Tomorrow Is Another Day...

Wedding Weekly Activity Report

Oh my Lord, y'all, I have to most serious case of wedding brain KNOWN TO MAN.  Yesterday I managed to leave the house with the back door unlocked, the alarm not set, and I forgot to grab my jacket.  I then proceeded to freeze my butt off all day and stare at my computer screen at work, half-heartedly filing and filling in spreadsheets.  The evening was capped off with a bizarre dream in which a Mr. Beldenesque teacher led a chorus of singers and dancers in a rousing rendition of "Mein Herr".  I'm not sure how that's wedding related, but it sure was hilarious when I woke up this morning with that stuck in my brain.

All joking and Cabaret references aside, the wedding stress is truly beginning to weigh heavily on my shoulders.  Last night, I was reminding Colby to finish his part of the photo list and when my voice crept up to what could be referred to as a slightly shrill pitch, he pulled me down on his lap, put my head on his chest and remarked gently, "You've done a really great job of not being a 'Zilla so far..."  But the thing is, after a year of calmly and meticulously planning, I can finally feel her there, lurking just below the surface, just waiting for something to go wrong or not go according to schedule.  Bridezilla is there, bubbling up from the deepest, darkest pits of my soul and I fear for all of those caught in her wake.

I've been stalking accuweather.com for the past few days, ever since we entered the 15 day range that it forecasts.  Things started off well enough--highs in the low 70s, lows in the 50s, but sunny and clear.  Then yesterday the temperature was still the same, but scattered showers had made their way into the forecast.  And now this...

Oh my God!  No!  What did I do to deserve this!  In the span of 12 hours, how did we go from sunny and the upper 70s to THIS??  So, of course, logically I know that there's no way they can really accurately predict the weather in Louisiana from 10 days out, but the Bridezilla in me is seriously freaking out now.  Why?  Why?  Whyyyyyy???

Sob.

Anyway, I guess now let's move on to the current status of wedding planning in Angela's world.

Angela & Colby's Wedding WAR 14 Nov 2007

Recently Completed Tasks

• Finish the Guestbook Scrapbook:  I snipped my last photo and stuck on my last sticker last night.  I'm planning to bring my supplies with me when I go home so I can scrapbook the bachelorette party and rehearsal dinner if there's time, but if there isn't, I'm perfectly happy with the product as is, and I can't wait to show it off!
• Finalize Menu and Service Details with the Caterer:  I finally got in touch with White Oak and we finalized our menu for food and the bar, reviewed all of our linen rentals, made our final payment, and scheduled a final meeting with our wedding coordinator for next Monday.
• Call All Guests Who Haven't Yet RSVP'd:  We took care of this over the weekend, and it turns out that a few of our guests had actually sent in their RSVP cards, but they were lost in the mail.  I'm thrilled with our final number of 131 and although it's still going to be a tight squeeze if the ceremony is forced inside by rain, it will certainly be much better than the 150-175 number that I was fearful would be attending.
• Give Final Headcount to White Oak and Bakery: Done!  And we were even able to go down by one cake size for the wedding cake which saved my ridiculously generous parents about a hundred bucks.  A drop in the bucket in the grand scheme of things, but still, we'll take it!
• Confirm all Vendors: I'm counting this one is done even though I'm still waiting to hear back from the hair stylist/makeup artist we have scheduled to come to the house and get us ready.  I'm hoping that she'll get in touch with me today, and if not I just have that one phone call to make tomorrow.
• Send Limo Company a Schedule and Directions:  Turns out all I had to do was tell them all of the pick up and drop off locations over the phone and they don't need us to give them directions.  Nice!
• Make Final Payments to Vendors:  This is another one that goes in the mostly done, but just waiting on one vendor file, so I'm counting it as finished.  We just have to pay the makeup artist on the morning of the wedding and we'll be squared away.

