Bride Wars?

My friend and sister Hollis stopped by my Facebook today and congratulated me on my engagement-- as she got engaged a couple months ago and I hadn't heard about a date, I asked her when they were planning to get hitched. Imagine my surprise when she came back with... the exact same date as mine! (Dec. 19, 2009) In Atlanta. Blargh. I don't mind doing an afternoon ceremony, which would mean the oodles of people we share on our guest lists wouldn't have to pick weddings, but I really wanted a night wedding. I wish we could do Friday, but I'm not sure it would be easy for Josh (Jeremy's brother/best man) and I'm sure we're pushing it for Val & Co. to get there which is the whole reason we're having it in December to begin with. I'm trying to stay more amused by it than anything-- I mean, what are the odds of us both having the same wedding date totally independent of one another?! Probably about the same as the odds that she would be best friends with a girl I grew up with. Which is the case, bee tee dubs.

On another note, I've found my dress and it's on sale! If I'd made any money at work tonight, or had any faith in tomorrow (tonight?) I would go ahead and buy it right now but I'm pretty sure since it's been bouncing back and forth from $200 to $99, I'll have a chance. I'm going to make an appointment for next week with a shop in Inman Park to try on some similar dresses (in sillhouette) to make sure it won't make my arse look like Texas. Le dress:

It even has the right color obi on it to match my bridesmaids dresses! I'm pleased that the basic stuff seems to be coming together. Shelby even said she'd come in a couple days early to help out just 'cause she rocks. Mom suggested the two buck chucks at Trader Joes (their house wine, couple bucks a bottle, major discount on cases) for the reception, which is perfect because I'd like to have some wine and not just liquor.

Even though it was a devastatingly slow night at work (our total sales were $4.19 and about $2.10 of that was me), I did get a chance to start on Lauren's (my Maid of Honor) Christmas gift to me, a book called Bridal Bargains by Denise and Alan Fields. It's actually a really great book, and if you know someone who's getting married or planning a wedding, I totally recommend it. They're basically consumer advocates for people planning weddings-- they outline the legalities of bridal salons and deposits, and include warning stories:

"In 1992, a couple who owned a chain of Detroit area bridal shops was indicated on 60 counts of fraud in a "bridal scam." Over 5000 brides were bilked out of $1 million in deposits when the shops failed to deliver dresses."

They're not trying to make people paranoid or anything, but they do a really good job of letting you know how to be a savvy shopper. They also include their address and everything so you can write in if you have tips or want to share pictures, etc. from your wedding that might be helpful to other people, so I might try and do that.

Well, I'm yawning and drowsing (golly, and it's only 220!) so I'm off to bed. Ciao for now, dear readers!

First of the Year

Happy New Year everyone! My favorite holiday next to Halloween, where we can spend our time with loved ones and celebrate a fresh start. Check out the links, they're pictures of and by me in Florida; the ones of the manatees at Blue Springs came out great!

Christmas Eve- flew down to Jacksonville where Jeremy picked me up. We took the long way back down to Daytona, stopped at a beach and took a stroll, and drove through St. Augustine before we got home. Relaxed for a little bit with the History Channel and ordered some Papa Johns for dinner. I'd brought down stuff for mulled wine so we cooked some of that up and had a glass (which helped with Jeremy's coughing nast) and wished everyone in Indiana a Merry Christmas on the phone.

Christmas Day- got up earlyish, put up the pictures I had printed for Jeremy and turned on the tree I bought. I started on a pot roast with onions and potatoes, which turned out fantastically. We ate on that for dinner, and watched a movie but I can't remember which one-- we watched about five or six the whole time.

Up Through New Years Eve- We also caught up with the Eiler's Christmas slideshow-- Analia just keeps getting more and more adorable! If they didn't live in Singapore I would offer long-term babysitting for free, she's got such a great personality for such a little girl. Went to the Bulow Sugar Mill and wandered around, it was a really cool place-- once the biggest Sugar Mill in the area that shipped out to St. Augustine, Jacksonville, and Savannah. On the way back we wandered around part of the loop and stopped to take pictures of the pretty bird. We went to lunch with Jeremy's classmate Ron and his wife Cathy the next day, really nice people and very funny. Ron and Jeremy have the same sense of humor-- no wonder they get on so well! Walked around the little shopping complex in front of Wyotech and then went for a ride around the loop. The next day we rode down to Waleka with them and went out to the dock and watched the water for a few minutes. It was so much fun to be back on the bike again, and now that I'm not stressing my joints at work it doesn't hurt to ride for more than half an hour! Stopped at a great little country restaurant called MeMa's where we had corn nuggets (which were amazing!) and I got a shrimp basket for $7 with 1/3lb of fresh shrimp in it! Yum!

