Category Archives: Dave

the 365th day

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Today, it has officially been one year since my first date with Dave. For those of you who are anti-cheesiness, stop reading here. I cannot believe how amazing this past year has been. I never thought that I would marry someone who I knew for less than a year – although give me a break, we were close enough, and I knew after he broke my 2-month-boyfriend curse that he was going to be the guy that I ended up with. He gets me on a level that I don’t think anyone else on the planet gets me. I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who can make me laugh until I’m teary-eyed the way that he can – and he has been known to do this before 8 a.m., which is an amazing feat in itself, since my brain – and my sense of humor, for that matter – usually don’t wake up until sometime around noon. (That is a horribly constructed run-on sentence with total comma and dash misuse. I apologize to my grammatically-inclined readers.) Plus, he’s brilliant, absolutely adorable and a great kisser, so how could I have not fallen head-over-heels for him?

It somehow seems appropriate that today is also the day that I went to the department of motor vehicles to get a new driver’s license that will officially drop that B from my name and add the W in its place. Which, btw, was one of the most remarkably easy and pleasant DMV experiences I’ve ever had – only a 10 minute wait, and the employees were polite & courteous. Amazing. Must be my lucky day.

So, there you go. I doubt we’ll celebrate this holiday from now on since our wedding anniversary will be 9 days prior, but I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge it this time around. Happy one-year anniversary, babe. I love you.

more pics & other stuff

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I just got my cousin Alphagal’s pictures from the rehearsal dinner uploaded. I have a lot of wedding photos from her too (as well as my sister), but I need to sort through them all so I can make a little online wedding photo album. It’s coming soon, I promise.

In other news, we got a new car this weekend! We had to get rid of Dave’s insanely expensive car that we couldn’t afford, so we got the new Subaru Tribeca instead, which is very cool. I’ll spare you the nerdy details (you can read them on Subaru’s website, if you like), but it has lots of neat little gadgets which immediately made Dave fall in love with it. It’s very spaceship-y – he can practice his best Captain Kirk impression while he’s driving it. (“Khaaaaaaannn!!!!”) So that’s happy. Of course, test-driving cars all weekend prevented us from making it to a theater to see the new Star Wars movie, but hopefully we’ll be able to do that sometime this week.

In blog-related news, I’ve tweaked my sidebar a bit, rearranged some stuff, added a link to Dooce (who, incidentally, I found by random blog-hopping and it turns out that she went to high school with best friend Kris and guy friend Chris G – and she’s a very funny, clever writer, which is why I’m linking to her), and I’ve added a little mood-of-the-day icon, courtesy of unkymoods. I think it’s cute. Hope y’all like. Happy Monday!

married lady

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To sum up the Wedding Weekend:
* Thursday: Kris arrived. We went to pick up my dress, but there was a tiny spot on one of the sleeves. We left it at the shop for them to spot-clean it. Kris & I were going to have a big drunk party-girl night, and instead we ended up at home, eating Thai take-out and drinking while watching TV. I think we were sound asleep by about 11:00. Sad.

* Friday: Salon day. Kris, Mags & I went for manicures and pedicures. I met up with Dave (at the same shopping center where the salon is located) and we picked out our wedding bands – we sort of waited until the last minute to get them. Luckily, the first jewelry store that we went to, they had bands that we both liked and that fit us. No sizing necessary. Woo! Lucky us, since we didn’t really have time to get them sized. That night, my parents plus my sister and her boyfriend Adam arrived. Kris & I met up with them at the hotel and we all went out for dinner. We also saw my cousins Alphagal and her husband SNG at the hotel, but they were pooped and didn’t join us for food.

* I freaked out all day Thursday & Friday with stressed-out-ness. Went to bed on Friday night jittery and anxious. Woke up on Saturday and decided that I was NOT going to look back on my wedding and have bad memories associated with it because of how stressed out I was. Gave myself a mental ass-kick, and I had fun from then on. No, the house was not exactly perfect when all the relatives showed up for the rehearsal dinner on Saturday. And you know what? The world didn’t stop turning on its axis, either. The food was good, everyone had fun, and that’s that. Honestly, my family is loud as all hell, but my god, they’re a fun group. We have a picture of my sister and 2 of my cousins grabbing my ass. It will be posted soon, I promise. There’s a lot more to be said about Saturday and all the fun we had, but I’ll wait until I get all the photos from the various photographers that were there, and I’ll use those to tell the story.

