2nd Anniversary - Cotton

Almost two years ago, Abe and I got married. One of our favorite pictures from the day was this one:

photo by (and mustaches courtesy of) Melanie Dodds Photography

Since the traditional second wedding anniversary gift is cotton, I decided to design a t-shirt for Abe. Here's how it turned out. (Artwork by me, printing by CustomInk.)

Finished shirt

Close-up of design

How awesome is this wrapping paper? Half Price Books!

Even though I'd like to consider myself a competitive gift-giver à la Leslie Knope, I suck at waiting to give people gifts, so I gave Abe his shirt about ten minutes after the mailman delivered it.

He approved.

And because it wasn't too much more (and I already had the credit card out) I got one for me, too.

I'm threatening to force Abe to wear the shirts every time we go on vacation so we look like we just stepped off the weirdest most awesome tour bus ever.

Happy Distractible Household Anniversary everyone! Have a great weekend!

Wednesday Wedding Weecap Weedux

(Warning: there are approximately 11 hundred million large pictures in this post.)

Dear Internets,

Thing 1.
I'm thinking of giving my blog the month of April off from the "Dear Internets" format. Thoughts?

Thing 2.
Here's semi-proof that I actually performed stand up on Monday:



Thing 3. Here are some of the early pictures from the wedding, with commentary. (All photos are by the fantastic, wonderful, adored-by-Achilles-me-and-our-families Melanie Dodds, unless noted.)

I got ready at my parents' house. I think I was the least nervous person there. I just felt very Zen. And silly.

(photo by my sister)

I didn't want to hide from Achilles (or anyone else) before the ceremony, which turned out to be awesome. We had a chance to get a lot of photos done, and spend time with family and friends during cocktail hour. (It also meant I spotted the rabid bat* and had a chance to have it removed before the under-5 crowd arrived. Win!)

(photo by my friend Loly)

I didn't have bridesmaids, but two of my best friends decided to wear purple shoes to support me. (My sister and I also changed into matching sparkly flip-flops at the reception.)


Originally, I didn't want to walk down an aisle at all. The day before the wedding, I changed my mind ("Forget forgetting tradition!") and decided I wanted both my dad and my nephew to walk me down the aisle 9,000 concrete steps to the gazebo to meet Achilles and the judge.


We had to pick the music at the last minute. We walked down the aisle to a ukulele instrumental version of "All You Need is Love." (My dad is a huge early-Beatles fan, and I'm obviously a ukulele fan.) My nephew was distracted by a fountain at the top of the stairs, but at the last minute, ran down and grabbed my hand.

(photo by my sister)

Our ceremony was short, but really nice. Achilles has known the judge that married us since he was in elementary school (Achilles, not the judge).


Music for the "recessional": "You Are the Best Thing" by Ray LaMontagne

We took a few minutes after the ceremony to take pictures and spend some time together. This was also great, as we spent most of the rest of the evening talking to people. These are a couple of my favorites:


Dinner was amazing. Despite the expression on my face in this picture (I think I was chewing), the food was fantastic. We served raspberry mojitos (an ode to our trip to Puerto Rico and the color pink).

photo by my parents' next-door neighbor

Flower baby (niece) and matron of honor (sister):

photo by my parents' next-door neighbor

I know dancing is one of those things a lot of people leave out of weddings, but I *love* dancing (despite having no rhythm). I even added a song request feature to our online RSVP**. Achilles and I danced our first dance to "Question" by the Old 97's. We did a sort of modified foxtrot, and didn't miss any steps (which, for two people with no rhythm, is kind of a big deal).

photo by my sister

After our first dance, we invited all our friends out to dance to a "special" song. We played the opening measures to "Don't Stop Believing." Then we Rickrolled everyone. (Sing it with me... "Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down..." Perfect wedding song, really.)

photo by my friend Loly

After that, we played my nephew's request ("I Gotta Feeling" - The Black Eyed Peas)...

photo by my sister

...and some other songs... (There's a video of my dad and my nephew dancing to "SexyBack" that I'd love to post... if I could only figure out how...) My cousin (who's about 5) had some insane dance moves, including one that culminated in him sliding across the floor on his knees.

