Sacramento Date

Wow I know it's been almost a month since we blogged. I think I should probably cross blogger off my resume and life description (ok to be truthful, it's not on either of those things). Weirdly enough we have so much to blog about, but it's been feeling kind of chore-ish to blog lately (I think I kind of lost my blog sparkle). Anyways back to the point...last night Matt and I had a date night in Sacramento (long story short, his sister Abby graduated from high school and he was in Reno Wed-Sat and since he was only there until Sat, it was too much work for me to drive all the way to Reno, especially since I've been so swamped at work and I couldn't take time off...so we decided to meet up in Sac). Embarrassingly enough, even though Sacramento is our state capitol, I've only been there once (for a cheer competition I think) so we did a lot of Googling about what to do on a Friday night). We started off by meeting up for All-You-Can-Eat sushi (because it's my favorite thing to do in Reno and I wasn't gonna be in Reno) at Raku Sushi in West Sac. Definitely not as good as the sushi at Jazmin in Reno but definitely fulfilled my sushi craving. Our plan was to catch a drive-in movie but that wasn't until 8:45 so we figured we would kill some time by walking around Ikea (I know we are complete weirdos) and grabbing a drink at a bar we found on Yelp (it had 4.5 stars!) in downtown Sac called Pre-Flite Lounge. This place is such a major hole in the wall (or to be more PC a hole in the mall) but it just had a great vibe -- live band, great margarita, super friendly bartenders (both of them introduced themselves to us and remembered our names and asked us to come back), plus they had hilarious signs on the wall (they believe in the Bobbit theory...if you get too drunk, they cut you off). If you ever stop in Sacramento, Russ makes a mean margarita. Afterwards, we headed off to see Snow White & the Huntsman (yes Kristen Stewart is the worst actress known to man, but Charlize Theron kills it and makes the movie awesome). I've never been to a drive-in movie before, but it is actually a really neat experience. Matt brought Burbara (his Suburban) so we camped out in the back seat with lots of blankets, pillows, and candy. What's even cooler is that it is half the price of a regular movie AND you get two movies for the price of one (so really it's like a quarter of the price). We only stayed for the first movie because the second movie (Battleship) started at 12:00 which means we would be driving home at 2am. We thought about parking Burbara somewhere in Sacramento and just sleeping in the car, but seeing as how neither of us were familiar with Sacramento, we didn't know where to park to avoid being mugged or arrested. We ended up driving home around 1, which was completely exhausting. By the time I got home and in bed, I had been awake for 22 hours straight. But you know what? It was completely worth it. This was one of the best dates we've ever had in my opinion. Even though we only spent about 8 hours together (after a full work day for me), it was well worth the 5.5 hour drive (yes I was in traffic for 3.5 hours on my way to Sac) and being exhausted. It also made me realize that our relationship is so important to me and I love that both of us are willing to do whatever it takes to make things work. Love you Matt.

The only bad thing about the trip is that we forgot to take a lot of pictures!!! But we took a couple...and as you can see, some of them are more entertaining than others. I got bored waiting in line in our cars at the drive-in, so I texted funny pictures to Matt. Yes I am a grown up...I think.

Road Trip Part V: Reno

I'm sorry this posted didn't get posted earlier :( you will have to think way back to Matt and my roadtrip in September....

So I bet you thought we were done with the road trip...but we're not. There's our entire Reno adventure left. On Wednesday morning, Matt and I left Sunnyvale and headed out onto the open road. We made it to Reno in exactly 4 hours (with 20 chicken nuggets and some rockstars). Matt and I were going to meet his mom for lunch, but we ended up getting started a little because Matt forgot to turn in his big architecture project (the student lounge)....go figure haha. We drove straight to his house (except for the pit stop at Mickey D's) and hung out for a little bit, but we were both pretty anxious to get to the sushi restaurant, our favorite one, Yen Ching. 10 bucks for all-you-can-eat sushi during happy hour....AMAZING!!!! I think we should have passed on those chicken nuggets and really worked up an appetite. I only managed to get down maybe 2 rolls of sushi...it's a little depressing how out of sushi-shape we were :( However, we did manage to make friends with the sushi chef...I think his name is Kevin. He told us that the sushi is so cheap because it's frozen, and not because of the casino's leftovers (which Matt has been telling me since day 1). We were like the only ones there, since it was 3:30, not exactly ideal for all-you-can-eat sushi. But it was still delicious, as per usual! Later that night, we watched the Giants game with Matt's fam (as if there's anything else we would do at the Evans house). A bit of a bummer since the Giants lost to the Cubs that night :( We ended up going out towards the end of the game and meeting his brothers and sister-in-law at a bar called Flowing Tide and watching the end of the game and grabbing a few beers. The beer of the month was Sam Adams' Oktoberfest...perfect for the October theme (even though all of this happened in September). Matt ended up getting the "Poor Boy" shot and beer, which consisted of a shot of Tuaca (from a local distillery) and Budlight.