We laid low over the next couple days, made a couple grocery store runs, talked wedding stuff, and planned for the next week. We went down to Blue Springs State Park where the manatees were to see what we could see and... there were manatees galore!! We got to see a mama and calf, and several others hanging out throughout the naturally warm springs. We're definitely going to go back this summer when the manatees are gone so that we can swim and maybe find a place to get tubes and tube up to the St. John's river. We got home to find that the USPS had put a "Vacant House" card in the mailbox because I'd put a letter for one of the old residents in marked "No Such Resident, Return to Sender" so even though they've been delivering mail for months for the people who DID live there, they decided they were just going to stop.

New Year's Eve- we just kind of hung out for most of the day, watched some silly TV and played some Wii (though I also just watched Jeremy get angry with the Wii tennis-- way amusing), drank our champagne and watched a movie on Netflix. At midnight, we cheered, kissed, and said, "Well, I guess we're getting married this year, huh?" Went to bed not too much later after that so I could get up the next day and cook!

New Year's Day- Cooked up a good ol' meal of collard greens, black eyed peas, and corned beef. I forgot to get cornmeal, so we didn't have cornbread, but the greens and peas were the important part. We ate plenty, so we ought to have plenty of luck and prosperity this year; I'm not usually superstitious, but I take my New Years seriously! Besides, we could both use a bit of each! Watched another movie, I think the one about Genghis Khan, and discussed how silly the USPS is. Jeremy did get it straightened out, so no worries on the mail.

Jan. 2nd- We decided to go up to St. Augustine because everyone said it was super cute and charming, and I wanted to see all the historical stuff... BIG mistake. Unless you're ready to fork out $25/person just for parking and historical stuff, not including food or even water, don't even step foot in St. Augustine. Drive through, ooh and aah at the cute buildings, and then drive right on out. The parking was hard to find and expensive, all the historical stuff charged, we couldn't find a coherent map to figure out where we were so we just wandered around for a couple hours, and since the whole city seemed out to pick our pockets, we didn't feel like stopping for food. Plus, the few historical items seemed crowded out by the kitschy tourist stuff. Totally awful. We left in a half-bad mood and didn't really feel like doing anything else-- we skipped Ft. Matanzas and came straight back to Daytona where we had leftovers for dinner.

We didn't do too much exciting over the last few days, attempted Outback and was overwhelmed by the number of people and lack of space (they never seem to have enough tables!) so we got takeout, leaving Jeremy with even more leftovers to eat on for the next week and a half! I got to meet one of his roommates, Jeff, who seemed like a really cool, laid-back guy and his girlfriend Natalie who reminded me of someone I used to work with. It was a nice, quiet, relaxing time and that's exactly the kind of time we like :)

Now, I'm working hard to save for the wedding-- we know what we want, or rather I do, so I'm pretty intent on paying for it myself and not having to depend on outside help for it. My mom said she might help with the deposit for the venue, but since we get that money back (and she likes my plan) it won't be a big deal. I'm really excited about the prospects, and I'll keep everyone updated as I get ideas. It's going to be really creative, really nice, and very classic. Yes, it's possible!

Anyway, off to bed-- I'm already ruining the fairly decent sleep habits Jeremy got me in to this week. No cold water, but he's not big on letting me sleep in; which, to be fair, I asked him to enforce. We're also moving soon, which is exciting, so I'm up early to try and start packing up!

Oh, this is so bad...

I'm going to hook up the scanner tomorrow so that I can scan in all of my pictures from Japan. Then I will have nothing to do until I can get up to Memphis to get the photo boxes I had to leave at Marc and Jan's. This whole FlickrPro thing has opened a HUGE can of obsessive compulsive worms who organize themselves in twenty different ways. It's fantastic. And yet so very bad all at once. I've made "sets" which can then be organized in to "collections" such as "Alpha Omicron Pi" which encompasses my college years, or "Georgia" for everything that's been taken in Georgia or "Travel" for everything that's been taken on the road... it's just a little ridiculous. BUT SO AWESOME.

I am going to make myself go to bed instead of starting now; it would be dangerous otherwise, methinks... I will have plenty of time tomorrow since I have been disinvited from dress shopping with le princess. I'll just do it in Southaven where I won't have to drive 40 miles to get to a David's Bridal. Take that.

*eyes photos in the corner*

NO! Not going to do it. Bad Meg! Flat iron your hair instead!

