Gulf coast beautiful...

This past weekend was the final time that Joseph and I have to weekend vacation as a long distance couple... For the past two and a half years we have seen each other once a month. The downside of this arrangement - I only get to see him once a month. The upside - every month I get to take an amazing trip, eat interesting food, visit museums around the country and did I mention see him?

To celebrate this final trip, I decided to make the stupendously stupid decision of participating in my second sprint traithalon. This means that instead of spending Saturday morning cuddling with my fiance, eating a delicious breakfast and walking on the beach, I spent the morning swimming 1/4 of a mile in the Gulf of Mexico, biking 18 miles on the highway, and running four miles.

that is me ripping of a swim cap. better than coffee and homemade bacon? you decide.

I discovered this weekend, that when you finish a triathlon, there are three very important things you need, and in no particular order: chapstick, gatoraid, and a bushwacker. For those of you who don't know the beauty of the bushwacker: it is as close to an alcoholic frosty as you can get.

magic. in a cup.

We also celebrated my finish (not any kind of amazing time, just a finish. although it was 2 minutes faster than my first time) with red beans and rice, and crawfish:

welcome back, gulf coast seafood. welcome back.

(-) day 65

I always wondered if it were possible to have someone else write the introductory blog post for me. You know, kind of a "question and answer with the adorable couple" sort of thing (dream big, right?).

Well, since hiring a freelancer to do the interview on a graduate student income is out of the question and since I have my own degree in journalism, I guess all you get is me...and my husband to be.

Husband-to-be Joseph and I are getting married in t-65 days, hence the name of the blog post. We are super excited about the getting married, less-but-still excited about the actual wedding, and PUMPED about the honeymoon. However, as a graduate student, my schedule is a little more than hectic at this point; between finishing a thesis this summer, moving, looking for work, thinking about Ph.D. programs, and figuring out this whole "husband and wife" thing, I have a bit of a full plate. So one or both of us proposed the following (over beers of course, and somehow before we even got engaged): Instead of taking a honeymoon the week after the wedding, why don't we take a honeymoon for an entire year? Sounds amazing, right? We thought so.

not beers, but I think you get the point

So this is a blog for ourselves, our friends, and our families to keep track of our crazy lives for the first year. We plan on traveling the world one week at a time through food, drink, books, art etc and learning as much as we can about each place before we go on our actual honeymoon.

A little about us:

-Joseph finished his Ph.D. 4 years ago and now works as a software engineer for a biotech firm. He likes to tell me how is day at work went and I smile and nod because he works with computers. We are lucky I know how to check e-mail at this point. He is a wonderful gardener, an expert pickler, owner of too many science-fiction books but just enough cookbooks, and a card carrying friend of the library.

-I am currently a graduate student at the University of Alabama finishing my degree in Food and Nutrition. I am a sun worshiper, lover of all things school-related, proponent of bourbon on gamedays and cheap beer at the lake, hater of long distance relationships, and more than likely a professional faller.

We met at a beer tasting in our hometown of Gainesville, Florida, started dating the next week. He proposed last summer in Rocky Mountain National Park, on top of a mountain. And we are getting married... in 65 days. AWESOME.

yeah, he proposed here. pretty luck girl, right?