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.