On Saturday morning the local public radio station had a used record sale, and Mark and I CLEANED UP. At fifty cents a record, I spent $16.50. The haul includes an eight-LP Beethoven bicentennial collection issued by the Arturo Toscanini Society, a set of four Brahms symphonies, a set of Haydn’s later London Symphonies, two Kirsten Flagstad records, Carmina Burana, Fiddler on the Roof with Zero Mostel, and some Mozart piano concertos-plus a D’Oyly Carte production of Mark’s favorite, The Mikado. Very exciting stuff. It even got my mind off Extreme for a minute. :) Then in the afternoon we bought Mark a bed. He may be the most circumspect shopper in the universe, but he does get some good deals on quality merchandise.

On Sunday we were in Bed, Bath, & Beyond (shopping for bathroom gear for him) and I saw the president of my company, visiting from Germany, and his mistress (that's the only word that fits--it's a sordid story, and I don't want to get into it)--I was quick to hide. These are people you do not want to run into with dirty hair and wearing your boyfriend's old sweatshirt... Later on I made shrimp stir-fry (at $4.97 a pound, it was cheaper than eating out), and we watched Brain Candy. We turned on the Super Bowl just in time to see that field goal--all we needed to see. I turned off the TV and we talked for a while. Eventually the topic of my going away for grad school came up. I buried my head in his chest for a minute, and he said, "Well, we should talk about that this week." Uh-oh. This is the discussion that's been hanging over our heads since, well, before we even started dating. I always knew I would be leaving. I don't know what's going to happen. I know what I want to happen--I think we should make some sort of permanent committment. I've given it a whole lot of thought, and I know that I want to marry him. But I'm not ready to be married!! I don't even think I'm ready to be engaged. I'm ready to talk about getting engaged, though. But I'll let him bring that up first. I know he definitely wants our relationship to continue, but I don't know whether he wants to move things to that level just yet. I'm afraid to bring it up to him, though! Maybe it's that I love what we have so much, that I don't want to do anything to threaten it. (As if moving 1700 miles away wouldn't "threaten" things...)

More tomorrow...