It was fun to be a part of someone else’s wedding week for a change. I’ve actually never been a bridesmaid before. A reader, yes. And even a flower girl. Twice. Which I sort of remember. But this was my first experience as a bridesmaid. Sweet. It was all the giddy fun of wedding week, but without the stress and pressure of actually GETTING married. Lots of pictures after the jump, so hold on to your internet connection
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Archive for the 'wedding' Category
Yesterday was a day of running errands and hanging out with my mom in the afternoon. We watched “the illusionist,” which was a pretty good movie.
Then I got to hang out with JENNI! who is getting married on saturday. I will use all caps at an exclamation point from now on whenever mentioned JENNI! because that’s how excited she is ALL THE TIME! Anyway, I gave JENNI! her “before the wedding day” gifts: a little lacey nightie with matching thong (in her WEDDING color! oh yeah!), a selection of strawberries and champagne scented body care products from Victoria’s Secret, a framed print of two little peas in a pod with a little heart above them (awwwww), and finally, the gift I am MOST proud of: the EMERGENCY WEDDING DAY KIT!
If you have a friend, co-worker, or cousin and you want to get them a wedding gift but everything left on the registry is lame (like pillow protectors and wooden spoons), HERE IS WHAT YOU DO!
Purchase a sparkly fun tote bag of some kind. Smallish, not a huge thing. And fill it with things that you need but might not have KNOWN you needed on your wedding day. JENNI!’s bag contains:
- bottle of kiwi strawberry vitamin water
- Tide pen
- small bottle of Tylanol
- Q-tips
- sewing kit
- safety pins
- deoderant
- tissues (MOST IMPORTANT!)
Some other things you can include are: energy bar, small bottle of vodka. But I ran out of room.
I also got to see The Dress. Which is GORGEOUS and lovely and she’s going to look SO GREAT in it, it’s just flowy and…uhhh…Jen? What’s wrong with that button?
On the back is a row of satin button. But they’re “fake,” in that it actually zips up, and the buttons hide the zipper. But one of the satin caps on the buttons had fallen off, leaving just a plain plastic button. Oops. Panic search ensues. No satin cap.
The plan is for JENNI! to call the bridal shop to see if they have the little caps that they can just snap onto the plastic base, instead of having to lug the dress back over there and sew on a new button. I told her to use super glue.
Super glue! That should have gone into the kit!!!!
Fortunately, JENNI! is not bridezilla, and she did not even come close to a meltdown over this. There is time. It will be fixed. And all will be OK.
Today mom and I are having lunch with my grandmother. Mmmmm…turkey devonshire!
With Apologies to TDR for Stealing Her Format.
Saturday, Kev and I had some shopping to do. We realized last week that our phone contract was almost up with Verizon, which meant YAY NEW PHONES for us! So I went to my favorite gadget comparison site, Cnet.com, and looked up Verizon phones to see which ones got the best reviews. I settled on the LG vx8600 pretty fast. It got a rating of 8, and the only big complaint was that the finish on it lent itself to finger smudges. HA! Have you seen my house? Do I look like the kind of person who would be bothered by smudges on my phone?
No.
Kev picked out a phone as well, and then we were OFF to the Verizon store. Where he learned that the phone he wanted was only available online. So we perused the other phones, and decided to come back the next day after he checked online for reviews.
By Sunday, he was pretty sure what phone he wanted, and we had also decided to add his mother to our plan. She’s never had a cell phone, and was originally going to share a plan with Kev’s nieces, which didn’t work out…etc etc.
I still wanted the lg vx8600.
Kev looked over the phone he wanted, which opened up like flip phone, and also like a keyboard. But hmmm….it looked fragile. Maybe he wanted this other one instead. But which one for his mom? This one looks good…hmmmm…
The poor verizon guy. Every time we thought we were done…no, not done yet. KEV wasn’t done deciding yet.
Finally, after an hour of flip-flopping, we settled on both of us getting the vx8600 (I mean, KEV settled. I had my phone picked out the day before, remember?), and the 8300 for his mom. Finally. Verizon guy started our renewal paperwork..but…wait. Kev changed his mind. His dad used to work for Motorola, so his mom would probably want a Motorola phone instead (OH MY GOD WOULD SHE KNOW THE DIFFERENCE??? NOOOO!), so back to the wall o’ phones to FINALLY pick out a RAZR.
So now we all have very cool, very flat, phones. I need to bling mine up a little so Kev and I don’t get our phones mixed up. And one of those tiny SD cards to expand the memory so i can put more than 3 songs on. And a silicon cover to protect it from smudges. OH, MY PRETTY PHONE HAS SMUDGES ON IT! IIIEEEEEE!
So with our BRAND NEW SHINY phones activated and somewhat personalized (oooo, Kev, they have a MOTORCYCLE wall paper!), we headed home, to…YOU know…
oh yeah, baby…wikka chikka WAH WAHHHHHH….
Waaaay back in November, right after we got married and had our reception, I used some of our gift money to purchase stuff off our registries that we hadn’t gotten as gifts. Because I really needed that stuff..dammit!
Included was a big online order from Target, things that were pretty much only available online and thus out of reach for my technically challenged family. Half of the order came fairly quickly. The second half…not so much. I kept getting emails…there is a delay…there is a problem…this item is no longer available…
Yes, this blog participates in the WAR ON CHRISTMAS!!!
Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Prosperous Kwanza, Joyous Yule, or whatever you choose to celebrate over the next few days. We’ll be celebrating Christmas. In alabama!
So I will be without a decent internet connection for the weekend, though we will be traveling back on christmas day. I have all the gifts wrapped, and I just made gingerbread and sugar cookie dough, in an effort to force a tradition on Kev’s mostly traditionless family. WE WILL DECORATE COOKIES! YOU THERE! AWAY FROM THE TV! I NEED M&M BUTTONS, STAT!
so that should be fun.
our cable is fixed! I hope. he replaced some cable wires, gave us a new cable box (it’s so tiny!) and told me that the cable wiring behind the walls was old, and should really be updated, except it would be difficult to gain access because these were condos.
Whatever. I have channels now, I am happy.
Have a happy and safe holiday, and I’ll catch you all next week!
***********
you may now kiss the bride!
wrapping presents
Kev: ohhh…your presents are small. it looks like they can all be stocking stuffers
ESC: oh, poor ESC. only a few small presents for her. and allll these big presents for Kev…
Kev: goddammit! you are going to love your gifts! you are going to love your gifts SO MUCH, you’re going to give me BUTTSEX!
ESC: HAHAHAHAHBLOGGING THAT!
Kev: dammit.
wedding image of the day:
cable problems! and the comcast guy on the phone was WAY too cheerful about it.
while I suffer, here’s another fun picture. spliced together for added cuteness. click on it for bigification.
Today I finally mailed off my Christmas gifts, with a prayer that they get there on time. 2 boxes and 1 big envelope PLUS an international big envelope shipment.
$36
Also, as I panicked yesterday about the fact that we would NOT be sending out christmas cards, someone at work mentioned that she will occasionally receive Happy New Year cards, and how cool it was because they came after the christmas cards stopped coming.
OH SWEET!
We’re not LATE getting cards out! We’re just choosing to send out new years’s cards instead! Thoughtful!
I ordered them today - picked one of our wedding pics for it. And I only ordered a certain amount, so I can’t do that “hey if you want a card, send me your address” thing. Chances are, if I already have your address, you’re on the list for a card.
And here’s something else to keep you animals happy.
I think my bouquet was my absolute favorite part of that whole day. Besides the whole “marrying my best friend and soul mate” thing. My bouquet, though….wow. It just rocked my world.
guy#1: OK, dude…we have to decide where to put all these DMV offices in Atlanta
guy#2: why don’t we put them in nice, moderately populated areas that are convenient to get to and find?
guy#1: what are you, stoned? this is the fuckin’ DMV! We need to find a vortex of sadness and anger to put these offices. let’s put onnnne….over here somewhere.
guy#2: but…there’s nothing there but pawn shops and liquor stores! and that crappy uber-ghetto mall!
guy#1: oh, that’s an even BETTER IDEA, dude! Let’s put it IN the crappy mall!
guy#2: but then…you won’t be able to find it from the road - and no businesses around there have visible address numbers on them! the street address would be useless!
guy#1: I KNOW! this is great. where should we put the next one? let’s see…where is the highest concentration of meth labs…?
******
So after an hour of driving around the ghetto back and forth IN THE POURING RAIN trying to find the DMV, I FINALLY have a new driver’s license. I am officially Mrs Evilsciencechick Kevslastname. Bitch took my picture, though. I wasn’t prepared for that - I still had another two years on my license, they should have just used the older (and BETTER) pic. Instead, I now look like a very pale drowned rat. Nice.
And since I was already wet and miserable, I decided to make it a two-fer and drive across the parking lot to the social security office, for ANOTHER long wait. all told, about a 6 hour adventure. At least the lady who helped me (finally) was pleasant. And congratulated me on the wedding (still gets me tingly).
I am now Mrs. Evilsciencechick Evilmiddlename Kevslastname in every legal sense.
still don’t feel different.
Today it took me 4 hours to shop in two stores.
The “I hate lenox mall” song!
I hate lenox mall on a weekday!
Oh I hate lenox mall weekends too!
where are all these rich spoiled kids coming from?
Why are they always in my WAY?
Alllll the salespeople are idiots
How long will I be here today?
EVERYBODY NOW! Oh I hate lenox on a weekday!”
I hate lenox mall weekends too!!!
yeah. I did a “finish out the registry” day today. Got much loot at Crate&Barrel and Macy’s.
ESC - I need a “completion of registry” form so I can get 10% off my purchases today?
Macy’s lady - no problem. You know, today we’re having a special on completions of registries. If you spend over $200, you get 15% off, and if you spend over $300, you get 20% off.
ESC - are…are you challenging me???
Now we have a complete set of oh so fluffy Hotel brand towels. Ooohhhh..so…sooffft…
in…are you ready for this? PINK AND BROWN!
I have stuff on ORDER from Macy’s, now,too. Because it would be too much for them to have commonly used All Clad pieces actually in stock. Or even in stock at their warehouse.
If I can find that non-stick frying pan for as good a deal as I got at Macy’s, I’m cancelling that order. Otherwise, I have to wait until Dec 27. No eggs for you! I want that chef’s pan TOO…but that should be in in a week or two.
There was a couple there doing the same thing with their registry. The must have had almost $2000 worth of All Clad among their purchases. *weep* So…much…beauty in the world…
OH! and a pasta maker attachment for my KitchenAid! Who wants fresh fettucini???
I also wandered around Crate&Barrel and picked up the stuff there that everyone seemed to avoid LIKE THE PLAGUE on the registry. Beer mugs, little glass bowls (square! everything we registered for was square! Square is the new round! Did you know?), one of those fancy push-up measuring cups, and miscellaneous other bits and gadgets that make my heart melt at $3.95 each.
Splurged yesterday, too. the Bed Bath&Beyond gift cards were burning a hole in my wallet. Wusthof boning knive…CHECK! Good Grips liquid measuring cup set….CHECK! washcloths and dishtowels…CHECK!
My theory is that we had to shop for our stuff SOON, because it’s holiday shopping season, and the crowds are only going to GET WORSE.
I hate holiday crowds.
And the only reason I had to go to friggin’ Buckhead and Lenox mall today was that the Macy’s at the big nice mall waaay outside the perimeter where the crowds were a little managable, were “too small” to carry the individual pieces I was looking for. they also didn’t have the rest of the Hotel collection towels in the right color. I got that at B,B&B, too, when I asked if they carried individual All Clad items. “this is one of our smaller stores.”
where the fuck am I, minimall??? And I had to fucking order the pans ANYWAY, so where did this all get me???
OK, enough shopping orgy rant. I got nice things. I should not complain. Now we’re going out for noodles. because now that I have all this nice stuff to cook with, I don’t want to mess them up by actually USING THEM!
two for one posts today - you kids are lucky I love you. please don’t ignore the oh so funny tribute to Santorum below, though.
So today I got to convince the bank that I am indeed married to Kevin, that my last name will now reflect that, and that I can sign all these checks the nice people gave us last weekend legally and deposit them into a brand spanking new savings account in both our names.
I took one of the official copies of our marriage certificate as proof, as I don’t have my drivers license changed yet.
So ORIGINALLY I was thinking that I would simply add my maiden name to my middle name. Giving me four names, which is cumbersome, but yeah who cares? I was told at the marriage license place by the polite and courteous staff (pft!) that to do that, I’d have to go to Superior Court (they were merely the Probate aka “Inferior” court).
So yeah, no big deal, I’d probably have to fill out some forms and pay a fee and that’s that, right?
And WHY do I have to do that anyway? I’m not changing my name to anything exotic! I’m simply retaining all my names. Not coming up with a brand NEW name.
“yes, I’d like to change my name to Kringlebert Fishtibuns*”
But noooo. complications!
I just last night looked up what was involved. 6 sets of forms! appearance before a judge! and, according to a several times divorced faculty member, a $500 fee!
screw that.
So I will just take Kev’s last name, and then when I publish, throw my maiden name in there for good measure - they don’t check ID at these journals, right?
I have to practice my new signature, though. ALOT. I had to endorse alot of checks today (we have VERY generous friends and family - it was a bit overwhelming. we also have stingy tight-ass and INCONSIDERATE family, which was VERY underwhelming - irritating story there), and I had to catch myself a few times with the maiden** name.
The problem seems to be that I got used to the lazy way I signed my name before, where for each name, I didn’t have to lift the pen up - one letter flowed easily to the next in a very satisfyingly loopy manner. My NEW last name is also somewhat loopy, but the first letter doesn’t lead easily into the second - not yet, anyway. I will find a way! And there is a DOT?!?!?!
Dammit. My lazy days of autographage are OVER!
*if you recognize this, I love you
**”maiden” - yeah RIGHT! *snort*
Long and picture heavy!
The blogging didn’t happen over the weekend. There was just NOT THE TIME!
The frantic pace started thursday. We decided to try one of those off airport parking lots, with the shuttle that takes you to the airport. Found one for $6 a day. Sweet. We set off for the airport a little later than planned, but make great time. Until we get two lights away from the parking lot. Where we find traffic backed up. Because of an accident. At the intersection where the lot was located.
RUSH RUSH RUSH. We made it to the airport, to discover that our flight is delayed a half hour. Sweet - we have time to grab some cheese fries. And then mosey on over to the gate. Where they’ve already boarded everyone and are about to close up. Because apparently that time they post on the tv screens? That’s just a loose estimate. Fuckers.
But we got on the plane and got to pittsburgh without further incident. Thursday night, we relax. Friday, we shop. Tax free clothing, w00t! Fucking georgia and it’s taxes. Anyway, I got two new pair of shoes, Kev gets one pair and an ivory dress shirt and tie to match to wear to the reception (his shirt and tie that he already had for his suit were grey/blue. (”YOU WON’T MATCH!” “So?” “YOU WILL MATCH!!!”)
