It just keeps getting longer and longer...

I feel like every list I'm keeping right now has been doused with Miracle Grow and it's going to turn into the world's largest cucumber soon. For example... wedding stuffs. When we figured out the budget (read: when my dad said I have this much money to give you) we crunched the numbers and figured out that the magic number was 180. 180 total guests. That's it. Right now? My number is 192.

It was 186... which is okay because we're anticipating a few people declining (like my aunts who already booked their July 4th beach house in Florida... my cousin who lives in Texas... and a few of Gzilla's relatives who are across the country) but then my dad had a few additions. I forgot my two aunts who divorced my dad's family(these two are very smart women--just as my mom). At first, Daddy Dearest was unsure about inviting them, and since he's paying... if he's uncomfortable, I feel awkward saying "No, they are my aunts whether or not they have my last name anymore or no" but he finally caved on that one. And then he adds that he wants me to invite my uncle's new wife's two adult children (did you follow that?)

Now, I have no problem with these two people... but if we're trying to limit the numbers, especially since the ONLY friends that I'm inviting are in my wedding party, I don't exactly feel comfortable not inviting the women that I lived with for years in college, but I can invite these two people who are practically strangers that I've met all of twice. But, again, my dad is the one paying for the reception... and he already mentioned it to his brother... so they're on the list. And he's right, it IS a nice gesture. But these are the side of my family that I'm trying to distance myself from, so it's hard.

The other list that's growing is the things I need to pay for. Trying to fit Christmas in the midst of all the wedding payments is a bit difficult this year to say the least. But, Gzilla and I decided to set a limit on our gifts, and then we'll save up to go to a fancy dinner in Philly. We'll probably go back to 10Arts and have Jen Carroll from Top Chef make us dinner again. That place was amazing...

Anyone have lists that keep growing and growing?

PC Prison Recap

Well, Gzilla and I survived. Actually... we had FUN. I know. Inconceivable! But we did. We even made friends with another couple. I was really worried about the whole roommate situation, but it ended up being fine. There were 11 couples on the retreat. All the women stayed in one house and the men stayed in another, and each house had 8 bedrooms... so only a few people had to share a room, and I wasn't one of them!

The one thing I will say is that I'm TIRED. We were on retreat from Friday night at 7 until Sunday afternoon at noon. We didn't actually get home until 1:30 or so because we hung around for a bit and then stopped for groceries on the way home. We were very ambitious in our cooking that evening. I made NY strip steaks with carrots and parsnips for dinner (by the way... parsnips are flipping awesome) and a pot roast for the next night. I was going to put it together this morning and we could eat it tonight. Except I didn't know that I have to work tonight. So I made it last night... we put it away this morning, and we're going to eat it on Tuesday. My house smelled amazing this morning. However I was up cooking until around midnight, after an emotionally draining weekend. To say that I'm tired is a huge understatement.

I feel a bit silly because I was so worried about the retreat, but there ended up being nothing to get worked up about. We liked it so much, and think that we got a lot out of it, that we're considering being 'team couples' for future retreats and leading some of the discussions.

I'm gonna do it this time; I swear!!

I mentioned that Gzilla and I joined the Y last month... well, it took us a month to get there. We went for the first time on Monday for a personal training type meeting, and then we went a second time separately to learn the different machines.

I've been trying very hard to be supportive without pushing Gzilla into doing anything. He's unhappy with his weight, and it's gotten to the point where he's having back problems because of it. I think that finally got him motivated to actually try. Before he's complained that he needed to change his eating habits, but what that really means is that I have to change his eating habits for him. And whenever I try saying "Hey, let's get a salad for lunch today" I get shot down because that doesn't sound like a very good lunch (i.e. it's not Wendy's).

I'm letting him set the times when we go to the Y and exercise... but the one thing that I'm highly suggesting that he do is keep track of his calories. I found a really good calorie tracker at www.livestrong.com and has the nutrional value of a lot of brand name things already in there. And! you can create your own recipes so that you don't have to enter "tomatoes, 2... steak, 6 oz" every time. It's fancy!

He told me that his goal is to lose a pound a month. Which would mean by the wedding, he would have lost 8 pounds. When I set up his livestrong account... I set it at a bit more than that, because my options were "1 pound per week, 1.5 pounds per week, 2 pounds per week, or maintain current weight." So I set it at 1 pound per week.

I have some goals for myself, too. I just want to strengthen and tone what I already have. Every single person at the Y so far has brought up the pilates classes, so I think I'm going to do that... and I think I might do a Zumba class, too. When I go in the mornings with Gzilla 3x per week (I think that's good to start off) I'll concentrate on cardio and some weight training... and then I'll add on a few classes here and there. I think that since we have each other to keep motivated, we'll keep up with it... but we'll see. It's one of those things where if I blog about it...then y'all will hold me accountable. So please, feel free to yell at me if I slack off. Because it's not just me slacking off, it's Gzilla now, too... and if this extra weight is doing a number on his back, I don't want to think about what it's doing to his heart.

For a moment... I'm going to be a girl.

Not just a girl. THAT girl. That girl who is obsessed with shoes.

I bought my wedding shoes the other day. From this website Rue La La where you can designer stuff discounted. Sometimes it's last season stuff... sometimes it's sample sale. I belong to another one called Gilt Group, but I'm starting to like Rue La La a bit more.

Anyway, a few days ago... they had my favorite designer. kate spade. I LOVE kate spade. I actually have a bag of hers that I bought at a charity store for $39 (because I'm awesome and know how to shop). Lately I haven't been looking at the Gilt Group or Rue La La pages because I'm saving for the wedding and all that jazz, but this time I thought "Well... let me just SEE if they have any shoes..."

THANK GOD I DID. I found my wedding shoes. And I bought them. They were sold out of every size except mine and a few others... and I thought about it. I even asked Gzilla, but he was of no help. So I texted becklette and she convinced me that HELLO I should buy them. And I did. Now I'm $129 poorer, BUT I HAVE KATE SPADE SHOES FOR $129. I'm going to wear my favorite designer's shoes on my wedding. And they're THE PERFECT shoe. Perfect.

See? Perfect wedding shoes. I can't wait until they get here.

All my m's sound like b's.

Well... you know how I'm supposed to be going to "Pre Cana Prison" this weekend... sharing a room with a stranger... sharing my relationship with 9 other couples... and all that fun stuff?

GUESS WHO HAS A NASTY COLD? this guy.

I currently can't breathe through one side of my nose... I sound like I have a clothespin over said nose... and my throat hurts. Luckily, I haven't lost my voice or anything yet. It's just sore.

I'm doing all of those things you're supposed to do when you're sick. Drink lots of water... drink lots of tea with honey... take cold medicine... use an entire box of tissues per day... surround myself with hand sanitizer... use my neti pot a whole lot... but I'm really worried that it isn't going to do anything! I have to stay in a room with a stranger this weekend... and I'm totally going to get her sick. I'm going to be that person that everyone thinks in their head, "I hope I'm not rooming with THAT GIRL."

Any other cold remedies I should partake in to try and bust this cold before Friday?? Staying home and sleeping is not an option.

Nervous Ambitions

I have all these grandious ideas of what I want in life. Yes, I love working in radio... but do I see myself in radio for the rest of my life? I don't know. I really have no idea. I wanted to be an actor for so long that I never bothered to see if I was good at anything else. But there IS something else that I was always good at... I'm just terrified to do it.

I can tell a good story. And I can tell a good story with a lot of words. I've been talking about writing a novel for the past 5 or 6 years? But I've never actually DONE it. I've talked about it. Thought about it. Even outlined a novel! But I'm so critical of myself that I don't actually DO anything. I have 2 great ideas for a novel that are both grounded in things that have happened either to me or to people around me, and Gzilla pointed out that maybe that's why I'm having such a hard time. I need to start with something that's entirely fiction before I start borrowing.

Then I remembered that November is NaNoWriMo. Only problem? I haven't written a single word. If I started on November 1st, I would have had to write 1667 words a day to get to 50,000 by November 30th. Since now it's November 4th...that gives me 26 days instead of 30 days, so that means I have to write 1924 words every day to get to 50,000 words. It's not going to happen. Especially since I lose two whole days because of "Pre Cana Prison" next weekend (that's what I'm calling it. You better believe I'll have a full report after next weekend!!!).

Anyone else doing/did do NaNoWriMo? I can do this, right?

Oh Happy Day!

I know a lot of people are excited about election day... and I'm excited about it for an entirely different reason. I finally get my life back. I don't have to stay at work until 9 at night because someone wanted to change their advertising and we're waiting for the commercial. I don't have to wear makeup to work every day in case I have to record a politicians commercial. (The one day I DIDN'T wear makeup to work last week... I had to record a guy. He was nice though. And worked REAL HARD for my vote!)

I hate election day. I used to love it. I used to feel like my vote made a difference, and maybe it does. But I hate it now because I have to deal with these people...and they affect my every day life. And I don't like it. I really think that every single person in America should work in the media for one election season...and see what these people are like. It's a real eye opener.

Some of them are really nice and considerate people. Those are the people I vote for. The people who change their advertising 6 times in one week... who keep changing from :30 second commercials to :60 second commercials in the middle of the day, and the change HAS to be made before the next commercial airs in 13 minutes? I don't vote for those people. Those people make me cry.

I'm just really happy today. Because now these people will leave me alone for two years. No more phone calls on my cell phone... no more TEXT MESSAGES telling me who to vote for (please tell me someone else got text messages...I got THREE of them!). No more annoying politician jingles. I just have to get through the rest of the day. And cross my fingers.

Give up the FUNK

I'm in a bit of a funk right now... and I have no idea why. I have no desire to knit ANYTHING, but I want to make things. I don't know if that makes any sense. I keep looking at projects like "oooh, I really want to make that!" but when it comes to actually MAKING it... I have no desire to do so.