Tasks Still on the To-Do List

• Finish "Must Take" Photo List: I have this almost totally finished, Colby and his mom just need to fill in the names of people who will be in their extended family photos.
• Pack to Go Home:  This is starting tonight.  I'm just going to scour the house for all of the wedding related items that need  to come home with us and throwing them in a pile in the loft next to my suitcase.  I'm going to attempt to start thinking about clothes too, but if I'm honest with myself, I know I won't get that done until Friday around midnight.
• Final Haircut & Color: I have an appointment for Friday night.
• Email the List of Nail Appointments for the Girls:  A family friend is setting up the appointments for us, so I just need to let her know what everyone wants--I'm planning to get this done on Friday.
• Print Table Camera Cards, Martini Menu, and Guestbook Cards: I'm doing this Sunday after brunch at a friend's house.  It should be fairly quick and painless.
• Assemble Programs:  On the schedule for Monday evening--I'm hoping I'll have some volunteers to help me out, but I don't think it should be too difficult.
• Final Wedding Gown Fitting:  First thing Monday morning.
• Pick up Sabers:  I'm hoping Colby will do this while I'm at my fitting
• Marriage License: Also on the schedule for Monday.  I was hoping that we would get the chance to squeeze in lunch with Wordnerd too, but sadly she'll be heading out of town that day and will be gone all week.  I'm so bummed, but we're definitely going to make it happen next time I'm in town!
• Drop off Unity Candle and "Something Blue" Brooch with the Florist:  Tuesday morning
• Hit the Mall to Buy Final Gifts, Shop For Honeymoon "Trousseau", and Eyebrow Wax
• Wrap Bridal Party Gifts
• Shop For and Pack Wedding "Emergency Kit"
• Pick Up Wedding Gown, Tuxes, & Guitar: All done Friday morning, working around picking up Carolyn at the airport at 11:30 and getting home in time to get ready for the rehearsal which starts at 4:30.
• Drop Off All of the "Stuff" (Guestbook, Pen, Cardbox, Etc.) At White Oak:  Still hoping that I can do this on Friday, but I forgot to ask when I talked to her this weekend.  I'll check during our Monday meeting.
• Make Final Payment to Makeup Artist/Hairstylist

And that's about all I have on my schedule, so hopefully it's really all we have left to do.  Okay, well, now I'm going to go cry a little bit about the weather forecast and check my skin for any hint of Bridezilla green.

Tuesday Shoe Day

Ugh, what a hideous chose of shoes for Tuesday Shoe Day!  These are quite possibly the clunkiest, least feminine pair of shoes I own, with the exception of my faux Birkenstocks(Remember when EVERYONE wore those Birkenstock slip on clog things constantly?  Or was that just at my school?) that I wear when gardening or trying to coerce the dogs into peeing on the side of the house so we don't have to watch them kill all of the grass that we so lovingly laid out and cultivated over the past six months. 

But do my adorable fuzzy, stripy socks earn me back any fun fashion points?

Yeah, probably not.

But let me tell you what, I have yet to find a cute pair of comfortable shoes (not sneakers) that I can wear with socks, thus protecting my feet from the damp, blustery cold of a Seattle morning.  I have my awesome boots that I wore yesterday (why oh why did I not take a picture and just pretend I wore them today?), but they're too wide around my calf so I can't wear them with pants because the pants bunch up around the tops of the boots. 

If anyone has any suggestions for comfortable, cute winter shoes, I am all ears.  Because the ballet flats just are not cutting it for warmth anymore.  And until that elusive winter shoe comes along, I'll be relegated to the very depths of fashion hell.

I Really Shouldn't Be Here

I'm so not in the mood to be at work today, and I really don't think the world is in the mood for me to be at work today.  Reasons:

1)  I got splashed by a taxi while I was walking to work because I was trying to avoid a puddle.  Hey, Alanis?  Would you consider that ironic?

2)  When I sat down at my desk I snagged my tights and they had to be trashed.  Luckily I randomly decided that leg shaving was in order yesterday, however, now I am quite cold and not looking forward to the walk back to the station.

3)  I haven't been able to focus on anything, and just when I got into the groove on one of my spreadsheets, my 1 and 4 key stopped working on the number pad of my keyboard.  The 1 and 4 above the letters work fine, but do you know how annoying it is to be clickity clacking along, entering your data, and then are taken totally out of your element when you have to reach all the way across to the other end of the keyboard?  It is excrutiatingly, painfully annoying!  And there are lots of 1's and 4's in my spreadsheet.

4)  Just because.  Is it Friday yet?

I know this is just an example of another week that will seem to be dragging by while I'm living it, but I'll look back on it in a few months and think about how life has just flown by recently.  I'm trying not to wish these final days leading up to the wedding away, but it's growing increasingly difficult to pay attention at work or think about anything other than when the florist will call me back, whether or not my dress will still fit, and if my Nordstrom order will arrive in time for the rehearsal dinner and bachelorette party next week.

Still, I am truly relishing each day that passes between now and November 24th.  I just keep thinking about how quickly the past year has slipped through my fingers, and how that one wedding day will be over in the blink of an eye.  I know that a marriage isn't just about the wedding, and that it's how you live together in the days after that count, but even so, after spending 25 years of my life dreaming about My Big Day, and laboring for the past year over all of the plans and details and checklists, it is inconceivable that in just 12 days my wedding will be a thing of the past.  (INCONCEIVABLE!)

