First Post of 2012!

So far 2012 has been a great year, and 2011 couldn't have ended better.

For New Year's I went to Boston and spent the holiday with Steve and crew. New Year's Eve we went to Boston's First Night and walked around looking at the ice sculptures with Mike and his girlfriend Sam. It was a lot of walking, and eventually we decided we just wanted to go home and drink.

Steve's roommates Kyle and Larae had been home all night with their friends Alex and Sam brewing beer and watching TV, so when we got home around 11:30, we turned on the ball dropping special with Dick Clark.
Midnight hit, and there was New Year's kissing all around. I had never had a New Year's kiss before.. it was awesome! Not only because it was something I had never experienced, but it was with the amazing man that I love.
Eventually everyone went home and we retired to Steve's room for the evening. Overall it was a fantastic weekend.

Steve came down to CT for this past weekend.. he got here Friday night and we spent the evening watching Friends and relaxing.
Saturday we started by going to see Bradley (the little boy I babysat all summer) and his parents. I hadn't seen them since August! I had truly prepared myself for Bradley not to remember me, but he totally did, which was super exciting! By the end of our visit he was cuddled up in my lap. I love that little boy.
From there we went to Staples so Steve could see if they had something he needed for his broken computer chair and so he could meet Cisco. After chatting with him for a bit we headed off to the Trumbull Mall so Steve could try on some sunglasses so he could decide which ones he is going to get since he is ordering them online.
We went home, had dinner with my parents, and then went to my aunt's house for dessert and a movie. We watched Secretariat.. awesome movie. My Aunt Claudia and I made this Reese's peanut butter cup ice cream sauce.. it was SO good. There's still some left.... I can't wait to eat it again tomorrow, not gonna lie.
Sunday we just bummed it up. Watched Friends, ate food. Not much else, but it was nice and relaxing.

I just need to take a second to talk about Steve. Starting this new year with him and getting to know him for the past five months I cannot believe sometimes how lucky I am to have him. He is so good to me, and he is everything I have ever wanted in a man. I love him so much that I can't even describe it. As my friend Julie would say, ::heavy sigh::. :)

Christmas 2011

It's Christmas Day! Happy Holidays!

This year was a wonderful holiday. Got up, had cinnamon buns for breakfast, opened presents with my family, and spent the rest of the day with my extended family at my aunt's house.

I got a bunch of awesome things this year; Wilton tip set, L.A. Noire (Xbox), Star Trek Legacy (Xbox), Bing Crosby/Frank Sinatra Christmas Album, cake pop stand, Gilmore Girls Season 4, cupcake ornament, portable clothes steamer, an old Hilary Duff CD, and a couple of other little things.

Hanging out with the family was nice too... got to see a lot of people and watch my cousin's wedding in Mexico video from November. Got a little teary eyed, not gonna lie.
It was really nice to see everyone... just a really relaxing holiday.

I really missed having Steve there.. he's really become such an integral part of my life that I miss him when he's not around. Knowing that he was having not the best holiday made it much worse. I think being able to talk to him earlier made us both feel a lot better.

Tomorrow starts the beginning of major bumming. Until I go to see Steve on Friday, I'm going to spend most of this week playing with video games and watching movies. :)

Weekend Recap

I probably had the most amazing weekend ever.

Steve came down late Friday night and we exchanged Christmas presents. Unfortunately, his calendar wasn't here yet (it got lost in the mail), but I showed it to him on Shutterfly. See, I made him a custom calendar for this upcoming year with each month highlighting something he likes. He LOVED it! I was so excited.. I worked so hard on it! I also got him a Blu-Ray, and an Xbox game, then I made him Oreo Chocolate Chip cookies and a Batman ornament. :)

He got me some stuff for my Xbox (games, techie stuff, etc.), a couple stuffed animals, and caffeinated chocolate. It was so cute! He put so much thought into everything.. I love that boy.

Then Saturday we got up early to take the train into NYC. We had so much fun! We went to Madame Tussand's Wax Museum.. took so many pictures!

Steve with The Rock

Me and Frank Sinatra

Probably one of the funniest of the day.. Oh Paris Hilton. 

Flirty flirty ;)

He got captured! NOOO!

This is just a handful. Barely a handful. A thimbleful. It was so much fun! Then we went to lunch at Linda's inside B.B. King's.. Good food, horrendous service. From there we went to Times Square.. 

Look at my handsome man! :)

And Toys R Us...

A nerd holding Nerds! ;)

Calico Critters!

 We were going to ride it, but the line was ridiculous! But next time we go into the city we're definitely going to!

He flipped when we saw the dinosaur...

From Toys R Us, we went to see my friend Anna from college. She graduated last year and moved to the city. Since she works at the MoMA, which wasn't too far from Times Square, we stopped by to see her. It was so nice! We decided we need to see each other more often. 

We went from there to see the Plaza and FAO Schwarz. 

