SO! I'm finally getting around to my Valentine's Day post. I know, I know, this is rather belated, but I said I would get around to it, and I did. So, here we go.

The weekend started off with snow! Now, for anyone not from the South, this might not seem overly exciting. But for us? Two or three inches (about five or six, in this case) and we cancel school. The state shuts down. Why? Because we're all out playing in it!



The Boy and I played in the snow at my house. We made snow angels and threw snowballs at each other, but we failed completely at making a snowman (some Canadian he turned out to be.... kidding =]) The snow wouldn't pack well enough, but I had fun anyway.



Saturday, he took me to The Cheesecake Factory! Which is possibly the most awesome place ever. The food is fantastic, in my opinion. I had the best chicken parmesan I've ever put in my mouth. Carrot cake cheesecake. They had one called Stefanie's Ultimate Red Velvet Cake Cheesecake, but I couldn't talk them into giving it to me for free, even though it has my name in it. We got all dressed up--most cheesecake factories aren't dressy, but this one was in Buckhead, an upscale area of Atlanta. He also got me the super cute teddy bear from above, who I named Russell (which may or may not have to do with the Russell Stover chocolates that came with the bear...).

Sunday, which was actual Valentine's Day, we went to Medieval Times! Medieval Times is a dinner show that's in a big castle. You get to watch jousting, sword fighting, etc in a big arena while cheering for your knight, all while being served some really good food. You have to eat with your hands--they didn't really have utensils in the actual medieval times. I LOVE Medieval Times. It's like the Renaissance Festival, but I don't have to walk around, and they bring food to me.



You also get to wear a really awesome crown with the color of your knight. We took advantage of the Valentine's special--two flags (also yellow), two drinks in goblets (that you get to keep), a light-up rose, and light-up wand, a scroll, and admission to the Dungeon, a torture device museum.

For my Valentine's present, I made a two-layer (white and chocolate) cake with strawberry icing and red sprinkles, as well as a framed picture of the two of us from our first hockey game.



All in all, I had an amazing weekend. I'd never had a real Valentine's Day (I always managed to time things so that I was single... go me), and it was nice to feel wanted instead of celebrating Singles' Awareness Day. Basically, the Boy is awesome. I know this was a while ago, but it makes me smile just to remember it =]

Sorry for the lack of new posts within the last week - I've been really busy and tired =[



Friday was the last free day before I started writing my paper, so I took advantage of it and of the beautiful weather by having lunch with a friend and treating myself to a slight shopping splurge. I took some of the money my grandmother gave me for Oxford and decided to hit the Coach store. They had some amazing sales - the purse [not pictured] was originally $350, but I got it for $169! The wallet was my favorite purchase though, because I've needed a checkbook-sized wallet for a really long time. Currently, my checkbook just floats around in my purse. It was originally $228, but I got it for the bargain price of $90! Retail therapy is a great way to end a busy week.

Saturday



Starting Saturday, I moved into Nazi Germany. At 12:30, I sat down in our overstuffed arm chair and began reading. At 7:30ish, I was finally done. I swear I think I know everything there is to know about lives of Jewish and non-Nazi citizens during the 30s and World War II. Gotta love Western Civ... and writing papers.

Because of this, I was suddenly in the mood to watch Schindler's List. I'd seen it before, but wanted to see it again. Because of several sex scenes and other nudity, I specifically waited until my parents had gone to bed, not because I'm not allowed to watch it, but because it's just awkward to watch that with your parents. Thirty minutes in, my dad gets back up and says he can't sleep. So I sit there, in utter silence, for almost three hours, going through several sex scenes and one scene with a lot of naked running Jews (with lots of floppy, bouncing bits)... with my father.

If you haven't seen it, you should watch it. It's very graphic, and extremely sad, but definitely worth it.

Sunday

No picture because all I did all day was write my paper and read some more. I did drive back to Athens and contemplate what I would do if I won a million dollars, and I ate at Ru Sans, a Japanese place, with some friends. But then there was mostly more writing.

Monday



Monday was class and more writing. We also had formal chapter (we had to dress up), after which several sisters and I went, again, to Ru Sans, because it's really cheap and very good. I came back and finally (!) finished my paper, sent it to my TA, and went to bed. It was also ridiculously cold outside, so wearing a dress for formal chapter meant I was a wee bit chilly.

Tuesday



This is my uber warm UGA hoodie (sorry for the bad picture quality). I thought it would be sufficient in keeping me nice and toasty today, but oh, was I wrong. Because today in Athens, Ga, on April 7th, at roughly 12:30 pm, it snowed. WTF?? I don't understand... Georgia is where people move to in order to get away from the snowy states. So where am I supposed to go? Guess I'm moving to Panama...

Sunday was quite the hectic day. If you watched the Weather Channel, you might know that it snowed in the Georgia. Now, for those of you who live up north, this is no big deal - it happens all winter, so what's the big deal? In the south, though, it's another story entirely. We see snow maybe once a year, and it's usually an inch or two, maybe less, but dear God, it's a crisis. We're just not equipped to handle it! School gets cancelled, people race to the store to get the essentials, and everybody and their brother bundles up to go outside and build a one foot high snowman or slide down the slush/mud mixture. This time, though, we got more than two inches - a whole eight inches in Athens!

I, however, was not in Athens, since it was my dad's birthday weekend. I got up and hung around the house a bit, with the intentions of driving back around 3 so that I could beat the weather. It started flurrying around 2:30 though, but it wasn't too bad, so I packed my car and changed into my boots and warm clothes. As I was walking out the door, I got a frantic call from the roommate, who was still in Athens, saying that the roads were covered with snow and there was almost zero visibility. I decided to stay put for the night, since I rather like life. But about an hour later, the rain and snow stopped, and it looked like the sky was clearing up. Green light to make a run for it while I could. But the farther away from Gainesville I got, the worse the conditions were. After I almost skidded off the road near Talmo, less than halfway there, I decided I was insane for trying to drive (especially when I hadn't driven in snow before, at least not this heavy). Those pictures were taken while I was waiting to turn around. Not ideal for this Georgia girl.

After getting home, I found out UGA would be closed the next day - I got a snow day in college! I spent my night in front of a roaring fire with homemade chicken noodle soup and cornbread. I worked on my lovely German Culture homework and watched Lord of the Rings on TV with my dad, all the while hearing stories of power outages (meaning those in the high rise dorms had to climb the stairs to get to their rooms, which would've meant 7 stories for me), downed tree limbs (one of which fell on someone), and panic all around in Athens, which got pretty hammered with the white stuff for a place in Georgia.