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Tomorrow morning — bright and early at 5:45 AM — Alex and his father will be picking me up. Together, we will drive into Manhattan where we will find Penn Station. From there, Alex and I will board a 7:45 AM train headed to Montréal. Approximately ten hours later, we will arrive at our hotel. If we’re not too tired from our train ride, we’ll hit the town and see what Montréal has to offer on a Saturday evening.

Alex and I will be celebrating our second anniversary on Monday, August 6th. Weather permitting, we will climb Mont Royal in the afternoon. We might pack a lunch and have a picnic atop the mountain. Hopefully, by the time we decide to come down, it’ll be late enough so that we can catch the sun set on Montréal. Later in the evening, we’ll go to a fancy restaurant and drink wine with our souper.

We will be back in New York City the following Saturday, August 11th. Probably with lots and lots of photos.

Tonight’s dinner was provided by yours truly. If I had had any on hand, I would’ve grilled us some salmon. However, I didn’t have any fish lying around (my family is not really a fish family — hell, we only recently strated stocking red meat because, up until a few weeks ago, I was the only one who ate mammal in my family… but now my sister eats it, too) and was in no mood to go the grocery store to buy salmon… So I decided to try making rice instead. You see, rice is very difficult to make. At least for me, it is. So I scoured the web for a how-to on cooking rice… and came upon this. The guy who wrote the tutorial is a chef, so he must know what he’s talking about, I told myself. And I was right! Too bad he also knew what he was talking about when he wrote that one must use a heavy-gauge pan in which to cook the rice. “If your pan is made out of some thin flimsy metal, your rice will get nicely burnt at the bottom while the grains at the top may not cook properly,” wrote Madhu Menon.

Boy, was he right!

However, I had enough cooked rice at the top to fill both plates… so it all worked out. (Despite following Menon’s instructions, my rice still came out sticky. This is probably due to the crappy pan I used, so I won’t blame the chef for my mistakes. This time.) I also stir-fried some frozen vegetables and made some chicken (seasoned with lemon pepper, yum!) to go with the rice. All in all, it took me about 35 minutes (of actual work) to make a meal for two. Alex and I scarfed it down in about 15 minutes, though… But, hey, that means it was good!

Ever since that fateful day in August, Alex has been in and out of court. The first time he went, the felony charge was dropped. (After all, you can’t yell “Fire!” in a crowded theater. Only I fail to see how asking a security guard if bombs are OK is in any way similar to that.)

From Alex’s blog on December 3, 2005:

In court, the prosecutor dropped the felony charge and offered 10 days of community service for the misdemeanors. Lawyer “respectfully denied the offer” with intentions to keep my record clean. I have court again on February 8th.

The second time he was in court, he ended up waiting three hours for his lawyer to show up o_O However, when he finally got there, he told Alex that “the misdemeanors were now just disorderly conduct (violation, not a crime), which means that [Alex's] record stays clean, no matter what.” Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. When my sister’s boyfriend (who was arrested, too, but for a very different reason) was charged with “disorderly conduct,” all he had to do was pay a fine. We were all hoping that Alex would be faced with a similar offer. The ideal situation, of course, would be to come off clean and not do anything… but that wasn’t realistic.

A couple of weeks ago, my house phone rang. I found this to be odd because that phone hardly rings anymore (not since we all got cellphones) but decided to pick it up anyway:

Guy: “Hello. May I speak with [struggling with pronunciation] Alevtina V————?”
Me: “That would be me.”
Guy: “Hi. My name is [didn't catch his name] and I’m calling from the District Attorney’s office.”
Me: “…”
Guy: “Several months ago, you were witness to some guy yelling ‘BOMB!’ in a museum?”
Me: [cringes] “That’s not what happened… but yes.”
Guy: “No, okay! That’s why I’m calling. I want you to tell me what happened.”

So I told him o_O When I hung up the phone, I realized that perhaps I shouldn’t have said anything. After all, the DA was the enemy: he’s the one trying to punish Alex for something so ridiculous. It was not until Thursday that I found out why the DA’s office needed my side of the story.

