Weekend Update

Although I'm not Jimmy Fallon, Tina Fey, Colin Quinn, Norm McDonald, Dennis Miller, nor, unfortunately, Kevin Nealon.

What is going on with gas prices these days? Come on, man, give us a break. Price fluctuations at least used to be predictable--they'd go up toward the weekend, and drop back down toward the middle of the week. Now it seems like they're going up all the time, and dropping even more sporadically. I was lucky today--I noticed as I walked out of Subway on my lunch break that gas prices at surrounding stations had gone up to $1.89 per gallon. I needed to get gas, so on my way back to work I noticed a station which hadn't yet raised their prices. I snuck in at $1.72 per gallon: a clerk was on the way out to change the prices on their sign as I started fueling. I'm hoping this tank can last up until I'm ready to drive to Stow for the weekend.

Speaking of weekends, I didn't post my usual weekend recap yesterday since I had other stuff I wanted to talk about. I would hate to neglect anyone who might be living vicariously through me, though, so without further ado, here's the tale of the weekend.

Unlike at least one person I can think of, Brandi didn't have to work on Good Friday (and has there ever been a more redundant phrase than that one?). She got off work early on Thursday and headed toward BG. She stopped off in her hometown of Clyde to spend some time with her parents, and I drove over and met her there when I got off work. Her stepmom made dinner for us--I felt a little bad because she made shrimp for everyone else but pork chops for me, since I don't like seafood. The food was great, though.

We hung out there for a while (and took her dog for a walk) and then headed back to Bowling Green. There was a pit stop at Meijer on the way to my apartment, as Brandi remembered during the drive that she had an interview on Friday morning but hadn't brought anything to wear. We turned in fairly early that night, as we were both pretty tired and had to get up early the next morning.

Brandi was lounging on the couch when I got home from work. We watched That 70s Show and then went to the mall so I could get a haircut. I hate getting my hair cut, so I wasn't exactly looking forward to this, but we went. After said haircut, we drove up to Toledo and met up with Adam and Cricket for a Toledo Mud Hens (minor league baseball) game. The game was a good time, as usual, and there was a fireworks show afterwards. Then the four of us went to a local bar to hang out for a little bit.

When Brandi and I got home, we exchanged gifts for our one-year dating anniversary. I got a college basketball video game; she got a collection of lotion and perfume (etc.) that she likes from Victoria's Secret, and also a Care Bear with a cupcake on its belly.

On Saturday morning I got up and went to BGSU's spring football game. Since it was being held on the practice field instead of in the stadium (hence no bleachers), Brandi opted not to go. She exercised and went for a run instead. I was gone for a couple of hours, then we napped on the couch for a little bit after I got back. We slept for maybe a couple of hours, then got up and started getting ready to go out for the evening.

I took Brandi to the Spaghetti Warehouse for our first date, so on Saturday we returned to the scene of the crime. We got there at a good time, and only had to wait a few minutes for a table. The food was awesome (I had lasagna, Brandi had shrimp alfredo), up to and including the 12-layer chocolate cake we had for dessert.

After that we drove around Toledo for a bit. We had reservations at a comedy club at 10:30, but doors didn't open until 9:45, and we had plenty of time to kill since dinner didn't take as long as we expected. So we had a nice ride, and Brandi showed me the place where she had interviewed on Friday. That was a pretty decent way from where we were, so by the time we got back to the comedy club, they were letting people in.

The comedy club here in Toledo is called Connxtions. I've been there a few times now, and it's always been a great time. Saturday was no exception. The comics were Dan DeCapua and Don Reese, and both of them were absolutely hilarious. I had tears in my eyes at several points. Reese especially had a warped sense of humor that really appealed to me (and Brandi as well, I'm very happy to say).

After the comedy club, we drove back to BG and went to BW3 to have a drink. We played some games and ended up chatting with a guy named Bruce who I think is in there every single night. He's always there when we're there, at least. He was pretty cool, though. Before the bars closed, Brandi and I went to a dance club called Uptown to dance a little bit. It was really crowded and hot and hard to dance, but it was fun to be in there for a few minutes.

We headed home after that. We started playing the basketball game Brandi had bought me, but she was hungry and ended up ordering some food. We watched a slam dunk competition while we ate. As soon as the food was gone, Brandi (who had consumed a pretty fair amount of alcohol over the course of the evening) fell immediately asleep, and I soon followed suit.

We got up on Sunday and drove down to Troy for Easter with my family. I personally care nothing for Easter itself, but it is one of those get-together occasions for my family, and I didn't want to miss it. My mom put out a pretty good spread, as she always does, and the food was awesome. I ended up bringing quite a bit of it back to my apartment, as well as some miscellaneous items Mom had been collecting for me over the past several weeks since last I was home.

On the way back to Bowling Green that evening, Brandi and I stopped in to see our friends Amy and Doug. Amy is actually a girl I dated back in high school and into my college days, but we managed to stay friends even after we broke up. She and Doug are married, and we always have a good time when the four of us get together. We sat in their living room and talked as we were pawed and clawed by Caroline, the more social of Amy's two cats. We didn't actually get back to Bowling Green until about 1:30, but it was worth it.

While at Amy and Doug's house we all ended up talking about a couple of relationships/marriages involving crazy people who got married too young and/or did bad things to their spouses. Brandi and I ended up carrying that conversation into the car on the way back, which led into a discussion of our past relationships. You'd think that would be a bit awkward, but it was actually good conversation. It took up most of the drive, which was about an hour and a half. I'm really glad that she and I can talk about stuff like that without freaking out totally.

When we got back to BG, I helped Brandi figure out her taxes so she can file them this week.

Of course, I had to get up on Monday morning and come back to work, and Brandi had to drive back to Stow to do the same. Unfortunate, but that's the way our schedules work right now. We don't have as many plans for this coming weekend, so hopefully we'll get a little more time to just relax together.