggested.
After dinner, we headed back to the apartment to pick up the pups. With sad goodbyes, we headed out and towards the Airbnb place we were staying. The room was perfectly acceptable. The house was older, but we had a room big enough for us and the dogs without tripping over each other and our bathroom was attached to our room, which meant we didn't have to leave our space. There was also a small fenced in area behind the house where I closed the gates (no latches) and stood guard at the one that wouldn't close all the way and let the dogs roam around. The only issue we had was that Meri kept alerting us to Stranger Danger when she woke up and started barking because she detected intruders (the residents of the house). This happened 2 different times and Teh German was quite irritated with her. I tried to calm her down, but she wasn't really having it.
SUNDAY
Eventually, Meri settled and we woke up around 730. We decided just to go ahead and get up and go tour NC State campus.
Saturday evening, I had made plans with Teh Advising Sister to for
brunch at 10. I fed the dogs and took them out for business while Teh
German showered, then I got ready and we headed out. We didn't even see
the house residents, which was ok.
We toured Centennial campus first, a
place where I rarely ever went since I had no classes there. There is a
new library there and it is an architectural wonder. So pretty. Over
and over I kept repeating, I'm so glad my tuition dollars went to such
pretty buildings. Also, the new library isn't brick, which makes it a
unicorn on NC State's campus. After we walked around, both dogs left
plenty of pee-mail, I drove Teh German by the Veterinary part of campus
to look at the cows (which weren't out, but he did find the barns) and
by the Hurricane's arena, then we headed to Tupleo Honey Cafe for
brunch.
We had to sit outside because the dogs, but after their
stressful night and the brisk walk around Centennial, they settled
pretty easily. We had brought a blanket from the car for Meri and Phil to lay on and we had their water bowl that we kept full for them. Teh Advising Sister arrived and we ordered noms. While we were waiting on our food, some children (and their dad) came to our table and asked to pet the dogs. Meri and Phil were both pretty hot and a little bit stressed out, but they did fine with the kids. Phil didn't even bother to move. After the dad apologized for interrupting our breakfast, they went back inside to their table. Our food arrived and we were all silent as we scarfed down our breakfasts.
Teh Advising Sister agreed to go tour central campus with us after we ate, so after we paid, we headed back to NC State. We went inside the new student center, so fancy, much good air condition! We showed Teh German the Free Expression Tunnel (where graffiti is allowed), I saw the rubble that was Harrelson Hall (a round, non-brick building that was in the center of campus) since it was recently torn down, I showed Teh German the echo seats, then we walked back to the car to drive to the Bell Tower so we didn't have to walk there and all the way back. It was getting pretty hot and everyone was starting to get miserable except for me who was living it up in a super sweaty nostalgic way. We drove to the parking area by the Bell Tower because I wanted to get some photos of Teh Ville in front of the tower. This was mostly unsuccessful because the dogs refused to cooperate and Teh German was miserable and it just wasn't working out. Teh Advising Sister got a few shots and then she went on her way. I drove down to the Court of Carolina because we were right there. I explained to Teh German that there were more than a few times that I'd skip class on a nice day to sit out on the Court of Carolina just to enjoy the sunshine.
 |
I had Teh German sit in the square looking thing, and I sat in the one across from him,
and I told him I loved him. It was cute and shit. |
 |
The only thing that was under construction while we were at NCSU.
Now it might be the only thing NOT under construction. |
 |
The heart of the brickyard, and maybe even of campus, is gone.
It's just weird to me. |
 |
NCSU Bell Tower
GO PACK! |
 |
| College Teh Megan was super cool skipping class. |
Photos taken, we headed back towards Charleston. I ended up driving the entire way because after we got into SC, I found someone else who wanted to go fast and we made shit happen. I sadly had to part from them when we got onto 26, but I was kept awake by the idiot drivers headed to Charleston and the rain.
 |
| Into our development. |
In that bottom photo, what you can't see is the 3 men wading through thigh deep water. They were removing the sand bag barriers to the drains so the street would stop flooding. Within 15 minutes of being home, the entire street was drained properly and there was no more standing water that I could see from our front porch.
After getting the car unloaded and the laundry started, Teh German and I decided to watch a movie. We ended up deciding on
The Butler since I hadn't seen it and it had been on my to-watch list for a while. Despite being "based on a true" story, some research indicated "loosely-based" is more accurate. Nonetheless, the movie was very good. The actors who played the presidents had some of the best characterizations I had ever seen any of them do. I even cried a bit because humans are so cruel.
I did have Teh German pause the movie a little past halfway through so I could feed the beasts and warm up some leftovers for us for dinner. We had our first dinner on the couch watching the movie. After the movie ended, we did our chores and headed to bed early, like the old people we've embraced ourselves to be.
What were Phil and Meri doing the entire evening? Re-charching. Movement was an unnecessary energy expenditure.
_______________________________________
Overall, another amazing weekend. It was awesome to be able to surprise Teh MD-AR just because. It was also awesome getting to see Teh Advising Sister and getting to show Teh German NC State. Even the rain when we came home was appreciated since it meant I didn't have to water the flowers.
Phil and Meri were so exhausted they barely moved once we started the journey back to Charleston and they were even slow going this morning (as was I). I was a little worried that I may have over-did it with Phil and he was so still this morning I checked him for life. I've done this under normal circumstances, but he was pretty disgruntled with me yesterday, so I felt better feeling his chest rise and fall.
This week and weekend hold very little planned activities. I'm planning on taking this weekend to rest up for our trip to NC the first weekend of August. Teh German will be doing some riding (without me being his throttle) and I'll be shooting a wedding with Teh WJL.
Oh yeah, and an updated photo on Baby Reapy(s):
 |
| So many bebbies! |