We had an impromptu cupcake-cutting...

photo by Loly

...and impromptu toasts (the best kind)

photo by Loly

Melanie brought out the mustaches (BEST. PHOTOGRAPHER. EVER!)


Then we left by pedicab and headed to the Driskill.



photo by Loly

A wonderful day and night - I wouldn't have changed a thing.

If you are still reading, it is possible that you actually want to see more pictures. Here are some detail shots.

We had a tree/birds/pink theme. Instead of a guest book, my friend Lyndee made us a swirly fingerprint tree (from an old doodle I'd made on a notebook). I don't have a photo of it right now, but I'll upload one ASAP.

Of course, we had the little birds. (I ended up making the veil for the girl bird out of leftover tulle from my mom and sister's weddings.)


The little birds sat atop the cupcake stand (the venue put this together - not what I'd pictured originally, but it turned out lovely)

photo by my sister

My mom, dad, sister, Achilles' mom and godmother, and I all made cookies as wedding favors. Guests took them home in little Chinese takeout boxes (my friend Lyndee made the labels for the boxes).


Lyndee also moved heaven and earth to get me peonies (my favorite flower). Apparently, a late freeze killed most of the peony crop, so I didn't think I'd be able to have them. I burst into tears when she gave them to me. My shoes were from Nordstrom. Dress, shoes, hair, makeup and jewelry came out to less than $300 total. Win!


More pictures from my family and friends are (slowly) being uploaded to Flickr, if you're interested in checking those out.

Lessons learned:

• Overall, we spent less than a third of what the average Austin couple spends on a wedding, and less than one fifth of the national average. Nice weddings don't have to be expensive.
• We have the nicest friends and family in the world.
• If you hire a photographer, find one like Melanie.
• Always check for rabid bats.
  
• It's OK to be firm about the things that are important to you.
• Above all else, relax. You'll enjoy everything a lot more, even if it's not exactly what you originally envisioned.

Onward!

Love,
Jane

*Yep. Rabid bat. Perfect for a native Austinite wedding.
**A great way to ensure that your guests compliment your taste in music.

We did it!

More pictures to come soon. Thank you again to all our wonderful friends and family, the amazing staff at Shoreline, Melanie Dodds (our amazing photographer), LisaLyn designs, and our fantastic pedicab drivers.

Love,
Jane and Achilles (aka Sandra and Abe)

P.S. Thanks to my sister Tamara for taking this picture.

Mawwiage is what bwings us togev-vah...

...today!

In 10 hours, Achilles and I will be married. Yay! Wish us luck, Internets!

Love,
Jane

P.S. The weather cooperated. (Knock on wood.) Thank you all for crossing your fingers!

Day after tomorrow

Dear Internets,

Please keep your fingers crossed that the weather really is like this on Friday:


(76 degrees Fahrenheit = 24.4 degrees Celsius)

In other news, bullet points!

• I am up before the sun this morning. I think I've stumbled into a parallel universe or something.
• One of my dearest friends had surgery yesterday to remove a tumor on his spine. He's doing really well, which is a huge, huge relief.
• My friends threw me a surprise shower last night, which was awesome (It was supposed to happen a couple of weeks ago, but I guessed the surprise, so they lied and said they hadn't planned anything. They successfully tricked me last night!) I have the nicest friends both online and off - I am so very lucky.
• I have been running around like a crazy lady this week, but it has been fun. I wish I had this much nervous energy more often - I'm like a machine!
• I can't wait for the wedding. People keep asking me if I'm nervous, but I think I'm just excited. Achilles is terrified of being the center of attention, so he's nervous enough for both of us.

Rereading this blog post, it's clear that I probably need to burn off some extra energy. I'm going to go for a run . (Who is this person who has taken over my body, and how do I get her to stick around??)

Love you all bunches, and can't wait to show you wedding pictures,
Jane

One (1) week

Oh Internets...


The wedding is a week away.


In seven days, I will have a husband. I will be a wife.


I will have in-laws.


