Your Questions Answered Part I: I Married my Brother and Other Thoughts

So here is my first post aimed at answering some of the questions you posed to me in this post.

This post's questions come from Deanna and Kristina (hi ladies!).

1. Does anyone ask you if Rob is your brother instead of your husband?

I have to say that this question made me laugh out loud. We get this so much, especially since I cut my hair in '03 and started wearing glasses full time instead of contacts ('05 or so).  No one has outrightly asked us if we are siblings, but I can't even tell you how many people have mentioned how much we look alike. Even his brother and mother have made comments about it. I always wonder how many strangers see us and wonder the same thing, particularly after we have shared some sort of decidedly not sibling-appropriate sign of affection. Once we went to a movie theater with Rob's dad and Rob said to me, "I wonder how many people assume we are two siblings walking with our dad." Creepy.

Taken at Christmas, 2003

2. Can you ever imagine yourself with long hair again?

Yes and no. I love the idea of long hair, but not the required maintenance.  When my hair is long it is poofy, frizzy, unruly, and obnoxiously curly.  I was reminded of this when I tried to grow it out earlier this year; I made it to the helmet-head stage before I finally gave up (if you recognize your hairdo on a man in a movie from the 1970s, it might be time to quit).  I think Rob would prefer I have long hair again, though he would never impose that on me or even admit it, but right now I just can't be bothered.

First picture together, 2002 or 2003. Notice the great variety in my husband's t-shirts.

3. Are you far- or near-sighted?

I am near-sighted.  I wore a reading glasses in second grade or so, but between you and me, I think I lied about not being able to see well to my parents because I wanted glasses (that's how cool I am and was).  They went along with my little charade since we had great eye insurance.  When I was in 5th or 6th grade my family's great myopic tradition was passed on to me and I started wearing glasses, and later contacts, then back to glasses, full-time.

4. What is your favorite gluten-free food?

I would have to say all Udi's bread products--muffins, bread, pizza crust, and bagels in particular.  They can be treated like "real" bread (as in, you don't have to freeze and then toast them) and they actually have a decent consistency.  They were the only gluten-free bread product that didn't cause my teeth to squeak against them.  If you have frozen and toasted other gluten-free breads you know what I mean by the "squeaking."

5. Have you ever had an imaginary friend?

In fourth grade I used to imagine a little man that sat inside my desk, but I never went all that far with it.  I grew up with two sisters who were relatively close in age to me, so I had scant desire to dream up one more person I'd have to fight with for space.

I'll answer some more questions as the week goes on. Hope you all are having an amazing Monday!

If I were an Ancient Greek I'd be Sansspectacles: A Photo Essay

So on Wednesday night I was pulling a sweatshirt over my head when I heard a giant snap. This happened:

My 2-year-old glasses snapped in half. I've never had that come even close to happening but here it was.  We tried to tape them:

My amazingly awesome husband tried to super-glue them:

But they were irreparably damaged. And it was 8 p.m. And we live 40 miles from the nearest optician.

I of course couldn't give up my internet, so I sat about 6 inches away from my computer all night.  This is me having an awesome Twitter chat sesh with Ivelisse and Jess:

I was the awkward one.  I'm always the awkward one.

Needless to say I had a little bit of a breakdown since I obviously couldn't drive myself anywhere and I had no backup glasses (smart, I know).

Rob, lovely little husband that he is, took the day off and drove me the next morning to the big city of Lewiston to get my new glasses.  Problem was, I had to spend the entire morning without glasses.

I thought you might like to see the first part of the day through my myopic, glasses-free eyes:

Cypress--or maybe a panther--getting ready to go to daycare.

Either my husband or a stranger come to steal all my things.

What a beautiful day, right?

I hear that Auburn Lake is beautiful this time of year.

Once at the optician's, which was located in a somewhat deserted mall, I picked out a designer brand (Coach, ooh-la-la) because I'm cool like that. I also picked out some prescription sunglasses, which I've never had before.  But of course we had to wait a little bit before I was granted the gift my full eyesight again, so we frolicked around the mall for a bit.

Because we're awesome music nerds, we ended up in the music store, where apparently you can create and sell your own CDs:

I'm not sure what an "Evangelism Explosion" is and I'm not sure I want to know.

Then we went to the bookstore, where we found a book called The Dog Selector (some sort of new anti-canine supervillian?), and I proceeded to take pictures of every dog that looked remotely like Cypress:

After an hour of waiting or so we returned and finally, my transition from Caitlin to some sort of bizarre Caitlin-Liz Lemon hybrid was complete:

I CAN SEEEE

Once I finally re-joined the world of the seeing my husband and I got some lunch at this yummy, eco-friendly and gluten-free-friendly restaurant while we waited for the optician to finish with my prescription sunglasses. I had a veggie fiesta bowl with black beans, rice, veggies and cheese, and Rob had a chicken burrito. I also got a delish smoothie made with bananas, berries and Maine honey. Which is pretty much the same as regular honey, except with more lobster.

We were pretty shocked (and pleased!) that this place existed because the city we were in is known by all Mainers as a bit of a sketchy place.  Most of the other local restaurants fall into the Ruby Tuesday/Denny's/Applebee's category.

Side note: I told Robbie that one of the upsides of eating gluten-free is that we actually have to scout out restaurants rather than just eating at Denny's.  Though most times I'm pretty sure he'd rather eat at Denny's.

Anyway we picked up the sunglasses and drove home having completed our mission.  I'm still getting used to the new glasses because apparently my stupid eyes are more comfortable without any glasses at all.

THE END.

P.S. Doesn't this mall sign look like something you'd see in a 1980s teen movie? There were even LIGHTS on the "Mall" part of it:

Welcome to Maine!

P.P.S. Enter my giveaway! You know you want to!