The Eloise Tree at the Plaza

The Palm Court

In front of the door to the Plaza

Steve and Lego Indiana Jones

First floor of FAO

Then we went back to Times Square...

So freakin' handsome. 

And we had dinner at Planet Hollywood. 

Steve was nerding out so bad.. I have so many pictures of things on the walls from that place! Most of them I don't even know where they're from, but I uploaded everything to Facebook regardless. 

We went through Times Square...

I love this picture of him. 

Then we went to the Disney Store and M&M World. 

All the chocolate!!

We went past Radio City Music Hall and the big ornament fountain... 

We finished off our day by going to see the tree at Rockefeller Center! 

The lady we asked to take our picture did a fantastic job!

Sunday we lounged around, relaxing together. 

It was the most amazing weekend. I cannot even express how much fun we had, and how much I love this man. I'm so glad he finally got to experience the city, and I got to see it during Christmas like I've always wanted! Best. ever. 

Fiftieth Post!

My weekend didn't exactly go as planned, I guess you could say.

I went to the Emergency room twice this weekend for pleurisy, an inflammation of the lining of the lung. It's so painful. I cannot take a deep breath beyond shallow breathing, and it hurts to even move sometimes.

The first time I went they told me what it was and told me to take Tylenol and Ibuprofen, but I had to go back because it hurt so bad that I was crying. I couldn't even breath shallowly without it hurting. I got a shot and a prescription for oxycodone, which surprisingly isn't doing much of anything. It still hurts a lot, but I want it to get better! Not only because I don't want to be in pain anymore, but I want the NYC trip with Steve to still happen!

I go home tomorrow, but it should be interesting. I have to pack tonight, and maybe even load my car, but I don't see it going well. See, not only can I not breathe correctly or move, but my shoulder is killing me too. I think those muscles may be trying to compensate for my lung.

This just sucks a whole bunch. I just want to go home.

About that time...

It's been a couple weeks since I last updated, so I suppose I should keep my few readers apprised to the goings on in my life! My goodness!

Well, the past week at least has been a big ol' ball of stress. The end of the semester usually is, isn't it? The problem wasn't that I had the usual end of the semester workload, but there were various things in two out of four classes that I hadn't done over the course of the semester that I needed to do. A real slacker would have just said forget it and moved on, but I'm only a mini slacker. At some point I usually realize that doing work is important to good grades, being successful in college, etc. So I made this horrendously stress-inducing wall of note papers outlining each assignment for each class; it was color coded and everything. Definitely a helpful strategy. A good thing to discover as a senior in college, obviously.

However, just this evening I finished all the really strenuous work that I had to do. All that's left before I go home on Monday is editing three papers and making a cheat sheet for my open notes final. Not too bad, considering I have the entire weekend to do it with the other classes completed. I also have a presentation tomorrow, but that barely qualifies as a presentation even since all I'm doing is reading a one and a half page paper which summarizes the topic and arguments presented through my final paper (which, by the way, was only supposed to be eight pages, by mine was NINE!).

Thanksgiving has happened since my last post, hasn't it?! Oh my! Let's talk about that.
Okay, well. This was probably one of my favorite Thanksgivings ever. First of all, Steve came down late Wednesday night. We went over the a friends' house so he could meet them, and then Thursday was actual Thanksgiving.

Now usually, my family hosts Thanksgiving for my mom's side of the family. Since my cousin had gotten married the Friday before Thanksgiving in Mexico and was then on his honeymoon in Bora Bora, the holiday crowd was pretty small this year. But it was really nice! And to top it off, my dad's sister (my aunt), who we don't get to see that often, had extended an invitation to me and my sisters to go over to her house for dessert once our holiday was over. This was the first holiday in my twenty one years of life in which I've seen both sides of my family on Thanksgiving. It was a gift that I hope continues to happen for many years to come.

Friday I took Steve to the Miele's house so he could finally meet Julie and Joey (he had met the girls over the summer when he first came down to CT). We had a blast, and they seemed to all really like each other. That night we decorated the tree (in record time, mind you, since it was my parents, my sisters, me, and everyone's significant others... eight in total!).

Saturday we hung around for the majority of the day, but went to mass at St. James, which proved to be a frustrating experience due to the changes to the Catholic liturgy. What the fuck were they thinking with that shit?! *Don't get me going.*

Anyways. So after mass Steve and I went to dinner at Panda House with Kristina, stopped back at the house briefly, and met out at McCoy's. What a night we had. Not only was it the usual drinks and karaoke fun, but Steve got to meet all my youth group friends from growing up.. literally most of them. A lot of people came out, some of which I even hadn't seen in years!

Sunday it was more lounging around, but Steve did get to try Danny's! Overall, it was a fantastic holiday, a type which I would love to repeat.