("Whoa..." says the Joey Lawrence voice inside my head.)

A million thoughts are mud wrestling in my brain. My to-do list is a mile long. All I can manage to say is "I'm glad I don't have to do this alone."

Yours truly (at least until my head explodes),
Jane


P.S. In ten days, I will be performing stand-up. (Three days after the wedding.)(I know.)(It seemed like a good idea at the time...)

Wednesday Bullet Point Weecap

Dear Internets,

I slept through my alarm clock (I think*) this morning. It's always weird to get that extra hour or two of sleep. On one hand, I feel fantastic - yay sleep! On the other, I feel incredibly guilty for being late to work, life, etc. Anyway, I have been leaving a lot of loose ends on this blog lately, so I figured I'd do a quick recap/update.

*My alarm clock is 20 years old. I also "slept through" it a couple of weekends ago. I'm a little worried it might be about to kick the bucket.

• Wedding dress - I think I finally decided on a dress. While it isn't particularly stunning or unique, it's a cute dress, and I think I'll be happy with it. I think I made the mistake of letting too many people have opinions on my dress, which just ended up being stressful.
• My pen pal asked me if I've ever had a crush on a teacher. Short answer: um, yes. I will explain further in the next few days.
• I quit drinking caffeine as part of my last minute diet/exercise plan before the wedding. I don't think my brain really works anymore without caffeine.
  
• Achilles bought us dance lessons as a surprise. We start today. I'm very excited, as this will allow me 1.) not to look quite as foolish at the wedding as I expected to look, and 2.) allow me to cross #21 off my 30 Before 30 list.
• My last comedy class was horrible. I was shaking so much they could actually see me shaking in the back row. I also said "Umm..." 36 times. Don't worry, Internets. I'm still planning to perform and post the video.

I hope your week is flying by, Internets!

Love,
Jane

To the birds

Dear Internets,

As I mentioned yesterday, I made a few prototypes of little bird statues. I want to pick a pair to serve as cupcake stand (cake) toppers at Achilles' and my wedding. (I made these myself out of Crayola clay and paint, but with the exception of couple 3, the birds were mostly inspired by designs I saw on Etsy. Don't give me too much credit!)


Couple 1


Couple 2


Couple 3

These are just prototypes - I will definitely make a fancier/cleaner version of whichever couple is deemed cutest. (For example, the bride in Couple 1 would not have a Don King veil.) Also, my florist/BFF said she could make a little nest for the birdies to live in, so they wouldn't just be hanging out on top of the cupcakes.

Which birds do you like best?


Thanks for weighing in, Internets!

Love,
Jane

Wednesday Weecap! With bullet points!

Dear Internets,

It has been a while since I've done a bullet point update. I think we're overdue.

• Even though Informal Classes got canceled, the currently scheduled classes will still run. This means my stand up comedy class is still on. Yay?
• I think I'm getting too old for Facebook. Every time they change the interface, I get more confused.
• We had a baby shower at work. My boss told me she hoped I wasn't getting any ideas about having babies myself. I told her Achilles and I want to go to Europe again before we have kids. Then everyone looked at me like I was the devil. Am I the devil? I thought saying "IwantkidslikeOMGrightnow!" would make me seem crazy.
• After I politely explained our situation, the guest who added his son's girlfriend apologized profusely and removed her from his RSVP. I felt sort of guilty, but I would feel worse if one of our other guests (who aren't bringing kids or dates) got their feelings hurt.
• Other wedding news: I made some little bird sculptures to use as cupcake stand toppers. I will post pictures and let you guys vote on which ones you think we should use.
• Our wedding is turning out to be very traditional. This is not what I originally wanted, but it seemed to take that direction on its own. I think I'm OK with that.
• I'm going to make my nephew some Hulk/Valentine's cupcakes. We'll see how those turn out.
• I love Valentine's Day. It has the best color scheme of any holiday. It's like pink and purple and lavender and red got together and exploded into heart-shaped everything. If Halloween had a Valentine's color scheme? My life would be complete.

How are you this week, Internets?

Love,
Jane

GRRR....