I still haven't finished the sweater I "gave" to Gzilla last year for Christmas. I really want to make myself a hat and a cowl for the winter, because I have nothing like that. I also am supposed to be making a sweater for my sister with the yarn I bought for the baby blanket. I started winding the yarn over the weekend, and the one skein is SO TANGLED that it took be four hours to untangle 3/4 of it. It's still tangled.

Maybe I'm in a funk in other ways as well. I haven't done ANYTHING in the way of wedding planning. I still have no cake place. I haven't called any florists. Nothing. Maybe it's because work is really busy right now. Maybe it's because everyone keeps asking me how the wedding planning is going. And I just want to scream "LEAVE ME ALONE OR ELSE I'M NOT DOING ANY WEDDING PLANNING! ARGH!!!"

Am I the only one who's in a funk right now? How do you get rid of your funks?

Operation: Fitness Guru

(she says, while eating Doritos...)

Okay, not so much fitness guru... BUT! I took step one today, and I actually activated my YMCA membership. The card is in my purse. AND! I took the tour. That means serious business. Serious. Gzilla dosen't have his card yet, because he did not come with me to activate said Y membership, but that's okay. Because when we do go, we're going to TAKE CLASSES! GO TO THE GYM! USE THE EQUIPMENT! BE HEALTHY!

This all started about a year ago, when Gzilla discovered that he was the same weight as his other friend who is considerably taller than he, so that motivated Gzilla to figure out how to lose weight. What did he do? He asked me to count his weight watchers points for him. Um, no. Hence, Y membership.

I mentioned to the woman giving the tour that I used to dance for about 8 years. Now, I am by no means a "dancer" but I can fake it REALLY well, and I was a cheerleader for 6 years (shut up) so movement and I are actually pretty good friends. Everyone's doing the Zumba thing, right? Apparently... they're always looking for Zumba instructors! If I end up loving Zumba... and getting really good at it... I could be TEACHING a Zumba class! How cool is that?

But first I have to actually go...

It's official. I'm dumb.

You know how people talk about "pregnancy brain?" Well, I officially have "wedding brain." My brain has just completely stopped working altogether, and it won't start back up again until July 3rd.

At work, we frequently have meetings in the mornings. They're always ass-early on the weekends, and they're always annoying. Sometimes it's watch training videos on random skincare/makeup lines. Sometimes it's going over policies and whatnot, but the BIG MEETING every year involves the entire store (not just my department) and it's mandatory. I believe the exact words my manager used were "you better be dying or have a dying relative if you aren't there."

Well, I looked at the date of the meeting and went: CRAP CRAP CRAP CRAP CRAP!!! THAT'S MY PRE-CANA WEEKEND!!! As in...mandatory retreat by the Catholic church in order to get married there... I have two choices. Six three-hour classes on Sunday afternoons (which means I miss 6 weeks of work since I mostly only work on Sundays) or do it all in one weekend. The weekend of the all important meeting. I spoke with my manager, and she totally had a gasket.

Now, this is the Christmas meeting. It's important because Christmas is a very very busy time for us, and there's a lot of new blood. But this is my 4th Christmas season with the company. I know how it works. Unless there's something drastically different, I can go over the info with a manager after the fact. But she was having NONE of it. I was seriously trying to figure out how I was going to quit and find another job within the next 2 weeks.

So Saturday, I'm doing some cleaning and throwing away of papers that have accumulated underneath the coffee table, and I find my paperwork for the Pre-Cana retreat...which is the week AFTER the big all important mandatory meeting. Whoops. So I got my manager all mad at me for no reason whatsoever.

My brain needs to start functioning again soon... I can't take all this forgetfulness I'm having!! I think I need a nap.

Bella Senora and other vocal warmups

In order to appease the Evil Nun at the church Gzilla and I are getting married at... and to hopefully make this whole "getting married in the Catholic church" thing as easy as humanly possible, I agreed to cantor at Mass. For you non church goers (which to be fair, was be up until two months ago--ha!) that means I stand in front of the church at the little pulpit and lead all the songs. All of them.

This past Sunday was my first time singing in front of people in over five years. Needless to say, I was slightly terrified. Especially because I did everything to prepare. I got my music ahead of time... didn't know ANY of the songs... taught them to myself via virtualpiano.net and learned that I actually DID know three of the songs, just with different lyrics. I met with the organist a week ago to rehearse, and I borrowed a digital recorder from the radio station (that my boss said he would never forgive me if I lost or broke it, so I guarded the damn thing with my life). We didn't check the battery beforehand... and because the battery was so low, it didn't record ANYTHING. So the processional/entrance hymn that I didn't know, I couldn't rehearse. The mass parts that I wasn't terribly familiar with, I couldn't rehearse. I did all my homework! This was supposed to work!

Plus, when I went to rehearse, I warmed up my voice and everything was fine. Right as I go into church...I get some weird allergy attack and I totally lose any note that's above a C. Now I'm worried that I'm going to suck, get thrown out as a cantor, and get on the Evil Nun's bad side again. But yesterday, I woke up 2 hours before Mass. Drank more water than was probably necessary, and warmed up my voice a whole heck of a lot. And I didn't suck.

I might not be acting anymore... but at least I can still keep up with my singing at Mass. They have a choir, but they rehearse on Monday nights (I have knitting group!) and they perform on Sundays (I have work!) so I'm not joining that choir. I'm hoping that by cantoring at Mass, some of the other newly engaged couples will ask me to cantor their wedding. That'd be awesome.

This is either going to be a great idea... or an epic fail.

I'm going to this "event" tonight that a local magazine is throwing... it's a "Beauty Bash" and I can't help but picturing a bunch of nicely dressed ladies beating up other nicely dressed ladies with hair dryers, make up bags, and other beauty paraphanalia.

The website for the magazine has little to no information about what to expect (just where it is, how much tickets are, and a very short list of the goings on of tonight... no details) so I'm a bit nervous. I have little expectations, because I have no clue! I know QVC does a Beauty Bash every year, and I KNOW what they have in store (most of the time, women who go walk away with close to $1000 in gifts from the QVC retailers. I want to go so. bad. but I can never get tickets...they sell out in SECONDS.)

I'm hoping to do a bit of bridal espionage tonight... check out salons, see what they have for bridal parties and whatnot. I haven't decided if I'm going to just have everyone do whatever they want with their hair, or if I'm going to pay to have their hair done. I don't know if I'll have a budget for that, that's the problem. By then, my sister will have her cosmotology license, but she's in the wedding, and it would be a lot to ask for her to do everyone's hair. Even though she's already offered (to do either everyone's hair or everyone's makeup). We'll see.

My biggest problem right now... when I look at pictures of last year's Beauty Bash, everyone is all dressed up! Like LBDs... heels... updos... CRAZY. I don't have time for that! I also don't have anything to wear! At the moment, I'm wearing my fancy jeggings (leggings that look like jeans) and a gray tunic sweater. But the sweater is very casual looking, and I'm afraid I will look frumpy. Ack! Do I completely change and put on a dress? Do I run over to the mall and pick up a fancier tunic to go with my awesome jeggings? I'm leaning towards the latter...

Great. Now I'm going to get lost ALL the time.

Gzilla's car was broken into last night. But they didn't smash the windows. In fact, we can't figure out HOW they got into the car. The alarm on the car is very sensitive, and that didn't go off. He's pretty sure he locked the car, but it's possible that he didn't.

Last night as I'm sleeping in a Benadryl-induced coma (or trying to) Gzilla wakes me up and asks me if the GPS was in the car. It was. Then he says "well it isn't anymore." Sometime between 10pm and 11:30 someone got into his car, took our GPS, and left. Didn't take the Sirius radio. Didn't take the briefcase (which had school papers in it, so it wasn't of use to anyone, but still). Didn't take anything...except our GPS. Which, honestly, was kind of a piece of shit anyway. I'm just glad they didn't break the windows of the car, because THAT'S a pain in the butt.

Luckily, I was able to get back to sleep just fine. But this morning... when I got into MY car, I noticed that there was an X (written on the inside of the windshield with a finger) on the drivers side. I noticed it yesterday... but didn't think anything of it. Didn't think "Gee, I didn't draw an X on my windshield... how did that get there?" That is... until after someone was in Gzilla's car. My car doesn't have anything of value in it. There's an X on my windshield because there isn't a GPS in it. But I always lock my car door! How the crap are these people getting into my car without breaking a window or triggering the alarm?

How To Survive Wedding Dress Shopping

I picked out my wedding dress, y'all. I went shopping with my entourage. My sister was there through blackberry pictures that my mother was sending her. And, she hates the dress I picked out. That's how I know it's the right one. HA!

Things I wish I had figured out before I left:

1. Eat something. I ended up having a meeting at work before meeting everyone, and then I was running around trying to get changed, so I forgot to eat. Whoops. Luckily, my MOH had a granola bar in her purse, so I had that.

2. If someone is going to be taking pictures of you, put on some makeup for christsake. I look washed out in all the pictures my mom took. I had mascara on, but that was it.

3. Have a specific idea, but be open. I actually did have this figured out. I knew what I wanted: non-strapless, mermaid dress. Not a ton of crazy beading. What did I get? Strapless, mermaid dress...crapton of beading. And the dress I picked was by "Private Collection" so they don't have pictures of their dresses on websites or in magazines.

4. Know your sign when it's "the one." For some, it's when they cry. For me, it was when my MOH cried. And when I said "Ooh, get a picture of this one for becklette."

5. It's okay to say no. I tried on a couple of dresses that the person at the store pulled for me. Some of them I liked, some I tried on because she wanted me to, and I felt bad saying I didn't like it. Also the one woman (not my person) kept trying to pressure me to put something in my hair. I don't like veils. I don't want a headpiece that is $141 when I can make that from Claire's for $20.

