Our First Tannenbaum

Lindsay: Today we got our first Christmas tree!  After school, Christopher and I drove over to a place on Ridge Avenue and picked out a tree.  The people were really friendly and let me look at all of the trees so that I could pick out one that I like.  A few days ago, we went to WalMart and picked out some sparkly decorations including jingle bells, bows, balls, and  star with glitter, of course.  I made sure to bake some cookies and pick up egg nog for the tree decorating.  Chris wheeled the media cart into the living room and put on Rudolph for me which made me very happy. 

We couldn't make the top branch any shorter, unfortunately, so the star is tilted and it looks really funny. we had it up on the highest bow, but I couldn't get a picture of the whole tree with the star included that way.  It was hilarious.  By the way, Chris is amazing.  He managed to fix strands of Christmas lights to hang on the tree.  He's pretty handy. 

Christoper's B-day

restaurant week fall 08

DUCoM Does the Academy of the Sciences

Lindsay: This was another orientation event which was kind of neat.  DUCoM rented out the Academy of the Sciences and had lots of food, drinks, and dancing.  For me, it was another Quizzo team reunion which was fun, and a night of avoiding the REAL mummy the museum had on display.  I do recall riding a turtle of some sort and Chris took a picture on his camera because just like always, I forgot the camera and Chris didn't want to bring it anyway.

White Coat Ceremony

Battle in the Commonwealth: Phillies vs. Pirates

Lindsay: I enjoyed going to the Phillies game via big yellow school bus.  This was a special occasion: I ate chicken fingers.  Delicious.  We sat by ourselves until PJ and Katie, Chris' friend and his wife, showed up to the game.  I met his friend Kevin who was pretty funny.  After the game, we got on the bus and ordered pizza from Minguzzi's in Manayunk and had a late but delicious dinner.  

An Evening on the Moshulu

Lindsay: I really enjoyed the first week of medical school for Chris.  There were a couple of things that I was able to go to with him that I really enjoyed.  The first was called "An Evening on the Moshulu."  The Moshulu is a boat that hosts dinner parties and events.  It's anchored on the Philadelphia side of the Delaware River just north of the Ben Franklin Bridge.  We drove to Queen Lane and took shuttle busses to the Moshulu.  We arrived in style in our big yellow school busses and got on the boat.  Much to my surprise, the beer and wine was open bar and no one was carding.  So much for designated driving...

Throughout the night, I met a few new people and hung out with some of the summer Quizzo team.  I think that I was the only person on the boat who was not studying medicine or already a doctor.  Explaining that I was an undergraduate studying music was interesting.  

After the first two Coronas, a glass of wine and a Yuengling went down way too easily.  The DJ seemed to be playing all of my most favorite songs (I know what you're thinking), so I danced and got Chris to dance for just a little while.  

Unfortunately, there was no food to be heard of on this boat, and my liquor was hitting me hard.  We got back to Queen Lane on our way cool yellow school busses and neither of us were sober enough to drive.  We had to walk from Queen Lane to Christopher's apartment at 12:30. I take full responsibility since I was supposed to DD and definitely regret what I did.  After the mile and a half walk back to the apartment, my feet had never hurt so bad in my whole life.  I was wearing pointy-toed heels and actually walked a great deal of the trip barefooted.  I had blisters all over my feet.  Christopher wasn't too pleased, but I have to admit that I thought this was pretty hilarious.

Julie Andrews

Lindsay:

After writing all of these blogs, I'm noticing a pattern...Chris takes me to the best concerts.  A few months before this concert, Chris gave me a Philadelphia Metro listing all of the concerts at the Mann Center for the summer of 2008.  I picked out a bunch, but the one I wanted to go to was the Julie Andrews concert.  By the time Chris was able to get tickets, he had to pay a lot more than he thought he was going to at first.  I thought it was so kind of Chris to get the tickets for me anyway.  He really knew how much I wanted to see this concert.  

When Julie Andrews came out on stage, I was completely star struck.  She and the other performers sang several Rogers and Hammerstein tunes during the first half of the concert.  The second half of the performance was a World Premier of a mini-musical.  Julie Andrews was the narrator and the actors sang songs.  It's amazing to have Julie Andrews tell you a story.  I loved it.  At the end, she sang "My Funny Valentine" and "Edelweiss" which both made me cry.  I was so happy that I got to see her perform, but still a little sad that the songs had to be rearranged for her because she couldn't sing like she used to.  I loved every second of this concert!

Chris:

Hoping to repeat the Itzahak Perlmann magic, I told Lindsay to see if there was any concerts that she wanted to go see this summer.  Naturally, she never looked so after a month or so (and long after all the cheap student tics had sold out) I insisted that she pick one and she chose Julie Andrews.  At least I have heard of this one before...  The timing of the concert turned out to be perfect, falling on the one day of that week when I did not have an orientation event.  I am not the biggest fan of Julie Andrews (what with being under age 50 and male) but the show did turn out to be pretty entertaining and Andrews is in much better shape that I would have imagined.

*Note: I most certainly did check that Metro.  It sat on my desk in Chris' office with big stars and circles around the shows I wanted to see.  :)

Christopher's Dream Finally Comes True!

Chris:  It had been kind of a rough summer to this point, with my future completely up in the air and a job search not going particularly well.  At work that day, however, I got the phone call that I had been waiting for, and did a lot of celebrating.  I wanted to see Lindsay's reaction in person though, and I knew that she was coming over after work, so I specifically did not call to tell her.  Independent of that, me and my coworkers had been going to play quizzo at a bar in Manyunk on Wednesday nights, and we had been planning on all going out that night anyway, but that night was definitely more special.

Lindsay: 

Despite the fact that I usually don't talk to Chris during the day, I called him while he was at work to see if I should come to Philadelphia for Quizzo night and a voice lesson. I went to my grandmother's with Randi that day to hang out. It started to rain, so we went to Philadelphia earlier than we needed to. Chris' apartment had just been burglarized, and I really wasn't happy about being the the apartment, so I called to tell him that I would meet him at the Ugly Moose after my lesson. He told me through a text message (which he NEVER does) that he had a surprise for me. I bit the bullet and told Randi that we would just go to the apartment. In the car, I told Randi about what the surprises could be. Chris had told me he had a surprise for me several times over the summer, and it was usually flowers or something really nice that like. Each time, I was hoping more than anything that he would tell me he had gotten into medical school. That's the only surprise I wanted since February. We couldn't drive to the house fast enough.
DUCoM's Newest medical student and his friend, Z.

When I walked in the house, he told me that a friend, Z, was coming to Quizzo with us. Knowing that Z wasn't the surprise, I still said, "Is Z coming my surprise?" He said very calmly, "No. I wanted to tell you that I got into medical school." I started screaming and picked him up and twirled him around. And then I realized that he didn't tell me where! After asking, he said, "Drexel." DREXEL!!! I was so happy. Thinking about this still makes me smile!

Toronto trip