Friend-less in Philly

Alrighty. I'm going to be a little woe-is-me today.

So far, I love almost everything about Philly (sans the traffic, liquor laws, distance to Target, and the weather). As a girl who prefers small towns or suburbs to cities (I hated living in San Francisco), I'm shocked that I could enjoy a city as much as I have this one over the last 3 months. 

But one big problem with Joe's choice of school is that the class is full of recent college graduates. Being 29 (Joe) and 27 (me) make us among the oldest in any social setting. There is one student who is 35 and I think I may have heard rumors about one or two other people close to Joe's age.

Aside from that? The class is made up of people so young they don't know who McGruff The Crime Dog is.

Seriously. Joe made a joke and referenced McGruff and all he got were blank stares.

Look, I am not ageist at all. In fact, I love the idea of being "class mom" and baking cookies, giving advice, etc. for/to these whippersnappers. And, despite being younger than us, everyone I've met in Joe's class is super sweet and welcoming. They are such an amazing group of people and I feel blessed that Joe will be surrounded by them for the next 4 years.

The only reason I am so bummed about the age of the students in his class (aside from the references they don't get... poor McGruff) is because that means very few (as in maybe just one?) of them are married. I've been reading blogs of other dental school wives and it seems like they have this cute little network of other women whose husbands are going through the same thing.

I'm already getting lonely, and know it's about to get much, much worse. I need friends, and just don't have them yet (unless you count the 4 & 5 year-olds I nanny). I always assumed that I'd meet wives/fiancees/gf's of dental students and that would be the way I made my Philly friends.

I am starting to think I need a plan B.

So what is your advice? How do adult women make friends?

I can't count on making work friends because I may have to continue nannying with the way the job market is in Philly. Even if I do eventually find an office job, who says there will be people my age or that they will even WANT to make a new friend?

Do I just accept the fact that Buster is going to be my Philly BFF?

While I love him to pieces, he's not interested in eating ice cream and watching Sex & the City

Movie Review: You're Next

It's been over a month since my first movie review (shame on me!), so I figured that while Joe studied this weekend I would hit up the theater and check out You're Next.

Yes, I realize I've done two reviews and both have been about scary movies, but I warned ya'll in advance. I love this genre. Slashers, especially, hold a special place in my heart because I wrote my college thesis on them.

Yup! You read that right.

Thanks to the flexibility of being a Communications major, my thesis was on gender portrayal in slasher films. Although the most obvious approach would be to analyze the portrayal of women in these movies, I went a different route and looked at how male characters are handled. I think I proved that slashers suck for all characters involved, not just females. (And, if anything, men are actually treated worse. Don't believe me? I'll e-mail you a copy of my paper.)

It's been a while since I've seen a good slasher film, so I was eager to see You're Next; especially since it's gotten generally positive reviews. Here's mine:

You're Next 
7 stars out of 10

You're Next - it's basically Home Alone remade with more violence, a high body count, extra bad guys, and boobs. Oh! And Kevin is now played by a chick with an Australian accent. Sorry Macaulay.

The movie begins with a family gathering at their secluded vacation home for an anniversary celebration. Despite the trailer leading you to believe they are all one, big, happy family - they aren't. (Heck, there's more discord than when the McCallisters were getting ready for their trip to Paris.)

Things don't improve at the dinner table. As a fight over the appropriateness of a professor banging his TA erupts, one member of the group notices something outside the window and decides to investigate.

Oops, wrong choice buddy. This IS a slasher movie after all.

After death #1, the rest of the family finds themselves being hunted by men in animal masks. While the odds seem stacked against them, they do have one person in the house who seems to know a thing or two about fighting back...

I had a really hard time deciding on a score for this movie and finally landed on 7 out of 10. It was well done in a lot of ways - the acting was solid (for a horror movie), the deaths generally creative, there were a few laughs, and I was surprised by a couple twists of the plot. I am glad I saw it.