And while I'm confident that I found "the dress" and it's amazing and gorgeous and I love it... it was more than I planned on spending. Not by a lot! And it's still under $1000, so I think that's totally a win! But there was a dress that I tried on that was the silouette I wanted (mermaid) but was the sample gown, so it was $99. It's a discontinued style. Alfred Angelo. Gorgeous. And it fit pretty well! And that was the #1 dress, until I tried the one on that was ten times that price and fell in love with it. Stupid, me. I should have stopped after the $99 one! I am incredibly happy with the dress I have. And no, I'm not posting a picture... you'll have to wait until next year. Okay...one picture. This is some of the detail on the front of the dress.

Just a minor setback....

I no longer have a wedding dress.

I'm kind of a little upset about it, but it's going to be okay. My friend Heather is an amazing fashion designer, and she asked to see the pattern I picked out for my wedding dress. Naturally, I wanted her opinion because I trust it a lot. Immediately she says "Oh... this is cut on the bias..."

Basically, fabric has grain. For most garments, the grain goes up and down or side to side. On bias cut fabric, the pieces are cut out so that the grain line is diagonal. What this does is it makes the fabric less stretchy. More form fitting. Less forgiving. Altering a dress that is cut on the bias drastically changes the shape of the dress. You make one half in tuck on two seams... and all of the sudden the top is buckling, the side has a weird bulge, and you want to shoot the dress with a bazooka. Gzilla's mother and I played this game with a ball gown that I needed for a fundraiser last year. It didn't go well. I looked fat. Really. I looked about 30 pounds heavier than I am. And unless I stood PERFECTLY STRAIGHT, the dress would fall down.

So now I have to go dress shopping. I made my appointment at a local bridal salon, and now I'm waiting for the terror to set in. I thought this was going to be so easy... I found a dress pattern I liked. I was just supposed to go fabric shopping and be done! Now I have to try on a bajillion dresses in front of the half dozen people I have to bring with me because I can't make a decision for myself, and I need to find the dress that makes me cry when I put it on (cry in a good way, not in a bad way). So I'm forcing my mother, Gzilla's mother, my maid of honor, one of my other bridesmaids, my flower girl, and becklette to accompany me in my quest for the perfect dress.

Kill me.

yarn dyeing: an experiment

Short story: my hands are pink.

Long story: I decided to overdye some yarn that I bought. I got this really beautiful peach yarn from The Loopy Ewe for a baby blanket. Well, I'm no longer making the baby blanket, but I wanted to make something for my sister with it, but no one wants a peach garment. So instead of returning it and getting other yarn with it, I decide that I'm going to overdye it RED.

I go over to my friend's house and start playing around with acid based dyes. You basically fill the biggest pot known to man with water, heat the water up. Put the yarn in and make sure it's soaking in there. Mix some of the powder dye and pour it in the pot. Stir things around. Mix together some citric acid. Dump citric in the big pot. Stir things around. Repeat last 4 steps until its the color you want.

Sounds easy, right? Well, it mostly is. Except I had A LOT of yarn in there. And the spoon we were using to stir the pot kept getting tangled in my yarn, so I started just using my hand. My left hand. Well, guess what. Now my hand is pink... AND SO IS MY ENGAGEMENT RING. Don't tell Gzilla...

I'm pretty sure that if I just cleaned the ring really well, it wouldn't be pink anymore. I can't imagine that the diamond itself has been dyed, just some soap scum or dirt or something on the surface of the diamond has been dyed pink.

I don't know how the yarn turned out yet. It hasn't finished drying. It should be dry tonight. Right now it's hanging out on the clothes line in my basement. It's not completely solid, which is what I wanted. Some parts are a bit more saturated than others, and I really like that look. So hopefully my sister will like a red cardigan... because that's what she's getting!

My little town blues are melting away

Other than that week in Ireland... I've had zero vacation this year. No beach. No mental health days. Mostly because the volcano that took me hostage ate up the rest of my vacation. But I can take a few days here and there.

I spent my weekend in New York City visiting friends and galavanting about town. I got to see a baseball park before Gzilla, which I think is a big achievement. Now I've only seen two ballparks other than home-of-the-Philles... Nationals Park in Washington D.C. and Citi Field in New York, home of the Mets.

It was really nice to get away and be in the city... but dear god my legs still hurt. I wasted all my good subway luck on Friday. Every time I walked to a subway station, the train was just approaching. Every. Time. I took it for granted. On Saturday, my friend and I went downtown by Canal Street to try to find a yarn store that we love, Purl Soho. After getting turned around (because there are two different Broadways in that part of town...) and then walking around for another 20 minutes trying to find someplace to eat, we decide to nyx going to this other store we like Pylones which we THOUGHT was in that part of town but was ACTUALLY in Greenwich Village, aka nowhere near where we were or where we needed to be later. We need to get to the 6 train to go back to the apartment we stayed in, so we walk about 10 blocks up to Bleecker St. The station is blocked for contruction. So we walk another 6 blocks to the next station. Also under construction. Well, we needed to go to Union Square (which guess what, is where the next station was) to get back to the apartment, so we had to walk another 15 blocks to the apartment. It ended up being around 28 blocks when it was all said and done. We went from Soho to Gramercy. Took about an hour walking.

But, see... this was GOOD because we were pre-emptively working off the delicious delicious food we were having for dinner! We went to this FABULOUS restaurant called Butter. And it's as delicious as the name of the restaurant suggests. I wish I had taken pictures of my food, but it was really dark, and I felt weird, so I didn't. I had lamb chops, my friend had lobster, and we split an order of DUCK CONFIT POTATOES. POTATOES COOKED IN DUCK FAT. Holy. Crap. It was the best meal I've ever had... and I had dinner at Jen Carroll's restaurant in Philly, so... that's saying a lot.

Oh, and if you're keeping up with "what's wrong with your face..." I got my biopsy results back. Negative. Not cancer. Not pre-cancerous. Just a pimple. Seriously. I had a freaking PIMPLE biopsied.

hope is a thing with feathers

Okay, so I don't dole out hope in feathers. Maybe yarn.

In the midst of all my knitting projects (Gzilla's 2009 Christmas sweater... still about 60% done... my "Ireland Cardigan" isn't finished... and I'm making a comfort shawl for my sister out of the yarn I purchased for her baby blanket. I'm dying it first, since I don't think she wants a PEACH shawl) I am taking on another one that needs to be finished SOON.

I'm making another Ysolda project...her Snapdragon Tam. I purchased her two books (Whimsical Little Knits and Whimsical Little Knits 2) back in February for a Haiti fundraiser that ravelry had. I've always loved pretty much everything that Ysolda does (and she's a total sweetie! I met her at my LYS a few years back). So when I found out that my high school drama director has breast cancer, I knew I was going to make her a hat. And I knew it would be a Ysolda pattern.

My drama director, aka "The V-ster" was a very influential person in my life. She's the reason I went on to study acting in college. I spent many a holiday and summer at her house. I'm very close with her daughter. When she called me to tell me that her mom had breast cancer, I think she expected me to have a mini breakdown (like I did the previous year when she called to tell me that her dog had cancer. Her dog was my Toto in high school, and she was the sweetest little girl in the world) but I didn't. I was very "Okay, well, your mom is a fighter, and we'll get through this. Call me when she has her surgery, and I'll come spend time with you. It's going to be fine."

And so far it has been fine. Except that I FORGOT to make the hat!! She started chemo in July, so she probably hasn't really started losing her hair yet... but I wanted her to have it beforehand. So now I'm RACING to get this hat finished and sent to The V-ster before she starts losing her hair. I was thinking about making one for my friend, also... because once her mom starts losing her hair, she's shaving her head. I like my hair too much (and Gzilla would kill me...haha) so instead I'm showing my support by making hats.

Anything I can do to inspire hope.

I'm just resting my eyes.

I think I'm getting to that point when I wear myself out and then get REALLY sick. No sneezing or coughing (that isn't allergy related) yet, but I think it's coming.

Saturday night, Gzilla and I drove about 2 hours to see a bunch of friends in The Crucible. I kind of hate The Crucible, but they did a great job. But because we went out afterwards, we got home around 4:30 am. And we had to wake up at 8:00 to go to church. Because we have to pretend to like church now... because WE GOT THE CHURCH! The one with the evil nun, even! She has backed off a bit. And now she likes me because I may or may not have signed up to be a cantor...

Sunday afternoon, I had a family party... and experienced my first people-butting-into-my-plans. My uncle's partner expressed his "concerns" about us having the wedding on July 4th weekend. Well, it's a year in advance. And I'm not planning my wedding about my aunt's vacation schedules. I don't know that they go away every July 4th weekend. And at this point, we're locked into that date from the Church and the reception site, so tough cookies! And I like having it July 4th weekend. I get free fireworks!

That wasn't pleasant. But I tried not to let it ruin my time with my family. Everything else was going great. Until I had to go to work. I worked overnight from 6 until midnight... because we had to move entire sections around. Um. We were nowhere near done at midnight. We probably could have stayed until 5am and continued working. But of course I still had to work this morning! And my back hurt so badly last night that I had to take the big guns. I could barely sit. So two days of no sleep, plus walking around like a zombie today.. means that by the end of the week, I'm going to have a MONSTER cold. Awesome.

Any tips to ward off my inpending monster? Besides sleep... because we all know that isn't happening.

Because I need aide in enabling my reading habit

I like to consider myself an avid reader. Sure, I read a lot of fluff books and chick-lit. Yes, I love Charlaine Harris's Southern Vampire Mysteries and her Harper Connolly Series. I don't read enough "classic" literature, but that's okay!

