ZeroDoll's life

That music thing.

2008-07-21T13:32:00.000-07:00

Guitar lesson on Saturday was a disaster. I got there about 10 minutes early and sat in the room with the other earlybirds. We all pulled our guitars out and I wasn’t feeling too bad as I could do the songs/notes we were supposed to have been practicing as well as most of them. Then class started. First, I got a bit of stagefright, even though we were playing as rows of 4-5 people, so I messed up on the songs. It sounded to my ears like I was the only one who screwed up but who knows?

Then came chords. Oh my. Maybe it was the nerves still but I just could not translate what I was looking at on the page to what my fingers should be doing. String is which line? Fret where? Which finger? Ack. Momentary panic. They ask us to do E. No can do. No idea what to do. They ask us to do A. Again, no idea. I sit there stupidly, panicking more. This is beginners? It didn’t help that the guy next to my (maybe 13 years old) was plucking right away and shifting back and forth and getting mad at himself if he missed one note slightly. And the old guy in front of me who was told by the instructor that this class was below his knowledge. They should kick people like that out of the class. Seriously though, aside from those two, EVERYONE else in the room except maybe one girl behind me was doing the chords. Not helping matters further was that where I sat meant that I was literally the last person in the class that the instructor or assistant got to as they came around with personal help, when I was the one who needed it most, so I got the least out of it. The assistant put my fingers in the chords and then I was too scared to move my fingers away in case we had to play it again since I would never be able to get back there. For the last half hour (maybe less), I think the instructor was speaking but I didn’t really hear any of it. I got home and J helped me with the chords because they were easily translated in his head. I think HE should be going to the class to get more out of it and then teach me the baby baby steps. So frustrating. I mean, I left class wondering not only how do I know how to type, how do I know how to drive, but jeez, how do I even know how to walk and chew gum?! I really didn’t sit and practice the rest of the weekend for all the above reasons, but I think staring at the paper and staring at my hands and talking it out, I can get to E and A. Not between them with any speed, but to them at all. Sigh.

Weekend update

2008-07-14T09:46:00.001-07:00

A good weekend, really. Saturday morning started with a haircut for me, finally. It had been since February and while I had been trying to grow my hair longer, it was out of control and hard to comb when I got out of the shower. So it’s now about shoulder length, when curled, and much healthier. Once again, I keep thinking how bad the highlights are for the health of my hair but I’m sure when the roots are even further grown in, I’ll cave again. Got home after the haircut and headed out for my first guitar lesson at a local community college. I got a guitar a couple of years ago from J’s coworker and have not even looked at it since then. It seemed like the time. So I headed out with what should have been plenty of time, allowing for the inevitable traffic and saw some amazing things on the road. There’s a little stretch of a freeway that connects two freeways that always is backed up. Two lanes split off from one freeway and then there are merging cars from an onramp to slow things down in the right lane, but that’s where I needed to be so I started there to save myself the headache of cutting someone off in just one mile (that’s just how I drive, I plan miles ahead what lane I want to be in.) So all of a sudden, the right hand lane is just stopped. NO movement. None. The left lane is moving fine and I can see the cars pouring on from the onramp so maybe there was an accident in my lane. I pull out into the left lane and get to the merge point. What do I see there? A guy in the right lane straddling his motorcycle, which is turned sideways, blocking the entire lane, WAVING the cars on the onramp on to the freeway. I was stunned. The nerve. And no, he wasn’t CHP, he was some shithead on a purple motorcycle that really should have been hit or shot. By then, everyone is getting angry and hotheaded and doing stupid things like trying to get three cars ahead by cutting into the merge lane even though they’re behind me. Then they’re driving WAY to fast for the distances and the next thing I know they’re slamming on their brakes. I slam on mine and have no real problem not hitting anyone, but thank god no one was behind me as my guitar flew off the backseat on to the floor and as the three cars in front of me all piled in to one another. Luckily, I even had enough room to maneuver out of the lane around them and not to be bad karma but felt some real schadenfreude at seeing their day get ruined. I don’t think anyone was hurt but I tried to call 911 and was put on hold (and was too shaky to really be on the phone) so I hung up. Yikes. All this left me with barely enough time to get to class on time, but I guess that was fine since one guy showed up 45 minutes late.

