gingerbread houses

Christmas Present #1: Peter Nero and the Philly Pops

Lindsay:

Chris and I got all dolled up to go out on the town for a night of fun.  First, Chris took me to a really nice restaurant that he wanted to go to across the street from the Kimmel Center.  Before we got there, we stopped at CVS for a disposable camera.  Unfortunately, those pictures have never been developed.  After a really nice dinner, we went across the street to the Kimmel Center.  I enjoyed this concert more than any other concert I had ever been to.  There was a phenomenal gospel choir, and when they sang the Hallelujah Chorus after the gospel music, one of the members continued to snap his hand over the choir loft which I thought was pretty amusing.  After the concert, we explored the Kimmel Center.  We discovered a big room with lots of plants and an awesome view of Philadelphia high up above the actual auditorium.  The echo of voices from far below us sounded really cool.  It took about 10 minutes for anyone else to make it up to the garden room with us.  

Chris:

after my final exam, I figured it was time to stop neglecting my girlfriend, so we went out for dinner and the pops.  Soto Varalles restaurant on Broad street was reasonably priced for its lvel of class and had special seatings for Kimmel center patrons so we went there first and had a very nice dinner.  For the concert, we had fantastic seats, front and center on the balcony.  It was a very uplifting and cheerful concert, with a wide range of musical styles and audience participation.  We both had a good time, so this one will probably become a tradition

Christmas at Longwood

Lindsay: A word to the wise: Never go to Longwood Gardens in December without a winter jacket.  I loved this trip, but oh man, did I freeze.  Chris and I went to Longwood Gardens to check out their Christmas display.  We walked around in the brightly lit gardens for hours in the dark. The display was really cool because there were so many Christmas lights.  There is a very famous organ at Longwood Gardens, and the man who plays it ever year at Christmas time played and the audience sang Christmas carols.  I loved this so much.  We also saw an ice skating show which was kind of corny, but still fun to watch.

On the way home, Chris and I tried to stop for dinner at a Japanese restaurant, but everything on the menu looked absolutely disgusting so we left.  It was pretty funny.  I know, we're classy.  I remember stopping at Target because I wanted to get a frame for a present I made Christopher. It was a collage with a whole bunch of ticket stubs and maps from places we had been.  I can't tell you if we actually found something to eat on the way home, but I'm entirely sure that we did not starve.  This was a great trip and I hope we do it again.

Vermont trip

Smashing Looking Pumpkins

Lindsay:  To be honest, I don't remember too much about this one.  Christopher, Jenny, and I were digging the insides out of our pumpkins at the kitchen table at my house.  My sister and Christopher wound up chucking hunks of pumpkin at each other, and Christopher was yelled at by my mother for hitting the freshly painted wall with pumpkin that missed my sister.  We also baked the pumpkin seeds.  I'm sure Chris will have more to say about this one!

late season Baseball

phillies v mets

orioles v yankees

college day on the parkway

Museums

Restaurant Week: Fall '07

This was a really neat thing that Chris told me about.  We went to La Famiglia which was the only restaurant in participating in restaurant week that had an entree that could be made into a vegetarian dish.  Chris picked me up at my house (I was living in North Philly at the time) and we headed downtown to La Famiglia where we both had meals we really enjoyed.  Afterwards, we walked over to Penn's Landing and walked around for a little while before we went home.  It was really a beautiful night between the delicious dinner and weather down by the water.

161st and River Avenue never seemed so far away...

Lindsay: About a month into having mono, I somehow convinced my mother that I would be well enough to go to a Yankee game in mid-August.  I went on Ebay one evening and found 2 seats in the bleachers whose price couldn't be beat.  After some begging, my mother agreed to purchase the tickets for me on her account.  

Chris and I took the train to the city, and then hopped on the subway for the 130 block ride north to THE Stadium.  For some reason, I completely forgot that I would have to battle several flights of stairs before actually making it above ground.  It took me a long time to get up those stairs.  I did about five at a time and then stopped because I was still very dizzy and pretty sick.  Oops.

We got to the game, and it was the sunniest 3 hours of my entire life.  The sun set right in our faces from the hours of 4-7 as the Yankees played against the Detroit Tigers.  It wasn't the most exciting game, but the Yankees did win. 

