The wedding is in less than TWO WEEKS! I've been comparing the preparation for this event to graduate school. Let this be a known fact now: Wedding planning is more difficult than Graduate School. FACT. While in grad school, I only had to answer to myself and the professors. While wedding planning, I've got in-laws calling, family stalking me, and vendors/bridal party who all need my first born. Ok, so it's not THAT horrible and I MAY have SLIGHTLY exxagerated. It's what I do, but don't play down the fact that it is stressful having to answer everyone else. I've been having to put taking care of myself on the back burner lately for the past month i.e. I haven't been to the gym since before my bachelorette party in Vegas (best. idea. ever. FACT. I am FULL of facts today.)

So quick wedding-related update: We're having 300 guests. The DIY is in progress. I've been featured on theknot.com for one of my DIY designs! I am taking off work next week to finish everything. We've got guests from Vietnam & Switzerland to name a few. It really has not hit me yet.

Anyway, maybe it's just me, but since the wedding is around the corner, I've been reflecting on what got me here. Er, the events that ensued before I met my future husband. Not hubby, I realized during this process that the word "hubby" sounds like nails on a chalkboard. Don't say it. Please.

The MAIN considerations involved all of the gentlemen and not-so-gentlemen I have met in my life. Yes, I am referring to those guys who made me run right into D's arms. I never really wrote about these encounters, but the timing now seems appropriate. Here are some of the more memorable fatalities in no particular order. (I'll keep these short and sweet. Short for the length of time I spent with them. Sweet because everything seems sweet - maybe - in hindsight. Your memory does that to you.):

Guy #1) He came over with a house plant. It had dragonfly clips in it. Okay, that was a nice gesture. I got in his truck and he did not say much to me on the way to the restaurant, I forget where we went. When we were seated, I tried to start conversation. Lord knows, the appetizer bread was not going to start talking to me. He gave me one word answers to questions that necessitated more than one word. I casually checked that off as "efficient" So, I browsed the menu in silence. I thought maybe he was one of those men of few words type of dude. Ok, whatever, he could surprise me.

He must've realized he was being rather boring and started to talk about something of no interest to me, because the next thing I knew, I was falling asleep. I fell asleep. I fell asleep throughout dinner. The waiter was more entertaining - I had a very nice conversation about his night, actually. The FOOD was more entertaining. The efficiency thought earlier quickly transformed into "personality of a doorknob". After dinner, he wanted to go for a walk, but I wanted to put the date out of misery and asked to be taken home. I don't know he wanted to keep trying. He COULD NOT have thought that it was going well. I fell asleep in the truck... while he was talking to me. Woops. That was our first and last date. I am a horrible, sleepy date.

...Oh, there were so many more... I'll be back!

Categorized: Wedding, Thoughts, Love, Funny
Plugs: Kym

This is something I wrote back when everything was white.

It has been snowing a lot this winter. Last year, we had small spurts that melted and then populated the roads again. This year, we've had blizzard after blizzard.

Normally, I rock some level of stilletto boots that still elevate me to where I don't need to buy new pants, i.e. flat boots necessitate short pants. No floods for this girl. However, due to the massive tyraid of snow left in my work parking lot, I've succumbed to flatTER shoes. I suppose it's better to be safe than on my ass in the snow.

Or is it? I was walking into work the other day with the flatTER shoes, quickly, since it's much more efficient to walk down a long flight of stairs with greater surface area under the feet. However, I wiped out and nearly twisted my ankle. Aside from pure embarrassment, though I don't think anyone saw and I'll still tell myself this, I got back up, continued walking and thought about this.

How often do we take more risks when we feel safer? I never had a spill like that in my stilletto boots. *knock on wood* In fact, I might almost say that walk even better minimally 4 inches off the ground. I realized something. Just because we change something to be safer, better, more comfortable, doesn't mean we need to forget to exercise the same caution we exercised when we were not so safe, not as good, and clearly not as comfortable. It's obvious that we are naturally more cautious if we anticipate pain, but why do we let go when we aren't worried. Sometimes it leads us to more risk and danger because that caution is lacking.

I saw my family this past weekend. No fiancés around. No boyfriends. Just the three of us. I had called my dad last Sunday to ask for his address for a wedding invitation. I found out that he has leukemia and had been through chemo a couple times already. He told me that the chemo was horrible. Each time, he was exhausted and fatigued. I am so glad I called. I'm not going to front. I felt guilt afterwards. I felt guilty for not calling sooner, but D said the important thing was that I DID call. He's right. And I will keep doing it.

Hanging out with the family reminded me of this post that I drafted months ago. When we have these people around: friends and family, it's easy to lose caution, so to speak... it's easy to take it/them for granted. I never had a close relationship with my father and I'm sure it has affected me in many ways, but being resentful and unforgiving will most likely cut deeper in the end. I'm not going to start wandering around terrified that people I love will disappear. I'm only going to remind myself to cherish every second with them. I'm going to exercise Stilletto Caution.

Categorized: Thoughts, Family
Plugs: leveraction45 | Kym | Ashley | Jessica

: No one

I've been slaving away for awhile now making my wedding invitations. (Side note: here they are!) They were FINALLY done on Sunday so I went to the post office with my fiancé to get the exact postage labels placed on them. I had tested one box at another post office last week and it was $2.02 per invitation to send. [edit] The woman I went to at the post office told me to come in with all of the boxes.[/edit].

We came into the post office yesterday WAAAYYY before rush hour. It was dead. In fact, the two people working were just standing there chatting.

We brought 3 box loads of invitations plus a stack of international invites to be stamped and sent off to our wonderful guests. When we walked up to the window, I told the older gentleman that we need to ship these off today. He looked at me and said that I would need to put stamps on them.