So the class was good, I think I am more inept than most people and I’ve also never played any musical instrument, but hopefully I won’t be the absolute worst in the class. As soon as I got home, J wanted to learn what I had learned so I showed him and then he was kind of hogging the guitar so I asked why he hadn’t signed up for the class too. He’s silly, he wanted to take it but didn’t want to intrude on my thing. Whatever. I have my other interests and friends and totally wouldn’t have minded if he were in the class too. So we went out and bought another guitar and now we both are practicing. Of course, he is better than me. He’s already picking out things on the internet and trying them and getting the opening notes to “Stairway to Heaven.” I’m still stuck on the things I’m supposed to learn for class. I can get the “Smoke on the Water” intro, getting “Sunshine of Your Love,” but can’t (haven’t spent time yet) on “Day Tripper.” The “Aadams Family” looks like a lost cause for me, but we’ll see. I love that this plays into the music (60s/70s rock) that I tend to listen to more than most people my age. We both also had to try the intro to Nirvana’s “Come as You Are” since my brother-in-law plucked that one on my sister’s banjo. Tee hee! It’s fun, but certainly not easy and looks like it will take a lot of time to get even slightly decent. I also realize I don’t like to do things I’m not good at, but then again, I’ve not really tried anything formally new like this in forever. The last class I did that was ongoing was a language class that was very difficult with tones. I never did get very good at that, but I could understand some extremely rudimentary dialog and get my basic needs (hungry, headache, sugar) across. I was always too shy to try though really.

Tonight is bookclub to discuss “The Glass Castle.” Maybe we’ll hit four members tonight; it’s been near impossible to do that recently, with me being the one to flake on the last meeting due to my horrible cold.

My eyes are stinging

2008-07-10T12:10:00.000-07:00

Not ready yet

2008-07-07T18:24:00.000-07:00

I'm getting ready for the passwords but other than that, how about the weekend?

I had Thursday off and took the time to try to do some clothes shopping. I was kind of disappointed. This fussy fussy ruffles lace strings garbage trend has got to end soon, please. And whatever happened to shape? Not sluttiness, but shape. There are some seriously wrong boxy shirts out there right now. And jeans. DUDE. I do NOT, will NOT wear skinny jeans. Been there done that. You know what they say: if you were old enough to live through the trend the first time, you really shouldn't wear it the second time. All I wanted were some jeans that are straight leg. To jeansmakers, that apparently means taper to the knee and THEN go straight down. I have some hips, I'll say it. I don't have much of a booty though to go with them so when they fit the hips, the waist is huge. So my purchases were two simple shirts, three necklaces and a bag of candy from Sweet Factory. What can I say? Then I got in a nap with a kitty.

The Fourth started with a run with J at the nearby Lake that we had never been to. We got there at 9:30 am and it was already getting overrun with people. Crazy major-ass BBQ goin' on. We did a 32 minute run including some up and down hills, didn't want to go crazy as we haven't been running outdoors at ALL recently. It felt really good. Except when I woke up the next day with a sore BACK. Huh? I've gotten sore calves, quads, etc. from runs, but my back was not happy. We're guessing it was the hills. Lots of child's pose for me.

Later we headed for our own BBQ at J's friend's house. Lots of food, but wow, I have been getting really sensitive to meat recently. I noticed it the week I was at a conference at the beginning of June where all the people across from me at dinner one night ordered lamb (which I have a real animal rights problem with to begin with) and it smelled SO disgusting. I ate my salad and tried not to breathe. Then J brought home some chicken from a party we went to and again, it smelled really nasty. And then this BBQ, I ate a chicken/garlic/artichoke sausage and it kind of grossed me out. Good thing meat is easy to give up, not that I've been eating much of it the last 16 years or so, but there are certain things I still like, like pepperoni pizza. So far, that hasn't disgusted me yet! But the BBQ was fun, the weather wasn't too warm, nor too cold like they had been calling for. We headed home before any fireworks shows, and probably for the best as it was really overcast at home. The kitties didn't seem too freaked by the local illegal fireworks.

