Rotten

Today was a rotten day. For many many many reasons.

It was long. It was a long, long day and usually when I have a busy day of work like today it goes by quickly. Not so today.

The dogs were not nice. First off, my dog was not nice. I took a chance and brought him on a group walk even though I feared he may bite the face off another dog. He didn't, he had fun. He romped. And then when I dropped him at home so I could finish my day, he wouldn't stop barking. Usually when I leave the house he will bark for about 10 seconds, then stop, but today he would not. And I understand that he knew that he was missing something, but, Dude, you miss it every day. And today you got to partake in it for an hour. So shut it.

Then the afternoon group dogs were not nice. Actually, only one of them was not nice. But I expected it. He's a puller, which means he just basically tries to pull you all over. I already have a very sore arm from lord knows what, but I woke up last Thursday and felt like someone tried to pull my arm out of the socket. Then kicked it. Anyway, I used a cross-body leash since I knew this dog was a puller and it saved my arm for sure, but he did whip me a few times quite roughly and now I have a sore back. Not too sore, but just sore enough. The other dogs made me want to eat them up they are so adorable. And I forgot my camera, by the way.

Also, when I parked my car at the mountain I parked behind a car that had its keys hanging out of the trunk's lock. So I put a note and took the keys, and she happened to call when I was in the middle of my pickups and drop offs for the next group. Then my brain fell out of my head and I forgot to pick up one of the dogs on my way to the mountain to drop the keys to her, so I had to backtrack quite a way adding even more time to the day.

Then to top it all off I had my last visits with a diabetic cat that we have cared for many times over the last few years, but now his parents are moving. I wish that was the end of the story, but not only are they moving, but they have decided that the best thing to do would be to have the cat euthanized rather than moving him with them or finding him a new home. Yes, he's old, yes he's very, very sick, and yes it probably really makes sense. But my heart can't take visiting a kitty and cuddling him and loving him and knowing that in two weeks they are going to kill him. It sucks.

So, after my bath and half a bottle of wine, I was very happy that SB had brought home some Portuguese chicken. But after dinner, what does he pull out? (dirty minds, dirty...enough of that!)

A SNICKERS!!!! And since I didn't have time to eat lunch today, I ate it and I didn't care, and I was glad that there was one thing today that made me happy. And happy that it came from him.

extremely random

I have a very very busy day tomorrow. Not looking forward to it at all. Well, kind of am, because I will see loads of dogs I haven't seen in a long time, but I'm also very very tired lately, so not too excited about a 9-10 hour day.

I gave The Woodge a sort-of bath today. He hated it. Was terrified. But he smelled bad so it was necessary. He was super happy after his bath, though, and I was too, seeing as how I didn't lose a limb in the process. He was, in fact, so happy that he kept looking at me adoringly, so then I would crouch down to pet him and then he would plant a giant smooch on his face. Apparently he couldn't stand the stink of himself either. Now if only I could figure out how to pressure wash his mouth.

Also, before the wedding, I had gel nails applied. They looked nice, and I have been semi-keeping them up (every 2-3 weeks is pretty excessive, so I was doing 3-4 weeks) but now I've decided I'll leave them to grow out. They aren't adding anything to my life. I need a haircut more than I need stupid nails. So, it's back to Hands that Appear to Have Been Mangled by a Woodchipper for me.

That's all for today. I think I will try to take some photos tomorrow one my walks because I have a feeling I won't be full of ideas when I get home tomorrow night.

Don't you want somebody to love?

It's late, and I haven't posted yet. And I'm craving a Snickers bar. Oh dear.

My mother emailed me this morning to let me know that the receptionist at her doctor's office (where I used to also visit until I moved away), who is also a breeder of Bernese Mountain dogs, has pups going out right now, and will have another litter available in the spring.

TORTURE!!!

For anyone who is unaware, I am slightly obsessed with these dogs, and have long held that they would be the next breed of dog we had in our home. How could anyone resist this:

(as a side note even my friend Sam who hates all creatures can recognize these dogs in a crowd and actually thinks they are cute because they look like they're wearing legwarmers)

I think some people might be a bit surprised that I would go to a breeder rather than adopt a shelter dog, and to be honest I would love to do both. But I feel like for our lifestyle and home situation, it's very important to get the right dog and make it as easy as possible to mesh it with our lives. Our place is not big, and we don't have a yard. We also have three other pets who already live here, and a routine that we like. While a puppy would definitely be a big change to that routine, I want the puppy to feel happy and balanced with what we can offer her.