For my birthday... Gzilla was awesome and got me a nook



I decided to go with the nook rather than the kindle for a few reasons. One, if something happens, if there's a problem, if I'm confused... i can take it into a store and say "fix it." Every day, I can go into any B&N store and read any book I want for an hour. There's expandable memory for the nook (granted, downloading 1500 books is going to take a while, but still). I like the interface of the nook better.

I do highly recommend getting a cover for the nook or the kindle. It makes it feel more like a book. I got this one because it says "I am Oz, the great and terrible" on the front and "curiouser and curiouser" on the back. What can I say, I'm a sucker for The Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland.

Now I just have one small problem. Before, when I was finished a book... I had to make a trip to the book store. Now when I'm finished a book? I push the "shop" button and download a new one, and I have it in 60 seconds! Great, right? I think Gzilla created a monster...

Quick update on my face: the spot that they scraped (which is dangerously close to my eye, by the way) ITCHES LIKE THE DICKENS! But I think it's looking better. I should know what's going on in about 2 weeks.

...I look like Quasimodo.

I had this little pimple-like growth on the skin just under my eye. I thought it was a pimple, so I (very carefully) put pimple stuff on it. Nothing. Then I put some neosporin on it. Nothing. I had estheticians look at it... they had no idea. So then I called a dermatologist.

My dermatologist is not bad to look at (which is nice) but it took me almost a month to see him. By the time my first appointment came around (2 weeks ago) the hard, tender bump had shrunk considerably and was no longer tender (but still hard). He gave me this gel stuff to put on it... a steroid cream for eczema and flakiness... but if this was something inflammatory and not a growth, it would have gotten rid of it. I put it on twice a day (and developed a little stutter, but he says it wasn't caused by that. I disagree) and there was no change.

Today, Hot Doctor in the Phillies scrubs gave me two choices. He could freeze it and hope that it goes away and keep an eye on it forever. Or he can biopsy it. If he freezes it, and it doesn't go away, then he has to biopsy it anyway. I picked biopsy because I hate not knowing things. So now I look like Quasimodo.

My eye is all swollen. I can see out of it okay, but it feels very strange to blink. It's almost like I have a black eye without the broken blood vessels under the skin. Now he thinks it's one of two things: either an infected hair follicle or the C word. I hate the C word. I don't like thinking about it, and whenever the C word comes up around me (twice my gen prac thought I had breast cancer. Both times that I had to have a mammogram and an ultra sound, the technician laughed at my doctor's silliness.) it's the only thing I can think about. What happens if it is the C word. It's totally going to screw up my wedding pictures (I know. It's dumb to think that way, but would YOU want to be bald in your wedding photos? No. You wouldn't).

Right now I'm just focusing on the fact that I look like I lost a bar fight and go on with my day not thinking about the C word. But just in case, can you send good thoughts that it's NOT the C word anyway?

Happy Accidents

Anyone who has known me for a while can tell you that I'm arguably the pickiest eater ever. I used to never try new foods... I'd eat the same 4 or 5 things for dinner every night (especially in college when I was responsible for my own cooking). Absolutely no seafood. And then I told my mother that I loved calamari and I think she just about peed her pants.

I'm still wary of trying new things, but I'll try it. I tried the Ethiopian food, didn't I!?? Last night, my mom and sister and I went out for my birthday (it's next week) and we were trying to decide between two restaurants: Rock Bottom Brewery and Bahama Breeze. Ultimately we decided on Bahama Breeze because it looked more fun. Except there was a 45 minute wait. It was already 6:45. I was hungry. I wasn't waiting 45 minutes so that I can wait another 20 minutes for my meal. Rock Bottom Brewery won by default.

AND THANK GOD. Because seriously? This might be my new favorite restaurant. There's a local chain around here called Iron Hill Brewery. They make pretty good beer and pretty shitty food. Rock Bottom Brewery is Iron Hill with good food and better beer. I tried their seasonal wheat, and it was really nice. Didn't order it because it would have been a lot, but it was nice.

One night out in Chicago, Gzilla went to this place out there (I knew it sounded familiar when I was looking at the restaurants yesterday...) and called me immediately to tell me how great it was. When I told him that I was going there for dinner, I swear it was like I just told him that I won the Powerball. Wait... There's one at home? WHERE?

So what about you, any happy accidents lately?

That's okay, I don't need to actually see my food. Or hear.

Gzilla is away on vacation without me. Which is, I suppose, fair since I went to Ireland without him. And I'd take Ireland over a baseball vacation (but not by much). Gzilla watched the Phils beat the Cubs on Saturday (the one time they beat them...) and today he's seeing the Phillies take on the St. Louis Cardinals. And crap! I just realized I forgot to tape the game AGAIN. (just in case he's on the tv. You know. Because of his Phillies jersey.)

Because he's away (and because I got a surprise day off on Sunday!), I got to do some galavanting around town that I normally would do. There's this really nice restaurant up in one of the local snooty towns that does a pajama brunch. If you come in your pajamas, they'll give you half price on your brunch. It's a good time, actually. I've only been able to go three times (including yesterday) since I work every Sunday. I was really excited because they have this AMAZING coconut banana french toast with walnuts. And really good coffee. And mimosas. And apparently good bloody marys if you like that sort of thing (I don't).

After driving around the freakishly small parking lot (there are MAYBE 30 spaces. maybe.) for a good 20 minutes, we decide to park across the street. Sit down fairly quickly for this place. Normally it's a 30 minute wait for brunch. Put our order in with our spritely waitress. Five minutes after receiving our coffee, orange juice, water, and bloody mary (obviously not mine..) the power goes out. There was no pop, no noise, no indication as to why the power went out... just blackness. I mean it was daytime so there was sun coming through the windows, but it was still pretty dark.

Then the fire alarm started going off. For a good 15 minutes. Every five minutes... IT GOT LOUDER.

Apparently this has been happening all summer. Once it happened during dinner service (aka no sunlight. Blackness. Pitch black. It's like eating at one of those restaurants where it's all about the senses, except you're mad). The fire company shows up. Fire alarm goes off. Our poor waitress came over and told us that she had no idea if we were getting our food or not. Then she comes back 5 minutse later (while the fire alarm is still blaring) that they ARE making our breakfast because it was being cooked BEFORE the power went off.

I know. Why didn't we leave. The food is REALLY good. And I had been looking forward to some coconut banana french toast with walnuts for THREE DAYS. I was getting my damn french toast. I didn't care if I was sitting there all day. Luckily I only had to wait until just after the fire alarm went off.

One good thing happened on Sunday though. I went to this cute little clothing boutique in one of the snooty towns, expecting to see freakishly high price tags. I picked out this really cute black jersey dress with lace cap sleeves for $34 (I know, right!?). When they rang it up... $9. Win.

Man I feel gullible right now.

I'm that person that sales people drool over. I'm that person that you say "Oh this product does x, y, z... I've had great feedback, etc" and it's in my bag. Normally, I get good results from it, too, and I'm happy.

I just got back from the mall. I went to GNC because they have a new line of vitamins out called wellbeing, and they're getting good reviews. A bunch of people had recommended their new hair-skin-nails vitamin called bebeautiful, and so I decided to get it. I decided to pick up another multi because the one I have is almost gone. Plus it's really hard to swallow.

One thing I will say about the new vitamin, it's easy to take. That's a big thing for me. It's coated so it's easy to swallow, and it also tastes good. Kind of like coated Advil.

But here's why I feel gullible: GNC guy talked me OUT of buying the store's brand of hair health vitamin and into buying this other one called Shen Min. He said he used to work for VitaminWorld, and he sold a crapton of this stuff there. Said it was the best on the market. I went online after I got back, and on GNC's website, it's the worst-reviewed hair-health vitamin. On other sites that are non-affliated with a store, it gets good reviews. I almost feel like this guy talked me into buying this one because it's twice as much as the GNC brand.

What do you think? Is gullible written on the ceiling? Or did this guy give this vitamin to me because it's actually awesome?

Bridal Espionage

Now every wedding I attend, I feel like I'm doing research. So when my cousin asked me if I would be her date to a wedding that her husband couldn't attend last minute because of his new job, I jumped at the chance!

I really wish I had taken pictures. I really really do. Because this wedding was an EXPERIENCE. It was outside of Washington DC, and about a 2 hr drive or so from my cousin's house. And the drive would have been magnificent had it not been for her amazing, adorable, wonderful little boy who is in the worst mood of the century. He's teething, so if you look at him wrong: TEMPER TANTRUM!!! Oddly enough, he was only a little monster in the car. In the church he was great and he slept through most of the reception.

The ceremony was beautiful. Quiet little church at a preparatory school. The bridesmaids all wore purple, but all different dresses. And not the same pruple, either. I think the bride said "just buy a purple dress... I dont care what color or what it looks like." And that had been my attitude earlier, but now I'm happy that I decided to have everyone in whatever pattern of the 5 they choose, but the same color.

We get to the reception, and the escort cards were on lollipops! The big multcolored flat ones? Very cute idea. Don't know if I'll steal it, but very cute idea. And the bride and groom had a guest book made that had pictures on it. All of her aunts, uncles, and cousins had their own page with pictures from THEIR weddings. That's really cute for a small family, but I have 28 aunts and uncles... and 4 cousins who are married. That's 32 pages of guest book for JUST my family. No thank you!