Blogger

2008-07-04T08:47:00.000-07:00

So the only way to do this "password" thing is to allow users to log in via their email or gmail or blogger account. So in other words, I need email addresses. You can send to zerodoll@gmail.com if I don't know yours.

Hmm

2008-07-03T15:32:00.000-07:00

Well, since everyone else is doing it, I'm toying with the idea of protecting this blog and having it be open only to invited readers. It might mean I could be a bit more open without worry about coworkers reading this, etc. Any thoughts from the peanut gallery?

Weekend and stuff

2008-07-01T19:37:00.000-07:00

My cold has finally left the house. It took that last trip, with me snuffling in front of the customer and ending with a bad headache each night which I attributed to staring at a computer all day at a distance/ lingering cold symptoms but turned out may have been altitude/dry air. As soon as I got home, I was much better, except my belly has now decided that ibuprofen is the devil. It's been known in the past to make me nauseated and now has decided to do much worse. Sigh.
The weekend was very good. Friday was chill, tired from the trip. Saturday was a GNO with R78 and SR. SR got engaged, yay! It was a fun night, and brought me down to earth on a couple of things. To some extent, it seems that the two of them are more in sync with some religion and other life things with each other than with me but it does open my perspective. Things like having to annul a marriage through the church to make a second marriage "valid," even under what anyone would call extreme circumstances. I just don't get having to jump through hoops to be "acceptable" to your church. It's also interesting that I do seem to have several quite faithful friends, when I don't bother with any church and don't want to, have no interest in it. I don't mean to sound down on it, it was a really good night, and made me appreciate again what J and I have together. It would have been good to have SCG join us.
Sunday, J and I went shopping to finish up some of our registry items that we really wanted and made lunch with cocktails part of the equation, fun! J also hacked up an ugly plant in the yard so that we could plant some stuff in the ground (we're counting on a long growing season.) It was really sweet of him too, since I know he wanted to plan things a bit more and I just wanted to throw seeds in the ground and wasn't happy that it seemed like he wouldn't be happy with that. Hey, it's just one season and our compost is only newly started so what can we really do? Maybe we'll get some zucchini, maybe we won't.
Plans are afoot for the holidays and how to make sure my mom does ok with them. Then there's the vacation days that are still to be taken for the year. But tomorrow is Friday for me, so maybe I'll think more over the long weekend.

Another business trip

2008-06-23T08:09:00.000-07:00

I'm just really tired right now. I have to leave again later this morning, and I'm not 100% yet after my cold that started last Sunday. I've still got lots o' congestion and wake up with a lovely cough. And the ears. I'm VERY sensitive to the ears and pressure and things and have ended up with 3 ear infections as an adult, all due to flying with a cold so I'm doing what I can to prevent that. The cold last week meant no working out, but J and I did get to the gym this morning to get in a quick workout. It was HARD. Just one week of not working out (oh, and being sick) knock you back a lot.

The weekend was fun, but very full. We saw a movie with J's family on Saturday morning, sneaky preview, whee! Then lunch, then 30 minutes at home, then a friend's party where we made paintings by throwing darts at paint-filled balloons. Fun, messy, and went much later than we thought. Luckily, it was a lot cooler by then and yesterday was not quite so hot either. We were seriously wondering if we were going to need a/c since we don't know yet how hot things in general will be in this house. The downstairs stays pretty reasonable, but even it got up to 80 on Friday night. The upstairs, forget it, it's 90+. Longer term, may be something we add.

Sunday was J's nieces' ballet recitals, with a hour and a half break in between so we did what anyone would do: went wine-tasting. Well, our favorite winery was only 3 miles away so why not? A case of wine is now sitting in our "wine cellar." And then packing.

We have some little plants that have come up: chives, catnip, dill, basil. And our pre-started jalapeno and tomato plants are looking lively and happy. Next year, we'll be organized and get more stuff in the ground, but at least it looks like we should have some this year, yay!

