Miscellaneous wedding updates (for those of you who care)

• We picked up the bridesmaid's dresses! Sooo purple. Sooo pretty. And I got my veil! Not so purple (nope, ivory), just as pretty.
• My mom bought me the necklace I've been wanting! Yay! It's so different from anything else I've found and I didn't think I was going to be able to wear it. Now I just need old, borrowed, and blue!
• We met with Nancy at Great Oaks to talk details. Vendors, layout, timeline (or, in her words, flow). A two hour meeting, but it made me feel a lot better about the wedding weekend.
• The guys got measured for tuxes and Ray and I have to choose them tomorrow. Small probs getting people there on time, but as long as they show up at the wedding on time, I'm okay. But they should remember that hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Especially a high-strung woman in a wedding dress who better not have anyone screw up her day... But in terms of choosing tuxes, not really sure what I can say. A tux is a tux as long as there's not camouflage, lariats or canes and top hats.
• Ray and I also started trying to pick out songs. Not fun. Lots of music playing on two different computers, and it's kind of hard when I'm trying to get the groom to pick something he doesn't care about.
• More forms... we had to fill out a personality profile-type-thing for photography... It's hard. Do you put down words that really describe your personality or what you wish you were? I would love to say I'm elegant and graceful, but chances are that Kate or Matt or a random guest will get multiple pictures of me tripping, falling, or spilling food on my white dress. Because while some people might find photos capturing these events or ones of me making weird faces endearing and a true depiction of my personality, I might fail to see the humor. Until the day I can show them to my children and say, "See? I was always one step away from being in a cast, too!"
• I had my first shower today, hosted by my soon-to-be in-laws (how's that for all you hyphen Nazis! Am I the only one? Ohhhh-kay...) It was great, Diana held it at a little B & B in Dallas, and we all know I love old houses. Good chicken, good salad, good tea, good company, great gifts. Ray got his rice cooker and was really excited when I told him we got a chopper/scooper (?), and I was really excited about the bedspread and our luggage. I surprisingly enjoyed myself. I usuallly hate dressing up and all the girly wedding stuff, but hey, opening gifts I know I like make it easy. And who doesn't like to be the center of attention?

So I think that's it. I go in for my fitting next week, I'm still trying to get hold of a salon to do my hair, and I have to get tanned and waxed and manicured (stuff that I'm hoping will be the only time... never done any of it before), so maybe by the wedding others' work to make me look like a girl will cover all my stress. Hope with me, people. I need all the help I can get.

GooOOOOO DAWGS!!!

Georgia started off its season right, beating GA Southern! Hopefully we can keep the season going even with some of our best players out for the season. And the new Uga, Uga VII (Loran's Best, by his official given name) is very cute. Hopefully he'll do a good job. But he seems to have a slight problem with his tongue draping out of the right side of his mouth. Maybe his trainers can get that fixed before he looks as goofy as some of his predecessors (have you seen pictures of Uga II? Special. That dog was special.)

Making words plural is so cools.

Why have younger people (I thought it was middle/high schoolers, but it's seeping into my age bracket) started puralizing words when it doesn't make any sense? "I loves it," "Hecks yes, I'll be there!" Is the extra "s" really necessary? Does it add some certain emphasis that can't be expressed through italicizing or underlining or even, since those aren't available on your facebook wall, simply hitting your Caps Lock key for a few letters? It makes us look ignorant. And simple-minded. And foolish. Text-speak is one thing, but people. An extra "s"? With all the slang and extra words we've already created for the English language, this is what we resort to? Just stop. Before we screw up the next generation's grammatic futures permanently.

For reals.

Argh.

Seriously, Dish Network, must you lose reception when the Olympic closing ceremony is on? I get that it's storming outside, and satellites are a little finicky with clouds, but the opening and closing ceremonies are the best parts of the Olympics. I love it. the artistry, the people, the spectacle of it all. Dish Network, fix your system, please.

Amen, Sister. Amen.

I completely agree. If God wanted us to have spikes on our feet... well, he would have put them there. Obviously he though height only looked good on giraffes.