I'm so ready to be married, I'm so ready to be Colby's wife and partner for life, but I must admit, I'm also ready to wear a beautiful dress, to spend a day bing pampered and treated like a queen, and to spend hours that will fly by all to quickly with the family and friends who have taken the time out of their own lives to celebrate with us.
 

My Last Sunday Before Vacation!

I understand that vacation is something of a subjective term, since when we fly out of here on Saturday pretty much every hour from there on will be devoted to either wedding preparations of some kind or entertaining family and friends.  However, as busy as that will keep me, and as exhausted as I may become, I absolutely cannot wait to wake up next Sunday morning and get started.

I've always marked time when counting down until upcoming milestones by thinking of where I am in relation to what is going to happen.  So, for the past few months I've thought things like, "This is the last March I'll spend as an unmarried woman", or yesterday, "This is the last time I'll do laundry in our house before I'm married."  (Which will probably turn out to be untrue since I always find at least one thing that needs to be washed at midnight the night before we leave to go anywhere.)

Anyway, when I saw this meme over at Michelle's I knew I had to do it, since another one of my favorite things to do is think about where I was at this time X amount of years or months or days ago.  It helps me judge how far I've come and how far I still have to go.

30 years ago: I don't even think my parents had met yet.  My dad may have still been married to his now ex-wife and my mom was a single career woman in the big city!  Well, bigger than the city she grew up in anyway...

20 years ago: I was a precious four year old, probably asking my parents every day how long it would be until my birthday and trying to figure out how I could get my sister in trouble for my indiscretions.

10 years ago: I was a painfully shy freshman in high school and had made the decision to enroll in Army JROTC  for a couple of semesters rather than take a gym class, and it was a decision that ultimately changed my life.  I went on to get an Air Force ROTC scholarship and then spend 2 1/2 years on active duty Air Force, but my 14 year old self would have laughed at you if you'd suggested that would be the course my life would take.  I was also still harboring my long-lived middle school crush on Ryan and trying to figure out why all of a sudden he only wanted to talk to cheerleaders.

5 years ago: I was sneaking drinks in clubs, wondering why I'd ever decided that reading books and analyzing them was the best choice for my college degree, and agonizing over every little Colby blip on my radar.  We had spent an entire semester flirting and after a tipsy tryst at an after-formal party, we were dancing around the idea of "officially" dating.

2 years ago: Colby and I were dating and I had come to Seattle with him to help with his big cross-country move.  But things were definitely rocky as I was ready to take our relationship "to the next level" and he was trying to figure out if he even wanted to date me anymore.  We were hovering on the brink of what would be a very painful few months, but months that we certainly needed to solidify the things we wanted in our relationship and what we wanted our future to include.  I was also miserable in the Air Force and counting down the days until I could finally get out.

1 year ago: I was in a state of absolute shock and bliss after Colby and I had decided to get back together after a six month split and began planning our wedding.  I was probably spending my Sunday night surfing the web for wedding dresses and table decoration idea.  I had also already made the decision to take an early separation from the Air Force and was just waiting for February 9th to roll around so I would finally be a free woman!

1 month ago: I was celebrating my one month anniversary at my new job in Seattle, and taking advice from the internet about what I should wear to our Rehearsal Dinner.

Yesterday: I spent the morning finalizing our guest count for the wedding (131--yay!!!), confirming with vendors, and making final payments.  Then my computer battery mysteriously died and when I unplugged the power cord from the computer to check the connection, the pin inside the computer that the cord connects to came out with it.  Oh crap.  So, now my computer has died for the fourth time in two years and now I've taken over possession of Colby's computer.

Today: We went for sushi with some friends, then went to Best Buy to see if my computer was fixable, Target to buy accessories for the rehearsal dinner, and then investigated window treatments at Lowe's and Home Depot.  Now we're watching Dr. Who while I fulfill my NaBloPoMo obligations.

Tomorrow: I start my last week of work before the wedding and start packing for our trip home.

Brief Update from Wedding Central

Sorry folks, don't have a lot of time for an super wonderful post today--I'm working on final payments to vendors, confirmations and trying to get a final headcount for the wedding.  We still have six invitations out with no response.  Seriously, what is WRONG with people?  Please, if you just take one thing away from this website, let it just be that you always respond to wedding invitations in a timely manner.

I also have those 40,000 pounds of laundry still hanging over my head, and a trip to Target and Lowe's in the works, so with that I shall bid you a fond adieu and will be back tomorrow with my Sunday update on Day 11 of the NaBloPoMo challenge!