Travel

2008-06-13T11:47:00.001-07:00

Since I've spent too much time recently on a plane, a couple of comments on travel:

Just because you don’t have multiple things (laptops, shoes, jackets, etc.) to empty in the bins like the rest of us, doesn’t mean you can jump in front of us and shove through security first. Where did your manners go, if you ever had any.

Along those LINES, just because we don’t all jump up and rush into the aisle (because we’re at the BACK of the plane) doesn’t mean you can jump up, grab your ridiculous rollaboard and rush up the aisle to wait. Again, wait your turn like everyone else. On a plane, on this airline, it’s first on, last out. Deal.

When you sit down in or stand up from your cramped airline seat, don’t grab the seat in front of you. There are armrests, there is your own seatback. Did you ever consider there is a person sitting there and that there is a lot of “give” in those seats?

Better

2008-06-11T17:58:00.000-07:00

Had a good rebuttal talk with my boss's boss yesterday and things are smoothed out. I think he thought I was going to be horrible to someone and that I think he thought I was more upset than I was. I don't know. It made me really mad and nervous and then I was over it. The talk with him helped and I know some of you out there were quite worried about me, but I worry a lot; ask J. I dwell, I obsess, I get over it. J's actually been quite the calming influence on me.

I'm in a hotel room again, looking for TNT. I need L&O if I'm gonna be stuck without Tivo. At least this is just an overnight trip. Oh no, they're playing a bad movie, humph.

Blah-zay

2008-06-09T18:15:00.000-07:00

I'm bugged by a happening at work that I knew was going to happen, that I told J was going to happen, and now that it's happened and all the crap is falling on me (as I knew I would be), I'm bugged. I'm not as bugged as my the guy that told me about it thought I was or maybe it's that he thinks I should be or that he expected me to be. I don't know. It's that feeling when you go into something doomed, like, well, how should I react now? I knew it was coming. I can go into a tailspin, but whatever, I saw it coming. I just don't know how worried I should be, which for someone with my temperament, means I go into ultra-worry mode. Like, how would we pay the mortgage if I lose my job, while consoling myself with that fact that any of our competitors would be quite happy to have me. I just feel blah. And yet, not so crying upset. Oh, and a little angry. Vague vague vague, but I'm not so keen on blogging about work, ya know? Maybe it's the heat. Maybe it's the kitty that might be relapsing. Now that would make me cry.

A long week

2008-06-04T20:14:00.000-07:00

At a conference this week, so a loooong week. I got to show up a day and a half late b/c I had a previous commitment, that being J's big company party on Saturday night. Yes, that means I would have normally had to go to this thing on Friday. Blah. My feet hurt, but there has been some good information and I'm sort of glad I got to go, even though it meant I didn't get to enjoy the party as much as I wanted and I had to fly super-early on Sunday morning and I still don't get to go home 'til Friday. I miss J. I miss the kitties. I miss my routines and my food and cooking and Tivo. I've traveled more this year than probably all of last year, and while my job is listed as 25% travel, it really wasn't near that last year and I got spoiled. Not that it's a surprise to anyone, but travel is a really big hassle these days.

Name change

2008-05-29T13:34:00.000-07:00

So last week, I finally got to the Social Security Administration to officially change my last name to J's. It went smoothly, just an hour+ wait and then it was done in about five minutes. It was kind of odd that she didn't ask to see all the ID and stuff that I had brought, even so far as my birth certificate; all she needed was their form and the marriage license. So far, I've been saying I'll be using my maiden name professionally, but now I'm not as sure. The name change is a real pain in the ass for all the official things, and the government websites are wholly unclear, like even Social Security, which is where everything needs to start from. The passport one is a nightmare as well. But now that I'm in the process, I'm wondering if using my maiden name professionally is just silly. It's not like I'm an actress or a doctor or someone with a Big Career. I just have been using this name for my 33 years on the Earth and for some 14 years professionally in the same industry, which is kind of inbred. I also hear all the confusion when a woman at work changes her name and how long it takes for people to learn to use the new one, which sometimes even years later, they don't. I guess I'm ambivalent. Plus travel for work might get confusing, since my travel bookings would all at some point need to be in my new name. Argh. Seems like I'm creating more mess for myself than I need to.