(Postcard's from PostSecret...check it out)

No sleep + rainy day =

Today is a good day for a nap. I got about 4 hours of light sleep in due to my lovely allergy-induced wheeze/cough attack, and since it's supposed to rain all day today (thanks, Fay!) I'm very looking forward til I get home from church and can curl up in some kind of allergen-free blanket and get some sleep. That's all. I'm up early and needed something to do.

It's MEEE! And RAAAY!

Sort of. Leslie told me about this site where you can make your own manga character (excuse me if I'm behind the times), so I made one of me. Then I did one for her because she was wondering if the one she did had any resemblance (check it out on her blog). And of course I had to try to make one into Ray. What do you think?

Random thoughts that need to leave the head

1. We had dinner at this restaurant in Marietta called the Rib Ranch. Mmm, I love barbeque.

2. All but two of the 150-160 invitations are finally out... and we're already getting RSVPs back! I like having something to look forward to in the mail. I wish people still had pen pals. Maybe I'll be one of those people who sends cards. But then I don't know who would send them to me.

3. I love my grandparents. Why? Out of many reasons, they so predictably follow etiquette rules. Of course they're coming to my wedding, but I knew that their RSVP card would come within the first five we got back. Guess what. We got five back today. And theirs was one of them. Family is awesome.

4. I'm discovering that as much as I love new clothes and I love looking at nice things in stores, I really hate shopping for anything but maybe tennis shoes. I like to say I hate shopping for dresses. But then what about dress pants? Jeans never fit (for all the girls of the world who claim to have rears that don't fit in pants, you'd think someone would make a line that fit a girl's behind-- I can't even fit into Apple Bottoms). And the way they make shirts with those puffy sleeves and bands at the end you'd think girls had toothpicks for arms. Brooke tells me I should call my limbs "muscular." I say even when my arms were muscular they had trouble fitting into clothes. Let's not even begin with how bustlines fit me. I know, every girl complains about how clothes fit. But a lot of it's me. My size has been fluctuating both directions for the past few years so I have lots of clothes. But every time I need to wear one thing, it's too big or small and I have to go buy it again. And whenever I look for shoes, I always think, "I don't need those, they aren't brown or black, and the heels are too high and the toes are too pointy." But I always really enjoy looking at tennis shoes. Cute ones, practical ones. They're sturdy, reliable.

5. I actually started cleaning my room today. I still keep getting distracted by searching for jobs. I can't decide which one I want to do more.

6. There will probably be more of these to come. I have lots of random thoughts. Sorry I've been boring lately, but when your life consists of job hunting, telling yourself to clean your room and watching Little House on the Prairie, there's not much to talk about but what the voices inside your head are saying.

USA! USA!

Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh just won the gold! (And how many medals do they get?) Yay! I think it's cool how Misty May's childhood role model was there to see her win the gold (Jason somebody? a basketball player), and I like how she remembers her mom by scattering her ashes in the sand because she was a volleyball player too.

So I am now done with the Olympics. Swimming's done, gymnastics are over, and volleyball dominated, so everything that's remotely interesting to me is finished. Yes, we'll still record it til Sunday, but I'm through.

Anyway, I officially want to be Misty May. She is awesome. Kerri too, but go Misty.

A Wedding Vent

I am so sick and tired of looking at invitations and addresses and everything wedding. Designing my own because I didn't like traditional ones? Hate them now. Trying to get the wording right so they sound like real invitations? Ummm, how many weddings have I really been to? I don't know what invitations are supposed to say. Using purple for my color? I never want to see an eggplant again. Lilies? My favorite flower? Never again. I'd be happy to take a weed eater and whack the heck out of any orange flower I see on the side of the road. (And for anyone who thinks orange and purple don't go together, get over it. It looks good, it's better that pink and green and I don't care what you think.) Shoes and music and photography...

Remember when I said brides should use weeds to make things easy? Nevermind. Elope. It's the ultimate easy decision. But then I guess you have to deal with the crap from everyone when you get home. So weigh your options. Don't listen to the girl who's going to have a nervous breakdown before six weeks is up.