All that to say, we kind of have to have an idea of what we're going to get. And, yes, every single dog is different even within breeds, but when odds are if you choose a breed that is known for being lazy (as Berners are) you are going to get a quieter dog who doesn't need to run 5 miles every day. If we adopted a mutt rescue puppy, they generally come as "shepherd mixes" "lab mixes" or "border collie mixes" - regardless of what they are mixed with, those are all very active dogs, and you get a lab x shepherd, you could end up with a crazy 100 lb dog in a condo, and then no one ends up happy.

So at this point I would like the odds to be with us. My top dog choices are the Berners and the dachshund - at completely separate ends of the size scale. But my heart is with the Berner. We'll see how long it is before I can finally convince SB. I mentioned that to my mom this morning, and said she would have been better off letting him know about the pups that are available than torturing me with them.

Contributing to my social phobia

So, here we are, halfway through November! Can you believe I've been married almost two months? Can you believe I'm going on vacation in almost two months? Can you believe you're still reading the mundane details of my life daily???

But, I actually have a quasi-interesting topic today, so that's kind of exciting, right?

Last night we went for dinner at our friends' place. It was us, them, and one other couple who we have never met before.

Now, I'm all for meeting new people (not really, right?) so I put on my big girl pants, and was ready to be social and pleasant while in the company of strangers. The hosts are great friends, we don't see them nearly often enough, and they are moving away in January so I really wanted to have a nice evening and not make them regret inviting us.

I am stressing the point here that I was in the complete right frame of mind for meeting strangers. I hadn't had a horrible day, I wasn't mad at SB or any of our employees for anything. I was happy, and ready to keep it up.

But, it was too bad because the guy portion of this couple was one of those Overbearing Argumentative Chatty Cathy people. Now, any one of these three traits generally gets my back up. Overbearing: please stop interrupting me with your loud voice. I have things to say, and talking over me is not nice. Chatty Cathy: once everyone has yielded the "conversation" to you, please do the same for us at some point. Anytime now. Maybe you need a second to breathe.

But the absolute worst thing is Argumentative. Especially when you're with strangers. And I don't mean opinionated, that's different. Everyone should have opinions. But you shouldn't follow those up with a ten minute monologue about why everyone else's opinion is wrong. Because that's just rude.

There are certain things I believe can be debated in polite company, sure. But taste is not one of these things. For example, I happen to like Russell Brand and think he's funny. That is a matter of taste. If you didn't agree with me, the correct response would be "huh, really? I don't really get him." The wrong response would be "You've got to be kidding me! He's terrible. The worst! He has to be the worst comedian on the planet.." etc etc etc, effectively trying to convince me that I must be wrong, I must NOT like him.

And what was even more annoying was that his wife was a very very sweet woman, and I feel like I barely got to know anything about her because he just wouldn't SHUT UP. I think she's probably very interesting.

Anyway, I'm pretty proud of myself for keeping a pretty positive attitude. I do have my limits though, like at one point when that guy said something about why having a pet is a ridiculous concept, and this was after we had talked about a) the cat who belonged to the host, who was wandering around the whole night, b) our pets, and c) our pet sitting business. But as I looked past him, I saw SB giving me The Jim, so I DID NOT reach across and slam that guy's face into his salmon.

Christmas is dead. Part IV

So, another year, another holiday season is looming before us.

This is the time of year when everyone else gathers with their families to celebrate the holidays, doing whatever they all do each year. At first I resented missing out on those things. But now I realize I just miss the option of choosing those activities. Whether I want to drive 10 hours or not, hauling dogs and cats and too much luggage and too many gifts, we don't have the choice. Would I be just as happy to choose, say, travelling over the holidays to a beach, or spending Christmas in Rome? Probably. But I can't choose those things either. And maybe I would be even happier just hanging out in our condo with our own dog and cats, holed up for three days drinking hot chocolate, opening gifts, eating too much, sitting in front of the fire place. Yup, that would probably make me happy too.