That said, it's not a movie that I will probably watch again and I wish I had waited to rent it from Redbox (actually, if I had watched this at home by myself with the lights out, I probably would have liked it more). I think my biggest issue is that I didn't feel invested AT ALL in the characters. In fact, my only feelings toward most of them were varying degrees of dislike. When someone dies in a horror movie, usually I feel something. I didn't in this one. I'd say I am becoming desensitized, but other scary movies recently haven't elicited this non-response.

I do have to admit it got me somewhat scared. When I came home I had to get our laundry out of the dryer. Problem is, the dryer is in the basement and you have to go through this spooky door to get to it:

Let's just say no one has ever run in and out of a basement so quick without dropping a single sock ;)

Christmas Date

Another week, another date from our date jars!

This week we figured we had time for a yellow date. Joe reached in and pulled out another one I was excited about: Christmas night! The idea was that we'd take some of our favorite parts of Christmas and enjoy them - the music, cookies, food, movies, etc. I wanted to buy ugly sweaters from a thrift store, but I worked 50+ hours this week and didn't have the time to shop (let alone wash them). Instead, we settled on wearing red and green.

***Side Note*** After last week's Scattergories date and this week's Christmas date, I hope Joe doesn't get a dud next week. We are definitely starting off with some of the really fun ones. ***End of Side Note***

We started our date by grocery and Christmas present shopping. This ended up taking FOR-EV-ER, but Joe made the point that it was fitting since shopping around Christmastime is always a headache. That's my cup-half-full hubby for ya :)

I didn't originally plan that we'd exchange gifts, but COME ON - it wouldn't have felt like Christmas without presents. Since we are being careful with money, we decided to go to Dollar Tree and buy 3 or 4 things for the other person. It was a blast hunting through the store trying to avoid each other. Honestly, I'd consider doing something similar for our real Christmas gifts this year.

When we got home, I immediately turned on a Pandora Christmas station and started baking. Growing up, spritz cookies were a staple in our house around the holidays, so they were the obvious choice:

Please excuse the filthy kitchen. I am a messy cook.

While I was baking, Joe wrapped his presents for me and surprised me by creating a "fire" out of tissue paper and a fan. (We have Vornado fans which are designed to work sitting on their backs or upright.) I absolutely loved it! We don't have a fireplace, and celebrating by a fire feels so Christmassy to me.

Dinner was absolutely delicious. In my family, we celebrate Christmas with risotto (we're Italian). Since Joe was disappointed we did ribs instead of risotto for our "R" Scattergories date last week, it was the perfect main course.

Joe made the risotto, and I made the green beans. Being the disaster in the kitchen that I am, I royally screwed up and they turned out looking more like over-cooked asparagus. (The recipe called for simmering the green beans for 25 minutes after having cooked them for a short time on medium heat. I never turned the heat down. Oops.)

Nevertheless, the green beans were DELICIOUS and I can't wait to try them again so I can see what they taste like when not cooked to mush. Here's the recipe in case you are interested. Oh - and now that I am looking at it again I realized I never added the herbs or the pepper. I really need cooking lessons haha.

After dinner, it was time for presents!

The first present Joe opened were these toothbrushes that don't need toothpaste or water. Perfect for his backpack or glove compartment.

My first present was a pack of hair ties. I am always running out even though I've probably bought a million.

Buster even liked them. (Actually, he likes anything from Dollar Tree. Must be the smell. Weird dog haha).

Joe's next gift was a head massager. I knew he'd like it, but he pretty much lost his S.

I even got an, "I've always wanted one of these!" and "Dollar for dollar this might be the best gift I've ever gotten!" out of him. For $1, not too shabby ;)

He was doing this the rest of the night. Seriously.

My next gift was a sweet snapband kit. You can see that I am pretty pumped. We had just talked about liking snapbands as kids (those bands you hit against your wrist that close into a bracelet) and this kit came with some fun sequins. I'm totes going to bling this thing out!

And do you see the blur from Buster's tail wagging? He was also very excited.

Next, Joe opened a flick football set. I figured he could have it on his desk and play with it when he was studying. He was excited, and said he'll flick a field goal when he makes a breakthrough.