Things That I Love--And Want to Buy NOW!

Steve Madden's Shameless Knockoffs

I have been lusting over this pair of Miu Miu pumps for months now--ever since I saw them in one of the summer issues of Lucky Magazine.  Unfortunately, these lovely Contrast Color Brogue Pumps have held steady at $525.00, and if I'm going to spend that kind of money on a pair of shoes, that pair of shoes would be these:

(Christian Louboutin Rolando Satin Pumps...  My God, I love you.  Is anyone still looking for birthday or Christmas present ideas?  I'll take a size 38.5 please.)

Anyway, that wouldn't work either, because I would buy them, Colby would murder me and then what would be the point in having these gorgeous shoes in his closet?  I would just hope that he would marry another woman with size 38.5 feet so that they wouldn't go to waste.  But I have digressed so much it's absolutely unbelievable.  The point is that I have resigned myself to the fact that I will just never have Carrie Bradshaw's closet, and I'm okay with that most of the time.

But then, when I was meandering around the Steve Madden website yesterday, in search of my fabulous gold shoes, what to my wondering eyes should appear but... these:

The heel is a little lower and the colors are a little different, but for $400 cheaper than the "real thing" I've got to say that the wonderful designers over at SM did a pretty great job of totally ripping off the Miu Miu shoes.  Want them.

Tao Media Cabinet

Some people are slaves to Ikea, others prefer the fine furniture of Crate and Barrel.  Colby and I have become devotees to the religion of Cost Plus World Market.  So far we've purchased from this remarkable establishment two nightstands, a chest of drawers, and an entryway console.  And now I've got my eye on one more piece to add to our shrine.

Our current tv cabinet was a graduation present from my parents three and a half years ago.  In the time I've had it, it has served me very well, however the fine workmanship of the Target craftsmen began to fail after my most recent move.  Now it seems to be every so loosely bound together and wobbles precariously when the slightest pressure is placed on it, which has turned the simple act of dusting into a life or death challenge.  We recently acquired a nice new high definition television when one of our friends upgraded to what I like to call a Man TV.  It is much larger than our old television and very, very heavy.  Very heavy.  So heavy that when we swapped out the tv's, there was a visible sag and an almost audible sigh from our current cabinet.

My other complaint is that our current cabinet has no doors, and I hate that we have a big old honkin' television, as well as our various recorders and tuners as the visual focus of our entire downstairs area.  The beautiful Tao Media Center from my precious World Market could be the answer to all of our furniture prayers, and yet, for some reason, they will only give it to us in exchange for valid currency.  Schrute bucks do not seem to be acceptable.  We have a 25% off coupon that would bring the price down a little, so I'm lobbying hard for it, and writing about these things in my blog often seem to inspire Colby to action.

But do you know what I really can't seem to wrap my head around?  Why is it that a pair of beautiful shoes and a piece of furniture can cost the same amount of money, but Colby's head would explode if I spent the money on the shoes?  Ah, the difference between men and women... or possibly shoe people and non-shoe people would be a more accurate comparison.

Thursday, Thursday, Wherefore Aren't Thou Friday?

Just yesterday I was smugly congratulating myself on just how easy posting daily has been.  An absolute breeze really!  Just open up Typepad, bang out some words, and voila!  A post appears!  And then today happened, and I just realized I haven't posted yet, I have 40,000 pounds of laundry that I absolutely must stop procrastinating about tonight, and a scrapbook that really needs to be finished in the next seven days, which means I have to do at least a couple of pages tonight.

Plus, it's definitely not Friday, even though I've been thinking it is all darn day long.  Of course maybe it's a good thing it's not Friday, because remember this?  I still haven't ordered my dress.  Or any shoes.  Or figured out what accessories I'll wear with it.  Because apparently I thought all I had to do was make a decision about what I wanted to wear to the rehearsal dinner--I didn't seem to think it was terribly important to actual acquire said garment.  And of course all the shoes I see online are hideous.  Since when can I not find a shoe that I like?  This is positively unheard of.

Update: Crisis averted!  Shoes have been purchased and will arrive on Monday.

But still I shall persevere, tonight I'm going home to measure myself, I'm ordering my dress (probably going to have to shell out extra cash for a rush order) and I'm deciding on some shoes in the next few days.  This weekend I'll make a Target run for some fine jewels and I'm making a packing list.  Because we are leaving in T-8 days and I really haven't even begun to collect myself.  I haven't even unpacked from New York, and I got home over two months ago.  I am completely worthless.

