Day 202: TWO YEARS!!

This post is probably pretty funny to those who grew up with me in middle school, high school and early college. It also comes as surprise to me in many ways--that I, Leah Fulford, celebrated a two-year anniversary with a boyfriend.

Where to begin on this one? I guess I'll talk about me and not the relationship, since this is my blog and you get my side of every story, like it or not.

I'll start out in the early days. I always seemed to make close friends out of girls who were way prettier than me, and thus more attractive to the boys that we hung out with. They got all the boyfriends. I'm sure I had plenty of personality flaws that drove boys away from me, some that I can identify (extreme selfishness, smarter-than-you attitude, can't-hang-out-because-I-have-to-dance lifestyle etc. etc.) and some the I can't, but I just wasn't anyone's eye candy at the time.

During thost stages, it's not that I didn't WANT to have boyfriends, I just didn't have anyone interested in me and wasn't about to go chase boys down.

When some boys would become interested in me, I'd instantly think they were creepy.

It was a weird time. Cut me some slack.

Overall, I just ended up bitter about boys never liking me and thinking that love was some sort of thing that married people settled on for the sake of not being lonely forever and starting families. As an only child, I virtually never felt (and still don't really ever feel) "lonely" and never wanted to "settle."

Then, sometime in college, I randomly got "pretty" and suddently lots of boys wanted to take me out on dates. This was lots of fun. I enjoyed being in the company of nice men who wanted to give me things like chocolate, and who would tell me I was pretty. However, I didn't want to ever date anyone seriously because I wanted to have an international career and travel more in my twenties and move around to any city that felt right.

So imagine my surprise, when I meet Mr. Mark a month before my college graduation who completely swept me off my feet (ooohhh, the story on that, I'll never live down), made me want to change my life plan and, without even trying, convinced me that we would be in a relationship longer than one I'd ever been in before.

It was pretty shocking to me too! And my friends! "Leah is in a relationship? Like, a real relationship? She's not going on dates with two different boys on back-to-back nights? Is this one of her "secret relationships"? How long do you think this one will last?" and my favorites, "She's such a hopeless romantic. She'd go out on a date with anyone!"

[Allow me to explain that last one...my mom tried really hard to make me open my mind a little in high school to go on dates with those few boys (however creepy the were) and I never obliged. She'd say things to the effect of "just give them a chance," "a date is harmless" and other things like "don't be a complete bitch to every single man ever because I do want grandchildren someday." For these reasons, when boys asked me out, I went. Probably too often, yes, but I was just heeding her advice.]

For the past two years, however, this Mark character actually stuck around with me, and I him, much to the surprise of my friends and family. Things are still good too. I recognize love is something that happens when two people choose to be together every day and make the best of the one and only life they have. Love is about accepting the other person's flaws (and boy do I have a lot of them!) and moving through life as one unit, on the timetable that benefits both. It's about believing every day will be a little better than had that special someone not been in it--not about preventing "loneliness."

And two years has brought plenty of ups and downs, but what a tremendous joy (and learning experience!) to have shared my life with another through them!

Happy two year anniversary to the one who changed my mind about everything :)

Day 32: I Lubba Hubba Bubba

Today's 'new thing' was a childhood novelty that when memories are rehashed, it makes you ask, simultaneously "Why on earth did we do that?" and "Why is this so much fun now?"

The tradition is, no less, blowing bubbles with the enamel-killing, lockjaw-inducing, sickeningly sweet cubed bubble gum.

With my confection, today's mission was simply to blow a bubble as big as my face.You say "Why?" I say "Why not??"

I have wanted to do this for a couple of days now and was very excited and prepared to get this done. To best reach my goal, I wanted to get the highest-impact bubble gum on the market--that had the volume and stretching factor conducive to ridiculously large orbs of sugary beauty. I opted for Hubba Bubba, after being reminded of the watermelon concoction reminiscent of childhood, with a green "rind" and pink inside, powdered with more sugar. You remember it now.

After selecting my weapon, I had to recruit some other participants, because why on earth would I have this silly experience alone? It just so happened that I was in Athens this weekend for UGA's homecoming football game. In Athens, I met up with one of my friends from second grade (the prime Hubba Bubba days), Courtney, as well as her friend Valerie. My fun-loving accomplices.