We get home and wait for my parents to come back from dropping off decorations at the reception location. While we wait, a call comes in. The family is in. And they’re on their way.
*cue menacing Jaws-like music*
It’s the Italian side of the family. Three of my mom’s cousins and two of their husbands, plus my Aunt Rose. My great Aunt Rose.
They are all Italian.
They are loud.
They are uhhh….AGGRESSIVELY friendly.
And I have already prepared Kev for this.
My parents get back. The family arrives. And there is not another quiet second for the rest of our time in pittsburgh. Kev and I are still married. This is a miracle.
They fight. They laugh. They eat. They love Kevin. They discuss medical issues.
It’s home and family and I am very relaxed 
Until my mom runs over to the cleaners to pick up our dresses. Oh yes, they have her dress. My dress? Oh, they send wedding dresses OUT to be cleaned. And this “out” place usually waits until they have 6 or 7 dresses, and then clean them all at once. Don’t worry, it only takes a few months.
HAHAHAHAHAFUCKYOUWHEREISMYDRESS!!!!!!!??????!!!!!!!!!!!
Somehow, the dumbass 15 year old girl they had working the counter when my mom dropped the dresses off failed to mention this.
They inform my mother that the manager will be in later and will call her. Mom reports this back to my father, who is waiting in the car. Dad turns into…DADZILLA! Go DAD! He storms into the cleaners. He informs them that we will not be waiting for the manager to call. They will get the manager on the phone RIGHT NOW, and she and my father will have a little chat.
The chat is effective. The dress will appear cleaned, steamed and ready to go Saturday morning.
So we all eat too much ziti and drink too much wine, and then Kev and I go to Quaker Steak and Lube to eat wings and drink with Julie and Rick…and the entire student population of my old high school. Apparently, they won the playoff game by a lot, and the kids enjoy celebrating with wings. And yelling. Lots of the yelling.
They gave us an AWESOME wedding gift of matching stainless steel lunch buckets (possibly bento-esque?) and chopsticks. Yay chinatown!Saturday morning was a flurry of activity. I had an appointment to get my hair done, so I left Kev in the clutches company of my relatives and got my hair all dooded up (ah yes, pittsburgh stylists love their hairspray) and got my nails done.
I returned home to a frantic cookie organization in progress:
I will tell you right now that there ended up being at LEAST 15 trays of cookies at the reception, yet I don’t have a picture of that yet.
For those who were not born and raised in western PA, here is an explanation of the cookie table.
I stayed out of everyone’s way. You don’t get in the way of my relatives and cookie tray organization.
My dresses was finally in, and it looked clean. My dad was not forced to go all terminator on their asses. But the drama was not over quite yet…more later.
The relatives finished their preparations, the cookies were dropped off, and we were informed that not ONLY were there these cookies, but that another great aunt had come through with TEN ADDITIONAL TRAYS. Oh my. that’s alot of cookies.
Everyone got dressed and I put on my makeup - I’d put on my dress in the “bride room” at the reception hall. Where there would be munchies for the bridal party - yay!
Then we arrived and I decided to check to make sure my dress was bustled before I put it on.
Fuckers.
ABSOLUTE FUCKERS!!!!
During the cleaning process, the cleaners had ripped off the center button of the bustle. I freaked. My mom was calm. My parents only lived a few minutes away from the hall. She left, went home, found a button that amazingly almost matched (not that it mattered, you don’t see the buttons) and a needle and thread. There is a picture, with reception guests arriving in the next room over and my family and MoH standing around in their fancy clothes - all watching me sew a button on my wedding dress. When I get that picture from my mom’s cousin, I will post it.
An employee showed up and asked if we wanted anything from the bar while we waited. yes, a rum and coke STAT! And the band leader came in and wrote down all our names for our big entrance.
He still screwed up Kev’s and mine last name. *sigh*
But it was a lovely time - the room was beautiful. there were many people there, most I knew, some I didn’t. The music was awesome. The food was…OK, I think. The cheesey potatoes were good. We actually didn’t get to eat much…we had to mingle a lot.
My brother did indeed give a toast worthy of the ages. Sadly, no one got it on video. Dammit. He did mention the word nipples (his, not mine or Kev’s). And my parents were suitably embarrassed, as they had never heard that story (thankfully, he only ELUDED to the story, he didn’t actually tell it), and ended with a memorable “may you live every day as if it is your last, and every night as if it is your first.” and received thunderous applause and laughter.
some pics - click to make them bigger and maybe get more of an explanation.
The maid of honor
view from the head table
the band
Julie and Rick
tearing up the dance floor
MoH and her fiance’
the party went late. the alcohol was flowing, and the dancing only got better as the night went on (at least it seemed that way…I had alot to drink). My bustle made it all the way through until 10 minutes before it was time to shut down - Kev stepped on it. Oh well.
My dad was feeling no pain (again with the Manhattans) and my mom was going out to the tables, grabbing people, and dragging them to the dance floor.
My parents dancing.
In the end, Kev drove us all home. My dad only thought about it for a second and then handed over the keys. Wise move.
Somehow, we changed and managed to drag our tired asses over to the hotel to see Julie, Aimee, and Nanner. There was some knitting. Some Braveheart. There was a discussion about penises. There was beer and vodka and gingerale. And then it was time to leave and let the early-leavers get to sleep.
It was all just lovely and perfect. And the envelope box was stuffed generously. All in all a FANTASTIC reception. Even Kev, who was nervous about meeting that many people, had a good time. He even managed to dance our “first dance” without stepping on my feet (it was “a kiss to build a dream on”).
*sigh*
and it’s all over.
all the pictures that I have can be found here. I’ll get more as they’re sent to me.
Oh, Sunday was interesting, too. I’ll blog more about that day later. In the meantime, you can get a pretty good idea of what I did here . 
Kev and I got home saturday, leaving sunday as a “buffer” day, allowing us to relax, reacclimate, and unpack.
One out of three ain’t bad. I spent much of yesterday on the couch, trying not to move my right arm at all. Peeps, I was in some serious pain.
Why?
Fishing. Lots and lots of fising, using a very lightweight and springy rod….and a reel that weighed about 5 pounds. And lest anything of you say “hey, ESC…you WIMP! I know what fishihg is. You cast out and then sit on your ass and drink alcohol until you see your bobble wobble, give a little jerk, then reel it in. Fishing is LAZY work. There should be no soreness of muscles or tiredness AT ALL”
suck it, OK?
This was ocean fishing. We waded into the water hip deep. Dealing with SURPRISINGLY LARGE WAVES. And there was no bobber. You had to feel for a tug. Except that every wave passing feels like a tug. And you have to distinguish between the two, which isn’t easy and leads to a lot of very excited fierce tugging and reeling in, and then swearing, rebaiting, and recasting…waayyyy out recasting. With a really heavy reel.
My shoulder..and some tendon or muscle that goes from my middle finger, up the side of my arm, and ending at the elbow…will never be the same.
YET…every day….where are we fishing today???? the beach? the bay? the pier???
Kev was quite bemused to find out he had married a woman with this much fishing enthusiasm. Because it was fun! And you could maybe eat what you catch! and that is cool!
except mostly what we caught were:
Quoth the Kevin: I can’t believe we drove all the way to the damn gulf coast to catch fucking catfish.
We also caught pinfish and croakers (which make super creepy croaking noises as you’re trying to manuever the hook out of it’s mouth). These are inedible, but DO make good “live bait,” as we discovered on our last day, when we fished from the beach at the state park. Kev baitied his large hook with a still wiggling pinfish (sqick!) and cast far out.
After a while he reeled back in to recast, and found…half a fish. Something had taken a very neat and very large bite out of the back end of the fish. we both stared in horror.
“uhhh…babe? maybe you shouldn’t wade out there much further”
no shit. because oh, what I DIDN’T mention earlier in the week? something that happen on our FIRST full day at the beach?
I was happily splashing around the beach, waiting for Kev to get his act together and come down and join me. After a while, I just sat in the sand, letting the waves wash over me, and revelling in the ocean (if God is my father, the ocean is my mother. I love the ocean. If I didn’t fear hurricanes so much, we’d be looking for jobs in tallahassee right now). As I sat, I watched the sun glistening off the waves…and…a fin?
Hahaha…now ESC, don’t be ridiculous. You’ve watched jaws ONE too many times, obviously. That was NOT a fin. not so close to the shore!!!
Except…hehhehehee….crap. Yeah, that’s a fin. Two fins, actually. I stood up and stared. The water was nice and clear, giving me a great view of two 4 foot bull sharks swimming around about 10 feet from shore.
Uhhh! Uhhh! I pointed and looked around. What is the protocol for this? SHARK! ummm…HEY! SHARK?? The beach is mostly deserted, but there is an older woman not too far away who saw me pointing and grunting and came over to investigate.
We marveled at the size of the sharks. She casually mentioned that someone had caught a 3ft bull shark from the beach the day before. Well that would havce been NICE TO KNOW before I just spent an hour frolicking in the waves!
I grabbed my cell phone (dammit, Kev had my camera!) “KEV! THERE ARE TWO SHARKS HERE SWIMMING AROUND IN THE SAME AREA I HAD BEEN SWIMMING AND OH MY GOD THEY ARE HUGE!!!”
“sweet. I’ll bring my big rod”
pft. men and their “big rods”
The sharks were long gone by the time he got there, but for the rest of the week, I kept a sharp eye out for fins.
anywho…not many more pictures to share.
I made cookies:
and vodka jello:
we caught crabs. lots and lots of crabs.
In fact, there are still cooked crabs in my fridge - 7 of them. I’m a little sick of crabs. Is there any other food anywhere in the WORLD that gives you so little in return for so much work???
I finished my pirate hat
arrrrrr!!!!
I bought the best pen ever:
And on our last night, we decided to go splurge and eat a nice fancy dinner out, at the Owl Cafe in Apalachicola. Where we spent much money and drank a bottle of wine.
before dinner:
after dinner. I am drunk
Because it was our honeymoon, our dessert was free - the most delicious caramel custard ever. It was the only free honeymoon perk we got all week. Dammit.
Sadly, it came to an end. We packed up alll our stuff and headed home. I wore the t-shirt that my mom had found in hilton head the week before, which she thought was so funny she rushed mailed it to me so I could wear it on the honeymoon.
Kev doesn’t find it quite as funny, for some reason.
We’re back home to chilly Atlanta and a better internet connection. Nightly storms seemed to mess with the wi/fi at the rental house, which is why there hasn’t been much posty goodness.
I will post some pictures later - tonight or tomorrow*. Truthfully, I hadn’t taken all that many more - there’s only so many pictures you can take of a sandy beach and us fishing. And blue crabs. Lots and lots of blue crabs.
I’m going to go stare longingly at the photographic print we bought from the art gallery on our way off the island, showing the beach, sea oats blowing in the wind, and storm clouds blowing in…
(and if you’re a trucker who was driving north on 316 today, I was the girl in pink giving her husband** a hand job in the red camry. w00t! hope you enjoyed the show.)
*pics are now up at the flickr site
**HUSBAND! TEE HEE!
no pictures today, sorry.
We successfully woke up early this morning with the intent to go fishing.
Then we had monkey sex and fell back asleep.
We did eventually drag our sorry asses out of bed and pack up the car with our fishing gear. The day was windy, like yesterday, but warmer and sunnier. Still, the gulf side of the island was all turbulent waves. We headed for the bay side of the island, where the water was calmer.
We fished all day. My fingers were covered with shrimp and squid guts from the bait…hence…no pictures. I didn’t want to get that shit on my camera.
Sadly, all we caught with our poles were small, inedible fish - mostly pinfish, and one croaker, which LOOKS like the pinfish except it kept making creepy croaking noises as I pulled out the hook.
Even though they’re inedible, we plan to use them as bait fish for the next time we go fishing - off the pier. Maybe we’ll catch something worth eating!
I should ALSO mention, that the majority of the fish catching today was done by ME. I have that magic touch, I guess. not to deprive Kev of his masculinity completely - he caught a few - hehehehehe. However, my right arm is now SORE AS FUCK. Which means Kev will have to take care of his own business for the next day or two
We found a crab trap in the house, and managed to use it to catch one big motherfucking blue crab. Only one, but Kev left the trap in a tidal pool overnight, so maybe there will be more waiting for us tomorrow. Anyway, it was rather horrifying to watch Kev disembowel the hapless creature before dousing it with melted butter and wrapping it in foil, ready for the grill.* However, the crab was DELICIOUS. We ate it along with grilled steaks and the shrimp we bought out the back of a van (actually, a TRAILER) from a dirty and hairy guy who does his own shrimping.
Florida is awesome.
*while I seem to enjoy the process of catching food and certainly enjoy eating food…the part in between those two seems to squik the hell out of me.
it was windy and grey today
so we did some exploring
and drove in to apalachicola to do some walking around
and then later, I went for a walk on the beach
1st argument of the week
“what kind of shoes did you bring?”
“sandals and flip flops”
“what?? you’re supposed to bring a variety of shoes on vacation!”
“but…this is the BEACH!”
“still…you need to be prepared! what if…I don’t know…we walked around a mall?”
“I would wear sandals. I’ve worn sandals all summer.”
later, after being introduced to the intense pain that are sand spurs.
“ow! ow ow ow! get it off GET IT OFF!”
“I told you that you should have brought better shoes.”
“but…you didn’t tell me there would be STICKY JAGGED SPIKEY BALLS OF PAIN growing everywhere!!!”
“I didn’t remember, I haven’t lived in florida for years”
“uh huh…WE’RE AT THE BEACH! WHO BRINGS HIKING BOOTS TO THE BEACH???”
“you do if you don’t want sand spurs”
“shut up”
the dog biscuits
the packing
the drive
the cotton
the state o’ Jeb
the bridge!
the house
the water!
the walk…full of sand spurs. ouch.
the Kev
the me
the sunset
REFRESH YOUR BROWSER!!!
Many pictures were taken. There was much arranging of the dress and train. This was amusing, because since if I moved, the dress had to be rearranged, it was easier for me to just stay put and have different people rotating in the picture.
party #1: the church reception
I decided way back that since the BIG reception was going to be in pittsburgh, and that the dinner reception here in the ATL would be small, and that I couldn’t possibly invite everyone who would come to the wedding to the dinner..and because I am part italian and you CAN’T LET PEOPLE LEAVE A WEDDING WITHOUT FOOD OH MY GOD, PLEASE HERE, HAVE SOME SHRIMP!!!
Uhh…anyway…that we could have a small cookies and nibbles reception in the church parlor. Volunteers brought cookies and such, and I ordered some trays from the grocery store across the street - fruit, cheese, and shrimp.