Screw You Seattle

Okay, well, today is actually supposed to be the start of my Tuesday Shoe posts, because I love shoes and shoe pictures = instant filler.  So, here are my adorable cable knit ballet flats pictured against the visually stunning carpet at my desk:

Also pictured: One of the wounds left by my battle with the Seattle sidewalk (see left foot).

Which brings me to the topic of today's post.  Seattle, I have just about had it with you and your screwy directions and your stupid hills.

This afternoon I had to run some errands for work which meant (dun dun duuuun) walking up and then back down the hills.  Sigh.  And it's not like I could say, no, actually, I will not go buy cookies for our company meeting and get quotes for having a trophy made because, you see, I am afraid of the hills.  No, instead I had to cowboy up, thank God for the rubber, grippy soles on the above pictured flats and face the hills.

So, with directions in hand I walked up to third and made my way to the address of the trophy shop.  Except there was nothing there.  If the trophy shop store number was #2, the actual store fronts on the street were numbered #1 and then #3--no #2 in sight.  So, perplexed, I walked up and down the block three times, trying to figure out if it was hidden in a secret alley way protected by a Secret Keeper Charm or if perhaps, like the Room of Requirement, if I just thought about it hard enough, it would appear before me, right between #1 and #3 where it was supposed to be.

It did not.  Although I suspect that the man in the Lincoln Town Car that I kept passing thought I might be casing the joint for a heist later in the evening.  Anyway, on a mere whim I decided to try the next block up, thinking maybe I had written my directions down incorrectly, when lo and behold, what to my wondering eyes should appear, but the trophy place on my right when I was halfway up the next 45 degree incline making my way to the next street up.  Here in pictorial form, the pink circle is where Google Maps said the shop would be, the green dot is where the shop in fact WAS.

Oh Seattle, you rascal.

Anyway, once I'd finally finished my errands, I was faced with the fearful prospect of descending from on high back down to my office all the way at the bottom of the hills.  I turned the corner and took my first look at the devil slope for the first time since my butt landed on it for the second time on Friday.  I'm not exaggerating for comedic effect at all when I say that my eyes filled with tears, my heart began beating faster and my stomach immediately started doing flips.  I think I was *this* close to have an honest to goodness panic attack.  But then that would have been even more embarrassing than actually falling down again, so I pulled myself together and made it back down to my office without face planting once.

Is it a little sad that I count it as a good day when I manage to simply maintain an upright position while mobile?

Maybe if I Had Brought Along Some Opera Glasses?

On Friday, along with bashing my knees into the concrete in the middle of downtown Seattle, I also had the pleasure (?) of attending my very first opera.

My entire realm of knowledge in regards to the opera previous to Friday night can be summed up thusly:

1. I believe that Frasier and Niles Crane were big fans.
2. Beyonce starred in a remake of Carmen and it was redubbed Carmen: A HipHopera, and I have always found that inexplicably amusing.
3. Bugs Bunny starred in a rousing performance of the Barber of Seville once when I was approximately 8 years old.
4. One should never attempt to drink a glass of wine while the leading lady belts out her big ending.
5. I really like Phantom of the Opera and think Carlotta is hilarious.

So, suffice it to say, I am not in any way educated on the ways of the opera, and my closest experience with the opera involved a madman stalking ingenues in 19th century Paris.  And quite frankly, I think I prefer that version to what appears to be "the real thing".

One of our friends had a chorus part in a local production of Orpheus in the Underworld. (Little know tidbit: The oft heard "Can-Can" was originated in the libretto and is actually called The Infernal Gallop.)  I was very excited for the performance since I love musical theater and I love Greek and Roman Mythology.  It seemed like a match made in heaven, with the added bonus of giving us the excuse to dress up and leave the house for an evening.

The problem is that there is apparently a vast differenct between musical theater and opera.  I know!  Who knew?  I think that possibly another problem is that most of the performances themselves weren't particularly great, but it was local theater, so I guess I shouldn't have been expecting an Anna Renzi or a Senesino (I totally just Googled "famous opera singer").  However, I think the main problem is that I just am not overly impressed by the sound of the opera voice.  While I find Carlotta brilliantly funny in Phantom, I'm not a fan of her voice (although admittedly it's often sung that way purposely).

I love a beautiful soprano voice, but I just can't get behind the constant shrill singing of the women.  Not to mention the high pitch made it incredibly difficult to understand what anyone was saying, compounded by the fact that the small orchestra playing on stage was far too loud.