I think I'm more anxious than this says...

2008-05-23T12:24:00.001-07:00

Your Score: The Dork

You scored 50 anxiety, 67 awkwardness, and 32 neuroticism!

You aren't particularly anxious, and you don't count things--but you do notice sometimes that you don't exactly fit in. Polite people would call you an eccentric, but you truly are The Dork! And proud. Just because you feel a little awkward at parties doesn't mean you're not happy with yourself and fairly relaxed.

Your low anxiety score implies that you are able to relax, can enjoy the here and now, and have a healthy amount of self-confidence.

Your high awkwardness score implies that you are socially inept, probably stick out from the crowd, and perhaps feel uncomfortable in large groups of people, such as at parties.

Your low neuroticism score implies that you don't exhibit subtle neurotic behaviors--your nails are probably an acceptable length, your pencils aren't covered with bite marks, and your bookcase isn't arranged alphabetically by genre. Congrats!

__

See the other results!

Well-Adjusted

The Neat Freak

The Dork

The Geek

Phobic

Obsessive-Compulsive

The Subtle Neurotic

The True Neurotic

Link: The Neurotic Test written by littlelostsnail on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test
View My Profile(littlelostsnail)

Honeymoon, finally

2008-05-19T16:53:00.000-07:00

We are back. Got in late last night, and somehow J got up and went to work today. I took today off to do laundry, get some groceries, and ok, yes, I checked work emails. Only b/c the next few days are meetings nonstop so there will be no time for it otherwise. Anyway, back to the trip.
We left last Monday, traffic was waaay worse than I planned and then our shuttle driver from the park n' fly place was insane. Good thing we were going to a tropical paradise. We got in, tried to check in, were too early (gained three hours going there), drove around and then got the call that we could get our room. Yay! It was a really nice resort, gigantic pool, a nice calm beach right there, kind of central for going to most of the places on the island. Lots of mai tais, lots of bottles of suncreen (we ended up buying rashguards to save us the hassle of applying lotion on our upper bodies [we are pale pale people and prefer to keep it that way,]) beaches, the pool, snorkeling, what more could one want? The week felt very long, in a very good way.
Then the flight home. Kind of bumpy, which seems to be the case for every flight I'm on these days. I don't particularly like flying. Then as we started our descent, there was a pretty significant bump, where I would have almost said we touched down. But we hadn't. And then they do the final announcement of "blah blah blah seat belt blah blah blah, tray upright, and in the event of an emergency evacuation, leave all your carry-ons behind." Uh, what? That's not the customary thing to say. They didn't say anything more and we landed fine but jeez, that caused some excitement.
All in all, a great relaxing trip, finally. The kitties survived the massive heat wave we had just fine, presumably in our downstairs area that stays much much cooler than the upstairs, and are now shedding all their fur.

I know, not the most interesting post, but really, you didn't want details or nuthin', right?

Laziness, busy-ness

2008-05-06T11:08:00.000-07:00

My plans to write up the latter part of the wedding, namely the dinner, went astray. Life's been busy. There's barely been enough time for anything, it feels. We've still got boxes to unpack, which bothers me on some level, but doesn't on most levels. We had friends over for brunch on Saturday, which was good and kicked our butts into gear to get the place semi-presentable. There is still no art on the walls. I'm psychologically struggling with getting rid of most of the moving boxes. I know, on many many levels, that we will not be moving, not for a long long long time, if I have anything to say about it. Is it bad to say that I hope not to move until it's to a retirement home? Seriously, moving 6 times in 6 years has done me in. But the boxes. I know also that some of it is just that I'm cheap and the boxes were not. I'm letting most go, as I said, and more will go, especially when we need the space, which I hope we never do.

Does it sound like I need a vacation? Well, Monday is the start, yay! We changed all our plans and are now going to Hawaii next week, to a different island, different hotel, different airline. Can't wait!!!