As soon as we entered the parlor after the pictures, and everyone applauded, one of the women from the choir came up to me and said “DON’T PANIC”
oh shit…what????
“there is no punch. we stole some bottled water from one of the classes upstairs and made coffee, so everything is fine.”
oh shit…I forgot the punch! Jen and I were supposed to pick up punch ingredients at the store the day before.
Oh well…
Someone got me a plate of goodies, and I walked around and chatted, coming dangerous close to dripping cocktail sauce on my dress as my plate tilted.
My parents left early with cousin and hubby to set up table decorations at the restaurnat for the dinner reception. We had some time to kill, and everyone was gradually drifting away, except the wedding party. We had to get into the limo by 5:30. I kept asking “what time is it???” (I had left the beautiful sparkly watch my mom bought for the occasion AT HOME! I was upset at this). FINALLY it was 5:30, and I began ushering everyone outside to the limo…when…wait…
why is my grandma still sitting here? My aunt and uncle had brought her, but they were NOWHERE TO BE FOUND! What the HOLY FUCK??? There was no room in the limo, and with her bad legs, she probably couldn’t duck down into it anyway. I couldn’t just LEAVE her, but if we didn’t get to the restaurant soon, we’d have to pay for another hour for the limo.
WHERE THE FUCK ARE MY AUNT AND UNCLE??? Bro did a lap around the church, but here they come pulling up in their rental car.
Whew. We pile in the limo.
(later, they told me that they had just made a dry run to see if they could find the restaurant. even later, I found out that this was mostly bullshit. they did go to the restaurant…to sit at the bar and drink. not offering to help out my parents AT ALL in the setting up. so basically, they were bored at the churh and abandoned my grandmother so they could get away. DON’T GET ME STARTED ON THE MANY WAY MY AUNT AND HER HUSBAND HAVE PISSED OFF MY FAMILY OVER THE YEARS, BUT OH MY GOD, THIS HAS TO BE NEAR THE TOP OF THAT LIST!!!)
Party #2: the restaurant
The room at the restaurant is gorgeous. Centerpieces and candles and little silver bells with placecards that have names and what they ordered on them. there is a table filled with family photos. and the cake…the cake is gorgeous! With a flower topper that matches my bouquet.
We quickly find out that the little bells are functional, and people immediately seize on the idea that instead of tapping their glasses or champagne flutes (wedding favors, with little beaded glass markers on the bottom) they could just RING THE BELLS every time they wanted Kev and I to kiss.
Oh yeah…that got old quick.
We need to do things out of order, so that the photographer can get his pictures and leave. I didnt want him hanging around while we all ate, taking pictures of us all stuffing our faces with beef wellington and chicken cordon bleu. So first was the toast.
This was the one thing that had caused my brother the most anxiety. To be fair, while he was the best man, he didn’t really know Kev all that well. He had notes prepared, which was funny, because you could HEAR how nervous he was. Normally, you can’t get my brother to shut up, but he really wanted this toast to come out right.
It was a great toast. thoughtful, no embarassing stories, and best of all, short.
Then to the cake cutting. We used the knife my mom had bought for my grandparent’s 50th anniversary party. It wasn’t some expensive knife - I think she got it at Hallmark for $10. But she decided to get it engraved for us. Because it was “used,” things remembered considered it an “heirloom” and charged more. So there was a $40 engraving on a $10 knife. Ha!
We cut the cake and very neatly fed each other little pieces. I’m sure most of you will be disappointed to hear that we didn’t shove it each other’s mouths and smear icing all over our faces but THAT IS TACKY and also I just spent $200 on hair and makeup and do you think I want icing TO RUIN THAT? DO YOU???
No.
Photo ops done, the photographer leaves, the piano player (church member I found last minute) arrived to play dinner music, and the salads were passed around.
The food was delicious. The beef was so amazingly tender. It was a HUGE slice of beef wellington, and I almost cried because I couldn’t finish it. Our favorite waiter was there, and he made sure that Kev and I had whatever we wanted. “can I get another cosmopolitan” “YES! Another one for you! Do not drink WATER!!!”
My father also seemed well taken care of. At some point, my father must have decided that his favorite drink in the whole world was the Manhatten. He had a few of them at the rehearsal dinner, but at the reception…he just let LOOSE. He wasn’t falling down drunk, but by the time the cake was served, he was feeling NO PAIN. I had never seen my dad drunk before, so this was very funny.
My mom was disappointd in the cake. She thought it was too dry “you need to CALL HIM. call THAT GUY AND YOU TELL HIM! THE CAKE IS DRY!”
Thinking back on it, I don’t think she realized that the yellow layer with the fruit filling was buttermilk poundcake. It wasn’t dry, it was just firmer than yellow cake. I had the chocolate layer and it was DELICIOUS! I don’t think the waitstaff was used to cutting wedding cake, though. They didn’t take apart the layers, they just cut around them, so everyone got teeny pieces. Which was partly OK, becaue everyone was too stuffed anyway (they also served vanilla ice cream with freash strawberries to accompany the cake), but we have SO MUCH CAKE LEFT OVER! I am seriously sick of cake.
click to see the notes:
At one point, my brother handed me a wedding gift and told me it was eerie how much we think alike. After that, I HAD to open it right away.
a 30GB iPod video. sweet! (we think alike because we gave my dad a nano at the rehearsal dinner).
me: Do we have to share this?
Kev: hey, you already have one!
me: but it’s a MINI!
Kev: Still, you have one.
me: I’ll give you the mini!
Kev: It’s PINK!
me: I’ll cover it with duct tape!
(we’ll share it. actually, it’s not even out of the box yet. too busy to set it up!)
There was much mingling, and this is where the true joy of a small reception comes in: not only do you get to share your day with only your closest friends and family, but also, everyone gets a chance to talk with everyone else. The families got to get to know each other even better, the wedding party got to know the families and each other…it was GREAT. there was no cliquish staying together.
The evening was just…perfect. All that planning and work…mostly by other people! and it all came together beautifully.
Everyone had a good time (well, maybe not my aunt and uncle, they looked bored but SCREW THEM everyone else was having a blast!!!)
Finally, it was time to break up the party. Not for the night, but at least at the restaurant.
Dad: “I’m going to the LOUNGE at the hotel! I’ll be at the LOUNGE! DRINKING!”
Jen: “Doesn’t the hotel lounge close at 10?”
Dad: “It’s open until 11 on WEEKENDS! I’m going to the LOUNGE!”
oh yeah. dad was drunk. Afterwards, I saw my mom looking over the final bill. I cautiously asked her how bad it was.
Mom: “Well, we came in under budget, but it’s an awful lot of money for 33 people.”
Me: “Mom, you know half of that was dad’s manhattens.”
Mom: *sigh* I know. I hope he doesn’t think he’s driving back to the hotel.
Kev and I get a ride back to the hotel in Jen’s fiance’ Dave’s rental car. The night is still young, so we agree to change clothes and then go out for some more celebrating.
But first…Kev and I did some celebrating of our own. Hehehehe…LEGAL AND RIGHT IN THE EYES OF OUR LORD!!
Of course, while we were having our fun, Jen, Dave, and my brother were having their own kind of fun.
That’s my car.
(Funny, I drove it like that for a few days. And because this is atlanta, it was hard to tell if people were beeping at me because of the window, or because I didn’t move fast enough at the light. I almost gave the finger to a few well wishers before I caught myself)
eventually, we all met in the lobby. Me, Kev, Jen, Dave, Evan (bro), and his girlfriend Steph. Where should we go? Steph confessed that she was actually a little hungry. You know what? I was too! After all that food! There was nothing else to do…to a PUB with us!
Party #3 - Brickstore Pub in Decatur
They had a big Oktoberfest celebration that day, so the place was packed. Unfortunately for me, it meant they were out of every cider. The waitress talked me into an apricot beer. I was doubtful, but OH MY GOD it was so good. I can’t for the life of me remember the name, so if anyone out there knows, please tell me! Kev and I split some chicken fingers and fries. mmmm…greasy bar food.
Evan ordered a shot of yeagermeister (sp?) and a pint of spaten. I announced I had never tried yeager before, and my brother and Steph were STUNNED. I sipped his shot.
Oh my, that’s enough for me, thanks. If I want to drink pure anise extract mixed with maple syrup, I can do that from my pantry, thankyouverymuch.
Kev was quite pleased with his drink order: a LITER of Spaten. It looked very impressive and manly net to our drinks.
then a group of girls came in. One of them had a veil. I pointed and yelled
“ANOTHER WEDDING! NO! WAIT! A BACHELLORETTE PARTY!”
“YES!!! OH!!! YOU TOO???” she pointed to the headband I was still wearing.
“NO, I just got MARRIED, BABY!!!”
“WOOOOHOOOO!!!!”
They sat at the table next to us, and ordered liters of spaten. Kev was slightly deflated at this. But he still finished his manly beer.
We stumbled back to the hotel at 1:30, tipsy and exhausted.
You see the beauty of picking a hotel in downtown decatur? We could walk almost everywhere - except for the church and restaurant. It was a good spot for drunks like us, though
All together, it was the best day of my life. I married my soul mate and got to share it was all the people I love. And everyone had a wonderful time, which was very important to me, too. What a perfect, wonderful, gorgeous HAPPY and all around fantastic day to get married.
I had requested a wake up call for 7:45am. Earlier than neccessary, but I like to wake up slowly.
It was the best night sleep I had gotten in weeks. I woke up a little before the wake up call feeling refreshed and calm. I turned on the Today Show. I lay in bed half dozing, half watching tv, for a half hour.
Then I got up and decided that what I wanted more in the whole world was a nice hot bath. Jen had thoughtfully bought me a whole bunch of goodies from bath and body works, including a travel set of lavender acacia scented bath goodies. A hot bubble bath in soothing lavender. It was heaven.
Afterwards, I got dressed, putting on a top that had hooks down the front - a tip I had gotten from Jen, as I would be getting my hair done and didn’t want to have to lift a shirt over my head after all that. Just as I finished, I got a call from mom. Everyone was downstairs in the lobby, having breakfast, was I able to join them?
“Is Kev there?” He stayed at the condo, but was coming early to pick up the guys for their shaves.
“Oh..uh…yeah. Wait 5 minutes, then come down.”
“make SURE HE HAS THE RINGS!”
“OK….he says they are at home and he’ll get them later.”
“he’d BETTER!”
I was famished, and joined my family and friends for a hearty breakfast buffet. Well, they had already eaten, so they just watched me eat.
“are you nervous? stressed?”
“…no, actually”
and I wasn’t. I was surprisingly calm. Whether it was the good night’s sleep, the soothing bath, or the fact that everything had been set into motion already and everything was going to play out accordingly, and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it. There was no sense in getting stressed about things that were now out of my control.
Mom and I pick up the beautifully de-wrinkled dress. And then we, along with her cousin, walk around downtown decatur, stopping in a few stores. Mom comments that this is the most laid back wedding morning she’s ever experienced. We have nowhere to be until 11:30. We are all relaxed and easy.
Back to the hotel to gather all the girls up. Near disaster averted as, just as we get to the hotel entrance, Kev walks out. I duck behind a cab until I get the all clear.
Just a brief glimse, but at least I wasn’t in my dress!
We gather up the munchies and walk to the hair salon, late. (note the themes here: late, even though everything is within walking distance.)
My stylist is in a bit of a panic, as we are 15 minutes behind. I am whisked away to get my hair washed. Everyone else sets up the goodies: crusty italian bread, crackers, goat cheese, cheese cubes, and, most importantly, mimosas.
My makeup is gorgeous. I have eyelashes. Fake, but I have them. And beautifully done eyes and lips. My hair is sprayed into place with plentiful hairspray, and the headgear is clamped in with so many bobbi pins, I lost count. But while everyone else is getting done and enjoying the munchies, I was only able to sneak a few bites in. So that by the time I’m done and it’s time to head back to the hotel, most of my HIGHLY SPIKED mimosa is still left (mom didn’t realize we had already mixed the champagne and organge juice in the pitcher, so she added MORE champagne to my cup). Well…it looks like orange juice, right?
I’M TAKING IT! It’s just a short walk to the hotel. It’s JUST orange juice.
Except there is a cop parked a block down the road.
HA! I can see the headlines now “bride arrested on wedding day for open container.”
we cross the road and continue to the hotel without incident. either the cop didn’t see us, or didn’t care, as I was walking down the road with full on makeup and a veil trailing behind me in the wind. Who is going to arrest a bride drinking orange juice? NO ONE, THAT’S WHO!
Just enough time at the hotel to gather my things, my dress, and my wits. Erin and Jenni had to hook me into my impressively restraining underthingies, thus restricting my ability to bend at the waist. Pft! Who needs that skill? Later, when we all pile into the limo, I am squished into a corner, legs straight out like the bride of frankenstein, and very immobile.
Before the limo arrives, though, I am informed that Kev’s nephews tux jacket has arms that are TOO SHORT! Melissa tells me her mom (Kev’s sister) is really upset, and she wants ME to talk to the folks at the men’s warehouse. A cell phone is thrust into my face.
Seriously, people…what am I supposed to do about this now? I really don’t give a crap.
We arrive at the church, and I am extracted from the limo like a breach birth. We hurry to the bridal ready-room, keeping an eye out for any groom sightings.
My nerves finally start to kick in once we get into the room. The guys were late getting to the church (A CONSTANT THEME!), throwing off pre-wedding picture timing. I can’t get into my dress until the photographer comes to take pictures of it (he likes to get the “dress draped casually across a sofa” look).
So far, only two things have gone wrong (aside from the perpetual lateness)
1. tyler’s sleeves are too short
2. Elizabeth, one of my bridesmaids, doesn’t have pierced ears and thus can’t wear the earrings I bought her to go with the dress.
WHO DOESN’T HAVE THEIR EARS PIERCED IN THIS DAY AND AGE???
Two girls in the bridal party, apparently. Jen’s aren’t pierced but by some freak accident the earrings I picked for her were clip-on.
The necklaces all look fabulous, though.
Photographer finally shows up, along with the videographer. Now we have to watch what we say, because EVERYTHING IS ON TAPE! Dress pictures taken, everyone is kicked out but the girls so I can get my dress on.
Fits like a dream. Everyone BACK in, and the pictures start up again.
“sit down in this chair.”
“hahahahaha…I will try.”
For the rest of the day, I have the absolute best posture of my life. but anything I drop on the floor for the rest of the day has to be fetched by someone else.
Everyone leaves again, and I am left alone with videographer lady, who wants me to give a special message to Kevin on video.
Oh crap.
Good thing I’m wearing the waterproof mascara. I squeak something out between tears. Dammit. I’m not even in the sanctuary yet!
We move to the parlor area, where we get some group shots, including some around the piano which should be pretty cool if they turn out.