The best part about this trip was a vendor working in the bleachers who I will never forget.  He was homosexual and had probably been smoking cigarettes since his fourth birthday.  In a voice that I can almost reproduce, he shouted "LEMON ICE!!!" throughout the bleachers.  The bleacher creatures thought this was hilarious, and a few people made fun of him.  Lemon Ice Man heard them and yelled at them...calling them FOOLS.  It was hilarious.

Afterward, we took the subway from the Bronx back to Midtown Manhattan.  We had some dinner and fooled around at the Virgin Records store.  I picked up a Green Day and a Lil' John and the East Side Boys album for dirt cheap, and Chris tried out a new look and even met Spongebob!

Lindsays great disease

Family time: LBI and "Meet the Parents"

Lindsay:  Despite being really sick for the majority of my family's vacation on Long Beach Island, Chris and I still managed to have a pretty good time.  I stayed at the beach for the whole week with my family and waited for Chris to come back on the weekend.  We spent the weekend in LBI and hung out with some of my other friends that weekend, too.  We had some fun going to The Showplace for ice cream.  As you can see, Chris was pretty excited about having both ice cream and a show.

 Everyone was really hungry, but we went to have ice cream before we went to dinner.  I think that this mix up in the schedule made Chris a little silly...

After going to dinner, my friends, Chris, and I walked around LBI for a while.  We had some margaritas mixed by my mother, the bartender.  We walked around outside on the beach and visited Miles, my stepfather, who was fishing outside.  People were setting off fireworks and having a good time.Chris and I stayed until Monday, and I went back to Philadelphia with him to meet his parents for the first time.  Chris had never actually told his parents that he had a girlfriend!  (I did find out more than a year later that his mother suspected he had a woman when she got an email from Chris where he talked about walking on the beach.)  Chris' parents were very nice.  They treated us to a dinner at the hotel they were staying at in Fort Washington, but I was afraid that I didn't make a very good impression on them since I was feeling so sick from having (what I later found out to be) mono.  I can't even imagine how I must have looked!

Chris:  I had never herad of LBI before this, but it was hard to pass up several weekends of partying on the beach.  The first weekend that I went down there, we hung around, and I got the worst sun burn of my life...For the next week at work, I had to wonder  around the office because it was uncomfortable to sit in a chair...The next weekend with all Lindsay's friends was lots of fun as well, with a lot less sunbathing and a lot more random family restaurants in Jersey.  This was also the onset period of Lidsay's mono however, so I don't know if she was having much fun.

Introducing Lindsay to my parents went very smoothly, especially because lindsay was in a daze most of the time.  I rarely talk to my parents, and the topic of Lindsay had not really came up, so she may have came off as sort of a surprise.  The rest of the time I spent with my parents was not as great after lindsay returned home.  We decided to take the walking tour of Valley forge on the hottest day of the year (would have been good any other time), and I cracked the axel on my parents buick driving down Washington Lane, so we spent most of one day sitting in a repair shop in Germantown  ( this was the second time in 2 trips that I had significantly damaged my parents car, and the trifecta was now in play)  

Fourth of July

Bodies, Brooklyn Bridge, and (Renata) Breytman

Lindsay:  Sometimes I still can't believe that I could afford to take Chris to see the Bodies exhibit in New York. It was at the South Street Seaport, so when we were done, we got a chance to walk over the Brooklyn Bridge. It was awesome! Later, we went to Astor Place and met Renata, Chris' friend from BU who I had heard so much about. I really liked her. She taught me how to properly use chopsticks at the Thai restaurant she took us to, and when I asked her how she learned to use them, she said she read the directions (in English!) on the chopsticks sleeve. Chris and I walked all over New York on this trip which I thought was a pretty cool time.

Chris:  After wandering around Philly was losing its luster, Lindsay suggested that we trek north to the rugged wilderness that is Manhattan.  Both of us had been to all the usual tourist traps, but they had a lot of dead people on display next to the east river (as opposed to floating in it, as per usual) so we decided to go.  I am still amazed that Lindsay was able to stand that exhibit, as it showed dead bodies in amazing detail.  I wish that Drexel med had models like that to help with anatomy...

