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Entries in love (13)

Friday
19Feb2010

Love Means Tracking Each Other by GPS

DateFriday, February 19, 2010 at 7:57AM

The hubby has a new love in his life: his Motorola Droid.

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It does all sorts of nifty things, like say, "Drooiiiiid" when he turns it on.  That's about all I can describe since 1 - I haven't actually ever touched the Droid and 2 - even if I did, I wouldn't know everything it could do.

But the other day I got an email from the hubby inviting me to join Google Maps Latitude.  Long story short, this lets you see where each other is on Google Maps by a GPS signal that your phone sends out.

No, those aren't our friends. Yes, I wish we were in Sweden.
{source}

Sound creepy and Big Brother-ish?  Yeah, I thought so, too.  But as I said in my Newlyweds interview, the hubby and I have no secrets.  I don't need to hide from him if I go shopping at lunchtime.  If for some reason I was secretly buying something for him and he asked why Latitude said I was at the mall, I could easily make up a short-term white lie.

So I signed up and I have to admit, it's been kind of fun.  It's not like I sit there all day watching the map, seeing what he's doing (since, really, we're mostly just at work every day).  But there's a little glitch with it, it seems - sometimes it appears that Latitude gives the location of your nearest cell tower, not your actual location based on the GPS in your phone.  So the other night I was at home but it said I was elsewhere.  Yesterday the hubby was at home, but it had him at a local hotel.

Hmmm.  Yes, I believe he was home... even though the hotel is half a block from a strip club.  When we first set this up, I said I'd be more likely to have to ask, "Are you at Guitar Center again??" rather than "Are you at Shakers again??"  (And don't get me started on the name "Shakers" for a strip club.  Yuck.  Although it's better than another local establishment of the same type - named "Wet."  Ew.  That makes me gag.)

So this GPS stuff isn't for the weak, that's for sure.  I could imagine couples getting in quite a few raging arguments based on a location given by a cell tower.  And I don't intend to share my location with anyone else, but I foresee this feature being useful if one has a child with a cell phone.  Even if the location is slightly off, it still would give you a basic idea of where he or she is.

Unless, of course, you have a child who figures out how to hack the GPS and program in a specific location.  That will probably be my son.

AuthorCandice | Comment2 Comments |
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Sunday
15Nov2009

My first wedding anniversary

DateSunday, November 15, 2009 at 8:00AM

One year ago today I was lucky enough to marry the love of my life.

And I love him more every day.  I don't understand how that happens, but it's true.

While shopping for anniversary cards, I couldn't help but cry as I read them.  I began to think about how a year ago, I probably wouldn't have teared up this much (pregnancy hormones or not).  After this first year of marriage, I am completely amazed at just how much I love this man.  I knew our love would change and shift as we went through our marriage, but I really had no idea of how deep love could go.  After this first year of marriage, I have a completely different idea of what the word love means.  I really feel like I had no idea what love could be.  Now I wonder even more just where it can go.  I feel like if I tried to love him any more, my heart would just burst.

Honey: Here's to the rest of our marriage being as wonderful as this first year has been.  I love you.

Hopefully eating year-old cake tonight doesn't do us in.

Tomorrow: You get to see the hubby's anniversary gift.  (Hint: Year 1 is "paper."  And, yes, it's more than just a card.)

AuthorCandice | Comment6 Comments |
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Saturday
14Nov2009

Tips for Snagging a Husband

DateSaturday, November 14, 2009 at 8:00AM

Today, on the eve of my first wedding anniversary, I present Bookish Penguin's Top 10 Foolproof Ways To Snag A Husband:

  1. Totally convince yourself he’s not the one.
  2. Tell him from the get-go that this is a casual, short-term thing.
  3. Move two hours away.
  4. When he visits you, insist that you are broken up (and then jump him anyway).
  5. Buy him things he loves.
  6. Cook his favorite foods.
  7. Introduce him to his favorite restaurant (Hi Chipotle).
  8. Tell him he has to go on a date with someone else because that’s the only way he’ll see that you really are NOT the woman for him.
  9. When he’s out on that date, spend three hours crying because you wish he wasn’t.  Log in to his Facebook account to see if they’ve been sending each other salacious messages.  Feel like crap when you see that they haven’t.
  10. Propose over lunch by saying: “Yeah, so I really didn’t like you going on that date with that other woman and I realized I don’t want you to date anyone else . . . ever . . . so I think that means we should get married.”

No, seriously.  It works.  I have one year to show for it.

And, clearly, by "foolproof" I mean that I was the fool and still ended up blissfully happy somehow.

AuthorCandice | Comment5 Comments |
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Thursday
03Sep2009

What do you treasure?

DateThursday, September 3, 2009 at 7:55AM

The Boston Globe has a great web page called The Big Picture where they post really great series of news-related photographs.

This week's entry is a series of 41 photos of the California wildfires and, as always, the photos are remarkably compelling - the sort of photos that make you just sit and stare at them while your mind either goes blank or thinks a dozen things at once.


(AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

My mind went back to this week, three years ago - September 1, 2006.  It was less than a week before I was starting my second semester of grad school and my first semester of teaching.  I was living on the fourth floor of an apartment complex in south Jersey and the building right next to mine caught on fire.  The sirens and engine sounds of fire trucks woke me up at 5am and I peered through the blinds to see a five-alarm fire.  The news helicopters swirled overhead as I panicked and tried to figure out what I would grab if the fire leapt the 50 feet from that building to mine.

As embers started to land on my patio, I threw the following items into my laundry basket: essential clothing, my computer, my purse, my school books, and my cell phone.  I put Oreo's leash on her and headed outside to scope out what was happening on the ground.  Thankfully, the fire never moved to my building.  However, the poor folks who lived in the burnt building were terribly unlucky.  Most of them lost everything and the apartment complex did next to nothing to help them.  I moved out two weeks later, into a much nicer complex down the road.

There was one particular item in my purse that day, though - one seemingly small item that I grabbed specifically because I wanted to save it should the fire reach my apartment and force Oreo and me to flee: a three-inch button pin photo of my dad and me, taken in Central Park when I was three or four years old.

It's one of a kind.  I'll never be that age again and neither will my dad.  Who knows if we'll ever be in Central Park together again?  I don't have the negative, so I could never print another.  I feel so lucky that I've managed to hold onto it this long, through all these years, through a dozen moves.

My dad was a professional photographer at the time, shooting weddings, bar mitzvahs, and so on.  There are so many pictures of my siblings and I as children that I don't have a particular sentimental attachment to many photos because I'm used to having just so many of them.

But my dad was always behind the camera.  Now that we're older and wield our own cameras, he gets caught in our pictures.  But when I was a kid, it was rare.

But that's not entirely why I love this little button.  I actually can't put into words why I love it so much, which I think is the best kind of love sometimes.  Being someone so attached to and in love with words, it's when words fail me that I stop and hold on.

What do you hold onto?  What would you save if your home caught on fire?  What treasures do you keep?  Share your treasure with Genie Alisa's Life Out Loud (LOL) Project.

AuthorCandice | Comment5 Comments |
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Wednesday
26Aug2009

The 7 Wonders of Wednesday - mostly cranky edition

DateWednesday, August 26, 2009 at 1:50PM

Today should be Tuesday so I can do another 7 Quick Takes, but I really don't want it to actually be Tuesday again... but it's one of those days where I have a zillion things on my mind, none of which I want to torture anyone with a full blog post on, so here are The 7 Wonders of Wednesday instead:

1. I really, really dislike (okay, hate) the thing where people think it's cool to disparage someone who has just died.  Fine, you may not be a fan of Sen. Kennedy's politics, so then just keep your trap shut.  What happened to "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything."  You're on my Facebook page and now I think you're an asshole, so good job to you.

2. If anyone says anything to me today about how terrible the idea of universal healthcare is, I may just clock them.  I had to turn down a really wonderful opportunity because it would not allow me to carry health insurance for my husband or any future children at anything less than a prohibitively exorbitant cost.  I should not have to make career decisions based on my healthcare requirements.

3. That said, I was able to refer a good friend for the opportunity and am really hoping she gets it.  Then at least something good will have come of this.

4. When I was trying to make this crazy decision yesterday, I honestly did not know what to do.  I spoke to the hubby and he was just as stuck as I was.  So I called my dad and he talked me through the whole thing.  I am SO very, very lucky to have such a wonderful, giving, intelligent, sensitive man as a dad. 

5. My nephew, TJ, is obsessed with "Pop-Pop" (my dad).  Every time the phone rings, he says, "Pop-Pop?"  He spots him first in every picture and just generally loves the daylights out of him.  My sister took him to visit Pop-Pop at work the other day:

When my sister's husband came home, he asked TJ, "Did you have fun with Pop-Pop today?" and TJ said, "Happy!"  Awwww... Couldn't you just melt?  I was pretty much a puddle when I heard that. But anything that kid does turns me into a puddle.

(And TJ is less than a year and a half old... he looks so much older to me.  He's growing like a weed, as my friend Robin says.)

6. I absolutely adore the whole "Back to School" vibe that goes on at this time of year.  It brings back great memories because I was always so thrilled to go back to school every autumn.  What I don't like is seeing parents say things like, "Haha, time for the kiddos to go back to school - suckers!"  That's just fantastic - instill a hatred of learning in them.  Good parenting.  (Yes, after a short, happy TJ break, we are back to the crank.)

7. I keep one of our wedding thank-you cards on my desk because looking at it makes me happy - so happy that sometimes I start to cry when I look at it (*sigh* - I'm a mess).

my illustrious desk at work

And, yes, that's the thank-you card my dad designed for us.  Isn't it awesome?  I love it so much.

The lesson for today?  When everything is stressing me out, I find a lot of comfort and happiness in my family.  I know that's not true for everyone (and it's certainly not true for all of my family members) but a good family member - or two or three or four - can be a great haven in a storm.

AuthorCandice | Comment3 Comments |
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