* Sunday: Back to the salon for hair & make-up. Cell phone kept ringing with people needing last-minute stuff. Mom & I finished at the salon, and hauled ass out to the lodge where we had the wedding. The photographer got there about 2 minutes after we did. We started taking pictures immediately, and before I knew what hit me, it was 3:00 and time to go get married. The rest of the day is a blur of images that I’m still trying to process: how Dave’s hands were shaking when I held them (which he later told me was a combination of not enough sleep and too much caffeine, not nerves); how I grabbed his head for the kiss so I could get my red lipstick all over his face; that it rained almost all day and that I totally didn’t care; how my sister somehow got the idea to toss a dinner roll around the room like a baseball, and whoever caught it was the person who gave the next toast; how all of my girl cousins made me cry with their toasts, whether it was through laughter or real tears; the way my face ached from holding my smiling pose through so many dozens of photos; drinking way too much champagne with my bridesmaids (my sister, aka Cosmopolitan, and Kris) plus their respective dates in their hotel room in the middle of the night (and the ensuing noise complaint from a hotel guest who had the misfortune of getting the room next door); the hideous garden gnome from our house that was left on our honeymoon suite bed, a la the Roaming Gnome on those Tr@velocity commercials. So many things. I’m not sure that all of it has sunk in yet.

* Monday: we spent most of the day in bed. Yeah yeah, the whole newlywed thing, but we also slept a LOT. We both woke up in time for our massages in the afternoon, which was great. Oh, and the jacuzzi bathtubs at the lodge are indeed big enough for two adults. Good to know.

* Tuesday: I’m back at work, and counting the hours until I can go home and crawl into my own comfy bed with my husband (hee!) and my cat. I think everything from the last 2 or 3 months is starting to catch up with me, and I am completely exhausted. I feel like I could go to sleep now and sleep until Thursday morning. Sigh. Oh well, soon enough. And this weekend, the in-laws are off to Lake Chelan, so we’ll have the house all to ourselves for two glorious, fun-filled days. Whee! Awesome.

The family arrivals have begun

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On Saturday afternoon, Mags (my future mother-in-law) and Roger (her boyfriend) arrived from England. Dave went to pick them up at the airport on his own, as I was busy renting a dump truck so Steve can haul around all the dirt he’s excavating around our house. You know those old black-and-white movies of people exercising, and they have that rubber band contraption that goes around their hips and jiggles them to death to supposedly help them lose body fat? Driving that dump truck felt a lot like what I’d imagine those machines feel like. Translation: not fun. However, it did have one of the best warning signs I’ve ever seen, which I fully intend to take a photo of and post here. After I dropped off the dump truck back at the house, I went to meet up with Dave, Mags & Roger for a drink. That was fun, but being totally jet-lagged, they were ready for bed by 6 p.m., so we left them at the hotel and headed home.

Then on Sunday, Mags and I went shopping (I needed a jacket; she needed shoes & a handbag to go with her outfit for the wedding) while the boys went out to test drive cars. Dave has fallen in love with a car, and he really wants to get it. I haven’t actually seen this car in person, but based on the pictures, I’m not really a huge fan. However, if this means that Dave is excited about getting rid of his current car that I hate, then I’m all for it. It gets better mileage, has better maintenance reviews and safety rankings, and it’s big enough to be a nice family car. So, cool. Speaking of which, Roger made the mistake of telling Dave, in front of me, that for the money he would spend on a new car, he could buy a second-hand Porsche. I piped up with, “But you can’t put a baby seat in a Porsche!” Luckily, I’m not marrying a real sports-car kind of guy, so I don’t have to worry about that. (And the baby thing is still way, way off in the future, so no worries there either.) I was very impressed, though, that my betrothed told the persistent car salesman that he would have to discuss it with his wife first. I like that he’s practicing the terminology already. After all, we’re at T-minus 6 days and counting.

So after all the shopping and car-fantasizing was done, we took Mags out for Mexican food for Mother’s Day. Perhaps not the most traditional Mother’s Day meal (originally I had intended to cook, we just ran out of time), but it worked for us. Today, while I’m at work, Roger is going to help Dave and Steve turn the mud pit in front of our house back into a driveway. Long story, don’t ask – it literally makes me want to cry just to think about it. Ugh.

another boring wedding update which probably only the girls will read

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Dave and I met our minister for the wedding on Tuesday night, and we both really liked her. She’s very warm and funny, and we felt very comfortable with her. She has a lot of different options for customizing our ceremony, so we can make it feel like us – and even though Dave and I are probably going to stick with the mostly-traditional vows, I like the idea that we have options. In any case, the ceremony won’t be too preachy – a few spiritual/higher power references, but no sermons about accepting Jesus or anything like that. (For any of you who care, I do consider myself a Christian, but I also don’t consider that to be something that I need to broadcast to the entire world.) She gave us homework – Dave and I have to write a “mission statement” for our marriage, which should prove to be interesting.