Duh.

"Sir, that's why we're here."

"You're going to have to do it yourself. I won't stamp ALL of those here."

We look around. The other woman working is taking care of the other customers and no one is in line.

We explain, "when we went to the other post office on ****, they did it for us."

"Who?

"The UNITED STATES POST OFFICE."

"Oh really? I'm surprised. That is a lot of work. How much did they charge you?"

"$2.02."

He read his screen after weighing the first one and it clearly said "$2.02".

"See? We're not lying. Sir, can you please just help us?"

"Well, how many did they stamp for you?"

"They postaged 50 already." (Okay, we fibbed. They did 4, but GEEZ. It's YOUR JOB!)

"You're going to have to put stamps on them."

"Do you make a stamp for $2.02?"

"No, you can put on two $1 stamps and two $0.01 stamps. I have other customers." At that point of the conversation, there was one man in line.

The fiancé says, "then help him first and help us next." We hear the other woman call the man in line to her register. He quips, "Oh look, now no more line." (Thankfully, my fiancé was there. I was so pissed I would have stormed off, but he calmly pointed out to the man that he needs to do his job.)

He grudgingly had nothing to say back to us considering there was NO ONE else around. We stacked the boxes in front of him and he began stamping them, one by one. I understand that it was an obnoxious task. I'm sure he dreaded us coming up to his window, but I am inclined to say that IT IS YOUR JOB!

He even made a snide remark to the other woman in the middle od stamping that "the other post office did it so apparently I have to do it too."

Does he realize how many people out there are looking for work? He was SOOOOOOOO LAZY. He tried to shoo us away. We needed to MAIL stuff so we went to the UNITED STATES POST OFFICE. I think that makes sense. I'm sure your conversation with the other woman was very interesting, but weird... I'm a paying customer who nicely asked you to DO. YOUR. JOB. After he finished the domestic boxes, we handed him a pile of the international boxes. He told us he was done and to finish with the other woman. Ugh. Lazy. In the end, all of the invitations were finally stamped.

Categorized: Grr
Plugs: Thao | Kym | Hannie |

: No one

I am still putting all of my focus towards the wedding. During this phase, you do a lot of internet searches about... well, WEDDINGS.

I came across this one: http://www.gethildaandjodyhitched.com/ and literally got sick to my stomach. How appalling. How shameless. HAVE THEY NO PRIDE?

They're asking for a handout, 'cause you know the starving children all over the world and the cancer researchers really don't need your extra dollars. Her wedding, on the other hand, does. I also don't need to pay my bills, so I should just go there to donate my life's savings now.

If you can't pay for your wedding and you don't have other financial resources in your family, then head to the courthouse or wait until you save up. This is disgusting. If you really want to just get married and can't wait or afford it, a marriage license will cost you less than $100.

I have a lot more I could say, but... I think this is pretty much self-explanatory.

[UPDATE] Well, she must have received a LOT of hate mail over this. She posted the link on theknot.com and received TONS of messages saying how ridiculous that was and then later locked her facebook group and locked the site. Here's a cached screenshot anyway of her plea for help:


You know, in this day and age, it almost was expected that someone do this. People are gaining their 15 minutes of fame by exposing and exploiting themselves on the internet for money. I guess you could say I'm doing the same thing... except that I pay for my site and haven't seen any income, haha. However, in an economic burnout like it is, I would think twice about advertising for wedding funds.

Categorized: Thoughts, Grr, Wedding
Plugs: Jessica | Kym | Katy | Sam |

: Snow_love


I abhor the kind of posts that people put up after a hiatus (though my hiatus was rather unnanounced or intentional). You know... the "I AM SOOOO BUSY. SORRY I HAVEN'T POSTED, BLAH BLAH BLAH, YADDA YADDA YADDA" I know you REALLY don't care, especially new visitors. So in honor and in lieu of that traditional post, I am doing a quick update and a story.

I got my hands on some cute Coach stuff, but I'm selling it. If you're interested (they're brand new), here's one and two.

[Update] I graduated with my Master's in December and have been planning the wedding since which is why I have been MIA. I updated my wedding website, so please head on over there for the mush and gush. [/Update]

[Story] Our company is celebrating an anniversary. Another year of success. I stand there during a scheduled dog and pony, waiting anxiously for it to be over so that I can get my hands on the treat table, donuts and apple cider-can you blame me? I'm pretty proud, I think. I've been in the company for four years and it has since grown into something pretty amazing. They treat me well here, especially with treat tables like that. The band plays as I lean my body into the end of a walkway area.

All of the sudden, I feel hands on my waist. I'm confused as I realize I am at work. These hands drag me to the right as I try turning around. A strange man attached to those hands appears. I have no idea who he is.

"Why is he touching me?"

As he pulls me aside to get through, my jaw drops to the floor. My coworkers (my age) start laughing. I am dumbfounded. What the hell just happened? He walked by nonchalantly as if nothing happened and as if my obvious expression of shock wasn't there.

I still don't know what happened. All I know is that if it happened at a bar, I would have punched the guy and said, "NOT YOURS", but the shock of having something like that happen in a place where it should not even be a consideration... was just too much. My brain froze. My sassy mouth froze. I just stood there with my jaw on the ground.

It bothers me that I couldn't react, so now I realize how sometimes, you just can't react as fast as you want. Sometimes, things happen and you're so engulfed by surprise that you own a moment of "uhhhhhhhh". Luckily, I wasn't in any danger save maybe strange coworker behavior.

The next time we have a company celebration, I'm bringing mase. [/Story]

That's my story. The End.

Categorized: Thoughts
Plugs: Snow_love