But we don't have those choices anymore. For the last three years (this year will be our fourth), we get up on Christmas morning, usually before the sun comes up. We visit about a kabillion cats during the day, usually taking a break for a meal (one year my mom visited and made us a turkey while we were out scooping poop and shoving pills down cats' throats. It was awesome. But usually we stop at one of the delis and either have a club sandwich or smoked meat.) We get home after dark. The end.

I would complain more, and hate it more, except for one thing. I know that every Christmas that we own this business I get to spend the whole day with SB, just the two of us. And we usually have a great time. So as much as I hate it, I really do love it.

FAIL

One of my favorite blogs is FAIL Blog, cousin to LOL Cats. Generally at least once a day they post either photos, videos, news articles featuring various FAILS that are going on in the world. Here are some of my faves:

Local news weather:

http://failblog.org/2009/11/13/geography-fail-4/

Man on the street:

http://failblog.org/2009/11/13/fashion-fail-5/

They've been doing a lot of this type of thing lately, and I love it:

http://failblog.org/2009/11/11/suggestion-fail/

My personal favorite of the week:

http://failblog.org/2009/11/10/wireless-network-fail/

If you use an RSS reader, I would highly recommend subscribing to this feed - I usually read it while I'm having my coffee, and have, more than once, found myself almost spitting all over the laptop. I also love sending the link to SB to brighten his day a bit. And if you do read it, what have your faves been?

Married

Not a whole lot going on today, but I DID make spaghetti and meatballs for dinner. I've just recently started making this dish, and neither SB nor myself can figure out why the heck it's taken so long for me to try this.

Anyway, my second favorite thing about spaghetti and meatballs, aside from how yummy they are, is that every time I make them SB makes about 400 jokes about how much he loves BALLS. He loves BALLS in his MOUTH. MMMMMMM BALLS.

It never gets old.

The Wedding Gown, Part II

There is a lot of stress about choosing the correct dress. My priorities before trying on anything:

• comfortable - not necessarily sweatpants comfy, but enough that you feel yourself, and not self-conscious the whole day.
• budget - I was a wedding budget Nazi - it is one of the things I am the most proud of, so it was really important to me to stick to it. We will say budget was X going into the process.
• different - I really didn't want something that looked same-old same-old. I also didn't want something totally out there. I wanted classic, but with details people would remember.

Things I knew I DID NOT WANT -

• lace.
• a tulle skirt that looked like a tutu
• pick-ups on the skirt

You would think this left things pretty wide open, but we learned quickly in the first store that I was very discerning - looking at the dresses on the hangers the consultant would say "what about this?" and I could no or yes within seconds. She loved my decisiveness, I think, and when I told her how long we'd been engaged she understood it too.

After trying on the first round of gowns I had discovered:

• sweetheart necklines look great on me but I wasn't going to feel comfortable in strapless
• I wanted a long train
• had to have buttons up the back - no lace-ups
  
• had to have beading
• ideally wanted a v-neck front and a v-back.

We found my dress by accident. It was hanging, and the first thing we saw was the pleating of the train. I thought it was interesting, but was a bit afraid of it too. Too much pleating could be bad. It also didn't have a pricetag on it since it had just arrived in the store. I agreed to try it on. Some photos of what it would have looked like on the hanger:

When I put it on, I instantly loved how it felt - even though it was two sizes too small. The train was just long enough, and when we pulled up the back to see what it would look like bustled, I almost started to cry. I knew it was it, and then I had to ask the price.

Because it had no tag, the consultant had to call the owner to find out where to find the price. She came back with X + 50%. Great. One and a half times my budget. I asked her if she thought they would be able to work out a better price, and she said she thought so, probably at least to X + 35%. Still not great for me.

As I said yesterday, we visited some other salons after this, and at one I saw The Dress and asked what their price would be. They came back with X + 30%. When I returned to the original shop, I tried on The Dress and two others, just to be sure, and there was no question. But budget-wise I was crying on the inside. There was no way I could justify it. No.

When I had the dress on again, we started talking about the price - the consultant could tell I was serious, and called up the owner of the salon to facilitate the negotiations. She started off with the first price she had quoted, and I told her the other shop had offered better, but still not great. After a few back and forths, we settled on X + 6% taxes in, plus they included a loaner crinolin, veil, and headpiece if I so chose.

This made me happy enough, but then 6 months later when it came time for a fitting I checked out the sample while they brought up my gown. The price tag: X x 2. Two times my original budget!!! If it had had a tag the day I tried them on, I wouldn't even have pulled it off the hanger. I'm so glad I did.