I realized early on, however, that I had thoroughly lost the knack for bubble-blowing that I had taken for granted in my younger days, and began the process like this:

It was looking like I would never get to the face-sized bubble. I was defeated; losing confidence. The bubbles just wouldn't grow! I started asking myself really deep questions like if it's possible to forget how to blow a bubble. Or if bubble-making is a 'use it or lose it' trait. I was honestly thinking that I would have to give this one up.

My friends thought I was surely able to blow a face-sized bubble, since they continually proved themselves  perfectly capable, and Courtney gave me a very helpful tutorial on flattening out the gum, and opening the mouth to allow for lots of air.

After a few (okay, a ton of) crude jokes ensued, and following one laugh so hearty the gum went flying out of my mouth onto dear Courtney's leg, I finally arrived at a beautiful full-face sized bubble! Sweet success!!
Only I didn't capture it on camera.

Below is the closest I got for film, but I have witnesses that it happened. And I proved to myself that I can blow a bubble as big as my face. And for Day 32, that's all that matters.

Day 26: Fire Worked-Up

On our drive through Tennessee up to Ohio on Thursday, I noticed lots and lots of fireworks stores and thought it would be a great, fun, new thing to do to buy fireworks legally and shoot them off, since all the good ones are prohibited in Georgia. It was too late at night to buy them then, so I planned it for today on our trip back to Atlanta.

En route home, we stopped at Fireworks Supermarket, and went in to search for the firecracker we would eventually shoot off. The guys there were super eager to help and were thrilled to see us since they receive so few customers during the off-season.

We asked one over-eager young man something to the effect of "What's Good?" and he directed me to something that he described as "colorful," and "loud," saying that it was "better" than the one I was holding in my hand. I'm prone to accept help of others, so I took his advice.

In this particular section I was perusing, I saw this great video that was a beautiful fountain-like spray of sparkles and figured that would be a good beginner-level firework to set off. Mark and I purchased that and a couple others and went on my merry way.

We pulled over when it got dark and found a place to launch our rocket. We set up camp and made a plan, of the 'run this far,' 'I'll park here,' 'set it there' variety and lit the fuse.

I lit the fuse and ran as fast as I could away to watch the sparkle trickle down towards the firework. It stopped, and for a second, there was no response. Then, out of no where, I saw a little pellet shoot up into the air. What went off was ABSOLUTELY NOT a fountainy, sparkly, three-foot high blitz, but a freaking 5-story high, loud-cracking nuclear grade explosive that shot seven times.

Thank you over-eager young gentleman for directing me to the Tomahawk missile section. 'Preciate it.

I ran. I almost puked. I'm still freaked out. If you want to see what it looked like, go here: http://bit.ly/alaBHY

From now on, I'm leaving the fireworks to the pros.

Pet Sematary

When Mark and I arrived here in Ohio yesterday, we started talking to a couple of people at a mall in Easton who were (The) Ohio State University fans, fans who took a liking to Mark and I and invited us to go tailgate at OSU and see the game. Upon waking on Saturday, however, Mark was slightly hungover from hanging out with Rian's Yemeni nuclear physicist father, Moustafa, and other friends, following the rehearsal dinner. I was slightly hungover from the previous night as you can probably understand from reading the post below.

We didn't get going until noon-ish and largely missed the tailgating scene, as well as most of the game.

It was looking like I would have to embellish my "something new" story for the blog, until Mark and I got off-course headed to the wedding.

As if a blog post were calling from above, we ran into "Pet Heaven," a cemetery for pets. Now THAT is something I have never done before.

We went to the wedding and enjoyed ourselves thoroughly (best wishes and all our love for the new life together!) but afterward, headed back to the pet cemetery...and it was one of the strangest things I've seen in a while. I've seen the movie "Pet Sematary" but didn't know places like this actually exist! It makes me question so many things about pets, and, well heaven.

But not too much.

Now, I understand that pets become part of the family and deserve to be treated as you wish in life and in death, but honestly, a grave site and headstone? I'm not so sure. Personal opinion.

So, we perused the pet cemetery at night, a spooky experience that we treated with beaucoup irreverence. But how could you not? There are tombstones with pictures of puppies on them. And flowers.

Creature glorification? Maybe. I guess only if there were a procession with a hearse and religious service. No...either way, it's still creepy.

It's just that some of these pets have been buried for YEARS and people still come back to put flowers on their graves. I just can't justify the monetary and emotional expense. Opinions?

