The Adventures of Matt & Mandi: Our Second Month

We did it, we survived another month! If there's anything this month has taught me, it's that life isn't always fabulous, but it can be if you have the right person by your side. Not only did I experience some bumps in the road of my life, but so did Matt. But, we were able to help each other through them, and it made it so much more easy.

We have also become a couple that, while we still love going on adventures, sometimes it's okay to do the ordinary. We enjoy going to Trivia Nights at Crescent Ballroom every Sunday night, breakfast together every Saturday morning, drinks at our favorite bars, going to shows, and coming home at the end of the day to listen to some music together.

I won't go into detail about every moment I spent with Matt this last month, because we spent quite a lot of time together. But, I will highlight some of my favorite days, some monumental days in our relationship, and some of the days where we truly felt like we were on a crazy and wild adventure.

THE ADVENTURES OF OUR SECOND MONTH:

6/18 – We celebrated our first month together by embarking on our first date! He brought me flowers (my favorite flowers!) and even dressed up all spiffy. We went to dinner at Cibo in Downtown Phoenix and then went to the She & Him concert at Comerica Theatre.  There is one song of theirs that I put on his mix CD called “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me”. When they played the song, he and I swayed back and forth, and then he grabbed both my hands and we started dancing. It was beautiful! After the show, we went to SideBar and grabbed some cocktails and relaxed. Our first date was definitely my favorite date I’ve ever been on. And I am excited to go on more dates with this wonderful man. 

6/19 – We attended Open Mic Night at the Little Woody. We started our set with Radiohead’s “Nude”. I think this song is one of those songs that I would call “ours”. After that song, we covered “Fever”, which, I’m not gonna lie, totally brought the house down! I think we sound very good together.

 

6/20 – We went to the Duce for some karaoke, shared a milkshake, I hula-hooped for the entirety of Michael Jackson’s “P.Y.T.”, and we witnessed some hilarious performances. After karaoke, we hopped into Matt’s car and went to the Crescent Ballroom to grab a drink. After hanging out at Crescent for about an hour, we decided to head home. Matt drove me back to my car at the Duce only to find out that after closing hours, they lock their parking lot shut with a huge gate. My car was trapped! He was kind enough to drive me home, even if that meant that he had an even longer drive home.

 

6/21 – Our adventure for this evening: Meeting his family. I had already met his dad and brother, but this evening I was meeting his mother, sister, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, and nephew (both of his siblings are married). His mom had prepared a delicious build-your-own taco bar with pork, beef, and bison meats, veggies, and salsas. After dinner, we ate cupcakes that his sister had baked. She made a chocolate cupcake with Nutella in the middle that was to die for! After some of his family, we played a dice-game called Farkle with the rest of the family, in which I am still not very good. I enjoyed meeting his family. They were so loving and accepting and making sure I was welcome and comfortable. And they raised a wonderful man. I look forward to seeing them again.

6/28 – Matt's car broke down at Crescent Ballroom, so I had to go pick him up and we went to a housewarming my friends, Jon and Nick, were hosting. Matt and Jon played “Quarters” and shuffleboard and we went swimming.

6/29 – WHAT A DAY.

We got brunch at NCOUNTER in Tempe before we headed over to Crescent to attempt to fix his car. After trying to start his car and failing, we drive around South Phoenix trying to find the tools and a car battery. Driving through town in the heat made me feel sick and my stomach started to hurt. I ended up throwing up in the parking lot while Matt was purchasing a car battery. I had to go to work, so I dropped him off at his car and left. When I got home, I threw up again. My boss told me to stay home and not come into work. After Matt spent about an hour in the heat, walking to the nearest hotel to use their tools, and finally fixed his car, he came over to take care of me. He brought over a strawberry banana smoothie, the movie HighFidelity for us to watch, and the Blood Bank vinyl from Bon Iver. SWOON! We watched High Fidelity (definitely one of my favorite movies now) as well as Pirate Radio (he had never seen it!).  After watching two movies and starting to feel better, we went into my room and played my new vinyl. After listening to Blood Bank (it’s a short album), we listened to Courtney Marie Andrews’ For One I Knew on vinyl, as well as some Crystal Gayle. It was the first time I had really used my record player, and I’m glad he bought me that vinyl. I think I will start collecting vinyl now.

 

7/4 – Happy Independence Day! Why was this day one of my most favorite days? Let me count the ways:

   1. Matt and I BOTH had the entire day off from work, which is really rare.

   2. We enjoyed a free breakfast at Liberty Market.

   3. We each got a new pair of sunglasses.

   4. We shared music with each other.

   5. We sang along to In Rainbows.

   6. We survived our first grocery shopping trip together.

   7. We went to a party with some friends and had a killer time.

   8. I did pretty damn good at Flip Cup.

I spent the whole day with him. We didn't have to share with work, family, band, nothing. I enjoyed every moment I spent with him.

 

 

7/8 - We went to FilmBar to see Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. I LOVE this film, and Matt had only seen it in theatres. It was fun to geek out with him.

 

7/14 - Matt and I experienced our first trip to IKEA together. He bough his mom a birthday present, I bought a desk. After trivia at Crescent, we came back to my house where assembled the desk, I did some laundry, and we played some vinyl.

 

 

7/15 - Today was Matt's mom's birthday, so we went over to his folks' house where he prepared a dinner for the whole family. It had been a few weeks since I had seen them, so it was all still kinda new to me. But I felt more comfortable this time. Matt's dinner was delicious, his mom received some pretty cool gifts, and I even met his grandmother from Alberta via Skype (who says she reads my blog!) So, Esther Klassen, if you're reading this: It was so nice to meet you. Maybe one day I will see you in person.

7/17 - OUR SECOND MONTH ANNIVERSARY. We spent the evening together by enjoying a delicious meal from The Vig (new favorite restaurant...so good!) and then performing some songs at the Open Mic Night at the Little Woody. We covered Al Green's "Let's Stay Together", ZZ Ward's "Lil' Darlin", The Beatles' "Don't Let Me Down", and we arranged a blues-version of Tears for Fears' "Mad World".

Here are some pictures from the last month.

Stay tuned for month three and more adventures!