Then last night, I went to meet with our photographer – it was Dave’s only night off this week because he has a lot of work stuff going on in the evenings, so I went by myself. [Side note to Sally: I don’t think Dave is allergic to the photographer, but I’m going to keep a close eye on him just in case.] [Side note to Angie: She looks nothing like the pinched-sourpuss Starr on “Project Runway”. She’s got blonde curly hair and a great smile. They couldn’t look more different, for having the same name.] That was fun, I really adore her photos and she thought I was 24, so obviously I love her.

Tonight, after I leave work, I’m going to get a massage. Hooray! I can’t wait. I called at least half a dozen places, trying to find one that could fit me in on this particular evening, because it’s the only free time that I have, since Dave has some dinner meeting thing tonight. The place that could fit me in had only a male massage therapist available. In the past, I’ve never really been comfortable with that idea because I have a truckload (or 3) of body image issues and a petrifying fear of negative judgment from, well, everyone, but men in particular. Right now, though, I am so exhausted from waking up a hundred times every night with my back aching that I just don’t care. If some man who I’ve never met before (and who I may never see again) realizes that I’m flat-chested and that I have cellulite on my thighs, big freakin’ whoop. It’s not the end of the world. Because guess what? There’s a fantastic guy out there who loves my pancake boobies and my jiggle butt, and he’s marrying me in 17 days. So there, body image issues. Nyah.

The Bachelorette Weekend

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To sum up my weekend in Memphis: Yes, I did indeed score a load of trashy underpants. And some not-so-trashy. In fact, I got some really nice stuff that I might actually wear on a day-to-day basis, which is great. For those of you hoping for pictures of my new lingerie, keep dreaming. However, we did take a few pictures at the bachelorette party, which I’ve posted. There isn’t anything too incriminating in there, thank god.

As for the rest of the weekend, it was both good and bad. I love my friends, and it’s always good to get a chance to see them. And unlike when I was there at New Year’s, I felt like I really got to spend a lot of time with everyone. Kris now has two puppies (well, one belongs to her roommate, my friend Carrie), and they were adorable. Plus I got to meet Kris’s new 7-month-old nephew, which was fun. However, I have some not-so-happy memories associated with Memphis, so there are definitely some mixed feelings there. When we went out to the same places that we went to in college, and I ran into the same people that I used to run into when I was in college, it’s sort of depressing. Like the guy who was the bartender that one of my friends used to have a crush on, and he’s still a bartender in the exact same bar that he’s worked at since 1998. Or the roommate of a guy I used to date, who still hangs out at the same places, 6 years later. Hmm, yeah. The main thing I learned is to watch out for those nostalgic trips down memory lane, you might stumble into a pothole or two.

So I came home yesterday, slept for something like 11 hours, and now I’m at work today. And my car is allegedly fixed, for the bargain price of only $600. Whee! Hmph.

One other thing: everyone send encouraging words/thoughts to Dave, who is now approaching the 48-hour mark without a cigarette. Yay!! I’m so proud of him. Stay strong, babe. 🙂

It's Friday!

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I feel like I need to write something new, so the depressing cat story won’t be the leading topic on my blog. Problem is, not a whole lot is going on. Steve, my future brother-in-law, didn’t arrive on Wednesday as planned (really long story), but he should be arriving at about 5 p.m. this evening. We were a little worried that he wasn’t going to make it here, but it looks like he’s on his way now, so that’s good.

Last night, Dave and I had dinner with a very nice couple who are old friends of his, and who I had never met before. I think this couple might possibly also be friends with Dave’s ex (they used to be, but there’s no real polite way to say, “So, do you still talk to so-and-so?” and not have it be a total conversation stopper). So going into it, I felt really self-conscious, like I was going to be closely scrutinized, and everything I said or did was going to be reported back to the ex. Not that I really care what the ex thinks of me. I’ve never met the woman, and as far as I’m concerned, I’m grateful that she’s gone, because I never would’ve met Dave otherwise. But still, there is some tiny little mean part of me that wants it to get back to her, like “Wow, Dave’s fiancee is so smart and funny and wonderful. He sure did upgrade!” It’s stupid and juvenile, I know. And as it turned out, dinner was fantastic. The food was great, the conversation flowed easily, and a good time was had by all. So there was no need to worry. Oh well.

That’s about it. It’s Friday, and my first week of unemployment has been mind-numbingly dull. I’ve been keeping myself busy doing stuff around the house, but still, I feel like a sloth. I know it’s strange, but I absolutely cannot wait to start my new job.