It would appear that in an opera--at least based on my one experience, since I'm an expert now--the focus is not so much on the story as it is on the music.  And if the music isn't performed well, then there aren't any catchy show tunes or big production numbers to distract you from the mediocre singing.

With all of that being said, I don't think I'm ready to give up entirely on expanding my cultural horizons.  I would very much like to attend a professional opera production and give it another chance to win my heart with gorgeous costumes, breathtaking singing, and a tragic ending.  However, after this experience, I'm going to go ahead and say that I'm not willing to spend another fifty dollars on a local opera production only to wake up at the end of the last act, confused to hear the Can-Can being played and wondering how we ended up in France.

Lots of Books Just Got Added to My "Read on the Train" List

Ah, Sunday, what a perfect day for a mindless post!  I have a book buying obsession, so many of these books are already on my bookshelf to be read at some point in the future.  After going through this list, I'm a bit ashamed at how many f these books I've never read and am ready to get started.  If you'd like to play along consider yourself tagged, and if not, just come back tomorrow for a real post!

What you do is take the following list of books (the top 106 marked most often as "unread" by LibraryThing’s users) bold the ones you've read, italicize the ones you started but couldn't finish, strike through the ones you really sort of hated, put an asterisk next to the ones you've read more than once, and underline the ones on your own personal To Be Read list.

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Anna Karenina
Crime and Punishment
Catch-22
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Wuthering Heights**
The Silmarillion
Life of Pi
The Name of the Rose
Don Quixote
Moby Dick
Ulysses
Madame Bovary
The Odyssey
Pride and Prejudice**
Jane Eyre
A Tale of Two Cities
The Brothers Karamazov
Guns, Germs, and Steel: the fates of human societies
War and Peace
Vanity Fair
The Time Traveler’s Wife
The Iliad
Emma**
The Blind Assassin
The Kite Runner
Mrs Dalloway
Great Expectations
American Gods
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
Atlas Shrugged
Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books
Memoirs of a Geisha
Middlesex
Quicksilver
Wicked : The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
The Canterbury Tales
The Historian : A Novel**
A Portrait of the Artist As A Young Man
Love In the Time of Cholera
Brave New World
The Fountainhead
Foucault’s Pendulum
Middlemarch
Frankenstein
The Count of Monte Cristo
Dracula**
A Clockwork Orange
Anansi Boys
The Once and Future King
The Grapes of Wrath
The Poisonwood Bible
1984
Angels & Demons
The Inferno
The Satanic Verses
Sense and Sensibility**
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Mansfield Park
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
To the Lighthouse
Tess of the D’Urbervilles
Oliver Twist
Gulliver’s travels
Les Misérables
The Corrections
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
The curious incident of the dog in the night-time
Dune
The Prince
The Sound and the Fury
Angela’s Ashes
The god of small things
A people’s history of the United States : 1492-present
Cryptonomicon
Neverwhere
A confederacy of dunces
A short history of nearly everything
Dubliners
The unbearable lightness of being
Beloved
Slaughterhouse-five
The Scarlet Letter
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
The Mists of Avalon
Oryx and Crake
Collapse : how societies choose to fail or succeed
Cloud Atlas
The Confusion
Lolita**
Persuasion
Northanger Abbey
The Catcher in the Rye
On the Road
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Freakonomics : a Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
The Aeneid
Watership Down
Gravity’s Rainbow
The Hobbit
In Cold Blood : A True Account of A Multiple Murder and Its Consequence
White teeth
Treasure Island
David Copperfield
The Three Musketeers

It Had To Happen Eventually

There were a lot of things I was expecting when I moved here.  I knew that there would be long stretches of rainy, cloudy days during the fall and winter.  I knew there was a big problem with the amount of homeless people in Seattle.  I knew that the traffic on I-5 would be terrible without fail.  I was expecting plenty of tall buildings and views of the Space Needle, and I knew I'd see plenty of people at one with their fleece and Birkenstocks.

What I was definitely not expecting were all of the 45 degree angle hills one has to walk or drive up to get from one street to the next.  In the past if you'd told me to name one hilly city, I probably would have said San Francisco, but truthfully downtown Seattle would give that place a run for its money.

Ever since I started working downtown, I have had this horrible fear of walking the hills.  I don't worry about walking up the hills--that's just a good workout--but when faced with walking down one of the steep inclines, I've always managed to find an alternate route, because I just know that I'm the person who will do a face plant.

As the wedding has drawn nearer, I've become absolutely obsessed with the thought that I would fall down walking to or from work and break a leg or twist an ankle and be unable to walk down the aisle.  There has really been nothing about the wedding that has stressed me out lately aside from this bizarre fixation.