Alex’s third and, hopefully, final court appearance was this past Thursday. His lawyer informed him that, while all the charges were dropped and his record is clean, Alex is faced with 10 days of community service. (The actual name for this is Adjournment in Contemplation of Dismissal.) He told Alex that the DA wouldn’t settle for anything else. That’s why I was called that time: the DA was trying to figure out what kind of punishment to dole out. The lawyer also told Alex that he’s had clients who were students at NYU who had to do 20 days of community service for just misdemeanors — so doing 10 days for a felony was really a good deal.

Tompkins Square Park
New York, NY

So, now, Alex has to find his way to Tompkins Square Park every Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday until April 9th. He’s to work there from 8 in the morning until 4 in the afternoon. Needless to say, Alex is bummed. First of all, he feels he should not be punished. His belief is that he didn’t do anything wrong — after all, all of his charges were dropped — so why is he being punished? Secondly, he lives on Staten Island and must find his way to Manhattan three days a week before 8 AM. That means he has to be out of the house by 6 AM. He asked if he could do service on Staten Island and was informed that, since the crime was committed in Manhattan, he has to work off the hours in Manhttan. And, lastly, they took all of his free days for the next four weeks. This leaves him with little time for anything besides school.

For some reason, my mind just flashed back to the morning of July 31st…

Allie
July 31, 2005 | 5:47 AM

After spending a whole night together watching movies at my house, Alex and I went to a deli near his house to get some breakfast. I bought a bagel and a cup of coffee. He got a small box of Tropicana orange juice. We took our food and drove down to the Conference House Beach. I remember parking in the lot and walking to the waterfront, feeling dwarfed by his stature… and at the same time, thinking how amazingly safe and comfortable I felt in his presence.(There was also a brief moment when I couldn’t recall whether I was wearing any pants. That was quite frightening. But I blame it on the lack of sleep — after all, we’d watched five movies, consecutively, over the night, and didn’t get any sleep. I ended up feeling my legs and waist, tugging at my jeans to make sure they were really attached to my body.)

Alex & Allie
August 30, 2005 | 7:27 PM

I remember desperately wanting him to hug me throughout the time spent together. In my apartment, we went from sitting on two different couches… to lying on the floor next to each other. At the beach, I would try to stand extra close to him so that there would be some kind of contact. I remember looking at him and smiling at the fact that his eyelids were a purplish-pink from the sleep deprivation. When I gave him half of my bagel, his fingers grazed mine as he took his share… and the hairs on the back of my neck stood.

Driving him home that morning was one of the most difficult things I’ve ever had to do. I didn’t want him to leave. I would’ve done anything and everything in my power to prevent it. But, alas, the time came for him to return to his house — where his parents were anxiously awaiting his arrival. (He didn’t tell them he’d be going out that previous night.) Again, I wanted some kind of contact from him… but I was too afraid to verbalize this desire.

Allie (& Alex)
September 27, 2005 | 2:05 PM

He closed the door of the Cougar (RIP) as he left the vehicle. He then poked his head back in and rested his arms on the window pane. “I’ll see you later, maybe?”

Tuesday will be four months since we’ve started going out. We’ve been together almost every single day since that night.

My family currently has access to one vehicle. The Maxima is in the shop. After the Nissan dealership performed maintenance on the car, we were told that the automobile required new brakes — however, instead of getting ripped off a second time, we took it to a friend’s garage to have that done. On the way to the shop, though, the Maxima was hit by a driver who didn’t stop at a stop sign. Good thing it was on its way to the shop, then, eh? It’s been there since Tuesday. (The insurance claims adjuster only examined the car yesterday.)

Muffins
Photo by Allie

Of course, that means that when my parents have the Murano for the day, I am left without transportation. That also means that when Alex comes over, we really can’t do much besides watch TV and bake stuff. (He doesn’t have a car, either.) Two months ago, for our second monthiversary, we baked brownies. Then, a week ago, we baked banana nut bread (from scratch!). Today, we made muffins from a box.

We’re such a cutesy couple. We bake, watch TV, and nap together. Sometimes, we even make our own dinner. (For the first 3 months of our relationship, we went out to eat practically every day. Yay, healthy diet!) We’re also trying to get some kind of workout regime going.

I guess we’re trying to undo the damage done over the first three months.