But probably the best part about my gown was SB's reaction. When I stepped into the room, and started walking towards him, I could see he had tears in his eyes. And after he shook my grandfathers hand, and we stood waiting for the music to stop, he leaned to me and said "You look so beautiful - I would have paid twice the price." And I knew I had picked a winner.

The Wedding Gown, Part I

Because SB turned out to be a hyper-conventional groom, I wasn't allowed to tell him anything about The Dress before the wedding. Except the price, of course, since we only have communal cash here at our house. He was actually so serious about knowing NO details about it that when I once had a nightmare that it arrived in champagne he plugged his fingers in his ears and said "la la la la la" because he didn't even want to know what color it WASN'T. So, I wasn't allowed to write about The Dress either. Because he might read about it, and then we would have to light it on fire and start from scratch.

My dress shopping experience can be summed up in 3 words - efficient, efficient, efficient. Wedding dresses are tricky things, because in most cases it is the first time you have ever shopped for one, so how can you know what it will look like on you? But it helps to know the vocabulary to be able to describe the ideas you have of what you may like. Plus, I had been looking at photos of designer dresses in magazines for so long, that I knew a lot of details that I absolutely did not want.

I worked on vibe a lot. My first time out, we visited three places. First one was great, but none of the dresses were IT. Second one (which is one of the most popular in town) had a weird smell, was extremely cramped, and there were no consultants to help us. I put one dress over my head, and before we even stepped out of the dressing room I said "I hate this place, and there is no way I'm buying a dress here" so we left. The third place was beautiful, the consultant was friendly, helpful, but not a busybody hovering over us. I found the dress there. But couldn't accept that within two hours it was done.

The second time out I visited a high-end salon - it was nice, but the consultant seemed extremely condescending, and the dresses were just alright. I tried on two, but only to humor her. The second place had a website that said they were open until nine that night, but when we arrived at 7 the lady was closing up. I saw "My Dress" on a mannequin in the front, and asked her how much it would be. She gave me a price, and we left. We went back to the original store where I had seen it, I tried it on for my friends, they all loved it, and then the price negotiating began.

Tomorrow, The Dress itself!!!

Ellen on Oprah

Today on Oprah her guest was Ellen Degeneres. Usually I can take her or leave her - I don't watch her talk show anymore as the novelty has kinda worn off, but I do think I would like her on American Idol so may give that a go when it comes back on.

The thing that made the biggest impression on me was the portion of the show where they interviewed Ellen and her wife, Portia de Rossi.

On the one hand, they are adorable. They gush over each other. They almost went so far as to say they complete each other. They showed film from their wedding, and I was tearing up because it was so beautiful, and they both had the stupid silly grin that I know I had on my wedding day.

On the other hand I remember what seems like not so long ago when Ellen had a similar relationship with Anne Heche, and I wonder if she really learned anything from that experience. They gushed, they swooned, and that ended so, so, so badly. And the whole thing in the public eye with lots of scrutiny and disdainful messiness.

And then on a third hand (or foot, or other appendage) you have to applaud them for taking the opportunity to flaunt their beautiful, beautiful marriage in the faces of the hateful, hateful people of California who voted against legalizing gay marriage permanently.

So, basically, the episode left me smiling like a fool, cringing anxiously, and shaking my fist at California. Did you see it?

snorefest

I almost forgot about NaBloPoMo today! Not that I spent the day in a fury of activity or anything, but for some reason lounging on the sofa in my pj's until 3pm just didn't say to my brain "hey, it's time to write a blog post!"

Last night I kicked three boys' asses at Guitar Hero, even after several glasses of wine. Then this morning SB made me a fantastic omelet breakfast. I'm not sure a weekend at home could get much better than that!

Now I've settled in for Amazing Race and Dexter night - I probably should have run this weekend at some point, but meh.

Sorry so boring - I guess that's Sundays for ya!

Purged

So, wow, that movie killed us. For the last half hour I was a mess. If you haven't seen the movie, then you may not want to read this post.

The first point where I lost it was when Marley had trouble on the stairs. For the last probably two years of Gabby's life mobility was an on-again/off-again struggle. Some days it was no problem, other days she required a lot of help. I didn't mind, but I could tell she did.