At least we finally got a ring for Ray. Sort of. We ordered one, titanium, that came in after about five weeks. Ray tried it on, it was too big. So I took it back to order a smaller size because titanium can't be sized (and because with seven weeks til the wedding it's cutting it close), and guess what? The store was closing. And not taking any more orders. Thankfully my mom was there and she got them to take it back for me (she's a little more fiery than I am) even though the receipt says no returns or exchanges. So Ray and I searched for rings again on Sunday. And we ordered the exact same ring from a different store in a smaller size after hunting for a different one for two hours. Let's hope this one fits (but this store will exchange it).

And since invitations have been consuming my time, here's a little more for you. Have you ever heard of defective envelopes? I have. We bought these cool sponge pens to seal them, but oh, no. Water wasn't enough for these. Neither was licking them (apparently I believed saliva has some special kind of sealing agent). So we had to resort to glue sticks. And it still didn't work. These things just didn't want to be sealed. I think the little gummy people who live on sticky strips were resisting, pushing up their arms, shouting "Noooooo!!!!" in tiny squeally voices (did you know they're distant relatives to Smurfs?). Yeah, that nervous breakdown? It's coming. Anyway, I was up til one last night re-gluing invitations. So if any of you get sticky envelopes from me for the wedding, sorry. At least it was closed. And if you can't open it? Good, I did my job.

And another tip, make the guest list early with everyone you could possibly invite on it so you know how many people you're inviting and you can argue about it before you address invitations. Never leave the option open to say, "Hey, we forgot them! What's their address? We should invite them... they probably won't come anyway." Because it's not fun. Trust me. I think my Bridezilla tail started growing this weekend just because of the stupid invitations.

Everybody else is doing it...

Talking about the Olympics, I mean. So here I go. Honestly, it's getting old. I'm tired of watching them. The same thing over and over. And over again, when Brooke records it and watches it the next morning (c'mon, Brooke, hardcore fans stay up late to watch these things). But anyway, here are my thoughts. Most of this can be filed under my "This. is. Ridiculous." section:

-Hero worship.

We all know who I'm refering to. Yes, he's an amazing swimmer. But calling him the best athlete ever just because he happened to be able to enter eight events? What about the events where they have to compete multiple times just to win one medal? Rowing, track, boxing, weightlifting... and have you been following our basketball teams? The men have been crushing every team they play and the women's smallest lead was something like 37 points (thanks Ray). My personal favorite, U.S. women's beach volleyball, has been killing. Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh have played 10 games and are playing in the semi-finals tonight. So basically if they win the gold they will have played around 14 or 16 matches. Shouldn't they get 14 or 16 gold medals for playing in all those games? Mmm-hmm.

And... ummm, hello? A few of M.P.'s races were relays. That involved multiple people. But who's getting all the glory? Yeah. What about that one where we came from behind and won? Michael Phelps didn't win his leg. And did anyone else see that piece NBC did about how M.P. was genetically built to be a swimmer? Sure, he's tall and double-jointed. But the fact that he has broad shoulders and a flat backside comes from him being a swimmer. Look around, NBC reporter, all the other athletes on the platform (and pretty much across the Olympic athlete board) have broad shoulders and flat backsides, including most of the women. Even Facebook called him out among the rest of the winners for congrats. Don't get me wrong, he seems like a great, humble guy and he's easy on the eyes, but give other athletes credit too.

- Media coverage.

I already mentioned some problems I have earlier, but I'm going to focus on NBC being stupid right now. They paid millions of dollars to get exclusive coverage of the Olympics. And now they're not letting any other media have video of the events. They could make soooo much money for that if they wanted. And besides, that's not being a very good sport, is it?

-Sports that shouldn't be sports. Or in the Olympics.

Badmitton. Handball. Ping pong.

And then there are the sports that already have world championships or should. Soccer and tennis players already compete across the world. Baseball and softball are being taken out this year. What keeps basketball in?

Who makes these decisions? They have some 'splainin' to do.