When we get to our table... there was a menu sitting at our seat. And the menu was not in English. The groom is Ethiopian. So we had Ethiopian traditional food for dinner. Basically we had this special flat bread called injera that kind of looked like a sponge. You roll out the injera on your plate, and fill your plate with various foods. There were 2 kinds of chicken, 2 kinds of beef, and lamb... plus 2 vegetable dishes. And this crushed wheat with butter. All traditional Ethiopian foods. The beef and lamb kind of looked like hamburger helper. And the way you eat the food is you tear off little pieces of the injera and pick up bites of the other dishes, and you eat with your hands. It was really tasty...except that it tasted like everything had been marinating in jalapenos and habeneros and any other kind of OMG MOUTH ON FIRE spices. My throat felt like it was on fire. Even the wheat with butter (which I thought was going to be totally safe) was HOLY CRAP FIRE. And my vodka made it burn more... and the water didn't help. So I was totally screwed. Luckily, there was also lasagna! So I had mostly lasagna.

When it was time to start dancing, there was this tribal-sounding music, and these two people in costume came in and did a dance for the couple. Actually they did about 10 dances, and each dance had its own costume. Some of the grooms family knew some of the dances, so they were all joining in. It was very cool! I don't think I'm going to steal it for my wedding, but it was very cool!

In which things don't go as planned...

Daddy Dearest and I met with the venue that I want for the reception this week. It's at a hotel that he used to work at YEARS ago (before my brother, who is now 22, was born), and there are still a few people who work there now that worked with my dad back then. Luckily for me, my dad is a bit of a charmer. We got A DEAL on the venue. It doesn't hurt that my dad knows catering and food prices better than anyone I know, so when he makes a counter offer, he knows its fair. They have to check the number with the big boss (who worked with my dad...) and she gets back from vacation on Tuesday. If we get what we want, then I'll be able to invite everyone from list #2 (the 180 list) and still have $87.

Originally, we wanted to get married on Sunday because a lot of reception venues will charge less for Fridays and Sundays. But the hotel gave us the price we wanted for that Saturday... so I called the church Monday morning. The church that we want (Gzilla's grandfather's church) was being a bit of a jerk about us getting married on Sunday. Now, I know that Sunday is the "day of rest" for Catholics. But we wouldn't have even considered a church wedding on a Sunday had a PASTOR of another parish not SUGGESTED IT! Because his church does Sunday weddings all the time! In fact, every parish in the diocese does Sunday weddings. Gzilla's aunt was married on a Sunday 42 years ago. But apparently not at this church.

I didn't tell the nun that we booked the hotel. I didn't! I know how to play the Catholics. I know the Catholic answers. I went to Catholic school from kindergarten to college. I have an aunt who is not only a nun but was a Mother Superior! And they asked her to be Mother General (that's head-honcho nun)! So I know how to play the Catholic Game. Apparently this crazy nun doesn't like to play this game. She's waiting for masses to be said in Latin again.

I call and she's on the defensive when I ask to speak with her. I say that I know that she and the church was hesitant about a wedding on a Sunday because... and she cuts me off and yells BECAUSE IT'S INAPPROPRIATE! Okay, easy there sister. Then she goes on to tell me that we really need to speak with the priest because it's ultimately his decision if we're "allowed" to get married in the church (even though she told FMIL that everything needs to go through her...). She also told FMIL that they need at least a year to book the date, but she told me that the schedule for 2011 wasn't finished yet. Um. It's July. If you need things at least a year in advance, what happens when people want to get married in February? Or anytime before right now?

My initial reaction was: The Catholics don't want me... screw 'em! We let it sit for a few days, and decided to try another church, which is really a shame because Gzilal really wanted this church. So if this crazy nun calls back next week, I'm going to tell her that she made me feel very unwelcome, and I'm not comfortable getting married somewhere that I'm not welcome. So I've decided to take my ceremony and my church membership elsewhere. I just hope that Gzilla's grandmother doesn't hate me now because I was mean to the nun, which I wasn't... but I'm sure this bitch will spin it differently.

I hate having to jump through hoops.

The Best Voicemail Ever.

I just received a voice mail that was ALMOST the best voicemail ever. It's one of those voicemails where you listen to it... and you think "can this person REALLY speak like this to real people?" I haven't called him back yet, so I don't know if he really speaks like this to real people. And I'm hoping it reads as funny as it sounded.

Hello. My name is XX. I am an elderly person. I need a job. I need the number for ABC Company. I do not have a computer. I need a phone number. Goodbye.

It always amazes me that people think that because I work for a local radio station that I know every business and that I have all the time in the world to look up phone numbers for other businesses for you. That's what information is for. I'm not information. I write commercials. Now, I did happen to know what business he was talking about. And in the hour and a half it took me to get out of the meeting I was in, this gentleman called back FOUR TIMES. He kept harassing our receptionist!!! I swear to Pete, people make me crazy.

But that's not the best voicemail ever. The best voicemail ever was received by the box office at my college theatre back when I was a freshman or a sophomore.

Hello. This is XX. I need to speak with a real person. I keep calling and no one is there. I need to get my tickets. If a tree falls in the middle of the forest, and no one is there to hear it, how do I know if I get my tickets? Can I talk to a real person? I need to speak with a real person now. Hello?

Ah, the good ol' days

I think the reason I love the 4th of July (besides the fact that I loved hot dogs that are so cooked and burnt that they're shriveled and black.. and I love the smell of barbeque) is because when I was younger, we would throw one hell of a July 4th Party. My best friend lived caddy-corner behind me, and our other friend lived caddy-corner on the other side. The neighbors behind us were the good crazy neighbors, not the bad crazy neighbors who were so crazy that all their dogs tried to commit suicide, and we were close with both of our next door neighbors. So the collective of the six families would host the neighborhood block party.

Except we'd only invite the neighbors that we liked. We had some unsavory neighbors. There was the drunk woman who totalled my neighbors parked car, the crazy woman whose daughter was a juvenile delinquent, all her other juvenile delinquent friends (and I did hang out with those people for a while...), and the woman whom I was convinced was a witch.

One particular year, I think I was about 9 or 10. My best friend's parents were still married (whether they were speaking was another story) and her dad decided that he was taking over the fireworks show, except that he was so drunk he couldn't stand up... so he was lighting the fireworks between his legs. He's really lucky he didn't blow off any of his bits. Later in the evening, around midnight or so? After I went upstairs to bed, but I definitely wasn't asleep, and I definitely watched this whole thing unfold out of my parent's bedroom window... my dad, the ringleader of the drunken idiocy in this particular case, came up with the BRILLIANT idea to have a race. He and his knucklehead followers all got out their lawn tractors and plotted out the course across the backyards. But our one neighbor didn't have a tractor... he only had a gas push mower. So about 5 wasted dudes on lawnmowers are racing across the backyards of a suburban relatively quiet neighborhood with one dude sprinting behind them. It was priceless. Then the cops came.

Luckily no one was arrested, but it's antics like that that make me love July 4th. However, this was also the year that I accidentally ate a sparkler. I had a granola bar in one hand, and an unlit sparkler in the other. I bit down on the wrong thing.

Freedom!!!

I love the 4th of July. I think fireworks are absolutely beautiful...and I never really get to see them otherwise, unless I go to a baseball game fireworks night. And even then, we always leave during the fireworks show because we can sneak out and get right back on the highway to go home. It's wonderful. So I always turn around and watch the fireworks as I'm driving away.

Today, Gzilla and I are going to a barbeque with our poker buddies. We can never make the Memorial Day or the Labor Day picnic because they always have them on Sundays... and I'm working every Sunday! Luckily, they're doing the Independence Day BBQ Extraordinaire on Saturday. My July 4th (well, July 3rd really) plans involve good wine, hot dogs, other barbeque awesomeness, and most likely poker.

I don't know what I'd do without these poker friends of mine. They're insane... loving... and completely unpredictable. And they're the main reason why my guest list a year from now (holy crap, officially 365 days until The Big Party) is at just about 200. We have about 18 people (other than Gzilla and myself) in our poker group...and only a few couples. They take up about 30 people on my list. And not one of them is getting cut. I refuse. I'm sure we'd have fun regardless, but something would be missing.

Any weekend plans or July 4th traditions?

The Big List of Things To Do

I feel like I'm getting overwhelmed again, with work and just everything going on. There are a lot of things that I'd like to do for myself. A lot of times that means knitting something that's just for me, or getting a pedicure, etc. But right now I'm thinking of other things.

I want to start exercising again (I know. I keep saying that.) I think it's time to give my friend Jillian Michaels another try. She kicked my ass in January, and hopefully I can stick with it this time. February kind of exploded in my face, and there was no way I could do anything besides wake up, work, go home, sleep. Eating took up too much time... haha. Maybe I won't do the 30 Day Shred 5 days a week like JM suggests. Maybe just 3 days a week. Maybe. There's also this yoga place that does classes that are just $12, so maybe once a week I'll do a yoga class. I don't know.

I started taking vitamins in hopes that my hair will grow faster. I want to whiten my teeth (yikes) but don't want to spend oodles of money at the dentist doing it. I could either do the Crest strips... or there's this system called GOSmile? Has anyone tried that? It's pricey, which is what's keeping me from buying it. Either $89 or $120 depending on which box you buy (and you have to do the actual whitening part twice a year, so $89X2 really) which is a lot of money! That's a pair of shoes! A pair of really nice shoes!

I did decide that I'm NOT doing Christmas knitting this year. No way, no how. I still haven't finished the super-secret sweater I was making for Gzilla LAST Christmas! And I need to finish my vine yoke cardigan and make my sister a blanket. Someone make a comment (a serious one, too... I mistakenly thought it was a joke) that I should knit favors for the wedding next year. DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW LONG THAT WOULD TAKE ME! No way! I'm NOT knitting 200 of ANYTHING. But I still feel like the ceiling is going to fall down on me at any second. So far no nervous breakdowns, but I'd definitely due for one.

What do you do to prevent meltdowns? My go-to is Ben & Jerry's, but if I'm trying to be all healthy and exercise, doesn't my go to "AH MY LIFE IS DRIVING ME CRAZY" fix-it not make any sense?