Bro shows up looking smooth an suave in his tux. He whips out a small box and hands it to me - it’s from Kev. He leans down and whispers “he said to tell you this is the best day of his life.”
there go the waterworks again.
In the box is a beautiful bracelet, silvery gold with little sparkly brown and gold gems that match my dress and necklace.
Now MORE pictures, this time with the bracelet. My mom looks at her watch “Kevin is now officially getting nervous.” We are 15 minutes behind schedule. I can hear J, the organist, riffing on the organ.
OK, we find the secret passage way that will get us to the back of the churh without being seen. More pictures of me standing next to a small stained glass window.
but….
I WANT TO SEE MY BOUQUET! WHERE IS MY BOUQUET???
I had picked burgandy gerber daisies, ivory stock, golden roses, and little brown berries for my bouquet.
Obviously, my florist loved me.
Not ONLY did my bouquet have those flowers, he had taken the same flowers that were in all the coursages and bouteneirs and incorporated those into my bouquet as well. Sunflowers and the dusty roses and the deep dark red roses…all coming together in a fall fantasy bouquet.
It weighed about 20lbs. Oof! My mom said later she wondered why I walked down the aisle holding the bouquet up to my chest instead of lower down, so people could get a better view. Then she held the bouquet. Yeah. That thing had to be HEFTED!
We were ready! The mothers and my grandmother were seated to a solo of “jesu, joy of our desiring.” Then Susan, a friend from choir who was acting as our wedding coordinator for the ceremony, pressed the button to let J know to start the processional.
It was time.
Gradually, everyone walked down the aisle, until it just my father and I were left. Again the button was pushed, and J began the dramatic part of the processional. We stepped in front of the door and…
began walking. It was small group, but it was all the people I wanted there to share this day with me. I could see Kev waiting for us at the front. I had tears in my eyes, but was successfully keeping them from spilling over…until I saw Kev’s mom, who was openly crying.
That was it for me!
There was a bit of an “oh shit” moment when I realized I had to climb the steps of the platform, but had no hand free to lift up my dress. I’m sooo happy I didn’t trip.
Dad handed me over to Kev, and I handed my bouquet for Jen, who then had two big bouquets to hang on to for the rest of the ceremony. During the prayer, Kev mouthed “tissue?” to me, and I nodded. He sneakily reached into his coat pocket and slipped it to me, all without unjoining our arms. I dabbed my cheeks and eyes, and handed it back.
All this, of course, caught on camera. She was RIGHT ABOVE me in the choir loft.
And then I realized…oh shit…I don’t remember anything from the rehearsal. I will have to wing it, because I don’t know what’s happening next.
Doesn’t matter, because it all goes by SO FAST! We lit the memorial candles. We listened to the short homily…I don’t even remember what it was about - something about marriage being a gift, and that even when we fight or go through rough times that make us hate each other, we need to remember that gift..and…uh..fake it? Something like that. We listened to another solo - words from the song of solomon. We said I do’s.
Then she asked for the rings. My brother’s eyes grew wide for a second, as he patted around his jacket. He said later that he wasn’t fooling around, he had temporarily forgotten where he’d put the rings. I thought he was just joking. It was funny…for a second.
But the rings were there, and we repeated our vows flawlessly*. Both our fingers were so sweaty and swollen that we could only jam the rings on partway. Kev tried, though, I thought he was going to break my finger.
*at the rehearsal, the pastor asked Kev to repeat after her “I Kevin, take you, ESC” and he responded “I ESC take you Kevin…”
HAHAHAHAHADon’t do it again.
and then a prayer…then an amen, then a “what god has brought together let no man break apart”…another amen…
a kiss…
and…
DONE!!!
over so quickly!!! I can’t believe it! all that planning! all that stress! and…it’s over! In…like…a half hour! and it all went beautifully!
and….
I’m MARRIED!
holy shit!
next: Part 4: PAR-TAY!
Kev had been somewhat worried about work. The owner/boss had been on a tirade about people taking off, and while none of that was directed at Kev, and while they new he was getting married and taking a week off for a honeymoon, they DIDN’T know he’d have to take some time off for the pittsburgh reception. He curried favor by working on thursday, and then deciding to work at least half a day friday. He thought he’d just go in very early and then leave at noon.
I let him know that while I understood that this was important for his job, and that while I didn’t want him to get in trouble, I would prefer if he were around on Friday. Even if he was only working for a few hours, it would be enough to put him in a bad mood, and make his back and neck ache (anyone know a good chiropractor in atlanta? Kev needs one desperately).
He set his alarm for 6:30am. It went off, I blearily turned on the TV, he turned off the alarm…and got right back in bed with me. It’s easy to talk yourself out of work at 6:30am.
I woke up around 8:30 and quietly started puttering around - I had a suitcase to pack, I had to pack a small bag for Kev CONTAINING THE RINGS WITH A BIG SIGN ON IT SAYING “PLEASE DON’T FORGET TO TAKE ME!” IN BIG RED LETTERS.
I call one of Kev’s neices to determine how far away they are - his family was driving in that day. “we just passed 6 flags.” which is 40 minutes away. holy SHIT, what time did they leave??? turns out, 4am. the hotel is not ready for them. I tell them to maybe park at the hotel and then walk around town? I don’t know what to do for them - they can’t check in until 1:30 at the earliest. oh well!
I realize that while my dress has been altered to perfection and is hanging in my closet, it is wrinkled as hell. I call a nearby dry cleaners. Yes, they will do it and have it ready for pickup saturday morning…can I get it there ASAP? YES I CAN! I can walk there, that’s how close it is. Jenni, the MoH, starts to come to life a little after 10, and Kev is somewhat awake and apparently trying to drown himself in a hot shower. I walk my dress to the cleaners, and stop at the nearby bakery to pick up 4 piping hot ham and swiss croissants for breakfast.
I accompany that with some mimosas made with leftover champagne.
(I forgot to mention yesterday that after our errands were done, Dad dropped mom and I off at home while he ran to Home Depot to pick up a gift for Kev. Mom and I sat like stoned zombies on the couch for a bit, and then she turned to me and said “do you have any wine?” this is funny, as my mom rarely drinks. I had no white wine, but I DID have a bottle of Frexinet spumante in the fridge. So mom and I worked our way through most of a bottle of sparkling wine, drinking it high class in juice glasses. We were pretty lit by the time we had to leave for dinner)
I was a hero. The three of us munched and drank. My mom called, and I mentioned that I was going to ask Vic and Erin to run to the farmer’s market. We were going to need munchies the next day whille we got our hair done. Mom decided that her cousin would love to see the market, so they decided to go themselves. Kev went off to see if he could find a barber shop for the next day - his idea was for him and the groomsmen to get straight razor shaves on the wedding day. Jen and I had errands to run as well, first we dropped Sadie off at the boarding place. do not feel bad for her - it’s one of those places that lets the dogs run around and play all day - at $30 a night, she better be having the time of her fucking life! She expressed her displeasure by pooping on the concrete floor of the check in room.
Awesome.
Then to the grocery store. What all did we need? Why didn’t I make a list? Chips and dip, milk (for the condo, not the wedding) starbucks coffee and twinnings tea, all for the church “pre-reception.”
what else? WHAT ELSE?
Oh well. Time to get our shit together and head to the hotel. Kev’s family had gone to a nearby museum to entertain themselves, and then checked in just fine. I gathered Jen, mom, mom’s cousin, Stephanie (bro’s girlfriend), Erin (bridesmaid), and Kev’s mom and walk us all over to the nail salon. we get there late (this is a theme for the rest of the weekend). The two times I have been there before, there was MAYBE one other person getting their nails done. That day? There were 4. Shit.
We all get our manicures and pedicures, even mom’s cousin who originally was just along to watch. She had never had a pedicure before, but as soon as she saw the little jacuzzi foot baths, she was IN! In spite of the fact that it takes 3 HOURS, we all had a good time. I get hugs from the “boss,” who tells me that she just LOVES Kev’s mom. Hehehehe…that’s just funny, for some reason.
There is now no time for my parent to drop off the table decorations to the reception restaurant OR to try to get to the church early to decorate before the rehearsal starts. Jen and I check in to our rooms, shower, and get dressed.
We all then meet up again in the lobbly and leave for the church. Late. Again.
Everyone is waiting for us. Including Kev. But the very FIRST thing I do, before even kisisng Kev hello, is dig into my purse and pull out THE MARRIAGE CERTIFICATE. Nightmare #1, vanquished. I hand it to the pastor.
The rehearsal was weird for me. Walking down the aisle again and again, holding my bow bouquet, it STILL didn’t seem real to me. We repeat as neccessary until we all feel comfortable with how things are going to go, and then all pile back into our cars and head to…the DINNER! late!
Which was a blast. We had the balcony to ourselves, at a great cajun restaurant. I debate what to drink, and settle on raspberry martini’s. I laugh with my friends about the drink on the menu called “japanese tea garden,” which has about 8 different liquors in it. We get our drinks, I look over at my mom. she is drinking a tall glass of something green.
“mom…is that the japanese tea garden?”
“YES!”
Oh my.
The food was great. Poor Tyler, Kev’s nephew - up since 4am and his body waves the white flag. He can’t even wake up to open his gift. Everyone LOVES their gifts. My dad is happy with the nano, which he admits he’ll need help setting up.
As a bonus, Vic tells me that when they got to the table, there was a box containing a bottle of tequila on the table. He hid it on a chair, in case it was left there by mistake. It’s called “silver patro’n.” anyone know anything about the brand? It looks expensive. Anyway, he slips it to us - PARTY IN MY HOTEL ROOM, BABY! We’re assuming it was a gift from the restaurant.
After dinner, everyone gradually makes their way off. Kev and I are left. We won’t see each other again until the wedding. It’s a little tearful.
Jen and I head bak to the hotel. Her fiance’ has finaly arrived (we’ve all known each other since high school - all trombone in the band) and after changing into our PJs, they hang out in my room for a while. Jenni was exhausted, so I kicked them out and curled up in my king sized bed. Alone.
It is quiet and peaceful. I am calm, and I drift off to sleep.
My parents arrived by car Wednesday around 6, and my brother and his girlfriend’s flight arrived around 7. We all gathered at the hotel in downtown decatur and had a nice dinner, Kev joining us as soon as he got off work.
Thursday - My parents come over to the condo, which I have already warned them is not going to be in a spectacular state. But the floors are clean, the furniture is in place, and the kitchen is spotless, thanks to me taking the day off on wednesday. My mom is still disgusted. “At least can you see the vision, mom?” “No.” *sigh*
My dad likes the color of the floor, though. He grills me on future plans for the condo, and challenges me on the dining room chandelier. OH MY GOD, IT’S NO LONGER CENTERED OVER THE TABLE!! HOLY FUCK, WHAT WAS I THINKING??? I explained to my father that I was not about to give up on doubling storage with the new cabinets because of a stupid light fixture, and if we have to, we’ll buy a longer chain and swag it. This seemed to satisfy him. He also seemed OK with our plans to replace the kitchen counters, once I explained to him how the Ikea counters worked, and how dirt cheap they were.
The parents and I run last minute errands, including getting new prints of our engagement picture, as the 8×10 picture I had for our “signature” frame was too big - mom TOLD me 8×10. She denies this. She said she had told me 5×7. This was one of many arguments that day. We check out the church and the set up. the coffee station. The candelabras. The all important punch bowl. Everything is set. But we are all still on edge and snippy.
The term “bridezilla” was bandied about. Pft. I was NOTHING compared to some brides I’d heard of.
One bright spot of the day was finding a new knitting shop tucked away near my church. Cool, can’t wait to check that out further.
Bro and girlfriend had the best day of all of us - slept in until late afternoon, walked around town until dinnertime.
Finaly, errands for the day done, we had dinner at our favorite thai noodle place, then dad and I headed to the airport to pick up Jenni, my maid of honor, and my mom’s cousin and her husband. Jenni and I were dropped off at home, she stayed the night in the spare room.
That night I had wedding nightmares. I had forgotten the wedding. I was at the wedding, but couldn’t remember any of it. Everyone had forgotten to come. We forgot the marriage certificate. When I wasn’t having nightmares, I was making mental lists: we have to go to the grocery store, I have to ask Vic and Erin to go to the farmer’s market, we have to get sadie to the boarding place…
Next: friday and the rehearsal
this is all of us right now:
too tired to post it all, so clicky to see the pre and post-wedding pics:
oh, and Nanner? Your necklace got more compliments than I did, I think. It was a hit - thanks so much for such a beautiful gift!
more will come when my friends email me the pics they took.
I’m sorry, no posting until after the wedding.
EVERYTHING IS GOING FINE, IT’S JUST VERY BUSY! AND I MIGHT JUST HAVE TO KILL MY PARENTS, BUT THAT IS A LONG STORY!
I’m sure we’ll be fine.
Pray for me.
I had a large to-do list to go through today, involving many stores. I think I got it all - I haven’t had the energy to check my list.
1. target. bought earrings that somewhat match the necklace nanner made me, bought MORE LIPSTICK - this is #4, and if it doesn’t look right I may just have a nervous breakdown, and a shirt for Kev that is probably too small and will have to be taken back. and lightbulbs.
2. smoothie at smoothie king. not really on my list, I just needed the energy.
OK, I have an addiction, HAPPY NOW? SMOOTHIE KING! RELEASE ME FROM YOUR FRUITY DELICIOUS GRIP!!!
3. Party City - plates, napkins, cups, little wooden toothpick forky things, serving tongs, all for the cookie and nibbles reception at the church.
4. Michaels - they do not have no drip candles. no one does. I am screwed.
5. the mall, where I bought:
a. crop and print 3 8×10 engagement shots at wolf camera. one for the signable frame for the reception, and one for each of the moms.
b. two pair of nice pants, and two nice shirts for Kev - one of which he can wear to the rehearsal dinner. apparently, I have an addiction to microfiber. so soft…and drapey! and ON SALE!
c. bath and body works - coconut lime body butter (I will smell like a very weak pina colada on my wedding day)
d. shoes to match my rehearsal outfit - I was having FITS. black? bronze? heels? with a long straight skirt, my first instinct is boots. but it’s friggin’ 80 degrees here. so…wedge? but not too high, and must be comfortable, and hey, what’s that on the rack at that store over there? black wedges…with bronze accents on the wedge part…couldn’t be my…oh my god, they’re my size…but they’re probably…oh wow, they fit great and are comfortable…but how mu…holy shit 5 DOLLARS!!!!
oh yeah. little bitty orgasm there. I totally rock. and because I saved so much money on the shoes…
e. clearance summer clothes from old navy - for the HONEYMOON!!!
then it’s on to:
6. Outback steakhouse to buy gift card as gift for Kev’s family. Am told they only have $10 denomenations. Leave with 10, $10 gift cards. This should be funny.