Dear Internets,

Is it wrong to feel INCREDIBLY STABBY because people decided to add their son's girlfriend when they sent their RSVP?

If I couldn't invite my cousins or friends from college to my wedding, I don't want your teenage son's stupid girlfriend there!

At least you understand me, Internets.

Love,
Jane

Wednesday Wedding Weecap: Pores Edition

Dear Internets,

I met this really lovely former wedding planner from Brazil yesterday. She was hilarious and sweet, but I think I scared her to death.

Nice lady: Oh, your wedding is exactly two months away from today! How wonderful!
Jane: Oh wow, you're right! I hadn't realized!
NL: What a very special time. What are your colors?
Jane: Uh... Well, I think my sister is taking care of all of that.
NL: Your... sister?
Jane: She is really creative with that sort of thing.
NL: Ahh... O...K.... Well, who will be doing your makeup?
Jane: Um... Probably me..?
NL: OH! But you must have someone to help you with [waves hand in front of her nose in giant circular motion] the pores? You must get the facials!

***

In other news, my plans to start eating healthier and working out before the wedding were postponed. Instead, I battered and fried some homemade French fries. Some of them were sweet potato fries, though, so they count as health food. Since my dress has already been altered, now is probably not the time to start binge eating.

***

I don't think my large pores have anything to do with my love for frying things.

***

I ordered different shoes. They are pink and strappy and have 4.5 inch heels. Yes, I realize they are ridiculous. They may get returned. If I keep them, I will likely get some pink Converse to wear at the reception so that I don't break my neck.

***

We found a photographer we think we're really really going to like. (Thanks for the tip, Elizabeth!)

***

We broke down and registered. We didn't put much on there - mostly just a few pots and pans to replace our old scary scuffed Teflon pans. I did register for reusable cupcake baking cups.

***

And that is about it, I think. Do you have any exciting news Internets? What is the status of your pores?

Love,
Jane

The Reverend

Dear Internets,

Did I tell you that I got ordained? I could have sworn that I had, but come to think of it, it was just a very realistic dream. (About blogging. Awesome. At least you know that even my subconscious loves you Internets.)

I'm going to officiate at my friends Aaron & Lo's wedding in October.

Love,
Reverend Jane

Wednesday Wedding Weecap (or why I never get anything done)

Alternative Title I: The dilettante's guide to wedding invitations
Alternative Title II: I sure hope no prospective employers ever read this...

...

Dear Internets,

I've been feeling guilty about procrastinating about doing our wedding invitations, so I decided to just do them. I got some of the print your own invitations (I know you hate those, Internets, but that's because you're all graphic designers and/or millionaires), and the process seemed like it would be pretty straightforward:

1. Collect addresses for guests
2. Print invitations
3. Address envelopes
4. Update wedding website to reflect new information
5. Affix postage to envelopes
6. Drop invitations in the mail

In reality, the process has gone more like this:

1. Email friends and family members for their addresses
2. Assure friends and families that I just need their addresses because I have some chain letters I need to get out
3. Ask Achilles for his addresses
4. Ask Achilles for his addresses (again)
5. Look up possible invitation wording
6. Second, third, and fourth guess wording decision
   
7. Decide that inviting people places in the third person is just going to sound weird no matter what
   
8. Print invitations
9. Ask Achilles for his addresses again. Feel like a nag
10. Begin hand addressing envelopes
11. Decide hand addressed envelopes look awful
12. Print addresses on envelopes
13. Tell Achilles he's on his own for his invitations
    
14. Go to post office near house to buy stamps. Find that the only stamps they sell in the denomination we need have creepy dolphins on them
15. Drive to main post office across town on MLK Day. Find that post office no longer has stamp vending machines
16. Decide to use vintage postage stamps instead of creepy dolphin stamps
17. Spend far too much time on eBay looking at vintage postage stamps
18. Second guess decision to use vintage stamps
19. Order them anyway, figuring it will give Achilles time to get me his addresses
    
20. Decide to update wedding website while waiting for stamps

Notice how "update wedding website" just took up one little number in the first scenario? Here's how it really went:

1. Correct date, time, and location information on website
2. Decide that I'd really like people to be able to RSVP and request songs for the reception through the website
3. Research options for RSVP widgets
4. Discover that most existing options are crappy and/or seem to be phishing for guests' personal information
5. Decide to use Google Forms so that everything will be conveniently stored in a Google spreadsheet once the guests input their information
6. Realize that Google Forms doesn't really let you modify the form they give you
7. Find a way to hack the form so that it doesn't look so fugly
8. Realize that after people RSVP, they will be sent to a website to create their own Google Forms rather than back to the wedding website
9. Read Google forums for possible solutions. See that this is a "known issue that will be corrected in a future update."
10. Seethe
11. Realize that if I knew how to write JavaScript code, I could keep people from being redirected to the external website
12. Learn enough JavaScript to fix the form
13. After 946 tries, finally get JavaScript working correctly
    
14. Realize that people won't be able to RSVP online at all if they have JavaScript disabled
15. Decide that this doesn't really matter for a group of 20-30 people anyway
16. Realize that I will probably go back and fix the form so that it works with or without JavaScript because I'm anal
    
17. Decide that it is time to start drinking

This is why I never get anything done, Internets. I am like the kid from those Family Circus dotted line comics. Remember those?



Oh well. I will survive. The invitations don't have to go out for two weeks anyway, and as long as I get Achilles's addresses (COUGH COUGH), we should meet that deadline easily.

But seriously. Sometimes the extent of my distractibility frightens me.

Love,
Jane

Wednesday Wedding Weecap version 2.1

Dear Internets,

Of the blog posts I have written in my head but not actually typed out on virtual paper, there are three that both you and I agree should be written sooner rather than later:

1. Living room renovation
2. My 30 before 30 list
3. What the heck is going on with Achilles and my wedding

The order that I will post these updates comes down to laziness and disorganization on my part. I forgot to take "before" pictures of the living room (and I'm pretty sure I accidentally threw away the non-digital ones my dad took a couple of years ago) so I want to track some down before I post about the renovations. And I left my 30 before 30 list at home, and my memory is not what it used to be. So. The wedding.

Sigh. The wedding. I think what happened with the wedding plans is best explained by this three act play.

Achilles and Jane Lose Their Damn Minds

ACT I: Newly Engaged!

Scene 1
Jane: Yay! Fun! I shall start a blog about this!
Achilles: Yay! I shall start researching our options for food!
Jane and Achilles' families and friends: Yay! We shall be supportive of whatever you decide!

ACT II: The wedding planning begins...

Scene 1
Jane: I would like a small, fairly non-traditional ceremony at Zilker Clubhouse. I would like delicious food, good music, our closest friends and family, and a lighthearted atmosphere. I'd like to avoid as many weird sexist traditions and random extra crap that gets forced on people as possible.
Achilles: I would like the same things. I would also like to avoid depleting our savings or going into debt over this.
Jane: You read my mind.

Scene 2
Jane's sister: What kind of centerpieces are you having? I emailed you a bunch of links.
Jane: ...centerpieces? I was just thinking we'd have my friend LB (the wedding florist) put some vases with gerbera daisies out or something. But I guess centerpieces might be nice.
...
Jane's mom: Have you told your father that you're not having him walk you down the aisle? You need to tell him. I'm not going to be the one who breaks the news.
Jane: Aisle? We don't really want to have an aisle...
Jane's mom & sister: O...k... but how would that even work?
Jane: I have no clue.

Scene 3
Jane's neurotic side comes out while trying on wedding dresses. She has no idea what she wants. She knows this isn't important but can't stop thinking about it. Jane is deeply ashamed of herself.