Need to De-Stress

The past four days have been really hard from me. Entirely unrelated to wedding planning. I don't want to get into a ton of details, but my mom has details posted on her blog if you're curious (yup. my mom blogs. and she has way more followers than I do. hurts the ego a bit. haha)

Thursday night I had maybe two hours of sleep, and then had to work all day, which wasn't smart. Unfortunately for my well being, there was no way I could have stayed home. There were too many things that I needed to do, plus the fact that I was also filling in for my boss on Friday because he needed to be home with his daughter. Everything that happened Thursday night kind of hit me on Friday, and I was a hot mess. I was sobbing. I was unnecessarily yelling at people. There was a moment where I wasn't sure how I was going to get home because I was so upset, I didn't know how I could possibly drive a car.

Saturday was a bit better because we went to the Phillies game and tailgated beforehand. I got to show off my ring, but it felt empty because all I wanted to do was go home and be with my sister. It's funny, because five years ago...even LAST year, my sister and I weren't that close. I've always loved her because she's my sister, but now I know how much I love her.

Normally when I'm stressed out and upset, I go get myself a pedicure and a pint of ice cream, put on some terrible rom-com, and forget why I'm so upset. I don't think I can do that now. I don't know how to fix this... and I always know how to fix things. I was going to make my sister a blanket, and I'm still making it for her.

How do you deal with the big stuff?

It starts.

I'm going to try my damndest to keep this from becoming a wedding blog, but I do suspect that when things get going, that is going to be the main stressor in my life and since I can't yell at actual people, I'll yell about them through my blog. But I will try VERY HARD not to do it all the time.

As things are just getting started, I'm already dizzy from numbers. I've called I think 10 different venues (not to mention the ones Daddy Dearest keeps sending me... all in Pennsylvania). So far we've made a few decisions. I've picked a dress. I've picked bridesmaids dresses but not in that color--in purple. And any of those dresses they want. FMIL is making them all (she offered. And I picked simple, I hope, dresses). And we've decided that we want to get married on a Sunday in the summer of 2011, tentatively July 3.

We have what we call The Cadillac. The Cadillac is never going to happen. But it's nice to dream. The Cadillac would be at Citizens Bank Park (that's where the Phillies play) in the Diamond Room which is behind home plate. If we had The Cadillac, the girls would wear powder blue dresses with maroon sashes and the boys would wear maroon ties (those were Phillies colors from the early 80s, and Gzilla's favorite Phillies uniform). The Cadillac is going to be balls expensive, especially since everything is a la carte and there are no "per person" package deals. And we have 112 family members between the two of us. And our poker friends. And Gzilla's college friends that we're very close with. I have like 5 friends that aren't included in poker friends. So we're talking MINIMUM 180 people. I can easily go to 250. With my eyes closed.

I've already had one potential Bridezilla moment... I called a local country club who happens to be a client of my place of business. I did not play that card. I called, requested to speak with who deals with events, and asked her nicely to email me prices/packages, etc... and I got "Well. Our packages start at $105 per person." Okay. Yes, that's out of my price range, but that isn't what I asked you. I asked you to email me information. And if you want my business, MAYBE you shouldn't be a bitch to brides. Maybe. Just a thought. And then I got a request from work to write a commercial about how great this place is to hold your wedding reception. I got a good laugh out of that.

Make it grow...

I'm sure I've complained about the horrible haircut I had 2 years ago when the "curly hair specialist" at some froofy salon RUINED my hair by doing a razor cut. Word of advice: Unless you have POKER STRAIGHT fine hair... don't ever let anyone razor cut your hair. Especially if you have a lot of curly hair. It grows in frizzy and horribly layered and takes a bajillion years to grow out.

It's been almost exactly 2 years since that haircut, and my hair is STILL not right. I've had a number of cuts since then (including one where I had a reverse bob.. short in the back, longer in the front... with long hair underneath that. Try to picture that shape. Horrible.) and I'm still not happy with my hair.

Recently, I started seeing my friend Nikki who is awesome. I love the way she cuts my hair... I love the color she uses (Goldwell. It's glossier than Redken I think) and she finally gave me a normal shape that can grow in better. Except my hair isn't really growing. I'm way past my usual 8-10 week cut (I know it's supposed to be 6 weeks. I always go longer because I'm trying to grow it. This is a vast improvement from the 2 haircuts I would get a year). My roots are horrible (they're white. Srsly) but I don't want to get it colored and NOT get it cut, but I don't want to get it cut yet.

Nikki suggested that I start taking a multi-vitamin (which I should anyway since I can't eat fruit... I would get some of the vitamins that I would normally have) as well as Biotin which says that it "promotes healthy skin and hair." Granted I've only been doing this for a week, but I haven't really seen a difference. And the funny thing is, the bottom of my hair always grows just fine... it's the TOP of my hair that's the problem. That's where the shortest layers are, and they look horrible!

And now that I have this whole big party to ACTUALLY plan instead of play-pretend plan... I don't want funky ass hair for my wedding pictures!!! So please--give me all your wives tales. How am I supposed to get my hair to grow?

The Reverse Surprise

I was really nervous about the surprise party. Gzilla kind of knew about it (knew when it was, not where it was or who was coming) but I was still very nervous. My sister came up the night before to help me (AND ALSO TO TELL ME THAT I'M GOING TO BE AN AUNT!!!!) but instead of setting up the hall the night before like i had planned, we instead stayed up late, ate junk, and watched Enchanted. Like you do.

The party seemed to be a big hit! Everyone ate a lot of the food, I picked good beer, and my friend Alli made what is quite possibly the BEST cake ever. It has dogs playing poker on it!!! She's amazing.



Shortly after we cut the cake, my mom, Daddy Dearest, and nuWife show up. Little weird seeing the three of them together, but my mom said that they decided to crash the party (didn't set off any alarms that my parents don't KNOW where the town we were in was... nor did I give them the address or anything) Then Gzilla starts giving a birthday toast, and people start shoving me to the front of the room. Someone hands me a glass of wine. My sister demands my camera and then points to a chair and tells me to sit in it.

And then Gzilla says that today is the day that we're going to get engaged and I start crying. A lot. He got down on one knee, gave me a ring, and everyone was cheering. He cried, too. Don't let anyone tell you differently.



My poker friends got us champagne flutes (Kate Spade! And they say "Mr" on one and "Mrs" on the other! So cute!!!) and a bottle of my favorite champagne (Veuve Cliquot in case you're wondering)

Things that should have tipped me off:
1. His friend gave him a bottle of champagne for his birthday.
2. Everytime I went into the kitchen, 2 of my poker friends came with me (to prevent me from seeing the champagne in the fridge)
3. My parents
4. My sister getting my camera and demanding to sit



But, no. I'm dumb. I had absolutely no idea. Apparently he got the ring while I was in Ireland. Went to the jewelry store (a real one... NOT one in a mall) and picked out the diamond himself. I'm a little really excited, not gonna lie. And no, I haven't even THOUGHT of a date yet.

Party Preparations

Okay, we're getting down to go-time for the big surprise extravaganza this Saturday. I have harassed most of the people who haven't RSVPed. I think about 30 people are coming, which is good. Too many to fit in my house, enough to justify renting a hall. Gzilla's mom is taking care of the food for me because she's amazing. My sister is helping me decorate and stuff because she's amazing.

Here's what I have left to do:
* Buy decorations
* Set up tables/chairs at the hall
* Decorate
* Update my iPod (well we need to have music! Updating my iPod means taking off the Glee and the musicals and putting on stuff like Better Than Ezra, Billy Joel, Nirvana, and a plethora of Scottish & UK bands that Gene is gaga about)
* Buy beverages (soda, beer, iced tea vodka, lemonade)
* Put my face on
* Par-Tay!

Am I missing anything? I'm not missing anything, right? This party is going to be grand, right? I feel like I'm forgetting something. I forgot to tell my boss (who is close with Gene) but I did that. He's busy and can't get a baby sitter for the cutest little girl EVAR. All our poker friends are coming. We have poker chips. I still need to get fresh decks. We're having a chocolate cake (my friend Alli is making it. She's the shit) because Gene loves chocolate cake and because our poker friend who passed away in November 2008 always brought chocolate cake. That's why we called him The Chocolate Cake Man.

We're having a lot of dinner food. And cake. Do you think I should get other snack-y food? Like chips and salsa, cheese, fruit, anything like that? Because I'll get some of that, too. Goddamn parties are expensive. He better appreciate this.

Officially Gleeked Out

I don't know WHY I didn't watch Glee when it was first out. Seriously, this show was made so that I could be a huge obnoxious fan of it. I think I didn't watch it because I was pissed at FOX for cancelling Dollhouse, and DON'T THINK I'VE FORGOTTEN! I haven't!!! But I'll stil watch and love Glee.

Sue Sylvester may very well be my favorite person in the entire world. Every time she says something, I want to immediately put it on a tshirt and wear it around proudly with "Go Cheerios" across the back of it. And every time Brittany says something remarkably stupid (you know dolphins are just gay sharks) same thing. I also need a t-shirt that says "I'm like Tinkerbell, Finn... I need applause to LIVE!"

Remember way back when American Idol was cool in like 2003? And musical success was measured by if you had your own American Idol-themed episode? Well, times have changed. Now musical success is measure by whether or not New Directions (or their arch nemesis Vocal Adrenaline) covers your song in an episode. And musical-theatre success is measured by whether or not you appear as a guest star in an episode of Glee (as yourself or someone else, say a washed-up, alcoholic, former glee club superstar).