PS- the YMCA totally stiffed us on the tip for the party on Wednesday; we didn't even make 15% to split between the two of us. I think we ended up with 14%, and while that is quite close to 15% it's just not the same when you're talking an $850 tab.

Gmail is on Crack

In a string of computer issues that have lasted me the better part of the last week, Gmail is being cranky and won't work my chat so I bit the bullet and downloaded the AIM program... blurg.

Last Thu, my computer got assaulted by spyware and malware, which prompted a full wipe and reinstall of everything on it. Then the video wouldn't work, turns out there was something wrong with the formatting and so we had to fully wipe and reinstall everything again. It's such a pain, you forget how much stuff (flash, acrobat, and other plugins) has to be re-installed every time you do it. I'm starting to think maybe Amy's Magneto curse has extended itself to me!

This week's looking much better than last in the sales-and-tips area, so I'll have enough money to get Christmas for Jeremy and Emily and (with any luck) pay my first installment on the next credit card to be paid off. I bought myself a flickr pro account for Christmas since I've been meaning to for years and re-discovered so many wonderful pictures! I really missed the ones from Austin-- they got deleted in the last great computer debacle and I only had them on Flickr. Made me miss Austin all over again. And, of course, my Dill! Hopefully she'll have some free time over her break and we can catch up; she's been so busy with her teaching gig I've hardly talked to her! Also, with any luck, the airlines will keep having great sales and I can go out there this summer and see her and maybe help her move in to her own place. Maybe scout around some Ducati dealerships and see if they'd be interested in hiring Jeremy. The guy at the place in Southaven said he'd be interested, but I don't think either of us want to go back to that city...

Aaaanyway, this week should be good. I'll finally get to meet Emily's friend Aileen, I get to tag along on their wedding dress shopping day and try to start figuring out my own, and I figure if Emily and Joanna like her this much, she's a shoo in for someone I'll get along with. She's got some really amazing designs (she's a fashion designer type, went to SCAD), and seems all around like a chill girl. I also get to continue convincing Jeremy he doesn't need to buy me a Christmas present; it's very sweet he wants to buy me pretty things but he really doesn't need to!

Last night I went up to El Tesoro and had a margarita and some snacks with Bo and the staff up there-- it was a lot of fun and the food is phenomenal-- if you haven't been and you're in the area, you've GOT to try it out. Really authentic, all the food is made from scratch. I haven't done a restaurant review in a while, so I'll put up more tomorrow.

I also have a new bed, which is really kinda nice. I can put pillows up all around it and have kind of a place to sit and be cozy and there's a real mattress so it's not like the old one that killed my back every night! Whew! I actually pretty much slept through the night last night, though I still have the problem of having too dark a room to wake up in. If it's dark, I just want to roll over and go back to sleep!

I think that's almost everything, really-- nothing as exciting as laser tag last week! I'm going to give in and have some Ramen since I'm walking to work tomorrow (that stuff sends your caloric/fat intake through the roof!) and I'm starving and then hit the hay. With any luck, I'll make at least $40 tomorrow and then the YMCA party on Wed won't bomb like the homeowner's one last week and perhaps I'll make a full $200 this week! Whoo!

Flash Flood Warning, much?

Last night was supposed to start a few days of rain, possibly heavy rain. Apparently I'm the only one who looks at the radar. The storm system stretches from Mexico to Canada and is hitting pretty hard; I took mom to work this morning to go shopping, but unless the rain lets up I may not go-- driving back from Emory was like driving through the rain that hit Memphis during Katrina! No, really! I told mom when I dropped her off that there was totally a chance there'd be a tornado today, and about a half hour after I got home, they issued a tornado watch which may become a warning if the lightning and wind keeps up like it is now. I'm wondering if anyone's told the construction crew next door, even if they did wake me up at 7am I'd rather they not get blown away.

I really love severe weather (I know, I know, I'm strange-- but it's totally fascinating!), but it's putting a cramp in my win style right now. Not thrilled about that. I was also going to pick up some new fake chucks at Target since my old ones are getting a little, well, old, and see what their wedding organizer looks like. I'm stuck between that one and the Real Simple one, but you have to go to Crate and Barrel to get the Real Simple one, which is highly inconvenient.

Rhodes Singers had their Christmas at St. Mary's last night; obviously I couldn't go but I love you all and I'm sure it was amazing!

That's about it for now. I'm going to attempt a 30 minute nap since Casey kept me up and then the construction woke me up-- I'm sure you can imagine better than I how large drills can permeate a dream where you've just finished building your own house. All I know is that it ended in destruction and we were pretty ticked off.