All that looking at dead bodies naturally made us hungry, so we had dinner with one of my friends from BU and had a good time there as well.

Itzhak Perlman does Philadelphia

Lindsay:  I'm not really sure when, but one day, Chris asked me if I wanted to go see a concert at the Mann Center.  For our non-Philadelphian friends, the Mann Center is an outdoor concert venue that the Philadelphia orchestra plays at during the summer.  It's really neat because you can get lawn seats, have a picnic and crack open a bottle of wine all while enjoying a concert.  Chris, not knowing how huge this was, suggested we go see Itzhak Perlman.  ITZHAK PERLMAN?!  Of course!  I explained to Chris that this would be an amazing opportunity because it was unlikely that we would get many more chances to see the virtuoso in concert.  

After the coke incident at the hippie concert with Bryan, we decided not to bring any liquor because we didn't know that we would actually be able to bring it in this time.  I do remember eating stale Dark Chocolate bars on the lawn.  

The last piece on the program was an arrangement of movements from Carmen.  I really liked this piece and I think Chris did too.  He told me that he had seen Carmen when he was in Boston which I thought was very impressive.  A cultured engineer!  The end of the piece was marked by people getting up and leaving because a HUGE thunderstorm came in.  It didn't actually rain until the music ended which was hilarious because all of those people who thought they were going to melt in the rain definitely got soaked on the way to their car.  We listened to the end of the concert and waited under a tent for the storm to pass and laughed at everyone else who was soaked.  I also remember looking at a couple probably in their early sixties who were smooching away under the tent which we also thought was amusing.

Chris:  This was a pretty good concert, as far as classical music goes.  I had been meaning to go to the mann center for some time, and this seemed like a good opportunity.  I will admit that I had never heard of Itzahk Pearlmeann before, but he was certainly a fantastic musician, and I had a good time.  I am not a fan of leaving things early that I paid for, so I wanted to stay till the end of the concert rain or shine.  The timeing was perfect and the skys opened up about 30sec after the end of the show.  Now picture 1000's of people running around this ampitheater looking for shelter (most of them elderly)  and in the corner of my eye, I spot a empty catering tent.  we stood there and watched a lot of people get soaked.  I hope someone helped Pearlmann get to his car...

Rise and Shine...it's time for a Hippie Concert.

Lindsay:  Chris' cell phone went off at 7:30 AM. He saw that his best friend from high school, Bryan, was calling.  Chris and I had originally planned to go to the beach that day, but Bryan had won tickets to an outdoor concert in Sussex County and wanted Chris to go.  Chris dropped the girlfriend bombshell on Bryan, so we both went to meet him in a ridiculously redneck section of North Jersey.  Chris and I teamed up and spiked our Coke in the parking lot and headed on in.  We had fun eating Bryan's spicy pizza and playing bocce ball.  Chris and I had dinner at a diner in North Jersey and that's when I learned never to order anything but breakfast from a diner.  

The best part of the day had to have been when Chris demonstrated his hip swinging talents. He is an amazing hula hooper!

Chris:  This was a crappy concert but a good opportunity to prove to Lindsay that I had friends. There is always a good time to be had with Bryan so we went down and had a good time.  I have always been a fantastic hula hooper, and I was not about to let this opportunity to show off to my girlfriend pass by.

Hangin' with Ben...the bridge.

Lindsay:  Chris and I did a lot of walking around Philly in the early part of the summer of 2007.  We went to a really good Irish restaurant in Old City for lunch one Saturday afternoon, and then we hopped back in the car to cruise around the city.  We decided to walk over the Ben Franklin Bridge and there was a perfect parking spot right in front of the mint which is right next to the bridge.  I really enjoyed it and we even took a few pictures!  If Chris looks a little queasy, it's because he was.  Later that night, we made pizza together.  It was a lot of fun!

Chris:  CC was still the only part of philly that I was comfortable with, so we spent a lot of time hanging around there (I was also working full time at Hanehmann that summer).  I am somewhat scared of heights but The view was amazing from the bridge, and it was a perfect day, so I am glad that we went.