All of this bad press has been coming out recently about Lea Michelle about how she's a diva, hard to work with, kinda bitchy, etc. Who cares! She's fabulous! And I'm sorry, but have you MET anyone in theatre? This ridiculously talented girl started out on Broadway (in the biggest musical of two years ago: Spring Awakening). ANYONE who works in theatre has to be a bit of a diva. It's how you survive. That's one of the reasons I quit... I couldn't be cut throat. It's a cut throat business. Film is like that too, but it's all passive aggressive because you still need to come out on top. "Hard to work with" in theatre is code for "I hate her because she has so much talent." Seriously. And I do kind of hate Lea Michelle because her voice is so amazing. No one should have a voice that versatile.

Seriously though.. if anyone finds any t-shirts with Sue Sylvester or Brittany quotes (or especially the Tinkerbell one) PLEASE LET ME KNOW!! I need them all.

I'm turning into a domestic goddess. Help.

I got really excited yesterday, because I bought a new steam mop. I know that there are a variety of steam mops out there now, and after much research and asking knitterly friends on ravelry, I decided on the Shark Steam Mop. There are 2 version, and I picked the larger of the two.

My kitchen floor is this really ugly peach linoleum type floor? And since I bought my house, there have been these two fairly large grey stains that have become one with the linoleum. No amount of floor cleaner could get these puppies out. So I tried my steam mop on the stains. I have a completely peach floor now. I've never in my 2 years living in this house ever seen my floor that clean before ever. AND this thing cleans hardwood, so when we finally get our floors redone (we have hardwood floors throughout our house because our house is 80+ years old) I can use my steam mop!!!

Seriously, help me. I'm getting excited about a MOP? That's one step above getting excited about a vaccuum cleaner. Last month I got excited about our new iron. I'm still a terrible house keeper. But now I'm a terrible house keeper but with really clean and sanitized kitchen and bathroom floors.

I'm Mostly Useless

Why did I join a kickball team? Why did I think that was a good plan? It wasn't!

At my game on Wednesday... I pulled BOTH of my quads. Do you know how hard it is to walk when BOTH of your quads are screaming in pain? Really hard. It's even harder to walk down stairs. Up stairs, surprisingly not so bad.

I stretched before the game, too!! But in the outfield, I was going after a line drive (?) and pulled my left quad. Then when it was my turn to kick, I pulled the right one. And I was out of the game by the 2nd inning. And crying. I'm kind of a big wuss. BUT it hurt A LOT!!!

I listened to my track coach friend who is on the team and I iced my quads and stretched them... stretching them by the way hurt like a bitch. My poor next door neighbors probably thought I was being attacked. Or dumped. And to top it all off, I was by myself because Gzilla was at the Stanley Cup game watching the Flyers KICK ASS!! (Claude Giroux... I love you.)

At least I can walk now. It still hurts, but it's more of a muscle burn from exercising rather than from muscle strain, muscle pull, whatever it is. My track coach friend said that they aren't pulled, they are tweaked. Whatever that means. It feels freaking pulled to me!!!!

I'm trying to do some things to cheer me up and help me forget that my legs hurt all the time. First night, it was muscle relaxers and Glee. Yesterday, it was finishing the newest Sookie Stackhouse novel and whiskey. What shall it be tonight and the rest of the weekend?? Tonight, another Flyers win would really cheer me up, so if my boys in orange could do that for me, I'd really appreciate it.

A Dream Worth Fighting For

I don't know if I've confessed this to the blogosphere or not, but one of my biggest goals in life is to be a publish romance novelist. Only problem? (it's a minor one, really...) I haven't actually finished writing anything.

I've started maybe 3 or 4 stories, and I hate every single one of them. Instead of just continuing on and editing later, I reread everything I've written and edit it, and then decide it's crap, and erase it.

Since returning from Ireland, I'm on another writing kick. Originally, my best friend was going to be the subject of my romance novel. Because seriously, the things that happen to her and the wackos that she finds is just too funny for words. And I think that's the problem. Also, I can't figure out how it ends. So I've decided that her fictional story is NOT going to be my first novel, but rather my second. Or third.

So my first is just going to be a novel without any real borrowing from real-life experiences. Some borrowing, but not REAL borrowing.

Originally when I started this novelist kick, it was something that my therapist (what, I had a therapist) suggested that I do to deal with my parents' divorce when I was in college. Because seriously that story... if it happened on television... would make one HELL of a comedy.

I just hope that I can stick with it... enough that I actually finish it.

I just love setting myself up to fall.

I don't know what to do right now. Last night, I come home from a friend's house and find Gzilla on the phone (not unusual) with a shit eating grin on his face (tiny red flag).

Me: Who are you talking to?
Him: Jack.
Me: But that's a girl?
Him: Uhh... Laura (my best friend)

...

Weird, right? Kid can't lie to me. Can't say "My mom" or "Jack's girlfriend" (who is his female best friend). Nope. This idiot tells me the truth. Which means he's doing one of three things.

1. Trying to get dirt on his surprise party (unlikely)
2. Trying to plan something for me for my birthday (which is in July and not a milestone...26)
or 3. Something sparkly. You know what kind of sparkly I mean, and now upset that whole situation makes me.

Naturally, given the above reasons, I try my best NOT to think about door #3, which means that's all I think about. And now I'm paranoid. I start thinking that any time we go out could be "that time." The last time I thought that? When we went to Jen Carroll's restaurant for dinner? I was horribly depressed. I felt so stupid for letting me get my hopes up.

And what am I doing now? Getting my hopes up. I talked to Jack's girlfriend about it... and she tells me the one thing that I don't really want to hear. He's planning something really big for your birthday. Which is wonderful. That's absolutely wonderful. But guess what? I've spent most of last night and most of my work day today NOT getting my hopes up, accidentally got them up, and now I'm really upset. Again. And we're supposed to go out to dinner tonight with Jack and his girlfriend, and I don't feel like doing anything but eating ice cream and watching horror films.

It's starting to get to the point where I really start seriously thinking "what the hell am I doing?!" I really hate feeling like this.

My Everything Hurts

Remember when I said I did something dumb and joined a kickball team? My first game was last night. Kickball. Why do my arms hurt if I was playing KICK ball?

It wasn't my TEAM'S first game, just my first game. My team's first game was last Wednesday. You know. THE DAY I got back from Ireland. Last week I came home, sat down for about 40 minutes, brought Gzilla some clothes to play kickball in, and then watched everybody play kickball. My body hated me because it just wanted to go to sleep.

This week, after having a mostly shit day that started with a check engine light and ended with me wanting to punch the next person who looked at my funny, I had to drive my car to the dealership (6 months old.. 4200 miles... CHECK ENGINE LIGHT? WTF?) then drive all the way BACK to basically where I work to play kickball.

We lost.

But we lost 10-8, so it could have been worse. Especially because the score WAS 10-4... and then we scored 4 runs in one inning. I did not score a run. But I did get on base! Twice! Once I even got to third! And I got someone out at second base! I'm awesome. And the team was played was really good. One of their guys kicked the ball INTO THE NEXT FREAKING FIELD. That's just wrong. But the highlight of my night wasn't losing at kickball, or even playing kickball. It was going to the bar afterwards with the team and just hanging out for a few hours.

But now, my everything hurts. I'm so out of shape. I can't handle it after one 7-inning kickball game. And I realized just now that because I got a ride into work by a coworker who happens to live by me, and I didn't pack a lunch, I don't get to eat lunch. Balls.

The Big One

Gzilla turns 30 this year, or as he's calling it, it is his 20-10th birthday. So naturally, I'm throwing him a surprise party.

Except that it's not a surprise party, because Gzilla kind of sucks.

He ASKED me to throw him a party. Um. How am I supposed to throw someone a surprise party WHEN THEY ASK YOU TO? sigh. So I'm planning this whole thing, and he is just uninvolved. He knows that it's happening, and he knows what day it is, but he doesn't know where it is, what I'm doing, or who is invited.

The whole thing is becoming very tricky because I'm not inviting any of his friends from high school, nor am I invited family. Just a few select members that we're close to. Why not high school friends? The ones we spend the most time with? The ones I get to play Kick The Ball with tonight? I'll tell you why. There are 4 of them who all have birthdays within 2 weeks of one another, and they're all turning 30 this year, so they decided to have a big bash Memorial Weekend. But Gzilla is tired of always having to share his birthday with 3 other guys (I never said he wasn't ridiculously selfish) so he's also doing something on his own. AND when they sent out the evite for the big bash this weekend... they left Gzilla out of it, and instead said that we're celebrating the birthday of this guy whose birthday is on SAINT PATRICKS DAY. I'm highly considering wearing a t-shirt that says "Happy Birthday Guy" on it, just to be a bitch. Haven't decided if I'm gonna or not.

Back to the thing *I'm* throwing. I've invited a boatload of people. Originally, Gzilla wanted only his college friends to come (they call themselves The Wolf Pack. It's weird), but then got all depressed and mopey that none of them would come, and whine whine whine, so I invited all of our poker friends as well. Well, then it became something bigger than my house could take, so I rented a hall. Already paid it in full, so I don't have to worry about it. Gzilla's mom is taking care of the food for me (because she's the shit!) but now I have a new dilemma:

HOW MUCH FOOD AND BEVERAGE DO WE NEED? I invited a good 50 people. So far, 17 have responded via facebook (and I think that includes me) and I think 2 or maybe 3 have responded via evite. What if I get all this food, and no one shows? How much do I get to drink? Do I get a keg? If I'm getting liquor, do I get big handles, or just 750 mL bottles? I DON'T KNOW!!!

I wish I were in Kindergarten. Then I could take a nap and it would be acceptable.

I'm not doing a LOST reaction post. I will, eventually. But I won't for a little while simply because I don't want to spoil things for someone who hasn't had a chance to watch it yet. I will say that I loved it. Gzilla hated it. But I loved it, and the more time goes by, the more I love it.