Win

Tomorrow I order up the last of the Christmas presents going to Indiana, finish Jan's present, drop by Pier One, and pull out the wrapping paper.

I think this is the most organized and most cost effective Christmas ever :)

Hey, Farva, what's that restaurant you like with all the goofy stuff on the walls?

Well, a not-so-busy week has kept me from le blog; mostly sleeping while I fight yet another cycle of horrible sleep schedules thanks to Casey or the dog. Work was alright M-W, but Wednesday was d-e-d dead since the Avondale Charter School deal is off (Jill had an agreement with a charter schools in the area that for every dollar spent at the restaurant by members on Wednesdays in November, she would give a certain amount back) so I only made a few bucks. I also seem to end up staying later on Wednesdays than any other night, so mom's just going to give me the car to take in. Hopefully, I'll make enough over the next couple weeks to put tires on my car and start working on the exhaust-- we're supposed to have a party in this Wed spending a minimum of $300 and one next Wed spending a minimum of $1k!

I'd also like to say hello to my Aunt Linda who found me-- I saw Shallote, NC on my visitor's list and if it weren't for the trip Jeremy and I made, I wouldn't know where on earth that was! I've been meaning to e-mail her, so this afternoon I'll have to do that.

Saturday, I went with Emily, her dad, Sarah (Emily's younger sister; also at Agnes Scott) and two of Sarah's friends to play laser tag for Sarah's birthday and it was a BLAST. Their dad is a West Point grad, so we had a military commander and just whooped up on the little kids-- we took the tower and held them off two of the three games and on the other, went SWAT on them on a sweep and clear mission to take out as many as possible because of this jerk dad with them who made me pull out a can of verbal slap-to-the-face in front of the group of 25 eight year olds he brought for his son's birthday who had just watched him yell at the LaserQuest people because some of the packs weren't working. Like they could control that. I gave up our spots for us (they were going to have to figure out what to do with our activation keys anyway, so we would have only played for like half the time for which we had paid) and we got a free game, but we had to sit out two because they were so booked. No matter, we all chased the guy in to a corner and nailed him at least once each. Sarah's friends, Marly and Esther, were pretty cute and fun to hang out with, so all in all a good day. We also went to Ted's Montana Grill for dinner, which was super yummy-- I had the barbeque bison short ribs, which were amazing. I was so stuffed by the end of it I almost couldn't move!

Yesterday was officer transition workshop for Gamma Sigma, and even though it took allll afternoon (got there at 3, left at 730 and things were actually still wrapping up) it was a lot of fun and Becky and I amused ourselves greatly through the whole thing (since we were really just there in a "make sure they don't burn the place down" capacity). As usual, the girls were really sweet, and India and I are trading hookups on Foundation/Arthritis Foundation hookups which should be a lot of fun. There was also tons of good food, a requirement for any AOII event, including mini-croissants with chicken salad in them. Yum! I went overboard and had two sodas, so I'll have to try and stay away from them tonight. Hopefully I won't be tired when I get to work and it won't be a big deal to stick to water or soda water.

Not much else going on, really, I have to go drop some things at the dry cleaner's and deposit my paycheck this afternoon. I may put my paychecks (since they're generally pretty small-- server hourly is $2.13, which is up from the $2.10 it was when I worked at Birdi's) in my savings and use the rest to pay bills and do "fun things" (aka, put tires on the car lol) and see what happens with that. I have a good start with the $100 paycheck, and anything in my savings is better than the none I have after getting sick and not having a car wiped it all out.

Oh, I have gotten my Christmas list figured out, which is really exciting. Jeremy's parents are the hardest to shop for since his mom gets bored and goes out and buys movies or books and his dad... well, his dad just doesn't really need or want anything! I did, however, find a TV show they both like and figured out something creative for Jan (which means she hasn't gone out and gotten it without either of us realizing it) so I think we should be safe and not have to resort to gift-card-giving. I actually have several things I'd like to get for Jeremy, but the main one is something he's been wanting for a while-- prints of pictures he's taken over the years. I decided while looking through his pictures that between the two of us, we have enough awesome zoo and aquarium pictures that I'm gonna have to have at least one kid because I have the best room decorating idea ever. Rock on. Everyone else is, for the most part, getting some surprise mixture of candies from Greene's (the new hometown candy shoppe) and a something special for special people. I found the most adorable present for Fia, I can't wait to give it to her! I need to find the other small part of Josh and Sarah's present-- Target's a little short on their ornament supply this year, so maybe I'll just have to hit up the Super Target in Buckhead.

More when I think of it, or have something more interesting to say. Ciao!