Things to look forward to:

• Tomorrow night Megan is having a program with cookies. I like cookies. 
• Friday Megan and I are going to Walpole to do a photoshoot at sunset in Alyson's Apple Orchard. Hopefully we won't get kicked out or anything. 
• Also, tomorrow night we're gonna get drunk and watch Christmas movies. I'm wearing my snowman pants. Fuck the what. 
• Saturday is GrooveBoston, a giant traveling dance club. I'm going drunk. I've pretty much decided I'm spending the majority of this weekend drunk. 
• Monday I get to go home! And I am going to go see my Academy kids.. I miss them so much!
• Next weekend Steve is coming to CT and we're going to NYC.. he's never been to the city... I'm pumped to show him around (based off my own limited knowledge, but whatever. It's gonna be wicked fun). I've always wanted to see the city at Christmas. 

Also, on a sidenote, Steve and I celebrated 4 months.. well, technically yesterday since it is past 1am as I am writing this post. So Dec. 7th, for the calendar challenged ones. 

It's been an amazing four months, and I hope to have many more just like it. I love him. 

Oh my. Life is good.

Oh my.
Life is good.

I am so ridiculously happy these days I don't even know what to do with myself. I'm finally embracing who I am, and allowing myself to live for me, not for anyone else. I'm not obeying what other people expect of me, or live my life according to someone else's rules.

I have definitely changed a lot this year. A lot of people have been calling this my "coming of age" year. I would have to agree. I am a completely different person than I was at this time last year. Now, I'll be completely honest. Past Loretta would probably be appalled at who I am these days; who I have become and how drastically my values have changed. But I must say: I am so happy with myself. I am finally at a place where I can say that I am comfortable with who I am and how I handle things that occur in my life.

Things with Steven are amazing. We have been going strong now for 3 1/2 months! And I can honestly say without any sort of a doubt: I love this boy. He is so incredible. I have never felt like this about anyone, and I feel so lucky to call him mine; to have him in my life.
He's going to be spending Thanksgiving and the Thanksgiving weekend with my family! I am so excited I can't even handle it. He's finally going to get to meet a bunch of people from home, and some of my extended family. This is the first boy who I have ever really introduced to my family, so here's hoping it goes well! I'm sure they'll love him as much as I do. He's a charmer, so he'll be fine. :)

I am so loving my life! AHH! I can't even form coherent thought to explain what it is, but I am just in love with my boy and in love with life.

Oh my.
Life is good.

Pass It On

This past weekend was Emmaus XXX! It was absolutely incredible. It's hard to describe what Emmaus means to me, but since Emmaus is part of the title of this blog, I feel it necessary to feign an attempt.

Emmaus has been a part of my life since 2005. My best friend introduced me to this retreat since she had made it a year prior and had family who were on team. Though my sisters had both participated in multiple Emmaus retreats during their high school years, I was a bit apprehensive since one of the ploys of Emmaus is that practically everything is a surprise. You're not told much at all prior to attending. Little did I know how that weekend would change my life and the person who I would become.

I can honestly say that Emmaus is one of the the most important things in my life. Without it I would not be complete. Growing up around such an amazing group of people I learned something very important that I feel like many people are not given the opportunity to learn.

I learned what love really is. I mean, yes everyone experiences love, whether it be with friends or family. But love on Emmaus is a completely different ballgame. Love on Emmaus is like that feeling you get when you're standing at the edge of a mountaintop, or when you accomplish your biggest goal. It's that feeling of being on top of the world, of complete joy; that feeling where you don't think life can get any better. The feeling when you're driving in your car and you smile for no reason. That's what love on Emmaus is like; it's like being on top of the world. I really am at a loss to describe it to be anything different from that. It's not like it's really something you can explain in the first place anyways, but I tried!

In any case, the love I have found through Emmaus also brought me to what I had always wanted. For as long as I can remember, I had a fantastic immediate family. When it came to my extended family, however, we were often broken. On both sides, there was little stability with the exception of a few people. We were never a close knit type, only seeing each other on holidays. And, for as long as I can remember, I had always wanted this other type of family. A family where you could show up at their house randomly; where you could talk to them about anything; where there are periodic picnics for no reason. Just like, real family. Since I understood at a point that my family could never become this thing that I was looking for, I asked God to send me a man who had a family like this so I could at least marry into one. Whatever it took, I wanted that family. I would do whatever it took to get there.

Emmaus gave me this family I had been searching for. They are what I had been looking for for so many years. I cannot even express how much they all mean to me; how much I love them. The unconditional acceptance and love I have experienced through these incredible people. It's hard to even form words beyond how amazing they are; if I could pour out my soul onto this blog and show you how much they mean to me, how they saved my life. They saved me. For that and many other things, I will be eternally grateful.

Hence, I come back around. Emmaus is the place where it all started. Emmaus, in companion with the amazing people on it and the love of the Lord, saved my life. I would not be here today if it had not been for them, or be the person I am without them. Emmaus is an integrate part of not only my life, but who I am.

I love you all. <3 <3 <3
Pass it on.