After that, when he took her on the trail through the field, and they sat sitting at the sun - reminded me of bringing Gabby on the mountain trail with the group. She would trudge along at her own pace, sometimes falling out of view behind us, and I can't remember if I ever just sat with her at the top. I can't remember if I ever congratulated her for making it up there.

One part of the movie that outraged me was when he left Marley alone overnight at the vet for observation. I never could have left Gabby alone, sick, in a strange place. Never. Maybe I'm strange. But it wouldn't have happened. I also never could have just said goodbye to her in the back of a car, then let someone else take her away. Never.

So, overall it was just cry, cry, cry. But it also made me want a puppy really badly. I know we have The Woodge, but he is not mine. He doesn't love me the way Gabby did. He doesn't seem to need me, or want to please me. I miss that.

Purging

it's a grey, grey day. No rain, just greyness. Fall is the only season where this is acceptable, for some reason.

I picked up some movies at Blockbuster - it's cheaper to buy their pre-owned DVDs than to rent new ones, and since SB and I are horribly behind in our movie watching it doesn't really matter to us.

I grabbed Ghost Town - lately I have been obsessed with Ricky Gervais, and I had heard great things about this movie. Hopefully it's at least a little bit good, and Tea Leoni is in it so SB will be happy.

I also picked up Marley and Me. We've been avoiding this movie. It came out on DVD right around the time we lost Gabby, and we just weren't ready. I'm still not sure we are, but what better day than a chilly, grey day in fall to let some of that out?

Thankful

Simon is ridiculously cuddly today. He has been following me everywhere and meowing/chatting at me, and whenever I am on the sofa he snuggles up beside me. It was hard to get motivated to go do my walks today, and even harder to get going to meet a friend for dinner since it was soooo cold outside and Simon is so warm and squishy. But, I got up and at 'em and am glad. I don't see my friends enough.

Since we don't get to see each other often, and our group of friends isn't all together nearly enough, we got to talking about the value of our friendships. Each of us has had down times, and grumpy times, and problems and then everyone has there happiness and celebrations too. I feel so so lucky to have such a great group of girls in my life who listen to me when I'm having a tough go of it, who offer their advice when they can, their hands when I need help, their hearts when mine feels disconnected. And I feel lucky to be able to return the favor for them, because I love them like my family.

So, that's all, tonight my heart is full and I feel very grateful. For my friends and my squishy kitty cat.

Viva Las Vegas!

For our mini-honeymoon, SB and I jetted off to Las Vegas for 4 days of mayhem in Sin City. Every single person that we spoke to before heading off said "Vegas is fun - for about 3-4 days, after that it gets to be a bit much." We were please, then, since we had only booked for 4 days, really just a getaway to relax after wedding craziness.

I don't know how other people "do" Vegas, but obviously not the right way because holy heck if I don't want to move there. We had such a fantastic time, I would go back in a heartbeat. So, my mini travelguide to Vegas.

- Don't spend a ton on your hotel - just make sure you stay somewhere on the strip. We stayed at the MGM Grand - one of the older hotels, rooms are slightly dated but clean. You don't spend a ton of time in your room, so you just want to be sure it's somewhere you won't catch bedbugs and that doesn't stink of mold.

- Do research the pool - we spent the WHOLE DAY by the pool, as we are wont to do, and we were very please that our hotel had a fantastic pool area, with sunshine all day long. In contrast, right across the street at New York New York the pool area was tiny and shaded all day. Boooo. You need to be a guest at the hotel to get into the pool area for free, so be sure you are staying at a hotel with a pool you will want to hang out at.

- Do relax in the daytime. ie plan on hanging out by the pool, doing shopping, visiting spas...whatever you consider relaxing, fill your days with that. Don't try to pack the daytime with too much shuffling about because it gets wicked hot, so you will tire yourself out pretty quickly if you are outside in it too long.

- Do explore at night - the Strip is pretty amazing, and night time is the time to really take it all in, all lit up and flashy. We checked out most of the casinos from the outside, and a couple from the inside, just by wandering up and down the Strip. The sidewalks are much, much more narrow than I thought though, so as much as I was up for seeing the sights I did find the crowds very annoying.