What else? Bookclub was good last night, if you could even call it bookclub. More like 3 girlfriends catching up and mentioning a book a couple of times. It was fun! Of course, SCG is going to be moving away from the area again, after she just got back. Sigh. We may have to go back to Craigslist since we can't break three people at any given meeting. Last night's was the best in a while, and I would say it was the dynamic and that it was Social. Sometimes with some of the other girls, it's been less so, and maybe that's unfair since we don't know some of the others as well, but whatever. I want old bookclub back, the one where we read lots and even hung out outside of bookclub. I say that, but at the same time, the friends I made through bookclub are some of the best kind, and there were three of them at my wedding so that says something.

What else? Well, of another group of friends, one has dropped off the face of the earth. She wrote us last in December saying she "would not miss your wedding for the world," and yet, even after sending the reply card marked "Yes," she was a no-show. It's not as if she didn't know, or forgot or something either. There was a bachelorette party she was invited to, a bridal shower she was invited to, a call the day before with an offer to carpool and even a call in between the ceremony and the dinner to offer a ride. She has not responded to an email saying we missed her and were hurt and sad. I declined to send the email myself since it felt like it was getting clinical, like I was sending it just to see her response, but that I was really done and didn't care anymore what she said. Sad, but true. I hope it doesn't hurt the other two girls. It's not easy to give up on a friendship, but jeez. A no-show at my wedding, no response, nothing. What friendship is that? I don't have time to devote to saving something that's not there.

Wedding recap, part I

2008-04-18T15:49:00.000-07:00

Wow, what a whirlwind of activity. The wedding went off wonderfully, but I will say I think both J and are I kind of glad it’s over. It was truly a pleasure to see everyone gathered together and to say our vows to each other with that kind of support and love around us, but it was also stressful at the last minutes pulling the last details together, couple with moving two weeks earlier and a sick kitty to really throw us off. We did a small wedding, 46 people total, and didn’t do so very many of the “traditional” things that seem to be dictated by the wedding industry, and not really by tradition. We had our ceremony in a local park, where we didn’t even need a permit, yay! We did our dinner at our favorite restaurant, which was where we had our first date, but is also a Bay Area Top 100 restaurant, so the food was excellent. We had no DJ/band/dancing, and I don’t think a single person minded, although I’m sure a few were surprised. We had originally thought we might have attendants, but when I asked my sister if she wanted to wear a bridesmaid dress, she pretty much said “no” (duh!) and that was that. Because we did a restaurant, we didn’t have to do decorations, or a caterer, or flowers or colors, for that matter. All this meant that the giant “To-Do” list on theknot.com became much much smaller and more manageable. And it meant that we didn’t break the bank, as we had the unexpected expense of kitty-cat being in the hospital for 3 nights and all the stuff that goes along with buying a new house and appliances.
The day itself was so wonderful. A lot of brides I’ve talked to say it was a big blur and they didn’t get to enjoy themselves or even eat the food they paid so much for. It really didn’t feel that way to me at all. We woke up fairly early (yes, we spent the night in the same room) and did normal morning things. At some point, J ran off for a couple last minute errands (like getting his car detailed so we could ride in class!) I was literally just surfing the web waiting for the hairdresser to show up at 11 am. That was the time I got the most nervous, with nothing specific to do, just time to fret. She showed up and so did J’s brother to take some pre-wedding photos (again, we didn’t hire a professional, their cost is OUTrageous.) My hair and makeup took ‘til just after 1 pm; meanwhile my sister, brother-in-law, and mom showed up and fed me a PB&J sandwich, perfect! J was getting ready downstairs meanwhile. Then my sister got me dressed (you see, she really was my maid-of-honor, just without the silly dress) and we were pretty much on-time to head out to the park for the 2 pm early gathering time for photos.
Oh, the park. The day turned out gorgeous, and our view was completely unobstructed, but at the price of some significant wind! And chill! We really couldn’t complain much though, since they had been calling for rain showers earlier in the week. People were already arriving when we got there and we chatted with them and took some photos and then it was time! Our friend E officiated for us, and she was so totally the right choice. We wrote our own vows and she wrote a ceremony to outline them, and it all had a wonderful sentiment and feel. J and I both flubbed our lines a little, but at least we both did, and there’s no video evidence, so I can say we did them perfectly, although the photos of me giggling might give us away. Maybe we were a bit nervous after all. I have to say though, that almost every single photo of us from that day has us smiling and looking pretty relaxed.
The ceremony itself was pretty quick and then some more photos. The one regret I have is that it seems like we didn’t get enough photos of just me and J, partly b/c we didn’t have a professional forcing us to do such shots, but also partially b/c it was so damn windy and cold that we cleared out pretty quickly after the ceremony. We had everyone sign our Quaker-style certificate that J designed and drew up. I really have to say, he offered to do the certificate early on when I had started to contact calligraphers, and I am so glad he ended doing it: it turned out GORFGEOUS, and it was all done by him so it has even more meaning.
After the signing, there was some time before dinner. J and I were hoping to show up at the restaurant and set up namecards and things but we couldn’t get in there ‘til later. That actually turned out just fine. We sat in J’s car near the restaurant, just enjoying our first few minutes together as a married couple, going over the day, the ceremony, everything.
When we got in to the restaurant, it was a bit of chaos trying to figure out the seating. We literally did not know how the tables were going to be set up until we walked in there. I had made up some preliminary outlines based on what we were told originally, but the numbers didn’t add up right. After some scrambling, I think it all worked out ok. I had struggled the day before the wedding with how to seat all the family and it ended up that the best solution was to put all the people of our parents’ generation (parents, aunts, uncles) at one table, with us and our best friends and siblings at another. I think that worked out pretty well. The rest was a mishmash as these things always tend to be.

