wedded bliss, etc.

So the wedding was perfect…certainly the best party I’ve ever been to, and judging by the number of our friends incapacitated the next day, the best party lots of people have ever been to.  There’s so much more to say, but not time to say it.  Just wanted to assure the blogosphere that I survived not only the wedding, but the plane rides from Richmond to Honolulu.  My gosh, it’s beautiful here.  Okay, off to reapply SPF 75.

In other news, Susan kindly let me know that Trent Reznor was also married on Saturday.  YES!

Today we hiked up to the summit of Diamond Head and got a spectacular view.  More comprehensive blogging later, of course.

a stitch in time.

There are moments, of course, when the grave importance of what we are about to enter into resonates in me with a profound gratitude. Most of the time, unfortunately, the daily management of details wins out over the mystery of love forevermore.
– Pinkofperfection.com

This week has been full of a lot of Dr. Mario, cleaning, Wii Fit Plus, laughing ’til I cry at work, and kitten-wrangling.  And last-minute things, which touch even me.  Yes, even me.  Ice: something that needs to be present at the wedding, in mass quantity, but NOT melted.  Scary stuff.  That wasn’t on any of the wedding checklists I looked at.  But I guess most people can afford to hire someone to think of these things for them.

Tonight Dan’s parents and brother get into town and are staying with us for a few days, so the fun is officially beginning and the preparations are officially over.  I love when Dan’s parents visit.  Let the museum trips, porch hangouts, and beer cans piling up begin!

In other news, I think we’ve decided on the name of “Gozer” for our little white kitten.  Because she’s hot stuff, but she’s evil.

LINKS — I HAS DEM:

• Well, I’ve been saying this all along.
• RVANews was…on the news!  Famous, famous.  Check it out here.
• WANT.
• And because I’m not quite done with Star Wars yet and never will be, pizza WIN!
• This is awesome…I’d really like to see more regular people in magazines.
• Poe wins.
• Loving the Smiths cross-stitches.
• I adore Advanced Style and I want to be like this lady when I grow up. The end.
• Last-minute Halloween costume?  Now you have no excuse.
• Dudes, this is an awesome trick-or-treating idea.  WHO’S WITH ME?!  Next year though.
• Still not quite sure who this “Kanye” is, but found this funny anyway.

And finally, some amazing color combinations to make a bride second-guess her own choices…from Little White Book.

of good times and gifts.

Some pictures from the festivities of the past couple of weeks…

the 2nd annual picnic of doom

the blue letter at empire, playing with hex machine and heks orkest

me being showered with gifts

one of the best nights in Richmond ever -- Nintendo and a movie on the roof of 319 for Phil's birthday

one of the best short road trips ever / long talks by the bay / amazing raging party for Diana's birthday (photo by the incredible Karen Seifert)

Things have started to calm down.  There’s almost nothing left to do in preparation for the wedding, so I feel like I have my life back.  Jessica moved in and was already settled with a beautifully-arranged room by the end of the day, and I followed suit by moving my desk out of limbo and into a proper location.  So it looks a lot better in the house and is more comfortable.  The school year started at work, and although things are still busy with late registrations trickling in and such, we are finding our groove again.  I’ve put away all my gifts from my first bridal shower this weekend and written all my thank-you notes.  My birthday is all done being celebrated.  This morning I went for a run and weeded both the front and back gardens by 8am.  A week or so ago I finally bought two jackets, which prepared me for fall (for the past several years, I’ve had only sweaters or a coat — no jackets.  This has been a problem and has made me feel like a character from Dickens, all shabby and shivering).  I’m about halfway through the mammoth David Copperfield.  I’ve got some things due soon for RVANews, but besides that I can finally breathe and do some reading, sewing, and cooking.  And maybe a little escaping into the country here and there…

of banks and booths.

We’re heading to the Outer Banks for the next few days with my parents, so I don’t have time to properly blog.  But I’ll leave you with this photo of our setup at Fallout for Black Market on Thursday night.  Karen was nice enough to help me arrange things and man the booth.

Back soon, and then Religious School starts at work so the summer will be officially over for me.  Hello, fall.

of doom and dreaming.

Sometimes you have to spend a little time away from the internet so that when you come back, you and the internet have something to say to each other.

Here’s what I’ve been up to.

• I’ve been writing.  A lot.

  

  Having a weekly column is fun and time consuming.  On one hand, it’s crazy to think that as soon as you turn it in, it’s time to start working on it again.  But on the other hand, you get to do a lot of interesting research and sharpen your writing skills.  I’m having a great time with it but I think it’ll just take me a while to be able to churn these things out rapid-fire-style.

  I also keep having ideas for blog posts which are not directly related to current events in my life, but rather essays on something I’ve been thinking about or old stories that must be told.  I’ve been fleshing some of those posts out and should have one ready in the near future.

• I received delicious cheese in the mail.

  After confiding in a close friend that the only thing I really hate about financial hardship is giving up fancy cheese, straightaway he sent me a survival kit of beautiful wedges.  This filled my eyes with tears of gratitude, but only until I could manage to rip the wrapper off of the cheeses and taste all of them.  They were amazing.  But more on this later, as I have a lot more to say on the subject of food and friendship.



