Lately...

I've been really busy. I took a darling girl out on valentine's day and she's all I can think about. For the purpose of pseudo anonymity, she'll be known as EK.

This weekend has been full, and a slice of what I've been up to.

Friday afternoon, we met up with her mother and saw a Swedish film called Ciao Bella, an indy romantic comedy about a nerdy teenage Iranian-Swede who gets a transformation when hooking up with an Italian soccer team in town.
Afterwards, we hit Spoon River and had a killer meal. I had steak and EK had an incredible vegetarian meal. She had the better meal. We had great conversation. I learned more about her, and found increasing similarity on life philosophy.

I ran 7 miles in the morning(while EK ran her Saturday morning ritual 13 miles with her sis-in-law), cleaned up & had a nap, hooked up with J-Mo, and went up to my sister's to see my new niece, Julia Faith, and parents who were in town. I completely abstained from anything but a glass of Shiraz, anticipating a good meal that evening with EK. (she'd been at a shower all afternoon)
We were able to get a seat a Lucia, and had an incredible seared tuna appetizer complete with delectable microgreens. I had some very OK chicken while she had cod and a "saffron fideos" which was also a 10/10.

We called it a night and woke up smiling at each other. We made plans for the day and made breakfast -- oatmeal (with all kinds of tasty nuts, dates, and maple syrup added), grapefruit, super strong coffee, and some cardamom coffee cake her mom made. We did some trip planning for Iceland (oh yeah... we're going to Iceland next month!)

After that, we followed through on our plans to get fitted for new running shoes, catch up with her sis-in-law at her studio @ the U, and saw Kautekino Rebellion -- an incredible film about an uprising that caused many Norwegians to move to Minnesota. We split back and spent some quality time together before she had book club, so I went to Target, Barnes & Noble, and the grocer before heading home.

I'm exhausted. And I can't wait to see her again.

I'm very happy.