7. run car through car wash, vacuum out dog hair and old french fries.
8. home, relax, blog
9. clean kitchen and vacuum spare bedroom.
10. go to airport and pick up brother and his girlfriend
I haven’t gotten to 9 yet. my parents just called - they have just gotten into the city, (getting on the 285 ramp, or “hell” as my dad calls it) and will go to the hotel first. They want to know what we’re doing tonight. I don’t know!!! Must pick out restaurant for all of us to eat late tonight. I have no idea what the schedule will be tomorrow. Or friday. OR SATURDAY, FOR THAT MATTER!!!
I AM NOT READY FOR ALL OF THIS!!!!
and my feet hurt.
waaaaaaah!
************UPDATE****************
family is in. all is good.
and earlier, I can’t believe I forgot to share my favorite purchase!
Sadie is so fashionable.
Nothing stresses me out more than people telling me how not stressed I look. “are you nervous? You look so calm! I’d be so freaked out right now! HAHAHAHA!!”
Hahahahahafuckyou.
I’m on very good drugs, OK? And for once I think I have things ALMOST under control. Except that the ditz limo guy still hasn’t faxed my mom the payment form, and I still have to pay the cake guy - I’m probably going to have to drop it off in person…SWELL…and there is much confusion at the church office about wedding protocol, as my pastor told me they would use the deposit that they weren’t supposed to cash that they DID cash anyway towards the fees for janitorial services, the organist, etc, but apparently no one told the office manager this and OH MY GOD I hope they get that straightened out, otherwise we are going to owe a lot more money…even though we’d get some of it back..
AND ARE YOU CONFUSED YET, BECAUSE I SURE AM!!!
**************
depressing stereotypes
I sat behind a girl who happened to be african-american on the shuttle today, and noticed her studying a notebook of her handwritten asian writing of some kind. I asked her what language she was studying.
“Japanese”
“wow. I’m really impressed!”
“hehehe thanks! It’s really hard.”
“I’m sure it is!”
I had so much respect for her, trying to learn such a difficult language. I suck at languages - I can’t imagine learning one that’s not even romantic/germanic based.
1 minute later I lost my respect for her as she answered her cell phone.
“hey! where you at?”
GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!
*************************
geek nostalgia
The contents of the lab are officially moving off to Duke next week, and the lone post-doc and I are scrambling to get things ready. We need to hoard away the stuff we’re keeping, and get everything else cleaned up and ready to move that’s going.
I’m going through the shelves above my bench, pulling out half-empty bottles of media, old no-longer-sterile water, and no-longer-used buffers…when I find…
Buffers I and III. Old school miniprep buffers.
They were also the very first buffers I made in the lab. Probably on the first day - the date on the bottles is right around then. We don’t use them anymore - we have the miracle of pre-made kits. But still…it was a little hard to dump those down the drain.
*******************
*twitch*
For some tradition which origins are unknown to me, and probably are non-existant, Kev and I are…”refraining” for this week leading up to the wedding. Some people do a month, some do two weeks…we think we might make it a week. This is some kind of stupid idea thought up by people like us who have been living IN SIN and think that by abstaining for a few days before the wedding, our virginities will magically reappear and our wedding night can be super duper special.
Which is not only bullshit, but also some kind of cosmic joke, because just when you’re at your MOST stressed and need some kind of outlet…NO SEX FOR YOU!
We kind of cheated last night, but not really. We just…uhhh…made ourselves happy in the vicinity of each other. Bwaha! how’s THAT FOR WORDING!
Anyway…this is going to be a rough week all around.
oy.
one week to go. here are more things to check off my list
1. reception centerpieces.
I had to make another Michael’s run, but they’re done!
a closeup of one
you can’t really see, but nestled in the middle is a glass votive candle holder.
2. necklace for wedding.
Nanner said she’d make me a wedding necklace a while back. I have been SO EXCITED TO SEE IT!
AND…she dropped it off IN PERSON! I’d like to think I’m the reason she drove all the way down here, but it was really to see her new fav band. But anyway, I got to see Nanner again, she got to meet Kev and Sadie, and she enjoyed some good Mexican food. Then she stressed out completely about getting her BSC necklace ready for the concert. STRESS!
But anyway..here’s the necklace:
want a closer look?
TOUGH! Wait until the wedding. There will be many pictures, I assure you. But it is GORGEOUS and so incredibly detailed. THANK YOU NANNER!!!!
3. wedding programs. Done and DONE! Printed out on the departmental color printer. Here is the pic I put on the back:
I love you, photoshop!
4. cleaned! well, the living room and dining room are clean. So far, the guest bedroom is still a disaster. That is Kev’s domain, and he’d better get cracking, or my maid of honor will have to sleep on the couch thursday night.
But all the furniture is back in place, the rugs are back, and while it’s not “mom” clean, it is CLEANED ENOUGH!
One robotic dog for the future nephew.
One 2GB iPod Nano for my father.
An 8×10 frame, a mother-of-pearl butterfly ring*, and a sopranos DVD* for the future MiL
An 8×10 frame, a small Coach purse wristlet, and a “coin pearl” necklace with matching earrings for my mother.
*previously purchased
Bridesmaids are already taken care of. We have small stuff for the groomsmen, Kev needs to decide what else. But now…I’M DONE.
my dogs are BARKING, and I’m hungry. I’m going to go boil some tortellini.
One of the nightmares I’ve been having lately is that it’s our wedding day, and we’ve forgotten EVERYTHING. The candles aren’t lit. My dress is wrinkled. No one knows where they’re supposed to be. And WORST of all, we forgot to get a marriage license!!! NO WEDDING WITHOUT THE LICENSE!!!
This morning, I dragged Kev to the courthouse. Obligatory picture for anyone who lives in Dekalb county and is getting married:
Oh yeah, you know you’re in Georgia now, buddy!
There are many scary rules in the Marriage and Pistol License probate court office. First off, they point you to a pile of clipboards with forms to fill out. The top sheet on the clipboard says “DO NOT APPROACH THE CLERK WITHOUT FILLING OUT PAPERWORK!”
“Do not approach the clerk?” Sounds like a good band name.
Under that order/thinly veiled threat (or what? what happens? I approached the clerk first…am I on a list now? WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN TO ME????) is a sheet of instructions on how to fill out the booklet. Those instructions stop at line 15 of the booklet, with two more pages yet to fill out. OH MY GOD, I NEED TO APPROACH THE CLERK! Yes, we have to fill those out. I pull out the whole booklet and finish filling it out (my handwriting is neater, therefore, I get to fill out all paperwork in this relationship. And Kev kills bugs. We should formalize these duties in our vows).
Paperwork done, we approach the clerk. Then, another panicky moment…at the top of the clipboard, a sticker: “DO NOT REMOVE ANY PAPERS FROM THIS CLIPBOARD”
Holy shit! We’re screwed!
I frantically stuffed the booklet into it’s spot in the clipboard before the clerk got to us. Whew! that was close!
Those people are STRICT!
We had to swear an oath (right hands raised and everythihng) that all the info we had given was factual and complete, blah blah blah. Paid an OUTRAGEOUS fee, and that was it. We were handed the certificate and an envelope of more papers. Hmmmm…
“Congratulations on getting married. Let us tell you about AIDS!”
That was weird. I guess this is lieu of a bloodtest now?
To celebrate our halfway legalness, we ate breakfast at Chik fil A. Because nothing says We Are Ready To Make A Lifetime Committment To Each Other like chicken biscuits and sweet tea.
Last week on the phone, my mom asked me if I was still going to do the reception centerpieces.
Whoops.
So today, I took the afternoon off and went to Michaels, Office Depot, Target, and CVS. I bought small baskets, votive candles with glass holders, floral foam, and assorted silk flowers and leaves. I was disappointed with the fake goard assortment, so I’ll have to see if grocery stores start carrying real tiny decorative goards soon. Very soon.
I bought paper for the wedding programs. I bought waterproof mascera, individual fake eyelashes, and long lasting lipstick, as per my stylist’s instructions.
I bought a gift for my brother, and a small gift for my future mother in law. Kev already bought her the latest Sopranos DVD as a gift, but I thought that might not scream “thanks for all the money for our wedding.” So I bought her a mother of pearl ring with a butterfly on it.
I still don’t know what I should get my parents. Maybe…TiVo? Any suggestions?
OK, way too much wedding stuff. Here is a fun picture of Sadie for those of you who made it all the way through!
I met with the pastor (MJ) at my church today, the one who will be performing the wedding ceremony. Kev and I have selected the kind of service we want - the one that’s a little more contemporary than the traditional one from the Presbyterian Book of Order, but we added back in some stuff involving the families, plus the lighting of some memorial candles.
There is a part of the service that involves a reading from the Bible. I’ve already asked Kev’s sister to do the reading: she’s agreed…nervously.
MJ emailed me a list of possible traditional verses that would be appropriate for a wedding. And I have to choose. Most of them are…ehhh…well, there’s alot of verses about loving God…or giving glory to god…or weirdly, the Wedding in Cana, where Jesus yells at his mom, then turns the water into wine, which OK, it takes PLACE at a wedding, but it’s not really romantic wedding material. I want something about loving each other.
I’ve picked a couple of finalists. I would SAY I’m putting this up for a vote, but I (that is..”we”) will make the decision ourselves anyway. But I’d like to hear some opinions. Or suggestions: is there another obvious one that we’re missing that would be great?
1 John 4:7-12
Song of Solomon. 8:6-7
and the ever popular: 1 Corinthians 13:1-13
and yes, I’m sure that there are plenty of NON-Biblical poems, quotes, passages, whatever. I’m not really considering those…and actually, I’m not sure we’d be allowed to use them. But if you have something REALLY REALLY just ABSOLUTELY PERFECT and NOT from a guns and roses song, I’d like to hear it.
But I will feel free to ridicule you if it’s silly.
I’m a little bit gheettoooo…
I will post about our fun weekend in alabama later. Right now I MUST POST about my shiney new things! My nails!
I had a meeting with the florist today at 3, but he was stuck at their other new location in buckhead and would be delayed. I could hang around the florist for a half hour…OR I could use my 10% off coupon for the new nail salon two blocks away and get some acrylic nails!
hmmm…
I want pretty nails for the wedding, and my nails are uuuugly. Short and peely and gross. But I also wanted some time to adjust to the nails. I didn’t want long funky nails for my wedding day and just end up poking myself or Kev in the eye.
the place was a “traditional vietnamese salon,” and the woman working it was very friendly. She kept calling me Honey. Have a seat, Honey. Pick your color, honey! She also might have had a mild case of short term memory loss, as she asked me if I lived close by around 3 times. However, she was very helpful for the indecisive like me.
What KIND of fakey nails do I want?
Oh, get GEL nail. They very shiney and pretty. You will like better. Yes, gel nails for you.
Of course they are a little more expensive, but my bride brain only heard “shiney” and “pretty.”
I picked a silvery irridescent color for the tips, which I started hedging on once the sanding down of my real nails had begun.
Oh no, this REAL pretty color! It will look good! Very unusual! I make decision for you, OK? OK. This good color.
Hehehehe…that was funny. And my nails are indeed pretty. The silvery color is awesome. And they’re a wee bit longer than I’m used to. I keep tapping them on hard surfaces just for the sensation. Ooo…weird!
And I know I’m total ghetto fab now, because as I was waiting to cross at a light on my way back to the florist (I just walked), a couple of rednecks in a beat up truck beeped at me. OH YEAH!!!
Things that are better with my new nails:
Scritching Sadie. She’s loving my nails.
Scraping goo out of the corner of my eye. With the added thrill of danger!
Ummm…pointing at things?
Things that will be difficult with my new nails:
pulling my credit card out of my wallet. took 4 tries.
tpying on by llaoptop
popping zits. you’d THINK it would be easier. but no. and now maybe I need a tetnus shot.
masterbation. hmmm…should have asked her to leave the right middle short…
Emailing with Julie and Aimee keeps me sane during the week.
We’re discussing the upcoming wedding reception in Pittsburgh.
Julie: Hey, what’s the dress code for this shindig? I need to start looking for a new dress. Perhaps this weekend in the monsoon.
ESC: I will be wearing my wedding dress, thus, I demand everyone wear their fancy clothes.
FANCY CLOTHES ARE REQUIRED!
Maybe we’ll keep some extra ugly sportsjackets and ties around in case a guy shows up in innappropriate attire.
Julie: See, here’s the deal - the only fancy dresses I have are black and suitable for theater galas. Up here, no one would think twice about wearing a little black dress to a wedding, but is it cool for home?
Rick wants to know do you want him to wear a tux? He also has gala-appropriate clothes.
ESC: OK, no tuxes. a nice suit is fine.
I see no problem with wearing a little black dress. If any of my relatives slide over and ask me “who is that girl and why is she wearing that dress???” I will just say “That is Julie and she is from New York City.” and they will nod knowingly and say no more of it.I will do the same if Aimee shows up in hippie clothes. “She’s from California.” “ohhh..yeah, that makes sense.”heehee!
Aimee: Oh thank god, because my dress has been soaked in patchouli oil.
ESC: HAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!!!!
Tonight we leave for Alabama. Kev realized we haven’t spent a whole weekend with his family since…
february? can that be right?
So a nice weekend away…our last weekend of relaxation before the huge rush before the wedding…except that I’ll be writing my second draft of my paper at the same time. CAN IT BE DONE???
Probably not. Which is going to piss off my advisor. I should be trying to get most of it done right now…but after the week I’ve had, I can do little more than lay half-comatose on the couch.
At least my talk went very well yesterday. Whew!
Oh, also yesterday I learned that getting your hair done for your weekend is fucking expensive. The salon I get my hair cut at charges $150 - $200 for the practice plus the wedding day..for what is described as an “up-do.”
I tried to reason with their scheduler.
“my hair is now REALLY short. there is no “do” to “up!”
“well, is there just a little bit that they can put up?”
“listen, in the back? my hair is maybe an inch and a half long - it is not going up! I just need my headband and veil put in, and everything sprayed solid by a professional.”
she set me up with a “pre-consultation” so I could meet with the bridal stylist BEFORE we do my practice run. So that she can see how my hair is not doing up, and maybe charge me less.
Also, I’m getting my make up done there. I told her I’ll need industrial strength waterproof spackle, because I will cry.
“oh, I KNOW! I always cry at weddings.”
“I’m not even going to make it down the aisle. As soon as I see my father, I’m going to start crying. My daddy is going to be giving me away! Oh my god…I’m tearing up now!!!”
*she laughs at me*
Ok, so we’ll see how this all works out.
First, oooo look! I enabled rolling archives. You can scroll around that little bar up there to go back into my archives and view older posts…WITHOUT RELOADING THE WHOLE PAGE!
amazing.