Scene 4
Achilles' mom: What have you guys planned so far?
Jane: Well, we were thinking of having fancy pizza, and cupcakes instead of a cake. And we're thinking of having some sort of appetizers so that people don't have to wait until after the ceremony to eat.
Achilles' mom: That sounds... cute.
...
Achilles' uncle (who has never had a conversation with Jane until this point): Pizza? For a wedding? Are you guys just trying to be cheap or something?
Jane: No... It's not the money... We just both really love pizza and thought it would be fun.
Achilles' uncle: Pizza just doesn't seem like wedding food to me. Have you ever thought about deep frying turkeys instead?
Jane: [looks around for Achilles, who is avoiding eye contact and inching toward the door] Uhh...
Jane (to self): What does a panic attack feel like?
...
Jane and Achilles: We don't think we want to register for gifts. We have more than we need. If people feel moved to give us a gift of their choosing, that's great. If not, that's wonderful too.
Achilles' family: You HAVE to register. You should do one of those honeymoon registries. Then you don't have to worry about getting stuff you can't use.
Jane's family: Honeymoon registries are tacky. Register at Williams & Sonoma. Then you'll get NICE stuff.
Jane and Achilles: But... the "stuff" isn't the point.

Scene 5
Jane, on phone: You charge HOW much for chair rentals?

Scene 6
Achilles, on phone: Do you have any pizzas that DON'T have goat cheese or salmon on them?

Scene 7
Photographer: Look at me! I can vanish into thin air and leave no trace! Is it magic... or is it an illusion?

ACT III: And now for something completely different...

Scene 1
Jane thinks about the wedding. Jane has her first ever panic attack. Rinse, repeat. Jane stops thinking about the wedding.

Scene 2
Jane: I don't think I can do this. Can we just fly to Puerto Rico and get married on the beach?
Achilles: That would break my grandmother's heart.
Jane: What if we just got married at the courthouse and then took our families out to dinner? Would that be OK with your grandma?
Achilles: Actually... yes.
Jane: I think that's what I want to do.
Achilles: Me too.

Scene 3
Jane's officemate: The courthouse? How Carrie Bradshaw of you!!
Jane: It's not... like that.
Jane (to self): I'm not Carrie, anyway. If I'm anyone, I'm Liz Lemon - the lady who watches the show at home.

Scene 4
Achilles' mom and dad: Why don't you just save yourself a step and get married at the restaurant?
Jane & Achilles: That sounds like a really good idea, actually.
Jane's Family: Why do you insist on crushing everyone's dreams and breaking our hearts?

--------FIN.... For now----

So, Internets, that's where we are. My family is annoyed with me. My sister isn't really speaking to me, and my mom actually took Achilles aside at Christmas to try to give him a guilt trip about how disappointed she is. I am no longer getting chest pain, though, so I think we have a winner.

Questions? Thoughts? I welcome all comments on this, even anonymous mean ones.

Love,
Jane

P.S. Since there's not really much of a wedding to plan anymore, I will probably move my Distracted Wedding posts over here and delete that blog at some point. It has some bad juju attached to it.

Wednesday bullet point Weecap

Dear Internets,

• Both my grandmother and one two of my best friends were in car accidents yesterday. Their cars are totaled and they are sore, but otherwise they're fine. I feel so thankful that we live in an era of relatively safe cars. Wear your seat belts Internets!
• Wedding plans are chugging right along. The nice part of the whole "Wedding Industry Machine" is that it has created a really clear process that just sort of sucks you along until you somehow show up on your wedding day with everything done. Sure, going along with what the Wedding Industry says can leave you thousands of dollars poorer, but for the super disorganized like myself their "you must do Thing 1 now, and Thing 2 precisely 17 minutes after Thing 1" drill sergeant approach can be really helpful. I don't know how many of their rules or recommendations I'll actually follow, but their 93 page checklists and constant nagging help me feel more confident that I'm not going to forget to hire an officiant or something. (Now if only I could build this sort of structure into my day-to-day life...)
  
• I need a good tailor if anyone has (local) recommendations.
• I am procrastinating about everything lately: from health stuff to updating the sidebars in both of my blogs, to cleaning out my car and taking stuff to Goodwill. I know I just need to sit down and make a list of everything I need to do and start tackling things one by one, but I'm just feeling a little buried.
• Speaking of buried, I'm afraid to even look at my Google Reader. NaBloPoMo is totally overwhelming me and I'm not even participating.
• For the past few days, I kept thinking I was coming down with swine flu. I'm pretty sure it's actually a combination of stress and allergies. Yay for immune systems!