Our first date in Philly as a couple...

Lindsay:  I drove to Philadelphia on a Saturday night for our first sleepover.  We drove into Center City and ate at Cosi's.  Then we walked around the city and took our very first picture together in Love Park!    The next day, Chris took me to Manayunk for the first time.  It was so hot out that we decided we would go back to my house in New Jersey to go swimming.  We went swimming with my sister and visited Randi's house for her brother's birthday.  The picture that's here is our very first one together.

Chris:  A good time...I was still used to living in CC, so I figured we should go hang out there and philly didnt disapoint.  we took a bunch of pics fooling around on the giant game pieces by city hall, but unfortunately they did not come out very well.

"You could call me your 'male acquaintance'..."

Lindsay:  Chris finished the first year of his master's degree on Friday, June 1st.  I thought it would be really nice to see Chris on Saturday before I went to Randi's junior prom, so I offered to drive to the city to make him a nice breakfast.  After our breakfast (challah french toast with strawberries and bananas), we took a walk in Fairmount Park.  We were walking and I said, "I guess I had better start calling you my boyfriend."  He suggested that I could call him his "male acquaintance," but I figured that made him sound too much like...well...not a boyfriend.  He had to push me out of his apartment because he didn't want me to be late for Randi's prom.  I thought it was pretty funny that Chris realized so early on that I had some time management problems to work out.  

Chris:  After my final Neuro exam, it was nice that lindsay came into the city to make me breakfast.  (I had been out drinking the evening before, and was completely unmotivated to do much for myself)  I felt bad because after the great breakfast, I talked her into going on a nature walk on  the wissahickon trail, but lindsay got a huge blister and had to hobble home.  I could see at this point that lindsay really liked me, and I was starting to really like her.

The First Date!

Lindsay:  Chris drove for about an hour to meet me.  I was living in New Jersey with my parents at the time and my mother didn't want me to go to Philadelphia to meet any strange men.  We met at Leonardo's which is an Italian restaurant about 5 minutes from my house.  Chris got lost on the way there and I was so worried that I was going to get stood up as I waited for him in the entryway to the restaurant.  He called me to say that he was on his way but something bizarre happened with the phone call and I never actually got to talk to him before he got to the restaurant.  He definitely earned major points for calling to say that he was going to be late and paying for dinner.  We finished dinner, hung around Barnes and Noble, and then went to the beach with my friend, Randi.  I didn't really think he liked me too much, but we started talking about things we both wanted in life and it seemed like we wanted a lot of the same things.  Even more points...Chris made sure he IMed me when he got home so that I knew he got home safely. 

Chris:  After class I drove out to the restaurant in NJ to meet Lindsay.  all and all it was a pretty boring date, but for random people met on the internet, this is ok.  I also met her best friend and hung around her town, all of which seemed pretty normal.  Unlike most people I have met off the the internet, lindsay was pretty much as advertised.  It was definately worth a second look.

How We Met: The internet phase.

How Rochester Boy and Jersey Girl met...

Lindsay:   I was still in my first year at Virginia Tech when I first started talking to Chris.  I knew that I was transferring to Temple University in the Fall and wanted to meet new people and had nothing against meeting perspective love interests.  Chris, "Blindchimpanzee" came up as someone who was single in Philadelphia.  I really liked what I heard from his profile, so  I added "blindchimpanzee" to my buddy list on AIM  and chatted with him when I saw him come online.  He wasn't too happy that I was still at Virginia Tech and thought it was silly that I was studying music at a "tech" school, but I explained to him that I was going to be moving to Philadelphia in the fall to study music at Temple.  We talked a few times before I moved back to New Jersey in the middle of April.  We talked one day after I came home while I was still sad about what had happened at VT, and he asked me out on a date.  I was actually surprised that he wanted to go out because we hadn't talked all that much.  We decided that we would meet for dinner in New Jersey on Friday, May 4th.

Chris:  She pretty much said it all.  I was a bored grad student and a friend from college had told me about the site OK cupid, so I had been trying it for a few months.  After a few false starts, I started chatting with lindsay after she IMed me.  She seemed pretty cool, so I said that if she came back to the Philly area, I would try to meet her.