One of the things I do at work is go our and buy lunch if we have clients coming in for meetings during the lunch hour, and a few days ago I had to go out in search of a Thai restaurant for some Chicken Banh Mi sandwiches.  When I discovered that the restaurant was on 3rd Ave, my heart seized up a little when face with the realization that I would have to walk up the hills, and even more terrifying, back down them.  However, to my immense delight, I managed to make it both up and down the hill, with bags of food in hand, without incident.  Suddenly I was no longer afraid of the hills--I had conquered them and they could no longer hold me back from the delicious restaurants atop their dangerous inclines!  Ah... the hubris...

So, on Friday I decided that I would visit my favorite sub shop for lunch--Jimmy Johns--their vegetarian sub is to DIE for.  So I marched on up to 2nd Ave, and then onto 3rd, huffing and puffing a bit, but enjoying the sunshine that was giving us such a beautiful day.  I bought my sandwich, and started making my way back down to my office.  And that's when it happened--the heel of my shoes (which were flats, mind you!) suddenly slid out from under me, and just like in the cartoons when the bad guy slips on a banana peel, arms flailing and all, I was on the ground--the tops of both of my feet were scraped and my knees were throbbing.

I sat on the ground for a minute, completely in shock, and unable to figure out how I was going to get back up without pitching myself forward again.  Then a voice came from behind me--a gentlemanly voice inquiring as to whether or not I was okay.  I still hadn't found my voice, so I nodded and tried to look as much as possible like I totally meant to be sitting in the middle of the sidewalk with a bloody foot and a sandwich in hand.  When I still didn't get up, the guy reached down, took hold of my arm and said, "Okay, let's get up now."

Back on my feet I was faced with a bout of awkward conversation as I was walking in the same direction of my rescuer.  I made some lame jokes about what a clutz I am and how he'd done his good deed for the year when suddenly he piped up, "Yeah, I totally thought you were a drunk at first!"

Oh.

So, with that I thanked him again and hastily made use of the nearest crosswalk, pretending I was at my street.  I was about halfway between 2nd and 1st, the soreness in my knees increasing with each thud of my foot hitting the ground when oh my God, I shit you not, it happened again.  The same damn heel slid out from under me, and once again ass over vegetarian sandwich, I was on the ground again.  This time there was no gallant figure waiting in the wings to lift me back to my feet, so with a moderate amount of grumbling, and trying my hardest not to cry from sheer frustration and embarrassment, I struggled back to my feet and shuffled the final few steps down the hill and to my building.

Today the brush burns on my feet look a lot better, but still feel raw to the touch, and my left knee has swollen ever so slightly and has a lovely greenish blue color to it, but I'm just relieved that at long last the inevitable happened, I took a tumble down the hills of Seattle and I still seem to be able to walk unassisted.  With that being said, I can guarantee you that I will not be walking anymore hills between now and November 24, and no Jimmy John's vegetarian sub will tempt me again.

Things That I Love--The Internet Edition

In order to make my life easier and the need to come up with fresh topics every day this month less pressing, I've come up with a few themes that I'll come back to each week.  The first one out of the gate will be the Things That I Love each Friday, which are reviews of things that I love eponomously enough.  If you are just wowed and overwhelmed by my amazingly great taste and want to know more about things that I love, you can click here to see past reviews.

Google Reader

I really don't know how I managed to keep up with all of the blogs I read before I signed up for Google Reader.  I've always read a lot of blogs, but since I've learned that all I have to do is subscribe on my Reader and it will update everytime one of you updates, my blog reading has absolutely skyrocketed.  Currently I have 64 subscriptions on my reader, plus three blogs that are either private or don't have a feed, and I generally find one or two new blogs per week that I fall in love with.

In the olden days I would keep all of my blogs in a special folder in my favorites and each day I would laboriously click through each link to see if anyone had updated.  This generally took hours and quite often only about a third of the blogs had been updated that day.  To combat the blog fatigue I had to start deleted blogs that didn't update often, but now that Google Reader just pulls up the blog every time there's a new post a person can go on hiatus for months and I'll know the moment they return.  On top of the ease of reading the blogs, the ease of setting up your account and subscriptions is mindblowing--it's absolutely the most user friendly blog reader I could find.

Of course, as with anything there are downsides.  One is that there is a bit of a delay between the person posting and the time it shows up in the Reader, so you probably won't be the first person to comment too often.  Also, since you just get the text of what was posted you don't get to see when people change templates unless you click through to their blog.  And for some reason some blogs only show up with the beginning of the post excerpted in the Reader, so you'll have to click through to the blog to read it anyway.  And finally, if edits are made to the post after the writer publishes it, the Reader still pulls up the original post without edits.  But to me, none of those problems are large enough to abate my love and adoration for Google Reader.