I haven't stopped since getting back from Ireland. I landed on Wednesday, stayed up until 10:30 at night (after essentially waking up at midnight after about 3 hours of sleep) so that I could catch up on the penultimate episode of LOST. Thursday I was back at work, and Friday I worked both jobs. Saturday I couldn't sleep in because I had to go to a wedding, and I still needed a dress and a present for the couple. After seriously debating whether I should go to the mall or wear the dress I've already worn to two weddings or the jersey knit dress that might be too casual for this very laid-back wedding, I decided to bring the dress already worn to two weddings AND go to the mall. I went into Anthropologie, and while I LURVE their clothes normally don't buy then because they are EX-PEN-SIVE. I found this ADORABLE navy sun dress with a cream layer underneath that peaked out because of the eyelits in the navy? Adorable. Fit perfectly. Half price. DONE.

The wedding was beautiful... it was a non-religious ceremony at a country club, and the actual ceremony took place on the pier of a lake. The bride's dress was made by a costume designer that they work with (the couple is theatre people) and before the wedding started the groom gets on the mic and says "For those of you who work with me, you will find this funny. For those who don't work with me, oh well. 10 minutes to places for the ceremony...10 minutes to places." That's what stage managers say before start of every show. So all of us theatre people responded how you would if you were in the production. "THANK YOU, 10!"

Needless to say, I'm exhausted. I'm actually worried that at some point this week I'm going to pass out at work. Maybe I'll be able to go home sick one day and take like a 4 hour nap or something. A nap sounds good.

We have to go back!

I couldn't very well have all these posts about Ireland without PICTURES. I can't put up ALL of my pictures (because there are like 150.) but here are just a handful.

While we took a tour of the Guinness Storehouse, I learned how to pour the perfect pint of Guinness. I also learned that Italians will stalk you around the Guinness Storehouse and be completely blatant about it. There were a group of about 15? 20? Italian guys, and they basically circled us throughout the ENTIRE tour. You can see them over my shoulder at the tap learning how to pour their own pints.



This is the view from my best friend's balcony. Seriously. I woke up every morning to that and drank tea while watching the sheepies play. There was one baby lamb who would jump around. So cute.



At The Old Jameson Distillery, enjoying my whiskey with some cranberry juice. By the way, that's my new favorite drink. Jameson and cranberry. Delicious! I also drank my friend's because she doesn't like whiskey. Darn.



The one castle I got to see in Ireland was Malahide Castle. It's along the coast of the Irish Sea. Gorgeous.



This is Malahide town. HOW CUTE IS THIS TOWN? I feel like this looks like a postcard. In fact, I'm pretty sure I saw a postcard in the gift shop at Malahide Castle that was this street.



This is where my friend GOES TO COLLEGE. Seriously. That is actually the seminary, I believe, and I took that from the GARDEN that's on campus.



This is Wicklow. On my last day there (Tuesday), one of my new friends kidnapped me for the day and took me out to Wicklow. This was on the road on the way there. The streets were so narrow that any time another car came in the other direction, we had to pull off on the side of the road. And we were in this big honkin' Jeep. But he used to race cars on roads like this before he learned how to drive for real (seriously.) so I felt perfectly safe.



The place that he took me to was Glendalough. It used to be a monastery, and it's REALLY old. And absolutely beautiful. I seriously could have just sat there and hung out for a solid hour, but we needed to get back so that he could run the pub. Doesn't that just make you want to lie down in the grass and stare up at the sky for hours?

Change of Plans

I don't know if you've been following news of the ash cloud at all...but I've been stranded in Ireland. My original flight home was scheduled for Sunday...cancelled. Then I was put on a flight on Tuesday, but there was a seat on the Monday flight, so we switched it to Monday...cancelled. The Tuesday flight is now BOOKED, so the earliest flight out that I could take was tomorrow, Wednesday. So far, everything looks good. All of today's flights have left Dublin Airport, so that's a good sign. I should be home Wednesday afternoon. Three days late. Darn.

In my extended stay, I've managed to be awesome at Quiz (pulled a question OUT OF NOWHERE only to get one wrong later. We still won the game, but didn't win the chance to get the jackpot of 750Euro. Balls), I sang backup vocals during band rehearsal, and I'm going to the Wicklow Mountains today.

For the whole band thing, my friend used to work for this company that is launching anew product that is sort of like an iPad except it displays music tablatures? It's called an iTab. The launch party is Thursday (I'll miss it..) and my friend is singing backup vocals for BOBBY KIMBLE FROM TOTO. She's also doing Stevie Nick's "Edge of Seventeen" with another friend. The girl singing lead on that is a for serious musical genius. I helped pick out where the harmonies were (because I'm awesome like that) and then at rehearsal with the whole band, they asked me to fill in for the other girl who couldn't make it. It sounded DEADLY. I'm really jealous that I won't get to see it on Thursday, and they were actually a bit bummed that I wouldn't be there to sing backup vocals. Then we hung out with the band while they practiced some of the other songs they're doing... Brown Sugar, Don't Stop Believing, Cowboy Song, Boys are Back in Town, Hold the Line, and Sultans of Swing. It was like my own private concert in song random apartment in Ireland. I was in complete heaven, let me tell you. Seriously. That was my life yesterday...singing backup vocals at a band rehearsal IN IRELAND.

I'm excited for today, though, because I was bummed that we didn't get to go to the Wicklow Mountains last week. I was going to go solo since my friend has band rehearsal and has to do a ton of schoolwork, but one of her friends offered to drive me there (which is way faster... by like an hour at least) and give me a tour of Wicklow himself. It's going to be gorgeous. I just wish the sky was as blue as it was yesterday. It's a bit cloudy, and looks like rain. Maybe I'll be lucky though and it will be as warm as it was yesterday. I didn't even need a coat or a sweater.

Safe and Sound

I made it to Ireland okay. It still hasn't hit me yet that I'm IN Ireland, and I'll be here for officially 24 hours in about 30 minutes. I still haven't adjusted to the time, really. My first day was fairly uneventful. We came back to my friend's apartment, and IT HAS THE MOST DOORS I'VE EVER SEEN!!! I think there are 8. Possibly 9. And they're all right next to one another. Basically, my friend's apartment is a farce.

She has a gorgeous view from her sitting room.... a field of sheep! I'm in heaven. I fully intend to take many pictures of this adorable sheep. They're grazing right now. We walked all over her town yesterday (my legs are a bit tired) and today is Day 1 of Dublin Exploration. We'll see how good I am at pouring a pint of Guinness.

I also saw her ex yesterday... he decided to impose on us. We went to dinner, and he left her with the check! Jerk! But you'd be proud (as would Gzilla). I didn't ACTUALLY harm him, and I was mostly nice... but I did get all of my little digs in. And let him know to be nice to my friend since they gave me all these pretty metal weapons at dinner. The worst part of it is, he's so damn charming! I didn't want to see him, because I knew that if I did, I couldn't stay mad at him for long.

I don't think I'll be able to post any pictures until I get home on Sunday, but I will be taking plenty. Don't worry!

Thems Fightin' Words

I realize that I can be the not nicest person in the world. I am mostly polite, but I don't tolerate stupidity, nor do I tolerate ignorance or flat out rudeness. And I'm not afraid to let you know how I feel about that anymore.

Last night, I was RIDICULOUSLY lucky and managed to score 2 seats at the Flyers game. I'm a huge Philadelphia sports fan, mostly Phillies, but I do love me some hockey. Something about dudes on ice skatings beating the crap out of each other really turns me on. Anyway. I'm really excited, because I've never been to a hockey play off game before (so the Flyers are in the playoffs for the Stanley Cup. We beat the NJ Devils to advance to the second round... and we're now playing the Boston Bruins).

We get to our seat, guy behind us flirts with me in front of Gzilla, I give an awkward smile at him... and then realize that he's wearing a Bruins jersey. As are all of the people sitting next to him. I SURROUNDED by GD Boston fans. Great. And these guys are LOUD and OBNOXIOUS about it. Less than 3 minutes into the game, the Flyers score off of a deflection. Gorgeous goal. The Wachovia Center erupts. Orange is everywhere. It's great.

And then the Flyers gave up. I have no idea what the heck they were playing, but that wasn't hockey. The passing was pathetic and sloppy, they wasted 6 power plays, and our goalie wasn't as awesome as he has been. We lost 4-1. And I've been to hockey games where the Flyers lost before, but this was just bad. And the douches behind me made everything worse.

We went out to get food, and found two of them in our seats when we got back. Gzilla and I had talked about moving up a row so that they weren't directly behind me anymore, since I was starting to get very testy and Gzilla was afraid he was going to get punched because of my anger? But when I saw those two guys in my seat... and saw the look on the face of the girl who was sitting next to us "help me, PLEASE!" I couldn't let them do that. So I sharply said "Excuse me. I'd like my seats back, thanks."

Then, flirty loud guy tries to get my attention my poking me. IN THE SIDE BOOB. He dropped a $20 and it was under my seat. But who pokes a stranger in the SIDE BOOB? Who pokes any woman in the boob, side or not, and stranger or not! That is not acceptable!!! I gave him some shit (like I should) and did eventually give him back his money (what? I know I'm a bitch, but I'm not rude). Gzilla was pretty proud of me though that I didn't get into a blowout with these jerks, I didn't get punched or punch them and get arrested, nor did I get Gzilla punched. But I did hold my own against these guys with the smack talk.

In all honesty, they were obnoxious, but they weren't wrong nor did they cross the line (except for that poking my side boob thing, but I honestly don't think he did that on purpose. At least I hope not). At one point, Aaron Asham (a Flyer) made a shot towards the goal, and from our angle it looked like a goal, so we started to get excited until we found out that there was no goal, so obnoxious guy yells "OPTICAL ILLUSION!!!" That was actually pretty funny.