- Do hit some buffets. We read a lot about the Bellagio buffet, so we had to check it out. It was amazing - Under $30 per person and dudes, there was Kobe beef prime rib. And a sushi bar. And duck a l'orange. And quail. It was ridiculous. The buffet at our hotel wasn't half bad, either, and we were able to pay a "whole day" price, which gave us a discount for eating our breakfast, lunch, and dinner there. And it was yummy, not bland or gross like I expected.

I could go on and on about all the activities we did, but these are the best tips I came away with. We were there at the end of September, and the weather was absolutely amazing. Hot and sunny all day, relatively cool at night. And there is something about the low humidity that just made me sooooo happy all the time. Except when it cause our bodies to shrink and SB's wedding ring fell off in the casino, but that's a whole other story.

Wanting

Lately I have been feeling guilty about all the things that I want.

I realize that I am a very very lucky person. I have someone I love, I have a fantastic home that I love, I have three little furry babies who I love and who make me smile every single day. But every day I find something else that I want. I become convinced that it will add value to our lives, that we need it. But lately I have been trying to evaluate where this sense of need comes from.

I think it's natural to want things, and I think it's healthy to have goals, and to want to surround yourself with things you love. But what is excessive? And what is normal? And is normal really normal, or is it just us imitating what seems "average" and has "average" become out of control?

In my case, I think I am trying to find a balance. There are so many things in my life that make me very very happy, but there is one giant thing that makes me seriously unhappy. I think I'm trying to drown it. I'm trying to say, "well, I can live with it, but only if I have...." Like I'm trying to fill up all the time I spend unhappy with things. In the past two months, I have felt so much happiness, and I want to keep it going, because I really loved feeling full from happiness instead of half-full from buying stuff.

I don't want to talk too much about the Giant Happiness Sucker, but I will say that now I am focusing on how to change it. It's much slower than I'd hoped - what I had dreamed would be done by November is now looking more like February or March. And while I can't possibly express how that saddens and disappoints me, I can say that I am trying to think only about how happy I will be if it happens.

The Questions

Obviously after we graduated from University The Questions started about when we would be getting hitched.

Then when we finally got engaged, The Questions became incessant (admittedly we asked for those ones), and we deferred them by saying we would get married after we bought a place.

Then The Questions became "did you find a place yet?". When we finally bought our condo, The Questions reverted to "so when is the big day going to be?"

Well, the Big Day has come and gone. We are officially hitched, and it's great. But now The Questions have become "so when are you going to have kids?"

I realize this is the conventional order of things. But in keeping with my attitude of resenting questions about my life, please stop asking this question. Because, if you know me at all, you know:

1. babies terrify the bejeesus out of me - I can feel it deep in my soul that if left to my own devices I would break a baby. And probably not just in two, but I would probably shatter it.
2. I don't like things that talk back, and I do like quiet. I like to share my space with dogs, cats, and SB because they are all relatively complacent to my particularities.
3. Babies are so self-centered.
4. TLC's a Baby Story. 'Nuff said about that one.
5. My life is messed up enough, so I don't think it's fair to force that upon more humans than necessary, especially helpless ones that can't exactly run away until they are like 15, which is way too late. ****

So, please, please stop asking when we're going to have a baby. We have a lot of things to do in this life already, like working, and traveling, and spoiling Simon and Gang. We are certainly not in the mindset to add more chaos to all that.


****when my mother asked me The Question, this was my response. She said I was too cynical. Maybe. But this isn't something I'm willing to talk myself into.

NaBloPoMo Day 1

Today is my favorite day of the year. Not because it's the first day of NaBloPoMo. Not because it's the first day of November. No, it's my favorite day because it's the day the clocks roll back, and we magically get an extra hour. There are not a whole lot of things that I love more than waking up at 10:30 only to realize it's only 9:30.

How do I spend this day?

First I finished up my schedules and work crapola. I will still have to get the stuff together for the girls later, but the bulk is finished.

Then, I watched a whole lot of detective TV on the Mystery channel, until SB had had enough and changed it to football.

THEN I hunkered in and watched some streaming tv shows on the internet (more detective shows, and then some Mad Men)

The best longest day ever.

This week I have been fighting off some sort of illness - not the dreaded flu, I don't think, but my sinuses have been full and I had a little bit of a fever for two days. So, it's nice to have the day to relax, get a little rest in, and hopefully fight this thing away.

Sorry this is so boring. Boring days = boring posts. This may be a VERY long month for anyone who decides to read each day. Sorry.