Part II later...

In lieu of real content

2008-04-11T18:26:00.001-07:00

You Are a Cashew

You are laid back, friendly, and easy going.

Compared to most people, you have a very mild temperament.

You blend in well. You're often the last person to get noticed.

But whenever you're gone, people seem to notice right away!

What Nut Are You?

April 6, 2008

2008-04-08T11:45:00.000-07:00

-photo courtesy of sitcomgirl-

Change of plans

2008-03-31T11:53:00.000-07:00

Kitty is home and resting. But with Hawaii exploding, Aloha Airlines no longer flying (and thus no tickets), and a recuperating kitty, we decided it is probably for the best if we postpone our honeymoon. We will definitely take a long weekend and go somewhere local where I won't be quite as worried about being away from the baby, and then do a honeymoon trip in May or June. Life just likes to throw some curveballs sometimes, eh?

Obstructed

2008-03-29T09:10:00.000-07:00

Well. Last night the chubby kitty was acting kind of funny, scooting along on his booty, licking a lot, and then we noticed some leaking urine. We called the emergency vet and they told us to bring him in. So we whisked him up and he became the priority case at the pet hospital. Sigh. They said he might be obstructed and that it's serious: if left untreated, cats can die within 72 hours. I just about lost it. He is now spending the next two nights (as well as last night) at the hospital. They unblocked him and are giving him fluids by IV to flush him out. They say he's in good spirits. That makes one of us. I don't want to have to play god for my kitties' lives. I think this counts as one of his nine and I'm hoping his other eight aren't this expensive. That pet insurance is suddenly looking like a great deal. And other kitty is lonely and crying.