On Thursday, we went to Sand Harbor in Tahoe...where we paid 10 bucks for parking in the middle of September...thanks a lot Tahoe. We went up and I started a new book series about a FBI agent. The first book was called the Rook (and since then I have finished all the other 3 published novels). SOOO GOOD. I'M HOOKED! After reading on the beach and relaxing, we decided to go to my favorite burrito place in the entire world...T's Burritos! They are AMAZING, though this time was kind of a disappointment. I ordered my burrito without black beans and they ended up giving it to me with black beans and so Matt brought it back where they ended giving him the wrong burrito. It was a mess, but I ended up eating a burrito with black beans...but it was still delicious. When we got back from tahoe, we were beat and just hung around the house until Abby's (Matt's sister) volleyball game at his high school. Galena beat Wooster! Go Grizzlies. And we learned that Abby was a great rolly polly at some point in her previous life. Afterwards, we had a big family dinner (where his brother and sister-in-law came over) from Qdoba. This has this great two-fer deal where you can get tacos plus soup! Delicious. For those of you who don't know, Qdoba is like a Nevadan version of Chipotle.

my awesome T's burrito!!

On Friday night, we went to the Freight House District and got beers with his two older brothers to watch the UNR-CAL game and Giants game. They have the best Thai spice wings...check those out if you had that direction. Matt and I shared a buffalo chicken wrap...also delicious. But the best part was that we got to try the new silver bullet Coors Light cans. They are so cute...they look like rocket ships. Afterwards we went to Bully's, a local sports bar, to meet up with Brandon's friends and watch the rest of the games. Fortunately for Reno, UNR beat Cal (unfortunately for those of us from California).

On Saturday, we shopped for Basim's Dad's Birthday present for his 50th birthday party that night. Matt and I went to Wal-mart to pick up some cereal and pepsi...since that is Jamal's (Bas's dad) favorite breakfast...a little sugary for my taste, but it makes a good joke. Wal-mart was having an Oreo-stacking contest and after watching two 7-year olds try to beat each other, Matt and I decided to give it a shot. Matt stacked 22 mini oreos, while I only got 7 because my stack crumbled at the last minute. We found out the record at the moment was held by an 8-year old who stacked 34 oreos while second place belonged to an 80-year old man with 32 oreos. Apparently, Matt and I just don't have a knack for stacking oreos. We picked up a pink princess card for Jamal (which was supposed to be for a 5 year old, but we added a 0 to it to make it a 50...we are creative). When we got home, Matt and I glued the faces of Basim's family onto the princess bodies on the card. Maybe the best card I have ever seen. Later that night, we went to the birthday party, where Alene planned a big surprise party for Jamal. It was awesome and the food was yummy :) I got to meet a lot of Matt's friends' parents. The best part of Saturday night was going out gambling afterwards with Basim and Scott. We hit up the Cal Neva (of course) and played black jack pretty much all night. Matt ended up being up 90 bucks and I even won 20 bucks. I think we stole all of Basim's luck :( Overall a good night!

50th birthday with a pink card!

On Sunday, we went to church with Matt's family at SCF...which was fun because it was the church's 20th anniversary. His parents were part of the beginning of starting this church and it was awesome seeing how it has grown in 20 years...even though it was my first time there. Shout out to Scott (their pastor) because he is SUPER COOL (we met at Brian and Brandie's wedding...all pastors should be as cool as him)! It really seems like an awesome church and I'm really glad we got to go :) Afterwards, we went back to the Evans household and I helped Connie make grilled cheese sandwiches. It is incredible how many sandwiches (and soups) you have to make to feed this family. But I am a believer in grilled cheese and apparently so is the rest of the family because the lunch was a big hit! I really love hanging out at their house because their family is just so big and loves these spontaneous family dinners/lunches. Quite the change in scenery from my family. Plus it's nice that they all love the Giants (granted they are all probably the reason I love the Giants so much). Thanks for a great trip Evans family :)

Though the visit was short, it was definitely eventful and packed full of great memories. Again, sorry you're hearing about all of this now and hopefully you'll forgive us!!

PS. We got Port of Subs sandwiches....I LOVE PORT OF SUBS!!!!

sushi eat-a-thon

On Saturday, we went to all-you-can-eat sushi at Rickshaw's in Reno, NV. I've never done all-you-can-eat sushi before, but it's all the rave up here. Matt and his friends used to go every week in high school. We had an endless sushi buffet for 13.95/person.....SWEET. I'm pretty sure we got around 25 rolls (plus appetizers) between the 7 of us (Matt, me, Basim, Cara, Pat, Brandon, and Levi) and we ate for almost 2 hours. I didn't eat myself into a food coma, but I was definitely full. We were planning on doing an eating contest, to cross something off our list, but instead it just became an eat-a-thon. Sorry for the lack of pictures...we were too busy eating while watching the Dodgers stomp on the Giants :(

Afterwards, we hung around the house and later, Brandie, Abby, and I went to David's Bridal to get Brandie's wedding dress altered and try on my bridesmaid dress. I'm so excited for wedding!! Then we got pedicures :)