Chet Reads & Writes*

Last night was awesome. It’s been a year coming, and totally worth the wait. Last night, November 17, 2007 was the beginning of girlfriend and my one year anniversary. We kicked off the celebration by driving into Houston to see RENT on stage. It was a lot of fun.

We started our excursion down I-45 at about 5:15 PM. The show was supposed to start at 7:00 and we had plenty of time to get there. Unfortunately though traffic got a little silly in Conroe; it turns out that everyone was rubber-necking a baseball player who had been pulled over. I was annoyed by that. Traffic got ridiculous again around Spring and I’m still not sure what caused that to happen.

When we got into downtown we drove past the theatre and discovered the street we were wanting to park on was a one way in the wrong direction. So we go through this elaborate U-Turn process and it is 6:45. We’re panicking about being late and then Girlfriend asked me to check the tickets to make sure we had the time right, and of course the show was set to start at 8:00 not 7:00. We are some of the only people to ever go from being really late to really early in a matter of seconds. I was rather proud of us.

We decided to park and look out at the skyline. I’ll post the pictures whenever I get them uploaded. After watching traffic and looking at the downtown lights we went to the gift shop. There were a lot of cool things in there, but nothing I could afford. A little pathetic, but hey I’m unemployed and putting myself through college.

We went inside and took decided to take the elevator up to the mezzanine because girlfriend’s shoes were really loud on the marble staircase. In the elevator was when I decided to give her the gift I had bought her. I had bought it back in September when she first picked it out. I’ve been hiding the ring since then and a few people knew about it and none of them told about it. That was pretty amazing. She absolutely loved the ring and it was awesome. She had the exact reaction that I was hoping. Unfortunately shortly after I gave her the ring a man and his three daughters entered the elevator and made everything awkward.

We went up to our seats, and they were amazing. Next time we go to a show at the Hobby Center we will definitely be buying mezzanine seats. I can’t wait for Wicked to return to Houston! Rent was also pretty spectacular. I don’t think I will ever go see it on stage again when I liked the feature film cast more, but that’s just me. I know some people despise me for saying that now.

We left downtown and drove home. We actually got back on 45 more smoothly than ever before this time! It was quite exciting. Usually we end up taking I-10 to I-45, never that great of a drive around downtown. That night though everything went smoothly; there wasn’t any traffic on the way home either! We did however see a horrific accident where someone had driven off an overpass, and then we were bombarded by rain from the Woodlands to New Waverly.

It was 1:00 in the AM when we went to bed and that was nice.

The next day was Sunday. We didn’t do anything really except sleep and hang out around the house.

Monday was November 19, 2007 which is the actual date of our anniversary. We hung out around the house and went to classes as normal. It was getting chilly outside and November was finally beginning to feel like November. That night after dinner Girlfriend asked if I would take a walk with her. I figured I would since that is what we did when we decided to officially enter our relationship.

We walked over to Old Main Pit and there was a book and some stuff sitting on one of the rock benches and I pointed it out. Girlfriend laughed at me and told me to go get it. There were a few things, a card that she had bought, a ring that she had bought for me (see it here), and a leather-bound journal. The journal was full of mementos and such from our first year together. It was a very loving and endearing gift. I loved it. Absolutely loved it! I can’t wait to add more to it and add more volumes to our collection as the years go by.

Tuesday was even better. We went to class as normal. Then we drove to Madisonville and stayed at the Woodbine Hotel and Restaurant. It was a great night. We just relaxed and spent a lot of quality time together. We had dinner in the restaurant where I had the best Rib-Eye Steak I’ve ever eaten, and tasted the best alfredo that has ever crossed my lips.

We ended our celebration at breakfast Wednesday morning. We had coffee, juice, and water. She had fruit and waffles and I had French toast with Pecans. After breakfast we loaded the car and drove to Austin, where we spent Thanksgiving with her family. It was another amazing morning with the love of my life.

And that is how I spent my one-year anniversary.

Until next time,
ChetG