Second, OK, yes. The cheesecake did not turn out exactly as planned. But it’s delicious. It’s lighter than most cheesecakes, so you can eat a big piece without feeling you’d just ingested a brick. A delicious, cheesey brick. And the flavor of the lemon and the blackberries is almost magical: tangy and sweet. Almost sorbet-esque. In cheesecake form. And shut up with your “cheesecake should be pure and not messed around with” bullshit. If that were true, The Cheesecake Factory would not have a two hour wait every damn night. Cheesecake is a way of combing two of the most perfect foods known to mankind: cheese and chocolate. If someone ever find a way of adding bacon to that equation in a way that would be equally delicious, that person will be instantly taken up to heaven and given a place of honor among the angels.
I am determined to keep experimenting. I can add more cream cheese, or I can try baking it longer. This one baked for an hour 15 minutes. Any food chemists out there want to chime in? (right, like alton brown reads my blog. ohh…wouldn’t that be awesome, though?)
as far as the REST of Kev’s birthday celebration…welll….rest assured, he was well taken care of
Third…OH MY GOD!
We got our FIRST OFFICIAL WEDDING GIFT FROM A BLOGGER!!! From Nicole! She of the un-updated blog! It came yesterday, and when I saw the box at the front door when I got home, I thought it was a birthday gift for Kev. But it had MY NAME ON IT! A gift for MEEE!
OK….us. BUT it was the pie plate from the registry, and seriously, how many pies will Kev be making in our marriage? Zero. That’s how many.
(I’m hoping he will take offense at that statement and maybe make me a pie. Mmmm….pie)
So THANK YOU, NICOLE! You need to email me your address so I can send you a proper thank you card. And for everyone else, NICOLE is officially now my favorite blogger friend.
UH UHHH! NO BITCHING!! Did I get a pie plate from YOU? No. You are not favored.
You wish you were Kevin right now. Because if you WERE Kevin, you’d be enjoying a big piece of this:
Blackberry-lemon swirl cheesecake. My own creation. So…it turned out not QUITE as set as I’d hoped…it still was yummy. mmmmm….
Knitta alert:
Socks for mom are almost done. The more astute of you will notice two things: they no longer look like elf condoms, and that’s not the same pattern. Exactly. I finished the entire elf condom sock, and I couldn’t even get my hand into it. My worst fear had come true: WAY too small. I had to frog the WHOLE THING! At least starting over allowed me to change the pattern. I wasn’t liking the yarn-over-cable pattern - the yarn is too fuzzy to really let the pattern show. This one is just the beaded rib, and I think it’s turning out much nicer.
And if you think 2nd sock malaise is bad…let me tell you about 3RD SOCK MALAISE!!!
As promised: the wedding dress update
I went to the shop today to pick up the dress. The woman I had been working with wasn’t there, but I talked to another nice lady, who confirmed that yes, my dress was in.
My dress, and the underthingy, right?
What do you mean, the underthingy isn’t on the slip?
I NEED THE UNDERTHINGY! MUCH SUCKING IN OF FAT MUST OCCUR UNDER MY DRESS!!!
Fortunately, they had the correct underthingy in stock. A very “push up the girls and HEY how ya doing!!!” kind of underthingy.
And the dress fit. And I looked good.
And then she said…would you like to try it on again with a Squeem?
A what?
A squeem. Essentially, a hugely wide extra strong piece of elastic that manages to take every lump of fat in the lower belly and squeeze it into…somewhere. Narnia. I don’t know and I DON’T CARE! And…it’s COMFORTABLE! I can BREATHE in it. With the underthingy + squeem, it looked as if I had a waist and hips. Something which, in reality, I don’t have.
And then…then I looked not just good, but FABULOUS in the dress! Honestly. I wanted to cry. Very little altering needs to be done. A little tuck in around the armpits and a bustle. The length is perfect.
I practiced walking around the shop in my dress and shoes. I twirled. I danced. The nice ladies said I could do that as long as I wanted. I felt like a princess.
The only catch was that they didn’t actually have any squeems to sell left in the shop - what I had on was the demo model. More are coming next week. So next week, I will pick up the dress, the underthingy and the marvelous Squeem and THEN go in for alterations.
I CAN’T FUCKING WAIT!!!
It’s day two of operation Drug Me Up!
Waaay too early for me to be making any conclusions on the wellbutrin. It won’t kick in for a while yet. However, the clonazapam has kicked in immediately and is pretty damn amazing. Except for the fact that it makes me very tired all the time. But I was tired all the time BEFORE, so really, there is no difference.
But the EVENESS and the CALMNESS is amazing!
Before drug:
*typing* “strains containing the mutant gene did not show a significant…” hmmm…wait…I still need to find a place for the rehearsal dinner! HOLY SHIT I NEED TO DO THAT! OH MY GOD, WHAT IF I CAN’T FIND A PLACE!!! AND MY PAPER! WILL NEVER! BE DONE! WHAT WILL I DO??? I CAN’T DO THIS ALL AT ONCE!!!
*heart palpitations…a trip to the bathroom…deep breaths…and then…stop writing and check blogs to distract myself.*
After drug:
Hmmm…I still need to find a place for the rehearsal dinner. OK. *goes back to checking blogs*
see the difference? totally different reactions! except in both cases very little writing is getting done. My hope is, once my brain is trained to realize that just by thinking about something that needs to be done doesn’t trigger some crazed overreaction, it can then concentrate on actually getting that thing done! Instead of attempting distractions by turning on CNN and learning hair gel is now considered a weapon of mass distruction on airplanes.
Thank god we are driving for our honeymoon.
Speaking of wedding…
I am the only female involved in the ceremony who does NOT have their dress yet. This seems wildly unfair, as it is ALL ABOUT ME! WHERE IS MY DRESS! Much apologies from the dress shop. Apparently, the company in Californica shipped it late, and it will be here early next week. STUPID CALIFORNIA! Much anxiety will be quelled once my dress is physically here, except instead of anxiety, I am just really annoyed. THANK YOU, MIND ALTERING DRUGS!
Yet more wedding distractions - I checked my registry again, to add yet another item. A giant cooler! Every couple needs a giant cooler! At least we will for our honeymoon. Then it will sit dormant in storage or damp basements until we reproduce and are hit with the poorly conceived idea that a picnic would be a fun, family oriented activity.
Most of the picnic trips of my childhood were filled with tears, temper tantrums, water balloons, more tears, and lawn darts.
Anyway, where was I? Ah yes, the registry. Nothing new bought off the registry. This is because 95% of the “available in store” items were bought for my two bridal showers. Pretty much everything left is an internet ordering item.
Have I mentioned that both our families are totally computer-phobic? There will not be much of the online ordering, I’m afraid. This could go several ways for our wedding gifts:
- our guests will forge their own path: “ohh…this set of ceramic monkeys playing instruments are LOVELY! What a perfect gift!”
- our guests will realize that they don’t have to order online, they can order from the store kiosk with miminal struggle.
- our guests will have some brains, and realize that just because I registered for Brand X plastic cutting boards does not neccessarily mean I have some kind of weird brand loyalty to brand x cutting boards. Any plastic cutting boards will do.
I have a horrible feeling (but not anxiety!)that option 1 will be the most popular.
I hope they include receipts.
So I think I mentioned a while back that my mother and I are making my wedding invitations by hand. Of course, everyone who hears this is all “ohhhh…WHY are you doing that? you can get cheap ones online!!!”
To which I respond that I don’t WANT cheap ones, I want nice invitations. And yes, I could get nice invitations, which get cheaper the more you order. But we don’t need alot. We need slightly under 100.
And it gets worse: because we’re having a big reception seperate from the wedding, and a small dinner reception after the ceremony with specific menu items to choose from, we have two different invitation wordings, a reception card, and 3 different response cards:
People invited to the wedding only: wedding invite, dinner reception RSVP with menu choices
People invited to the big reception only: reception invite, plain RSVP
People invite to BOTH: wedding invite, separate card with info for big reception, RSVP with spots menu selection for dinner, and response for big reception.
Yeah. How much would we be paying for that shit?
But here’s the tricky part. I’M doing all the printing, while my mother is doing all the assembling. I have the fancy gold vellum paper, and she has the burgandy cardstock paper that the vellum will be attached to.
She has pre-cut all the burgandy paper for the invitation and for each response card.
So when I printed out all those stupid response and reception cards, which have vastly different word count amounts, apparently, I made them the wrong size. They are too small, and, according to my mother, will “look weird” if she uses them as is.
And because the wedding is in TWO FUCKING MONTHS HOLY SHIT! the invites have to be out by next week. Which means I have to run to Michael’s tomorrow morning and buy 30 more sheets of the vellum (at $6/10 sheets), print them, and then get them in the mail by the afternoon. Probably have to overnight them. Which is MORE money.
And my mother is yelling at ME, because I didn’t know any better. Because SHE could have printed them out where she works (need a lazer printer, as inkjet on vellum smears like a mo-fo), except I HAD to have this fancy font that THEY don’t have, so I’M the one who has to print them, and…
*deep breaths*
It’s only going to get worse, I know.
Can I skip the wedding and go straight to the honeymoon???
Am I starting to repeat myself as a blogger? I’d hate to think I’m becoming the grandma of blogland.
YES, Gramma, we HEARD that story before.
I may have posted this next thing before.
But once again, I saw the plastic surgery show where a transexual got boobies. Always when someone on the show gets boobies, they do the “before” and “after” shots, and the nipples are always fuzzed out. Yet when the transexual gets the boobies, the before shot isn’t fuzzed, but the aftershot is. Man-nipples OK. Man-nipples with implants? ABSOLUTELY NOT!
Censors are weird.
*************************
So Tot’s last post got me thinking about the music for my wedding reception. We’re going all old school, but I should probably look over the band’s play list (partial play list) and pick out some songs. Fortunately, they play some of my favorites. yay! but…uhhhh…some ind of disturbing ones on there.
Big Ten Inches - (dude, I think aunt evelyn just fainted)
Bowlegged Woman - (ugly younger sister of Black Magic Woman?)
It ain’t the meat, it’s the motion - (OK, that’s what girls tell really small guys to make them feel better)
Saturday Night Fish Fry - (first off, fish fry’s are on FRIDAYS, and WHO needs a SONG about them???)
Sixty Minute Man - (can you say urinary tract infection?)
Trouble then Satisfaction - (funny, usually the trouble comes AFTER the satifaction…)
Tomorrow I may be gone - (maybe not a good one to play for a wedding)
Fortunately, there are plenty of good ones to pick from. These…will be left off the playlist, I think.
No tattoo. My brother can’t find the sketch he made. He’s going to keep looking, but I’m not holding my breath. It will take time for him to recreate the sketch, but he’s got a lot going on right now, and I leave tuesday.
Oh well. It will happen. Just not this trip.
Shower was good - many gifts, many generous friends. Many funny shower games. It was fun.
Posts expected to be slightly less boring and wedding stuffed some time later this week.
Total and utter exhaustion.
During the day: run around, shop, wedding stuff, eat.
Night: pass out like a alcoholic monkey.
Yesterday I bought my “marryin’ shoes” - hooray! they are sparkly and pretty and have a higher heel than I’m used to, but are still comfortable. I will have to wear them around the house for a while to break them in a bit and get used to them. Nothing says high class like a bride who trips on her dress and falls flat on her face during the wedding march.
Today: the shower. and possibly: the tattoo.
updates later.
Wow. Lots of people had something to say about where I should get my tattoo. Of course, I’m going to ignore most of it and get it where I want to. but still, wow. Thanks! After all this, though, I hope I actually get one. I tried to call him - cell number temporarily disconnected. Hmmmm…
Many things going on this week, with very little time to do them. I need to get as much done in the lab as possible before friday, because 1. I am SO VERY VERY CLOSE to finishing lab work so I can start writing full time. Oh so very painfully close. and 2, because I am flying to pittsburgh on thursday, and even though it’s been on our lab calendar for a couple of months, I will still have to remind boss lady, and she will give me the “I can’t believe you’re leaving when you are so close to finishing and oh you REALLY need to get started writing full time because you REALLY need to graduate soon” look, and I need to be able to say “I did this this this and this this week, and while I’m gone, these plates will be in the incubator, and this sequencing will be out, and I’ll have this data to look over while I’m gone” and she will roll her eyes and say “I hope you’re not planning any MORE little trips this summer.”
My life is fun.
******************
Flooring 0, us 1
OK, it’s more like flooring 5, us 3…but we’re gaining! flooring is ALMOST DONE! So very close to being done! And oh my GOD shoot me if I ever attempt anything like this again! I will PAY someone to do this for me from now on.
THIS is why we need illegal immigrants!
(KIDDING! SHEESH! take a joke, people)
When you have carpeting, you don’t realize that you’re walking on the most uneven floor in the world. Or maybe it’s just easier to ignore. 100lbs of floor leveler later…we’re golden. Of course, all my furniture is still piled up in the middle of the living room and dining room. BUT the end is in sight. Or it better be, or I’m going to fucking kill something.
It might actually be a good thing that everything is in disarray here. Tuesday morning a mover from Duke is coming to check out the lab and then go to everone’s home to see what he’s dealing with. Our moving expenses are going to be COVERED, which is sweet. So while the condo is a complete and total disaster, when he gets here, we can just say “see that pile? that’s pretty much it” Everything else is in storage.
My official “will become a Duke employee” date is now Nov 1. Damn, I need to get writing.
************************
a positive note
Did I mention we got our rings on friday? Yeah. I called friday, and bitch said “I PROMISE they’ll be in tonight or tomorrow morning.” She called a few hours later at 6pm - it’s IN. So I GOT MY ENGAGEMENT RING BACK! Oh, also, the wedding bands are pretty spiffy, too. Kev’s ring looks like this (top right), and my ring looks like my engagement ring, only without the stones. But the IMPORTANT thing is, I have MY RING back. In time for at least ONE of my showers. Hooray! (and NOT the golden kind, OK ed? What do they call them in UK anyway?)
It’s very weird writing thank you notes for gifts from a bridal shower. It’s not like birthday or christmas gifts, where most of the gifts were delightful surprises. With shower gifts, you’re thanking people for gifts that, with few exceptions, you yourself picked out. And not in a “mom, I’d like a new coat for christmas” kind of picked-out. It’s a “kitchen aid red 9inch round silicone cake pan from target for $12.99″ super specific kind of picked out.
Dear X, Thank you for correctly reading my registry.
Probably not in the etiquette book. So I write my thank you’s:
Dear X,
Thank you so much for X and Y. We will get so much use out of them (not lying, I made sure everything on that registry was useful AND needed).
Thanks again for your thoughtfulness.
Love, ESC
I got through my whole list…and now I’m stuck on my mother. She couldn’t come to this past shower, but she bought me some of the good china from the registry, which she’s keeping in the ‘burgh until after we move, and mailed me a couple of little things so she would be well represented at the shower. I need to send her a thank you note.
