One fun thing about being Mrs. Gothra is that Mr. Gothra is AMAZING at planning things.  Our first date was perfect, he always wanted to try new things with me, and the way he proposed was, in my humble but accurate opinion, the best way anyone has ever proposed.  The man is good.

And he made my 22nd birthday absolutely wonderful.  So wonderful, in fact, that I just have to share it with you!!!

My birthday started early Saturday morning.  I woke up and got to open presents first thing!  My mother-in-law had dropped by late the night before after I was already asleep. She came just to bring presents and see us – isn’t that sweet?  Well the goodies she brought were amazing!  One of them came from her and Timothy.  If you read my post yesterday, you know what that one was.  If you don’t know, hurry and read that post because it was a good’un!!!!

After they left I had an entire lazy day to myself.  Timothy’s mom brought some Indian food from his dad’s restaurant, so that was my lunch.  Mmmm mmm good!

If you haven’t tried Indian food, just know that it tastes much better than it looks.  It’s pretty much heaven on earth.

After lunch I read some of my favorite blogs, read a book, had dessert – it was basically the perfect afternoon.  Oh, I also had my first experience with the show “Hoarders.”  Has anyone ever seen that show?  It was like a train wreck.  I couldn’t take my eyes off it!

Moving on.

Timothy left work early to pick me up for a birthday evening.  The plans?  Dinner and a opera!  Yeah, I told you the guy was good.

We had dinner at The Scholar’s Inn in Bloomington.  It was absolutely ah-mazing.  So so so good!

We had a trio of bruschetta for an appetizer.  This seriously may have been my favorite part.  It went from this…

…to this in no time flat.  So amazing!

I had fish with thai coconut bisque.  It was very, very good … and it looked cute too!

Surprise, surprise, Timothy had steak!  He was thoroughly impressed.  (This is his impressed face in case you can’t tell. And also, isn’t he a cutie?!)

We had an absolutely lovely time!

And I got to eat my favorite dessert – CREME BRULEE!!!!!!!!

After dinner we headed over to IU’s opera house.  This place is gorgeous!  It’s decorated in a really weird color scheme, but it somehow just makes everything seem more dramatic.

We sat in one of those balcony-space-ship-pod things.  It was a really neat perspective.

My sweetie and I!  See what I mean about the crazy color scheme they have going on?

The program was called “Opera From a Sistah’s Point of View.”   Angela Brown was the soloist and she sang several arias from different operas and explained them from a “sistah’s” point of view.  She came out on to the stage dancing to some r&b song.

We were all a bit confused.  Then she said “sike!!!” and started singing in this beautiful, pure soprano voice.  Talk about dramatic!!  She had on a leopard print dress, enough jewels to fit a queen, and a feather jacket.  Yes, it was made of feathers.

I loved the way she explained the story of each opera.  She called everyone “boo” and was so entertaining!  Then she would walk over to the piano, compose herself, and sing in such a way that you got chills.

After intermission, she came back in another outfit that was even more blinged out.  For the second half, Angela sang spirituals.  I was a little skeptical as to how spirituals would sound when sung opera-style, but she quickly set me straight.  She rocked out!

Timothy’s favorite part was the encore.  She and her pianist left the stage, and then she came back with a new pianist – Lamar Campbell!  He is a very talented gospel artist. They performed “Give Us This Day” and it was definitely a highlight of the show.

It was the best way to spend my first birthday as a married woman.  I love this wife stuff!!!  We had such a wonderful, fancy evening, yet I laughed so much the entire night.  Sometimes I wonder if we’re even mature enough to actually be married?!

Probably not.

The above pictures were inspired by this great moment in movie history.

~Whitney