Good day, bad day... it's the little things

Oh, the highs and lows. Today was just one of those days where you can't figure out how you want to feel. You kinda just have to pick which mood is going to take over. Some things were related, some weren't. Well, here we go...

The good: I got my invitations today!
The bad: There are a few snafus... details later because there are still discussions to be made.

The good: I had a doctor's appointment today.
The bad: They didn't have me scheduled. But I threatened to sit in the office til they closed because there was no way I was going to come back again.
And back to good: They said since it was their mistake, they could try to fit me in and my wait was still only 30 minutes (for a five-minute appointment, but hey, focus on the positive)!

The bad: I spent all day writing cover letters.
The really really really good: I got a call back for an awesome internship! (But you can't know what it is yet... don't want to jinx myself!) Now Ray and I have to consider where we're living (again). We're trying to let the chips fall where they may and decide what to do once we have all the info.

The good: I got Ray's ring!
The bad: Ray decided to lose eight pounds since we ordered it, it's titanium and can't be resized. Hmmm.

The bad: Filling my tank today cost me 55 dollars.
The good: I was able to fill my tank! I follow gas partly by mileage because my old car's gas gage was broken and I ran out a few times (fun stories, ask if you want to hear them) and I haven't been able to track it recently because it's been a few dollars here and there.

Other bad news: I got a migraine today driving home. It's a weird experience for me. I know they're coming because I lose vision in the left side of my left eye. Kinda freaky, but it turns a little kaleidoscope-y on the edges. But once the vision comes back, the migraine comes too.

I had another wedding nightmare last night. For those of you who don't know, for about two or three years I've been having dreams about a wedding from hell. Bad '80s dresses, people shuffling around everywhere, fires, hurricanes, you name it. The thing is, the closer we've gotten to the wedding, the more real the details become. Last night's was the most real one ever--it was at Great Oaks, I was in my dress, all the vendors I mentioned were the ones we've booked--but none of them showed up. I walked down the aisle with no flowers, the people were sitting on the ground, we ate hotdogs from the corner gas station and had rocks on the table because the staffs quit. Not too bad for normal people, but for a control freak like me who has this vision for the day, I had a small problem with the dream. But I'm dealing.

Other good news (keep in mind that it's the little things in life that make me happy): I'm fascinated with this new nail polish I bought. Usually I'm not too girly, but I'm trying to keep my nails in okay condition so wedding pics of my hands don't look like a man's. My nails are pretty weak and brittle, so I have to keep sonmthing on them. I'm pretty rough on may hands, so polish typically lasts, oh, a day. But this new stuff, Sally Hansen's Hard as Wraps, has lasted since last Friday without chipping! A miracle...

Spiff is back on the radio! Growing up, we always listened to Randy and Spiff in the mornings on Fox 97 Oldies. I was sooo disappointed when the station went under. Then Atlanta got a new oldies station that I listen to constantly and this afternoon, Spiff was on! It's like having a cool uncle around again.

I found a florist! So much easier this time around.

And since this this post is too long, I'm going to go. Do something. Anything.

Finger on the Globe

Have you ever done that before? Closed your eyes, spun a globe, put your finger down, landed on some random island in the Pacific and said, "Someday I'm going to live there"? I have. And I can tell you, the places where Ray and I were contemplating living were already on the short list of places I didn't care to live in. Let me tell you, trying to find a place between Atlanta and Ellijay is pretty tough when Ellijay is 80 miles away. But this weekend, we made a decision. Not Woodstock, not Canton.

Ellijay.

I am officially moving to the hills. Blue Ridge hills, not like the MTV Hills (that I really hope someone else watches), because that's a whole lot more glamorous and I'm sure it would be easier to find jobs because, let's face it, the north Georgia mountains don't offer as many places to work as L.A. does. Unless I wanted to work at Taco Bell or Wal-Mart. But, really, it's the best decision, and I'm okay with it. It's cheaper, so it gives me more time to find a real job that I actually want instead of taking any job I can find. I can look for part-time internships or jobs that'll give me experience. And Ray loves his job and I'm okay with giving a little since he waited for two years for me to graduate. It's good, and at least we'll be there for the prettiest time of year (have I told you yet that I looooovvvvve the fall?). Now, after all this time learning how to drive really fast between Athens and Dallas, I have to slow down because Ellijay drivers apparently don't have to hurry.