And yet…how do I send a thank you note to my mother for just those small things? I feel like when I say thank you to my mom, it has to be so much MORE than that.
Dear Mom,
thank you for EVERYTHING. Thank you for my universe. For making me the person that I am. For putting up with me. For giving me so many gifts. For supporting me emotionally and financially for so many years. For helping me plan this wedding and making it not so overwhelming on me. For knowing who I am, and knowing what I like, and not pushing me to be something I’m not. Thank you for everything. As big a thank you as I can throw out there, thank you. And oh yes, thank you for the china, and the beautiful watch and wristlet. Which are great but are so small in comparison to everything else you’ve given me.
Thank you.
But I will write in my little pink thank you note that I really appreciate her shower gifts, and that I’m looking forward to seeing her and Dad in a couple of weeks.
But she knows. I hope she knows.
Warning: a very much unlike me, non-evil, non-science, uncool, extreme girly post. Proceed with caution
What a lovely shower! My bridesmaids did such a great job - everything was perfect. Yummy food - more than I thought there would be…I kind of regret that mcD’s double cheese burger I snagged on the way, thinking there would just be snacks. But there were croissant sammiches, SO many mini quiches, a delicious broccoli salad (E, I need that recipe!), and other great munchies. And a super sweet cake. And WINE! Yes! Pour me some wine!
The whole thing felt very surreal to me. I described it as a planned surprise party. Because while I was aware of the shower, I could do nothing to help. I’m not used to that - I just had to sit and eat and look pretty (and oh I did! lots of compliments on my outfit. Target, baby!) and open PRESENTS!
I have generous, wonderful friends. Many things from the registries, of course, but some very pleasant surprises! One was a recipe for a “wedding cake martini” tucked into a card, and then the gift was a set of martini glasses, and ALL the ingredients for the drink! Good booze, too. Not the cheap shit I usually buy.
Booze! for my bridal shower!
It’s….it’s….just….*sniff* beautiful.
I just got off the phone with my mother, and we had a debate as to whether or not we are allowed to start using any of the stuff we’ve gotten. All my friends who have been recently married started using their gifts before the wedding. While there are things I don’t really need to use now (bedding, dishes), there are things that can definately come in useful (utensils, silicone bakeware….booze!). I spun spun SPUN it for my mom with this: my current kitchen utensils are mismatched and beat up, yet hang visible off little rods and hooks next to the kitchen (ikea!), completely visible. When the condo goes on the market, and people come to look at it, wouldn’t it be nice to have MATCHING, fabulous kitchen aid untensils hanging on display?
Yep. That’s what I thought.
*happy dance!*
My mom sent me a little gift to open at the shower, since she couldn’t be there herself. She got me a GORGEOUS bulova watch, with little crystals around the face and on the band - it looks like an antique watch - that will match the crystals on my wedding dress! So I can wear a watch on my wedding day and not feel naked. She also got me a beaded wristlet bag to match my dress - she got burgandy ones for me to give the bridesmaids, too.
After the shower, Kev’s family took us out to dinner at a nearby seafood restaurant (mmmm…tuna steak, rare…mmmm…) and then were on their way home. A lot of driving for one day. But the IMPORTANT thing is…they still don’t know we live together. Whew! Kev had ridden up with me, and then had the job of entertaining his nephew and brother in law during the shower. They went to a gun shop, and then a ATV/motorcycle/scooter dealership. Men and their toys!
When we got home, after a quick stop off at…hehehe…Target, and unloading the car and showing Kev all the great gifts, I PASSED OUT on the couch. Good lord, being perky and conversational is exhausting.
OK, girly post over. Men, go fix a car or kill something now.
I finished the link page. Including getting the bubble tooltips to finally work (mouse over a link there, you’ll see what I mean). That’s a week’s worth of work satisfactorily finished.
Kev returned the flooring we bought from Ikea (since we found the flooring we used cheaper and nicer somewhere else) and came home with frozen swedish meatballs, gravy mix, and loganberries! An easy dinner to fix - and delicious!
All the bedding that was a gift from Kev’s family has arrived! mmmm…luxurious! Rich and wonderful! The blanket is sooo sooffft…mmmm…jacquard woven cotton! And no, we’re not going to use it until after we’re married and moved. And yes, we’ve been reimbursed already - she must have put the check in the mail a few minutes after Kev gave her the total!
Now he’s trying to work out the logistics of his family coming to the shower tomorrow. I can’t help, because it’s supposed to be a “surprise.” So it’s ALL him, baby. I’m going to go take a bath and then give myself a pedicure!
My first bridal shower (eeee!) is tomorrow. And I am STILL ringless.
Over 3 weeks ago, I turned my recently returned from resizing engagement ring back over to Kay jewelers so they could send it to the company who made it, so that they could take a mold of it and make sure that my custom wedding band would fit against the engagement ring snugly. I was told it would take 3 weeks.
Notice, I started by saying OVER 3 weeks ago. My rings are not here. The manager is being a total bitch about it, too. First, she returns my call saying that she called “the guy” and he said they’ll be in, latest, next friday. Then she says that they TOLD me that it would take 4 weeks.
Pardon me, but NUH UH! I have the slip RIGHT HERE, and it clearly says JUNE FUCKING 7TH, which is 3 weeks.
Her response? “Wellll…it IS a CUSTOM ring, you know.”
ooooo…if I could have reached my hand through the phone to find her throat, I would have throttled her. They are not fucking MINING the gold to MAKE the damn ring! It doesn’t take a whole damn month to cast a stupid ring, and even if it does, they should have told me that in the first place, instead of making me think I’d have it in 3 weeks.
Bitch! Fucking* bitch!!! I WANT MY RING BACK!
* I’ve noticed I’ve been swearing like a one-legged syphilitic pirate recently. I need to cut back on that.
Kev’s mom.
I really didn’t expect the focus of my earlier post to go the way it did in the comments. The whole point was that I was freaked out by how Kev phrased the question to his mother. I never in a million years thought the way she decided to go about the shower gift was at all odd.
First of all, it is NOT a break in tradition, or convention, or etiquette, as far as I’m concerned. Do I seem like someone who is at ALL obsessed with doing things the way they’re supposed to? Hells no. If you called me and said “ESC, I’m getting you a shower gift, but it’s going to be airlifted and then dropped by parachute over near the big chicken, is that OK?” My response will be “Sure, what time should I be there?” Because if someone is going to spend the money/time/whatever to do something nice for me, I have no problem going out for them. You’re BUYING ME A PRESENT, I am GRATEFUL.
(uhhh…incidently, if anyone wants to see our registry…you can, you know, just email me. this is incredibly rude of me as a bride to put out there, but HEY, SEE WHAT WHAT A NON-TRADITIONALIST I AM? just call me bride-whore)
Second of all, Kev’s mom is a special case all together. She is a WONDEFUL person, who totally embraced me as a part of the family from the day we met. She’s also a bit of an odd egg, but that’s OK, because I am, too. Which is why for her birthday I knitted her a spangly sparkly shawl to wear, just because I KNEW she would love wearing it and making all those small town hicks TALK about it.
For all her spark and energy, she’s had a rough time of it the past couple of years. A fatty liver forces her to be on a severely restricted diet. She gets weekly injections to help with her rheumatoid arthritis. Last year, she passed out in her kitchen and broke her hip (which had to be replaced) and her shoulder. She’s also got cararacts, which she’s in the process of having removed, one at a time.
She doesn’t get around as well as she used to. It doesn’t help that she lives in the middle of nowhere, where nothing is convenient, and a simple trip to Target is a two hour drive. Kev’s sister drives her around when she does need to go to town, but she’s got three kids of her own, and it’s not easy for her, either.
So when she said that she wanted me to pick something out of my registry for my shower gift from her, I didn’t think anything of it - except for the dollar amount question - and I KNEW she would be generous, because that’s the kind of person she is, I just wanted to make sure, first.
And if you missed that comment in the previous post from Kev, he is VERY protective of his mother. It kind of pissed him off that complete strangers were criticizing the way his mom operated, and how HE operated. I’ve told him he can’t take these things personally - it’s the INTERNETS, for jebbus sake, EVERYONE has an opinion to share with the WHOLE WORLD. This is why we have blogs, because we think everyone should care.
So thank you, for reading and commenting, and I hope I cleared things up a bit about the situation. Everything here is OK. The bedding is being shipped from Target AS I TYPE, and I’m all goofy bridey about it already.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some old parquet flooring to rip up…umm…I mean watch Kev rip it up.
Kev’s family decided to come for the shower.
ALL OF THEM.
They’ll probably stay in a hotel - thank god. Kev will entertain his BIL and nephew while mom, sis, and the nieces come to the shower.
Please, oh PLEASE don’t have them ask to see where Kevin lives!!!!
my atlanta bridal shower is coming up in a couple of weeks, and oh yes, I am getting all tingly every time I check my registries, like a good bridezilla freak, oh my god, look what I’ve become, etc, etc.
Anyway, Kev’s family was, of course, invited, but they can’t make it (thank god, as they STILL don’t know we live together, and oh wouldn’t THAT be an awkward way to start out a party?) His mom generously offered that I should pick something off my registry and order it for myself as a gift, and she would reimburse me. Wow!
ummm…crap!
Because I have all kinds of price ranges on my registries, to accomodate all kinds of budgets. So…how generous is Kev’s mom feeling? I know she can afford a really nice gift…but I DON’T want to ASSUME she’d spend that much on a shower gift. This is a tricksie slope, one I didn’t feel comfortable taking on by myself.
So I asked Kev to find out what my price range would be next time he talked to her. I ASSUMED he’d be, well, not subtle, but at least make sure she knew I wasn’t digging for money, or anything.
Here’s what I heard a few minutes ago, as he spoke with his mother.
“uhh…so ESC wants to know a dollar amount limit on her shower gift from you.”
GAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!
dammit.
*sigh* that’s Kev for you - hopefully, she knows that’s HIS wording, not mine!
and the answer is VERY generous. Eep! What do I get??? Practical? Something we can use now? One of the more extravagent items that we don’t really have room for until we move?
At least my mind is off my BARE PATCHED CONCRETE FLOOR!
***update***
after careful deliberation (about 10 minutes) I’ve picked out my gift: the bedding - quilt, blanket, shams, and a sheet set. NOT a cheap gift. Which Kev has assured me is fine, after teasing me that he’d just tell her “I TRIED to get her to pick something cheaper, but she’s just a GOLDDIGGER*“ dammit. I am firm. And I will order soon.
*she ain’t hanging with no broke ***ger
show you any of our engagment pics? no???
here’s one!
yesterday, after waiting and waiting for a call from the jewelers that my ring was back from being sized, I finally called.
“oh yes, it’s right here. sorry we didn’t call, the holiday weekend was pretty crazy”
Yeah, whatever, I WANT MY RING BACK!
So we thought we’d go ahead and pick it up, and at the same time order the wedding bands.
back story on wedding bands - go here and scroll down.
The woman I talked to last week about the custom band wasn’t there. dammit. and, of course, no one knew what I was talking about. “The custom designers? They won’t be here until June.” Yeah, I KNOW THAT! Dammit. At least I got my properly sized ring back. Ahhh…feels so good and familiar.
So first thing this morning…OK, around 10am this morning when they opened, I went BACK to order both our rings.
She was there…helping someone else. I waited. Then they couldn’t find the paperwork. So she had to call the design company again. Then they dropped a small bombshell on me. Because they custom make the band to fit perfectly against my engagement ring, I would have to send the ring with the order, so they could make a mold of it.
I JUST GOT MY RING BACK! Dammit. 3 more weeks without my ring.
But I got the ring’s ordered - Kev picked out one they already had in the store (top right). And turned over my beloved engagement ring *sob*
But don’t feel too bad for me (aha…aha…aha…). Because we were using the “spend $100, get $100″ certificates Kev got when he got the engagement ring, it was in our best interest to come as close to an even hundred mark as we could. I was a little over $50 short of hitting an even…so…
I got a nice pair of sapphire earrings to make up the difference. Yes…I MADE THAT SACRIFICE! BECAUSE I LOVE MY SWEETIE ENOUGH TO SAVE US MONEY! We even have 2 certificates left OVER…so…you know…if Kev wants to buy me a wedding day present…but only if he LOVES ME THAT MUCH…he can.
(he’s going to kill me for saying that)
But in 3 weeks, we should have our rings, which we will then spend the next 3 months trying not to lose. Hooray!
The only big thing left to do in the early planning process, is find a place to have the rehearsal dinner. Not as easy as it sounds. dammit. Why aren’t there more fun and casual places inside the perimeter that have a private dining room? huh? HUH???
fun times!
OK, so we couldn’t get out for Mexican food last night. We tried, I swear. But Kev had his mysterious “surprise” for me, and we had to be there by around 7:30 “to get a seat.” All the mexican restaurants had lines out the door, so they were out.
We ended up at a new place I’d been wanting to try out - a little bar and grill type place. Low prices, good food, and an EXCELLENT pear cider called Ace that I definately need to find somewhere.
The surprise was surprising! Kev had bought tickets for a classical choral performance. Because it was cindo de mayo, there was a twist. They were singing mozart, but also one of the “lost” baroque Mexican composers. “the virgin of guadalupe” by Francisco Delgado. The piece was newly reconstructed by a grad student in California, who flew in to hear it performed for what is likely the very first time. It was beautiful.
Did I mention that the performance was at a church? Kevin didn’t mention that. So I was wearing a red lacey top (caliente!) with quite the plunging necklines. I was self concious, but Kev said I got quite a few appreciative glances at the reception following the concert.
Then we stopped at a package store and I picked up a nice bottle of tequila - when we got home we celebrated properly with very STRONG margaritas.
This morning, after a phone call from my mother trying to nail down when I can come to pittsburgh for a bridal shower, we headed out for some proper mexican cuisine for a very late breakfast/early lunch. I love Coyote Grill. If you are in the Decatur area, go to the coyote grill. It’s small and unassuming. But the food is excellent. I always get the burrito de carnitas, which is a burrito stuffed with slow cooked pork and salsa, topped with a cheese sauce and a tomatilla sauce, and served with black beans. An excellent way to start the day.
Then, to LIFT my mood from the crappy week, we went shopping! But first we stopped at the men’s wearhouse and made some tuxedo decisions. And when I say “we, ” I mean “I.” Though Kev did get to pick out the cufflinks and shoes
Back to Kay jewelers to discuss wedding bands. Kev has his all picked out already, but I was disappointed in the women’s selection. The deal is, we have 5 “spend $100, get $100″ given to Kev when he bought my ring. We have to use these by early June. There is only one ring in the store that I sort of like. BUT…they also work with a company that designs jewelry. Kev got my ring from this company through Kay’s. They basically travel around to different Kay stores, hitting each store about 4 times a year. They could make a band that would match the pattern on my engagement ring. Which would be nice! They’re coming back through in June…two weeks after our coupons expire. The first time we asked about it, the woman was all “oh, they don’t have a website, and they only work through us, and blah blah blah,” so it looked bleak. Today there was some kind of elderly manager man there, and he had all kinds of ideas. So now the woman at Kay is going to call this company for us to see if they can do a matching band, and how much it would cost, and then get back to us monday. Yay!