My final present was a movie with John Stamos in it. Haven't heard of it before, but I'll watch anything with Mr. Stamos. Anything. If he was paint drying on a wall, I'd watch and proclaim, "Have mercy!"
 

I wondered how they could sell DVDs for $1, and then noticed this sticker on the back:

Is there a ghost in this picture? WTH is that green orb???

Gotta love the phrasing ;) I'd say they were being pretty assumptive with the "enjoyed" part, but let's be real. It has John Stamos in it. I am sure it was thoroughly enjoyed.

Joe's final gift was a puzzle. I am always looking for puzzles that look fun, and so many are of stupid things and are really terrible pictures. Example: chances are I probably don't want to do a puzzle of a lighthouse. But if said lighthouse was a particularly awesome image (or had John Stamos peeking out of the window), then it would be worth buying. But no. It's a totally amateur shot of a particularly boring lighthouse on a hill with dead grass and no water visible.

***Side Note*** Disney puzzles are the exception. There's no such thing as a bad Disney puzzle. But unfortunately those usually have about 50 pieces. ***End of Side Note***

So when I found a football stadium puzzle, I felt like I hit the jackpot. Joe loves football and it should be pretty tough to do with the crowd and sky.

After presents, we watched Jingle All The Way and then three Christmas episodes of Full House. I was always under the impression that sitcoms ALWAYS have a holiday episode every year, but when trying to find Christmas episodes of shows we like, I realized that they rarely do more than a couple. During the 8 seasons of Full House, for example, they only had 3 Christmas shows. There was such a large break between the first and the second that Becky and Jesse had their first kiss in the first. By the second? Nicky and Alex were about 2.

Also, DJ was dating Steve. Ahhh, Steve. I had such a crush on him.

***Side Note*** On the topic of Steve, I told the girls I nanny that Steve is the same person who voiced Aladdin and it blew their minds. Then I told them that the actresses who play Michelle are 6 months younger than me and their minds were further blown. See parents? That's the type of education I can provide for your children ;) ***End of Side Note***

We never got to the egg nog we planned to make from scratch, because we both passed out fell asleep on the couch. Maybe we can do our make-up rummy game from last week's date while drinking egg nog.

I guess making it through 100% of our date next week is a good goal ;) Can't wait to see what we will be doing!

Pics from Joe's White Coat

So I've finally pushed through my laziness and uploaded pictures from Monday's white coat :)

Obligatory back to school pic

Announcing himself!

Shaking hands with the Dean

Proud mama

Happy couple :)

Mom and son

The three of us

I also mentioned that Joe got a super special gift in honor of his white coat ceremony.

A few months ago, I read a post on my favorite fellow dental school wife's blog. Ariel at Love Like Enamel (AWESOME name, BTW) had an idea to give her husband a journal with letters of encouragement/advice for him to read when dental school got rough. 

I LOVED the idea, and immediately e-mailed a bunch of family and friends and asked them to submit letters, photos, quotes, etc. so I could create a scrapbook of encouragement for Joe. I figured the best time to give him the scrapbook would be on the night of his white coat. 

Boy oh boy was putting that scrapbook together TOUGH. Since Joe wasn't in school, it was nearly impossible to carve out time to work on it without arousing suspicion. A couple times I rented horror movies and said I was going to watch them in our room (knowing full well he wouldn't step foot in the room since he hates them so much). Besides that, I just took advantage of any time he needed to run a quick errand and made some excuse as to why I couldn't come (headache, cramps, didn't want to crate Buster) and then would whip out the supplies.

I actually used the date night jars as an excuse toward the end. Knowing that I was going to give him two homemade gifts before school, I figured I'd tell him I was making him a surprise. That way, I didn't have to come up with creative ways to get myself alone. While I hated sacrificing the surprise of the jars (the jars themselves were secret, the fact he was getting something wasn't), it was worth it to keep the scrapbook secret.

He loved it :)

Thanks to all who sent contributions :)

 

My New Normal

This picture is going to be my new normal for the foreseeable future. Feeling particularly clingy to my husband last week (knowing his time with nothing to do but hang out with me was coming to a close real quick), I joked that I'd have to camp out in his office when he studies so at least we'd be in the same room together.