NaBloPoMo 2.0

Nothing has been going on. Literally. Or at least that's what it feels like. Compared to all the craziness of planning the wedding, this past month has been pretty quiet. It's a strange feeling, and I feel like I'm growing lazy in this lull. I don't want to do anything, and nothing is really on a deadline, so I end up not getting anything done.

What I have been doing a lot of is thinking. The mind is a dangerous place, folks. Spend too much time in there, and it begins to fill up with all these....ideas. And you think they are good at first, until you get working on them and oh, dear, then you're up to your eyeballs in unfinished projects.

One idea that has been bouncing around in there lately that I actually think is NOT a waste of time is NaBloPoMo. Some of you who have been following this blog for a while know I did NaBloPoMo about three years ago, I think. It was fun, more challenging then I thought, and actually pretty inspiring. So, as I'm trying to re-focus on what I WANT to do instead of what I have been doing, which is what I feel I HAVE to do, this seemed like the perfect place to start.

So, starting Nov 1st, it's on. One post each day, including weekends, for the entire month of November. I have about a week and a half to gather some ideas before it gets started.

10 things you hear about weddings - T/F

1. the day flies by too fast - TRUE! - I got up at 8:30 and before I knew it it was 3am and time for bed. From hair appointment, to lunch, to makeup, to getting dressed to ceremony to dinner to dancing, the only part that felt like it was dragging on was the 30 minutes between the time my mom and sister went downstairs to welcome people until the coordinator called to cue my grandfather and I to join them. This 30 minutes was useful since I think Papa was nervous and I got him to drink a glass of wine and tell the photographer a few stories to loosen up a bit.

2. You won't get to eat - FALSE! - we ponied up for a fantastic menu and I was determined to enjoy it. I did, however, learn quickly not to leave my seat until I was done with my plate after my salad was removed while I was gone saying hi to a table of friends. After that I didn't leave my plate without specific instructions to someone to keep an eye on it and not let anyone take it away.

3. People will be upset if you don't follow "the rules" - FALSE! - we had no official cake cutting, no garter toss, no bouquet toss and our entrance song was "Swagga' Like Us" and people couldn't stop raving about what a fantastic time they had.

4. You won't even notice when small details go wrong - FALSE! - it bothers me that no one arranged my dress at during the ceremony (my fault - didn't assign the task), the ceremony didn't end up videotaped (Eric's fault - didn't assign the task), we didn't get to try the hors d'oeuvres (venue's fault, they sent up cheese and fruit instead), and the DJ effed up our first dance song and my mother/daughter song (DJ's fault and the reason why, even after a great night of partying, I didn't give him a tip). But, it just bothers me. It didn't ruin the day for me. There are soooo many other things that were either perfect or better than expected that I really can't dwell on those other things.

5. Your tasting will always be better than the food the day-of - FALSE!!! - the food was actually better than when we originally tasted it, which is incredible, impressive, and had me regretting my change from steak to chicken.

6. You won't feel like doin' it on your wedding night - TRUE!!! - my dress was heavy and I think I sweated off about 40 pounds. At the end of the night I just wanted a shower and some sleep. We did, however, finish off the cheese plate from before the reception and talked about the highlights of the day while they were still fresh.

7. Your photographer is invaluable - TRUE!!! - all our friends and families had their cameras, but we just saw the photogs photos and they were amazing. Also, we had them set up a photobooth and I think my favorite photos of the night are from there. Their photos are so great, I feel like I can relive the whole day just by flipping through them. And that's exactly how it should be.

8. You won't have time to socialize/have fun - FALSE!!! - we specifically invited less people so that we could enjoy time with every single guest, and still get our boogie on. I have a great memory with every single person who was there, and that's just how I wanted it.

9. No wedding is complete without the Chicken Dance/YMCA/etc - FALSE!! - the only remotely cliche song we played was "Celebrate" (good times, come on!) - our DJ thought we were weird because there was a lot of Puff Daddy, Notorious BIG, etc. Whatever, people were DANCING and that's all we wanted :)

10. You will feel different after becoming Mr and Mrs. - FALSE - I don't. I still love SB more than anything, I still love our life together, and I still love sharing every part of my life with him. The only thing that is different is the fact that we don't have to plan a giant party anymore. Until our first anniversary!