Finally!!!

Well, I'm married. Yup, got hitched. Tied the knot. Like it's a big surprise to any of you who follow this thing regularly. But really, it was an absolutely fabulous day. No major snafus, gorgeous weather, tons of fun. Of course my dad and Ray had trouble holding back the tears at first and I had trouble holding back the giggles. Like when my dad said we'd been together a long time and I made a face and Brooke started laughing and the crowd saw her and joined right in. And when a sound like a squirrel falling out of a tree startled me and all the 'maids were stifling some laughter. Even our photographers heard that one. Speaking of photographers, Kate and Matt Altmix were awesome! I barely noticed them during the ceremony and reception and I know the formal pictures will turn out great. Hire them for anything. It's worth it.

So let's tell my major disaster of the day. We were almost ready to go take some pics before the ceremony. All I had to do was put in my dress. So everyone surrounds me to help (which really wasn't necessary, because the dress wasn't that difficult and honestly, four sets of hands just made it harder) and I'm about to pull the straps up when my mom gasps and says, "Oh, my--" in a hushed, freaked out tone, and then follows that up with a reassuring but equally freaked out "It's okay..." Then Jenn goes, "Oh my gosh what IS that?!?!" And Brooke and Leslie start repeating, "It's okay, it's nothing, you'll be fine..." All the while I'm saying, "What the heck are you talking about?!" So I finally manuever myself where I can see the back of my dress because there's so much commotion and I see a brown spot right where the strap starts to narrow. In about three seconds, here's my train of thought-- Oh, it's like a tag or something from the seamstress oh wait oh no! my dress is stained wait that's not a stain OH MY GOD IT'S A COCKROACH!!!! There was a COCKROACH! Crammed in between the sheer outer layer and inner layers of my dress! At this point I scream loudly enough for people to hear outside and proceed to jump--literally jump--out of my dress. Brooke and Jenn were in front of me so I grabbed their shoulders and heaved myself out of that thing. S0 while I'm trying not to cry because I hate hate HATE bugs of any kind (especially in a wedding dress) Jenn and Brooke are comforting me and Leslie and my mom are cracking up and trying to get the thing out from the layers because YES IT WAS STILL ALIVE! I think the best part of it, though, was Kate. She was just standing there with her camera at her chest and finger on the trigger but she looked like she was in shock, with her nose crinkled and her mouth hanging open. And in the middle of the whole ordeal, I just hear a small click. Even in shock she managed to get a picture of something. Ugghhghghalslasalsk. Shudder and gag. Blech.

But after all that the wedding was great. And then off to the honeymoon in Asheville, NC! We got a cabin up on a mountain about 20 minutes away from the city, but it felt like we were the only ones there. Beautiful view. Absolutely beautiful. And the city is so much fun. It's so eclectic. Lots to do, lots of museums and art galleries (great for me!). We ate out every night, had a different type of food every night and it was all amazing. We saw Biltmore, and I took the scenery and plant life as an opportunity to figure out how our new camera worked. So much fun, I want to be a landscape photographer now. And Ray even liked the house because of all the technology it had. And we rode around Asheville on Segways! It was soooo cool. If you ever get a chance to ride one of those things, take it. Other than the expense, I don't understand why these machines haven't taken cities by storm. No gas, can go 24 miles on one charge and easy-peasy to drive/steer. Just lean and go. And after Asheville we came home and started unpacking stuff for the kitchen, went back to my parents' house to get some more of my stuff (meaning all my clothes), dinner with the fams, and a little shopping at Target to use all our gift cards. Today I'm supposed to unload/unpack/reorganize all my stuff while Ray takes a very long bicycle ride, because messes freak him out a lot. So he'll want to help and end up annoying me because I make messes before I organize. So I'm kicking him out for a few hours. Oh, the first joys of married life.

Don't worry, as soon as I get pictures uploaded I'll post some for you.

Halfway intellectual post with no mention of the W-word

I was reading this article on CNN today and I thought it was interesting. Not the plug-in car or that NASCAR is considering it, but that this is such a weird position to be in for Chevy’s PR department. The Volt is a pretty cool thing—an all-electric car for a traditionally hyper-American brand that reveres gas-guzzling vehicles as a symbol of power.

Side note: Volt is a cool name for the first all-electric car. But what about when you make more? Are they all going to be electricity-related? The Shock, the Zap? Or do a tribute to Ben Franklin—Lightning, the Chevy Key. Oh, well.

So now they have a chance to reach out to a new, eco-conscious consumer set, with the risk of alienating uber-patriots who think the green movement is political mumbo-jumbo. But the fact that Chevy can market this as a vehicle to reduce dependence on foreign oil is a great opportunity to get people on board to the green movement without trying to change their political beliefs (which so far in any save-the-earth campaign hasn’t seemed possible). I think the notion that presenting the Volt as a patriotic car will turn off more environmentally friendly people is a little far-fetched. I mean, the car will reduce dependence on all oil and decrease pollution. Small tangent that is another post for another time, but making environmental issues political movement is a little ridiculous. We all live on the planet; we should all take care of it. Regardless of where you stand on global warming or going green or the like, reducing our impact on the planet and preserving it for the future is never a bad thing.

Anyway, Chevy has the unique opportunity to create a wide-spanning campaign that can reach multiple sects of society. Or will they pick one—try to change its consumer base, leaving traditional customers to switch to its nemesis, or try to change its existing customer base’s mindset to make them actually care about the planet? I can’t wait to see the campaign for this car.