He got so excited, I didn't have the heart to tell him I was kidding.

It's actually not a bad idea. If I am reading or blogging or even watching Netflix on my computer (with headphones), why NOT physically be in the same room as Joe. Maybe it will help keep us from feeling distant. Heck, I got everything I need: my hubby, my pup resting between my legs, and my lap top. He's even playing Italian music tonight - the music of my people - to welcome me to his office ;)

White Coat Ceremony

It's official! Joe not only had his first day of class yesterday, but he is a coated dental student! After years of working toward this goal, the day finally arrived. I couldn't be prouder :)

***Side Note*** For those curious about our path to dental school, click on the "Our Dental School Journey" tab above ***End of Side Note***

I have pics from yesterday, but took them on my fancy camera and didn't have time to upload them before I left for work this morning. I promise to post them in the coming days. 

Right now, I'm posting this from my phone as the girls sleep. I pray they sleep in late this morning, I don't know the last time I was so tired. Between the early hours for this job and the late hours with orientation events, I've been getting about 5 hours of sleep a night (6 if I am lucky). Some people can survive on that; I am not one of those people. I need a solid 8 hours ideally (or 7 hours if all you care is that I am moderately pleasant). Anything less? Beware.

The good news is that yesterday was far and away the best day of nannying yet. The girls were AWESOME and I felt like I am finally in a groove and have established my authority. I'm wanting children of my own again haha.

Anyways, back to dental stuff.

Joe's mom flew in Sunday night so she could attend the ceremony, and I am so glad she did. Some people aren't lucky with mother-in-laws, but I hit the jackpot. I love having her around and Joe (of course!) loved having his mom at such an important event. Unfortunately, work and school meant she spent more time with Buster than us. The upside of that is she was bored and taught him how to high five; it is one of the cutest things I've ever seen. 

The ceremony was really nice, and I definitely got choked up a few times. Luckily, trying to take pictures distracted me enough that I wasn't a blubbering mess. The stage lighting was awful, and I had a hard time getting good pics (as you'll soon see). 

***Side Note*** Speaking of, it's high time I practiced some of the camera skills I learned in my photography lessons. Once my lessons finished I was back to using the auto-mode 100% of the time (lazy, lazy me). ***End of Side Note***

After the ceremony, we went to dinner and then headed home for some wine and Joe's super special white coat present.

"What present?" You ask?

You'll have to wait until tomorrow. I am hearing the pitter-patter of little feet... 

Here's hoping it's just their cat. ;)

Scattergories Date

We officially did our first date jar date night!

Last Sunday, Joe drew from the yellow jar, assuming that we'd have time this weekend but not TOO much time since his mom is coming tonight and we needed to do some deep cleaning.

He drew the Scattergories date - which I was really excited about:

Here's how the date worked. Yesterday afternoon, Joe rolled a Scattergories die to determine what letter dictated our night.

He rolled an "R" and we both breathed a sigh of relief, since we feared a much more difficult letter. Then, we set the timer and each tried to come up with date night plans starting with "R." You can see the categories and our answers in the picture below (good luck reading Joe's doctor writing lol).

After comparing answers and coming up with a few *better* ideas (okay, fine, we cheated a little), this was our date night plan:

Clothing - Red
Main Course - Ribs
Side Dish - Rolls and Roasted Potatoes (I realize now we could have said roasted anything... haha)
Dessert - Reese's Ice Cream
Drink - Root Beer
Music - Rock N Roll
Movie - Robin Hood - Men in Tights
Activity - Rummy
Alcoholic Drink - Red Wine

We decked ourselves out in our finest red clothes (red PJs for me and a red shirt for Joe) and enjoyed our movie and dinner.

Unfortunately, after a few glasses of red wine we decided we were too tired to play rummy and listen to rock n roll, so sometimes this week we'll be playing :)

Joe just pulled this week's date and I'm really excited because it's Christmas night! Christmas movies, Christmas cookies, and ugly sweaters. Stay tuned for details of the night itself :)