But a reason to rejoice: Ellijay is getting a Chick-fil-A and an IHOP. Ray and I actually drove almost an hour over a mountain to Dalton Sunday just because he wanted pancakes and I wanted an omelette. Even though Ray sprained his ankle Saturday (we played tennis--yes, I was winning :) ) and it was throbbing the whole time, we wanted IHOP. Not just Bisquick or eggs from the Piggly Wiggly, but it had to be the International House of Pancakes. Yeah, we're that cool. So we get good chicken and some breakfast food. YAY.

On the subject of jobs, I'm getting creative looking in the mountains. I'm really going to have to sell myself. Any hints? (Please, no stiletto or fishnet jokes.)

Now I'm in the process of finding florists. It's fun. For anyone wanting to plan a wedding... use weeds. It's easier. Don't get this grand idea of flowers overflowing from tables and altars. Weeds grow in the backyard. And they overflow. Easy.

Off to eat dinner!

Moving Forward

I've been a little overwhelmed lately. Remember me posting about my friend Miley? On Monday night I got the news that a friend of Ray's sister lost his son Lane in a drowning accident at the beach on Saturday. He was three. We actually saw this kid every time we visited Kim, so we knew him a little bit. Sweet kid, and so tragic.

Along those lines, Brooke and I went to Miley's memorial service yesterday. It was long (almost three hours) and lots of people (around 40) spoke, but that's just a small testament to how many people she touched and what an amazing person she was. The service was inspiring, lots of laughs, and if you knew Miley, it's the way she would want it to be. There's a reason her nickname was Smiley Miley. We'll miss you, Miley.

On top of that, I still have lots to do around the house. To get this out of the way... yes, I still have wedding planning to do. (This is getting so old. So cliche. So sorry. It'll be over soon. 58 days, to be exact, but then you get to hear me talk about the actual wedding.) The florist we were going to use didn't call us to tell us she was booked, so we've been trying to work stuff out with other (more expensive) florists we've already talked to. And all the little details have to be worked out this month. We have to submit decor proposals to Great Oaks, finalize music, fill out final forms, call the caterer, get invitations out, blah, blah, blah. Side note: What do you think of inner envelopes for invitations? Not the addressed envelopes for RSVP cards, but the extra envelope that has the less formal names of the guest. I think they're useless and slightly annoying, but the mom wants them and they're actually causing us some big problems.

Guess what. I still haven't unpacked. Well, I haven't organized my stuff. See, I didn't really pack when I left Athens because of the time crunch, I more, well, threw things into my car as I found them. And when we got back to Dallas, I threw things into my room. Now there is a three-foot pile of clothes, blankets, lamps, clocks, etc. on my entire floor. Circling my bed. I have a path from the door to my bed, but that's the only wiggle room I have. I actually woke up the other morning with my head in the middle of the bed and the bottom half of my body resting on the suitcases at the foot of the bed. So today's the day I clean. Really.

I also need to start looking for jobs again. I had to take a break with so much going on, but I need to start that again too. Yay. So anyway, I'm done procrastinating for the morning and I'm off to do the stuff I just wrote about. I will be productive!

Remembering...

Through all the whirlwind that was my graduation weekend, I got some bad news Saturday night. Two friends were driving to Baltimore for a service at the church they attended when they lived in the city. Ultimately, they were headed to NYC to meet a few other girls for a post-graduation weekend. But they got in an accident because of bad weather and although Hannah has some broken ribs and a collapsed lung, Miley passed away. I wasn't super-close to either girl, but we had the same circle of friends. I saw Miley at graduation on Saturday morning and she was so excited about New York. She just turned 22 on Wednesday. She was always loud, full of life, but always willing to drop everything and help or have fun. She and Hannah were like sisters. So please remember Miley's family in your prayers. And please pray that Hannah will recover soon and take comfort in knowing that her best friend in with her Daddy now.