I hope your week is going well Internets. I promise I'll tackle my feed reader... soon...

Love,
Jane

Wednesday Wedding Weecap tWo

Dear Internets,

We now have a wedding website and a wedding Twitter. (<--- there are entirely too many "w's" in that sentence.) If you would like to check them out, leave me a comment or send me an email or a Tweet and I'll send you the link.

Toodles,
Jane

Top 5 Tuesday

Dear Internets,

Firstly, thanks for letting me know that I'm not the only person who says "vicious cycle" instead of "vicious circle." Yesterday, I did my best to break out of my vicious cycle by eating three healthy meals and going to CrossFit. Unfortunately, I also had one of those awful nights in which my mind was going 95 miles an hour (or... a lot... of kilometers per hour) until 4:30 a.m. I only got about three hours of sleep, but I'm going to try to avoid letting that derail me.

I thought I'd try something a little different today. Back in the days of my second blog (I didn't really know what I was doing, so I started with TypePad blog and my own domain, then took a giant step backward to a MySpace blog), I used to do a weekly post called "Top 5 Tuesday." It was like my bullet points posts, only better organized. I thought a Top 5 Tuesday post would be a nice change of pace for this blog. (Like ham for Thanksgiving or something.)

Without further ado, here are The Top 5 Things That Kept Me From Sleeping Last Night:

5. Imaginary blog posts. For some reason, I start mentally composing blog posts when I can't sleep at night. I used to get up and actually write down my late night ideas. Then I realized that "great ideas!!" from 2:00 in the morning are rarely even coherent ideas the next morning. They still keep me awake though.

4. Work stuff. I've been stuck on a problem at work. It's boring and computer-y so I won't get into it, but it is not so fun.

3. Second job stuff. Things have been weird there lately. One of the office staff people called me about a minor problem a couple of weeks ago when Bailey was sick. I shouldn't have answered the phone (I'd been crying all day) but I did, and now I feel like they think I'm some sort of crazy emotional weirdo. I don't know whether to try to repair the damage or cut my losses and just have one job for a while.

2. Bailey. As I've mentioned before, he got really really sick a couple of weeks ago. The vet had no idea what was going on, and was saying scary stuff about possible liver or kidney failure. For a few hours, I really thought we were going to have to put Bailey to sleep. He is doing much better now, but he lost about 10% of his body weight, and the vet still isn't sure what happened. I have to make sure Bailey gets enough exercise for stress relief but not so much that he loses any more weight (he was a skinny dog before he lost any weight - he's skin and bones now) and be really careful about what I feed him. I'm sure worrying about the situation isn't really helping anything, but I can't help it.

1. Early onset wedding stress. Before I got engaged, I figured Achilles' and my wedding was going to be a completely low stress and fun celebration. I was not going to be a bridezilla; everyone, including my (one) bridesmaid, would wear what they wanted, eat cupcakes, and dance to fabulous music (even the Macarena, if they really wanted).

Ha. Hahahahahaha.

Internets, something turns screwy in people's brains when they hear the word "wedding." Among other things, I've already been told that I'm too old to wear white (I'm 28), our budget is "ridiculous" if it doesn't include fancy table linens (I don't even have the energy to summon words to express how little I care about table linens in any way, honestly), and that I'm nuts for wanting to allow kids (my 3-year-old nephew is one of my absolute favorite people in the world - I don't care if you have kids at *your* wedding, but I'd like for him to come to mine and Achilles'). One person already threatened not to come to the wedding over one of those three issues. The crazy part is, I'm sure the same people would freak out if I wore a red/pink/blue dress or we spent a ton of money or we *didn't* allow kids. It's hard (for me at least) to believe it, but there are actually people out there who want to be everyone's hop on backseat wedding coordinator.

***
Thanks for letting me vent, Internets. You're a real trooper. I'm feeling much better now that I wrote this all out.

Yours much less stressed-ly,
Jane

Wednesday Wedding Weecap

Dear Internets,

I don't want to annoy anyone by talking too much about wedding stuff on this blog. But since a few people asked for details, I figured I'd give a quick update.