Twenty Something Bloggers

You may have noticed the little badge over there in my side bar proudly proclaiming my membership in a group call Twenty Something Bloggers.  I can't even remember how I initially stumbled across this site, but I think it may have been through Janet.  Anyway, ever since my first post, I've been very interested in reading all kinds of different blogs--"mommyblogs", craft blogs, cooking blogs, trashy celebrity gossip blogs--but the ones that I've really had to dig around to find were the blogs by other twenty somethings like me.  Ever since I found these twenty something bloggers I've been absolutely immersed in dozens of new blogs.  Each time I find a new one I tell myself, "This is it!  No more!" but then I find another hilarious, witty, moving, talented writer and I find myself adding just one more subscription to my beloved Reader.

So, if you're a twenty something blogger, and you haven't yet signed up for this group, I really encourage you to head over to the website, sign up, and start scanning through the other twenty somethings out there in the blogosphere.

Misconnecting in the City

This is probably the most original blog I've found in a little while, and I have Dawn to thank for spreading the word about this group of girls.  Here's the concept in their own words:

What if a group of smart, sexy women took on dating in the big city by posting Missed Connections posts every time we met someone we might like to see again? How many posts would it take before we got a response? Would we find true love or just an inbox full of porn advertisements? And what might we learn about ourselves in the process?

And, at that moment, this blog was born.

To begin with, their Missed Connections posts are almost always hilarious to read, and then when they follow up with the insane outcomes it just gets even better.  I really had no clue how many people out there actually read the Missed Connections section of Craigslist, but they've had some minor successes, and their failures are just as entertaining. If you do decide to check it out, it's really worth it to go back in the archives and read from the beginning.

The Kick-Off

November 1st.  The first day of NaBloPoMo. (I seriously don't know how many more times I can type that word.  It's starting to be a bit like when you just say "egg" over and over again and you suddenly start to realize how strange it sounds, and then you start wondering if you're mispronouncing it and so you DO start mispronouncing it, and anyway, the point is that every time I type NaBloPoMo I think I mistyped it so I go back and fix it, but then I make it WRONG.)  The first day of my wedding month.

I come from a family who has birthday weeks and celebrates Christmas for all but 40 days out of the year, so I think I am exerting great self control when I claim only one month out of the year for my wedding and it's surrounding celebrations.  I contemplated taking a blogging hiatus similar to the one I took back in March and April. (3 posts and 4 posts each month respectively.  Yikes.)  It would be so easy to step away from the computer for a little while and focus on my 6 page spreadsheet of wedding to-do's, make packing lists, and finish painting the bedroom and hanging pictures on the wall before we take off for Baton Rouge in 2 weeks and the wedding preparations begin in full force.

But then I think back to March and April, and how much my life was changing then--officially getting engaged, a wedding shower and engagement party, packing my car to capacity and driving 2,664 miles cross country to our new house, finally ending the distance with Colby after 4 years of flying back and forth for weekend visits.  I remember that still, but I wish that I had written more then.  Written about how I was feeling.  Scared.  Excited.  Elated.  Surprised.  Sad.  Nervous.  Because now it's all faded into one big lump of my life that I can remember fondly, but not specifically.

In 20 years, my hope is that I'll be able to look back at my blog during the month of November 2007, and remember every thought and emotion that I deemed important enough to commit to paper (or computer screen at least.)  I want to remember how I felt in those last few weeks of being a "single" woman and the fun I had with my friends at my Baton Rouge bachelorette party.  I want to be able to relive the day of the wedding and reread over and over again all most of the details of our few post wedding days in the French Quarter.

Because that's why I blog.  I love meeting people across the internet.  I love the ease of staying in touch with friends and family that I don't see nearly as often as I wish I could.  And I won't lie--I love getting your thoughtful and oftentimes hilarious comments.  But the reason I really do this is for me.  For posterity.  So that someday I, or my children, or my children's children, will be able to look back and remember the life that I had from August 22, 2005 through whenever I decide to throw the towel in on this crazy thing.  I do this for me, and having you all along for the ride, to share our joys, our heartbreaks, our laughter and our tears just makes it all that much more fun.

So whether you've been reading since the beginning, or whether you're just starting today for the first time, I hope you enjoy what November holds for me over here at this old website.  So, one post down, just 29 more to go!