I’m also getting my ring resized - it’s just a TAD too big. Down a half size and cleaned, please! So I am ringless for a week. trauma!
Then we came home and napped. After I spent a good deal of money at bath and body works, old navy, and target.
Much better saturday!!!
Two things are now marked “still needs: 0″ on one of my registries!
First time! Yeeeee!!!!
*dances around in self-absorbed bridal bliss*
OK, I’m done here.
I just spent WAY too much time picking out bedding for the registry. Two full evenings. Stuff like this shouldn’t be so difficult! And, of course, there were negotiations with Kev.
“no pink”
“just a leeetle bit of pink? pleeease? The brown is just…very brown. it will be too neutral!”
“ermmmmmmmm…”
“pretty pleeeeeeeeease?” *batting eyelashes*
“ok…just a little bit.”
“yeee!”
see? The key to a successful relationship is all about compromise. and knowing exactly how to work my new favorite color combination into the bedroom. brown and pink! Why am I suddenly obsessed with brown and pink? Everything after the wedding shall be brown and pink! hooray!
Time to start thinking about KEVIN! And while he may have an opinion, it’s really up to ME, right?
here’s something I threw together online. This would be Kev, the other men would be in a burgandy colored vest/tie. What do you think?
It was a fun trip. Relaxing and countrified. It’s nice to spend some time in the middle of nowhere. Makes you appreciate the little things in life. Like cell phone reception.
Saturday we waited until Kev’s nieces got back from their 18 hour bus trip from New York City (school club trip) to then drag them bridesmaid dress shopping. They were amazingly coherent for the process. We first tried the mall, but didn’t find anything that fit the criteria: long, simple (no beads or sparklies) and in the brown family.
sample conversation with C, the younger niece (15) and also the middle child.
C: how about this one? (holds up blue sequins dress)
ESC: uhhhhh…no.
C: what about THIS one? (holds up short green dress)
ESC: no. what about this process aren’t you getting?
So we ended up at David’s Bridal and finding their dresses there. They will be similar to the dresses the other bridesmaids will be wearing, but in a light brown.
whew! glad that’s over with
Easter sunday was kind of a non-event. Apparently, not a big deal in the independent-baptist community. Whatever. I brought the kids candy and toys anyway. If they wouldn’t make a big deal for Easter, I WOULD!
Instead of going out for brunch and stuffing ourselves silly to celebrate the resurection of Our Lord Jesus Christ who died for our sins, forever and ever, amen…I washed my car and played with dogs. Then we all went out for DINNER and stuffed ourselves silly. We split two desserts between 8 people, and everything was fine until that LAST bite of cheesecake, which must have rubbed up against something that had nuts in it. Yikes. A quick trip to Kmart and a massive dose of benedryl headed off any problems. Thank god, I didn’t want to spend Easter in the hospital. Or, you know, dead. Because I’m pretty sure that resurrection thing doesn’t work for everyone that day.
Benedryl makes me loopy. Very loopy. A little while later, we ended up at Wal-Mart, and Kev’s mom (who is widowed and in her 60s, please keep this in mind) was looking for vitamin A, which her doctor recommended for her brittle fingernails and hair. She was worried she’d get too much if she took a large dose along with her multivitamin. And asked me (because I’m getting a PhD in genetics and also vitiminology) if it was safe.
I read the warning labels. Basically, it said don’t take this dose if you are pregnant or want to get pregnant. I handed the bottle back to her. “Go ahead and take it, just practice safe sex.”
BWAAAHAHAHAHAHAAA!!!!
I don’t know who turned more red, her or Kevin. Oh yeah. benedryl.
So we’re back. There are pictures of mostly the dogs at the flickr site. The pic of the girls in their bridesmaid dresses will be up at the wedding site.
I am going to eat leftover chocolate eggs now.
I do NOT want to turn this into a gushy wedding blog - that’s what my OTHER place is for - the actual wedding blog.
But because Vince and Derek wanted details…
Sorry Derek, no wedding cheesecake. That would have been awesome, though. Our cake will STILL be awesome.
This is what our cake will look like. Minus the super stupid flowers. We will have flowers, but they will be the super COOL flowers that I picked for my bouquet. And arranged much better than this. Also, we might have a cake topper of some kind. Not a stupid bride and groom, though. Maybe a monogram. We’ll see.
The bottom layer will be a vanilla buttermilk pound cake with a strawberry filling. The middle will be chocolate with a chocolate filling. The top, our “souvenier to keep for our first anniversary” layer (yeah, RIGHT) will be the buttermilk poundcake again.
The “backround” of the cake will be darker - a very light cafe au lait color, with the lacey pattern on top in ivory.
There.
Doesn’t that cake rock? Huh??? Simple and elegant and pretty. And most importantly, TASTEY. Because cake could be covered in gold leaf and angel farts, but if it tastes like sandpaper, WHAT IS THE POINT????
The mole thing on my leg was bigger and deeper (unintended porn image!) than the one on my arm.
Which do you think hurts worse today?
dammit.
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Can she clean? She can clean out my kitchen, if she wants
Yesterday, I got a call to my cell phone I didn’t answer, because I didn’t recognize the number or even the area code. Definate wrong number - no message left.
This morning, I was awaked by my cell phone ringing…same number. Didn’t answer it.
A half hour LATER, it rang again. Same number. Stuff this shit. I answered it grumpily.
ESC: hel-LO????
caller: is Henry there?
ESC: I’m sorry, you have a wrong number.
caller: uhhh…someone from this number called my wife about a job?
ESC: no. you have the wrong number.
caller: (clearly getting upset) my wife! about a job??
ESC: (clearly getting annoyed) look, sir, what number are you trying to get?
caller: [reads ESC’s cell number]
ESC: well, they must have given you the wrong number.
caller: but someone called my wife about a job!!
ESC: LOOK SIR, I am a GRADUATE STUDENT in ATLANTA. I am in NO POSITION to be offering jobs to ANYONE! GOODBYE!
He didn’t call back.
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cakes on a plane
OK, no plane. I was just trying to not be the only blogger without that movie reference in a post.
Today, Kev and I get to sample wedding cake. FOR FREE. Oh yeah. Cake rocks.
Suck it, beeetches!
Today Kev and I went to the Atlanta Botanical Garden to pose for some engagement pictures. We finally got to meet the guy who’s doing our wedding pics (after emailing back and forth for two months), and he’s super nice. Just getting into the business, so his prices are looowww…but what business he HAS done are awesome. And his references were glowing.
He was really cool, and he even did the engagement shots for free, so way to go, dude! If anyone ever needs a photographer in the atlanta area, shoot me an email and I’ll give you his info.
I got the impression his favorite shots are the candid ones - with the genuine smiles and natural positions. He took a few more formal poses to keep some of the older relatives happy. But plenty of candid shots, which Kev and I thoroughly enjoyed. Mostly because we got to put our arms around each other and smooch alot, which is what we like doing ANYWAY on weekends, so it was a good way to spend the day. Also the weather was FANTASTIC! A little too fantastic - we had to search to find places to stand where we wouldn’t be squinting into the sun.
He’ll put the pics up on a website for perusal in about 2 - 3 weeks. I will, of course, put that link up on the wedding blog (for those that know it and care).
For those that don’t know and don’t care, you can go see the gallery of pictures I took afterwards of all the pretty blooms we saw as we walked around the gardens. Clicky the pink orchid below to see the slideshow.
It seems my handy dandy stat tracker logs every page refresh, ping, rss read…uhh…sniff and nudge that meanders by my site. Which is SORT of nice, because it really looks like my site is SUPER POPULAR…until you read the “unique page hits” and realize no…not so much. I have NOT, in fact, gotten almost 10,000 hits worth of “real” traffic the past couple of days. Would be nice, though.
So I added the “since I started keeping track” which logs total unique IP addresses. Which STILL isn’t really what I want…but oh well…
geez ESC, why don’t you bitch some MORE about boring wordpress shit?
Suck it. also, I KNOW my comments don’t remember your info. I don’t know why. Se7en doesn’t know why. IT’S JUST LIKE THAT, OK? Any wordpress bigwigs that stumble by this site…HEY, WHY DON’T YOU FIX IT SO POPUP COMMENTS REMEMBER INFO, OK? IS THAT SO MUCH TO ASK???
on a non-blogging note…Nanner is making me a necklace to wear for my wedding. YOU ARE ALL JEALOUS. Yes you ARE!
Nothing too exciting.
Actually, yesterday was fun, as it was an eat out extravaganza for me. Went out to lunch with my lab to a place called “saigon cafe.” Yummy pho, and BUBBLE TEA!!!!
Then Kev took me out for kabobs for dinner. mmmm…kabobs…
Then I treated him to ice cream - the place formerly known as Jakes, but now I can’t remember their new name. Anyway…homemade ice cream…in a waffle cone…
it was a calorie extravaganza, and my diet is ruined. But it was WORTH it.
come to think of it, we ate out today, too. For lunch. Mexican. Hmmm…people are going to think we have money. We SO do not!
Today I met with a florist. Hopefully, everything I picked out will fit in the budget. He’ll get back to me with a quote this week. I am NOT good at making decisions, and picking out flowers involves A LOT of little decisions.
There are more details at the wedding site (for those in the know), so I won’t type them again here.
Annnnnd….time for a very late dinner. I need more exciting weekends.
This weekend, I have learning something about myself. What did I learn?
I SUCK at registering. Seriously.
We started our registry at Target last night, and then today I set up one at Crate and Barrel, and then back to Macy’s to see if there was more I could add on.
I did end up with a bunch of kitcheny stuff at Target. But today I spent two hours at Crate and Barrel, and ended up with 13 things. Dammit. Then at Macy’s, another hour…and I only added towels. Expensive towels that I agonized over.
I think that’s part of my problem - everything is expensive! I know it’s not me buying these things, but my inner cheapskate keeps rearing her ugly head and shrieking at me. $103 FOR A SINGLE KNIFE??? OH MY GOD!!! NO ONE WILL SPEND THAT MUCH ON YOU!!!
But then practical me bitch slaps cheapskate, and reminds her that we’re not really registering for any appliances, as I already OWN really nice appliances. So it’s OK to register for nicer non-electronic things. AND as I enjoy cooking, I might as well get good quality knives.
Inner cheapskate goes off sulking.
Then the inner voice that sounds like my mother pipes up.
SQUARE PLATES? ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT SQUARE PLATES???
Ummm…I think they’re pretty! and unusual! classic but quirky!
Inner mother’s voice is not pleased.
I ignore her, and add squarish drink glasses and glass square bowls and dessert plates that will coordinate nicely.
Another problem is that we’re doing this so early, that a lot of the stuff in the stores now is considered “seasonal,” and won’t be there by the time our guests woud be looking for stuff. I have to give some cred to Crate and Barrel here. Though they were the only store that didn’t provide a free tote bag (hooray for free swag at macy’s and target!), any time you scan something that’s considered seasonal, the little scanner doohickey beeps at you and lets you know that it’s seasonal and are you SURE you want it?
I am irritated at seasonal stuff, because it seems like the majority of stuff in the stores now IS seasonal. And I want stuff that will fit in year round. Who needs summer dishes? I ASK YOU!!!
The only big things left to register for are bedding and kitchen/table linens. And pots and pans, which I’m not sure about, as my mother had mentioned she’d get them for me, so I need to ask her about that (all-clad, baby!).
According to Macy’s, with a guest list of 150 (approximate for the wedding plus the later reception in pittsburgh), we should have 200 items our our registry.
I don’t have NEAR that yet. WHAT AM I MISSING????
I hate to add TOO much home/decor items to our registry, as we don’t know where we’ll be living after the wedding (at this point, we might even be moving before the wedding - yikes!). But maybe we’ll put things like lamps and bedside tables on there. Back to Target!
Paranoia is still lurking. What if the stuff is too expensive? Am I being too greedy? Do I REALLY need china? (that last one is my mother’s voice - literally. That’s what she asked me the other day when I told her we picked out a china pattern. Thanks for making the voices in my head come to life, mom!)
Still need to add more stuff, though.
Can I register for yarn?
or…sex toys???
Good lord, I have a wedding checklist already.
wedding dress - check! Aimee is making it for me! HOW AWESOME IS SHE????
maid of honor - check! talked with my best friend Jenni last night until after 1am. even though I don’t have a date yet, she said she would be my MoH. Hooray! It will be tricky, since she’s in PA now, and will most likely be in Boston in a few months (why the hell is everyone moving to Boston??? It’s so cold!)
tentative wedding plans - so I realized last night after I made the announcement to the choir that I was NOT going to be able to keep the wedding very small. My whole church (which admitedly is not all that big a group) will want to be there. I swear, these people are the most wonderful, friendly, supportive group EVER. Also, the santuary at my church is GORGEOUS. Seriously - the stained glass windows are breathtaking. My initial decision to not have the wedding there stemmed from not wanting a small group of people echoing around a large sanctuary. But if I open it up to more people…then I can have more of my friends there…PLUS if I do it at my church…FREE! Membership has its benefits.
Which leads us right back to money…I have no idea what my parents are going to be able to help me out with money-wise. So assuming very little (I could be wrong there, but let’s assume little and work from there), what I’ll do is this: open the wedding up to everyone who can come. Afterwards, have an informal reception/gathering in the church parlor with hors-d’oeuvres, cookies (cookie bar! shout out to the pittsburghers in blogland - you can’t have a wedding without a cookie bar!), etc. Then after THAT, close family and friends go out to dinner. Then a few weeks later, we’ll have a big throw down reception in Pittsburgh, so more of my family would be able to attend (I have a lot of older relatives who wouldn’t be able to make the trip to ATL).
I’m not sure how that all works out etiquette-wise, but I’m not sure how much I care, really. It’s MY PARTY…um…I mean, of course, OUR PARTY and I’ll…we’ll do what we want!
I’m kicking around the idea of starting another blog (another one! for my collection!) for just wedding stuff. The decision there would be - do I make it an extension of this site, or do I do a separate account and not at all link it with this site, so I can let my family and other friends know about it, and leave comments, etc.
TOO MANY DECISIONS! and I’m already getting asked “date? is there a date???”
Gah! I have to graduate first! This points to a date tentatively at late summer, early fall.
How do people do this? How can they keep track of what they have to do, and what decisions need to be made…and then PAY for all of it??? Ack!