• I am the ringleader at the wedding assembly line headquarters of doom.

  Our house has been an address-writing, envelope-licking, stamp-sticking, wax-sealing, needle-threading, favor-making, program-designing, proof-printing, wedding-related sweatshop of gargantuan proportions.  But it’s okay, because this was all done in the name of  avoiding true madness.  The wedding is two months from yesterday, and we all know how I detest waiting until the last minute.  So the insane scramble that many households go through right before the wedding will not happen here, if there’s anything I have to say about it.  I can’t wait to spend the weeks leading up to the wedding visiting with relatives and celebrating with all of these great people that have been placed in my life.

• I had a pinched nerve.

  See above.  No sooner had I jokingly mentioned my impending carpal tunnel than the storm cloud that is a pinched nerve formed over my head.  Last week I was like “Dan Dan hey Dan I can only move my arm like this, and if I move it like this it hurts, and if I move it like this — GAH!”  He said “You have a pinched nerve.”  A softball teammate  confirmed that my symptoms were a lot like hers when she had a pinched nerve, and the Mayo Clinic cites “stress from repetitive job” as a possible cause of the problem.  FAIL.  But I had to play softball anyway because it was the Last Game of the Season, staple and fold a million things at work anyway because it’s my job, and continue making wedding favors because card stock isn’t going to stamp itself.  I’m almost back to normal now, though, if you can ever consider a desk job worker’s back, neck, and shoulders to be “normal.”  If this should ever happen to you, remember the two Is: Ibuprofen and Icy Hot.

• I made a new dress.

  As soon as the worst of the above problem subsided, I was seized with the desire to take a break from all this typing and assembling to get into some good old-fashioned sewing.  I’ve had a striped men’s shirt sitting in my sewing basked for months, and I finally used a wonderful smocking / shirring tutorial to make a simple little tube dress out of it.  I think it looks much better now than it did when I took the picture below, because I’ve added some straps that look nice.  As with most things I sew it’s a little wonky, and yet a fine first effort for making a dress out of an old button-up.



• I’ve been discovering long-lasting lipstick.

  What in the name of Revlon have I been doing all these years without it?  Enough said.

• I have a new roommate moving in soon.

  Our new friend Jessica, who comes highly recommended by Talia, will be moving in sometime next month.  I’m excited for her to make us rice balls, something she learned during the two years she just spent teaching English in Japan.  We’re excited to have her, and to possibly be putting another notch in the ol’ matchy tattoo as well.

• I’ve been dreaming regularly.

  About zombies, to be precise.  What’s the deal with this?  I swear, I care about vampires way more than zombies.  And yet, there they are.  In my dreams.  I’m not entirely bummed about it though.  I’m glad to be dreaming again and I’m glad the dreams are entertaining; I feel like I went for a few years there without it happening much.

  In this dream I was on the softball field with all my current teammates, and it was the middle of the night, and the field lights wouldn’t come on.  I probably dreamed this because a couple of weeks ago we couldn’t play a full evening’s worth of softball because the field lights were broken or something.  Anyway, we were just kind of tossing the ball around near the backstop and cautiously squinting at each other in the dark, when suddenly the other team approached.  They appeared en masse, out of the foggy blackness of the outfield, and trudged quietly toward us with gaping mouths.  They weren’t even wearing softball uniforms, just regular clothes, and they were of all different ages, but they had the appropriate equipment with them.  One who particularly unnerved me was a little girl zombie with a pink dress set off by a white Peter Pan collar.  I think I woke up before we had decided whether to start the game already or run for our lives.

  The dream proved to be an evil omen, as the mighty Tidal Waves went on to lose our playoff game due to both a biased umpire with a non-existent strike zone and a team that likes to play in our league just so it can easily crush its opponents (instead of playing in some league full of other jocks who only care about sports and derive their entire identities from recreational softball).  There, I said it.  Stupid zombies.

  

  Also, I have a recurring dream that’s typical of brides who can’t afford to hire a wedding coordinator: the dream where it’s suddenly your wedding day and you’re not ready.  Everybody’s like “Where’s Tess?” and I’m just chilling at home in my slip, making breakfast or something, and not ready at all and don’t even have the right hair color.  That’s one thing.  But the other night I had the opposite of that dream.  In this dream, I was completely ready and yet everyone else was woefully unprepared.  Nobody was dressed correctly, nobody had done any of the prep work I had delegated for them to do, and the photographer didn’t even show up (this is not going to happen, because he knows that I know where he lives).  I was standing in the vestibule of some church I had never seen before, and everyone was trying to push me through the doors and down the aisle, and I was like ‘NO! I can’t go until the photographer gets here!” and trying to claw my way back outside of the church. Oh, the modern psyche.  At least I can let my subconscious battle this one out while I keep things chill and orderly IRL.

• My cat, Sophie, thinks that I and my laptop are a jungle gym.

  We are not, in fact, a jungle gym.  But this kitteh ignores my protests and is actually spooning my laptop right now as I type this.  Of all the adorable consternations in the world!

And that’s all I have to say for now.  I have some links and inspiration to share, but I’ll save it for later.  I feel quite satisfied with today’s update.