Settling in

2008-03-24T09:52:00.000-07:00

Well, we moved, as I mentioned. It is a wonderful house, but there sure are a lot of things we are trying to do all at once. Security things like new locks, motion detectors, etc. Cleaning things, like the dust from the floor refinishing, and dirt from the move. Closet things, like that fact that only one closet in the entire house had a hanging rod in it. That one is the hardest on me at this point, b/c my clothes are strewn around our bedroom, on my dresser, in that one closet, stuffed in boxes, or hanging in wardrobe boxes. Let me be clear. I am NOT a clothes horse. I wear the same things a lot, but this is bad. Plus, where do I hang up my dainties to dry? (Did I mention the lack of even a shower rod?) J's been a champ and installed one of our new closet systems that we bought over the weekend already! Other than that, the kitchen is totally under control, to the point where we cooked dinner twice last week. But everything seems to take so much time, and meanwhile there's this wedding lurking in less than two weeks, and I'm starting to get a bit anxious about it. The major things are under control. I went for my alterations fitting last week, and will pick up the dress the week before the wedding. It's very pretty and form-fitting and I will be very glad that the bloating I had during that fitting will be gone by the wedding (embarrassing to be spilling out quite so bad from the bustier thing, even though once the dress was on, it wasn't so bad.) We will be going to the restaurant this week to figure out wine and seating and whether we can squeeze two more guests in.
SCG threw me a shower on Saturday, and I left feeling so, well, I'm not religious but blessed is really probably the best word to describe it. I am marrying a wonderful man with whom I have a comfort level with that I didn't even know was possible. My mom was in town visiting my aunt and was able to make it to the shower even. I have a friend that would throw together a really delightful shower on totally short notice and manage to make it seem effortless. I have friends that were able to make it to the shower and that seemed to all get along and have plenty to talk about. It's scary to have so many things going right.
And then, of course, there's that little part of me saying it's not always the case. I mean, there's also the fact that my parents are in the midst of divorcing. I'm trying to enjoy all that's going on though, and not be too stressed. The wedding is just the one day, and we've laid a foundation for all the rest of the years to come.

Still alive

2008-03-21T21:07:00.000-07:00

Internet issues. Busy busy at work. Moved 1 week ago. Marrying in two weeks. 'Nuff said for now.

Missing

2008-03-10T09:29:00.000-07:00

We are up to our eyeballs in boxes, and that’s a good thing. It’s kind of depressing to come home to a place in such disarray, but it’s progress towards the move on Friday. The cats are not really happy right now, one seemed like he had scratched his eye yesterday and I was worried I’d have to take him to the vet but he seems all better today, thank goodness.

There are a few things I will miss about our old place. We had a routine of getting bagels one weekend morning at the place across the street, and I don’t think there’s anything near enough at our new house to do that. We also had the gym downstairs which while small, was wonderfully convenient. One thing I won’t miss turned out to have gone away anyway. We noticed a few months after we moved in that on Saturday nights, around 10 pm, tons of cars would start parking on our street and thuggy looking people would be out there walking to a not-so-nearby restaurant-turned-club-on-Saturdays. They typically were loud and obnoxious. And that was just at 10 pm. The club would then close at 2 am and they would be back on the street, blaring their stereos, yelling at one another, screeching their cars up and down the blocks, sometimes even HITTING each others’ cars. Needless to say, we called the cops several times on this and I took to wearing earplugs to bed routinely on Saturday nights. Wonderful, eh? It was something I was even scared to blog about, since these people looked SCARY and I’ve had enough of a brush with crime. Well, we noticed things went quiet a few weeks back. We thought it was the weather and storms keeping people away. Well, nope. Turns out, two women and a man were shot outside the club at 1:30 am. The club has since given up its cabaret license, thank god. Oh, and no arrests have been made.

Falling by the wayside

2008-03-04T16:29:00.000-08:00

Clearly when life gets hectic, this is one of the first things to go. Since I last posted, we closed on our house (in 24 days, I might add, a tiny bank issue that threw me into a tizzy added an extra day), picked a move date, bought a washer, dryer, refrigerator, dishwasher, couch, 2 chairs, and 3 rugs (Can you say hemorrhaging money?), are having the hardwood floors refinished, and had the most low-key birthday ever for J. I also had my bachelorette party, which I had been quite stressed about, not the least of why b/c we are in the midst of packing and it feels like there is still a ton to do. But the night out was very fun, mellow, with good friends. It did make me quite the space cadet the next day as I tried to get by on 4 hours of sleep.

All that and trying to figure out if my dress will in fact be ready in time for the wedding. It comes in next week, I go get altered on the 18th, and the wedding is on the 6th. Do the math and that don't leave a whole lotta time for it. Oh well. Maybe I should have kept one of those other dresses I bought...