We have a location (Zilker Clubhouse - I've wanted to get married there since I was 17, and it overlooks the park where Achilles proposed) and a date (3/27/2010). I picked out my dress yesterday.

Here's the dress I almost bought* - I love it, but it is just too formal for me. Maybe someday I'll win an Academy Award or something and wear a fancy dress like this, only without the train, because that would just be weird.



Or maybe I'll just stick to making cupcakes and getting distracted by butterflies. Anyhoodles.

Happy Wednesday!

Love,
Jane

*OK, so technically, I *did* buy the dress, decided I had made the wrong decision when everyone told me they liked the other (polar opposite) finalist better, freaked out, and begged (nicely) to be allowed to exchange it for the other dress. I hope this will be my one and only "Bridezilla" moment. I am going to send cookies and a gift card to the saleslady who helped me to thank her for putting up with my Crazy. She was a sweatheart.

As promised

Dear Internets,

Four years ago, a friend convinced me that I should buy an extra 3-day pass to ACL Fest, and sell the ticket once the festival sold out.

By early summer, ACL Fest still hadn't sold out. The friend who suggested I buy the extra ticket flaked out completely and decided not to go to the festival at all. I had an extra ticket and no one to go with.

On an impulse, I offered my extra ticket to a friend who was in Arkansas finishing up his last year of law school. Abe and I had kept in touch off and on since high school, but had recently been emailing each other more frequently: he had torn his Achilles tendon earlier that summer at an ultimate frisbee tournament and, since he couldn't drive or walk well, had been essentially housebound for several months. I had an insane boss whose weird demands kept me from having a social life. We were both having fairly miserable summers.

To my surprise, Abe said he'd love to take my extra ticket. He only had one class on Fridays that fall, and he figured he'd be able to skip it and ride down to Austin with an old college roommate who was also attending ACL Fest. Besides, he said, since he had torn his Achilles tendon and not his ACL, he wouldn't be exceeding the festival's irony quotient.

So, three years ago Abe, his former roommate Ian, and Ian's friend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend Jennifer piled into Ian's car and drove down to Austin for ACL Fest 2006.

That weekend we danced like hippies at Ray LaMontagne and sang along with Willie Nelson and tried our best to stay cool in the 100+ degree heat. I laughed so much my face hurt. By the third night, I was pretty sure I never wanted the weekend to end.

Unfortunately, the weather seemed to have other plans. That Sunday night, a major thunderstorm hit just before Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (the headliners) were supposed to take the stage. When the band still hadn't taken the stage 30 minutes into their allotted time slot, thousands of other festival-goers headed home, assuming the lightening wouldn't stop and the band wouldn't be allowed to play. Abe, Jennifer, Ian and I huddled near the concession stands, still holding out hope.

Finally, the lightening and thunder stopped and the band took the stage. As the opening bars to "Listen to Her Heart" began to play, I touched Abe's arm to let him know that Jennifer and I were going to move closer to the stage. As he looked down at me, it hit me like a ton of bricks: I really liked this guy.

We danced and sang in the rain like we were the only people in the world. At some point during the concert, Abe put his hand on my shoulder. "I owe you a ticket to ACL Fest next year," he said.

By ACL Fest 2007, Abe had finished law school and moved back to Austin, and I had just purchased my condo. We had only been officially dating for a few months, so we spent the festival staring moonily into each others' eyes and holding hands and likely being fairly obnoxious.

Two weeks before ACL Fest 2008, Abe moved in with me to my condo.

And two weeks ago, Abe knelt down in the mud at ACL Fest 2009. He told me that on the way home from the festival three years ago, he'd told Jennifer and Ian that he was going to marry me someday. He held my hand and asked me to marry him, and I cried and said yes, and he gave me a ring.

And hopefully, this is the part where we live happily ever after.

Love,
Jane

Baby, tonight I've got a question for you

Dear Internets,

She said yes.



Yours truly,
Achilles