It should be noted that this puppy was alive less than a year. I don't think that warrants a grave site and tombstone.

The Stars of Oneida, TN

Mark and I are currently en route to Ohio for my dear friend Katie Kinsley's wedding, and my original "something new" was the low-hanging fruit...that I'm road tripping to Ohio. When Mark asked me about today's "new thing," I think he was unimpressed, so, while driving through a very rural part of Tennessee he suggested that we pull over off the highway and stargaze.

He knows me so well.

We pulled over in the nearest exit which happened to be the not-so-bustling city of Oneida. I was insistent on finding a dark spot free from streetlights and billboard signs, which is quite difficult off the side of the highway. After traveling past fireworks vendors, a gas station and through service roads, our journey concluded in us driving precipitously high up a rugged hunting trail. While probably illegal, the journey was totally worth it to get out in the damn-near pitch black and stargaze on the hood of the car.

There were so many stars, so clearly visible in the rural night sky, and rather than try to explain the impossible, I'll leave it to the comic styling of Joe Rogan:

Flip Burger

Mark and I are becoming novice foodies and definitely enjoy getting out and about Atlanta to try all the restaurants our budget can afford. We've been talking about going to Top Chef Finalist Richard Blais's Flip Burger Boutique forever, and finally made it happen today. We got standard fare--burgers and fried veggies and such, but today's highlight was that I drank a milkshake made with liquid nitrogen. The concept burger joint rolls out mixed milkshakes, flash-frozen with chemicals that could easily freeze your finger off of your body.

Out of all of my delicious options like foie gras, Krispy Kreme and Nutella with burnt marshmallow, I opted for the pumpkin and chai milkshake. It was like a super pumpkin-y pumpkin spice latte mixed with a chai tea latte. A special cool treat option for a state where their hotter latte cousins cannot be enjoyed in 90 degree September temperatures.

I'm not participating in the next World Cup

In an attempt to be a cool girlfriend, today I learned how to play FIFA 2008 for XBOX. After playing a few warm up rounds with Ronaldinho in the opening screen, I found myself scoring multiple shots against my goalie. My significant other, Mark, taught me how to move, run, do tricks, pass and shoot the ball. "I've got this," I said to myself, "surely this isn't so hard after all." Then I mentioned to myself, "nine year old boys have to learn how to play this, a 23 year old lady can surely figure this out enough to hold her own in real game play." Um, wrong. In a night game held in the Real Madrid stadium, C.D. Tenerife beat Real Madrid 6-0.

This was the scene:

 This was my response:

BOOO! :(

UPDATE: Last night after this, Mark and I played a little more and taught me some strategy. He played the first half, scored two goals, I played the second half where the other team scored two goals, and at the end, during a shootout, I won the game. Sweet success!!!

Meet the Parents

Despite the fact that I've been in this relationship for a year and a half now and that we live together, my boyfriend and I have never made the family introductions. For my birthday, my parents offered to take me out to dinner at Kobe Steaks and I suggested that my boyfriend invite his parents too. It's been a long time in the making, but today, finally, I introduced my parents to my boyfriend's parents.

I've never been in a relationship long enough to make this kind of move, so this was completely uncharted territory for me. How to arrange this? What circumstances are most conducive to meeting parents? I just made the somewhat selfish proposition that my birthday meant I could invite whoever I wanted to my party. So there :)


They talked about us, family and other basic, innocuous things about life. No one argued about religion or politics or anything scary that might drive the classic in-law hating game. That alone makes it an unqualified success for sure.

Tiffany's, Need I Say More?

I have recently gone back and forth about this project, wondering if I can possibly explain my intention to people and actually do something new every day for a year. When my birthday came yesterday, however, I was never more sure that I would do this, mostly as a reason to brag, that my boyfriend gave me a little blue Tiffany's box!!

As any lady will tell you, the distinctive robin's egg Tiffany box is often equally as thrilling as its contents, perhaps a remnant of the childhood trend of playing with more packaging than toys at Christmas. After my thrill of simply setting eyes the box, I opened it up to find one of the Tiffany Key pendants that I have had my eye on for at least a year now. So unique and elegant. Not only was it my first piece of Tiffany's, but it contains the first diamond a gentleman suitor has ever bought me. 

Happy Birthday to me!