STD

No, no...not a disease...I'm talking about save the dates!

I love these cards from Bird and Banner that I found through this blog. Very cute and creative and unique. We want our invitations to be more on the traditional side, but something like this might be a fun idea for a save the date.

Here's a random wedding thought: I've read that it's tacky to use labels to address invitation envelopes, that you should print the address directly onto the envelope. And to that I say, eff you good sir!

My poor little mijo

We had an eventful night here at the Gantin/Marnon household. Mac was outside on the porch like he is every night, and got scared by a possum rustling in the bushes below. He BOLTED toward the house, but unfortunately there was a sliding glass door between him and the inside. He frantically ran around and found his way inside, but was very shaken up and had a bloody nose! We picked him up and cuddled him and took him into the bedroom to calm him down. (And I swear, he just eats that shit up...he always starts to purr when you baby him like that...) I've never seen a cat with a bloody nose before, so I was quite scared too. Good old google and M's Cat First Aid iPhone app told us that since the bleeding stopped (quickly), there was really nothing to worry about. It is so hard to see my bebe scared and in pain!! Worst feeling in the world.

I took this picture a few days ago.

CNN.com

I hate the new layout. What were they thinking?

I might have to change my home page.

The red band at the top makes me think there is breaking news. And it looks 80s.

The layout is funkitty funkish.

It's really happening

We have a photographer! Tiffanyphotography.com

We booked a dj!

I decided I'm probably doing most flowers myself, but in case I buy altar arrangements, I have a florist for that!

No turning back now...:)

The Alfred Angelo experience

I heard I had to do it...just for the experience. I was drawn in with promises of $99 gowns.

(Before I start the bashing, I have to say that several - more than several - good friends have had great luck at both Alfred Angelo and David's Bridal. They found gorgeous dresses. Unfortunately I didn't have their luck.)

I walked in with Tom and Casey, and the first thing we asked Sales Lady was if they had champagne. No. Can we go buy our own champagne at the Ralph's next door? Yes! Awesome! We poured our shitty champagne into little plastic cups and toasted to me finding a gorgeous, cheap dress.

At the risk of sounding bitchy and pissing off the BBWs of the world, I think that if you are a size 28W, this is the store for you! They regularly stock those sizes, which I realize is not the case at the higher end boutiques so therefore hard to envision what the gown will actually look like when ordered and altered.

I tried on gown after gown with huge fake diamonds, cheap, gaudy beading, 20 layers of crinoline underneath the skirt, horribly executed stitching, and nothing fitting correctly. I could try on a 6 in one dress and it fit loosely, and then try on another dress in a size 14 and it wouldn't even zip up.

I couldn't look through the racks of dresses myself. Sales Lady had to look for me then bring me what she thought was appropriate. I'd give her feedback, and she'd bring another dress. Wouldn't this process be a whole lot easier if I found what I liked instead of her guessing!?

I told her I wasn't spending more than $700 on a dress*, but she continued to bring dresses that were twice that amount. Some were nicer than others...unfortunately the nicest ones were $2,000. Sales Lady was like a used car salesman. "This dress is $1,800...ok $1,500....well I really like you and feel like we've developed a strong bond in the 4 minutes I've known you so I'll give you my employee discount so it's $1,200...actually my assistant manager just told me that I could knock another $100 off the price." Shady! I think if I would have stood there in silence long enough I could have gotten the dress for a dollar.

So to sum up the experience today, I'll say that Alfred Angelo is like the Ross Dress for Less of the bridal gown world - no thank you.


*The reason I limited the price to $700 is because my front runner so far is a Maggie Sottero that is beautiful and flattering and well made and actually perfect...all for the lovely price of $700.


I was going to end here, but I actually think I'll post some examples of the dress tragedies I tried on today. Michael, don't look if you don't want to, but these are nothing like the actual dress I'll wear so it's really not giving anything away...





I really wish I could zoom in on the beads. Think elementary school friendship bracelet. The face says it all...




















Why do I have an spare tire of dress wrapped around my thighs??





















Cheap gaudy beading? Check! Champagne? Check!





















The best dress we found all day! Tom spilled his drink on it, so we hung it back up quickly and ran out of there!

Boulder Trip!

Older sis got married earlier this summer, and we spent the long weekend in Boulder celebrating their marriage. We had a blast! (As we always do when we visit Boulder.)

We started off the weekend going shopping at Costco for their BBQ party in the park non-wedding reception celebration...yes I believe that was the official name. =) We left Costco with 2 regular grocery carts and one of those flats - the ones you normally carry big screen TVs on, but they also come in handy for $585 worth of meat...

Hmmm do I help Michael push 2 carts, or do I take funny pictures of him trying to do it all himself? Definitely take pictures!



















Then we helped make 250 cupcakes. A friend did the bulk of the work, but we helped with icing and making decorative roses (*icing and decorative roses not actually seen here, but I promise we made them. Also note the bottle of wine next to the cupcakes haha!)





























Dad and his beautiful special lady friend (BSLF) got in on the BBQ prep action by marinating vegetables. This is possibly the closest my dad has ever come to cooking. (*Side note: M and I first met BSLF several weeks ago, but this was her first time meeting my 2 sisters and their SOs. She was tons of fun. M and I had breakfast one day with her dad and 2 brothers who live in Denver, and they were a crack up...like a comedy team hosting our breakfast. I love it when everyone gets along!)
















We went to Jump Street. Talk about WOW! It's a giant room filled with trampolines (on the walls too!) and tons of padding. Obviously a great place for funny pictures. You must check out the video on their website...some people obviously spend a little too much time at Jump Street.


































Seeeesters jumping!

























































Then M sprained his ankle and I strained my back and that was the end of Jump Street. This was a huge self discovery moment of the fact that we are getting OLD.




























Isn't it hilarious that we don't help each other up, we take pictures of the other person after they fall?! Ahhhh I can feel the love!


Katie kicked my arse at basketball. Note the distraction I'm providing in the background, and she still beat me!















Then it was BBQ time!














We had all kinds of grilled animal carcasses, and veggie burgers and grilled veggies for non-meat eaters like myself. Potato salad. Chips. Dips. Hummus. Olives. Cheese. And of course the 250 cupcakes. What an awesome way to celebrate the marriage of a beautiful and fabulous couple!

My background noise

It's hard to write this without feeling whiny. I hate feeling whiny. It reminds me of someone else in my life, who shall remain nameless. But I suppose everyone needs to whine occasionally, so here is my best effort...

I've had it up to here (*hand held high over my head*) with feeling tired and achy all the time. Lupus sucks. And I have a pretty mild case. I can't imagine how life is affected for someone who has heart/kidney/lung/other organ issues.

I wake up to aching joints and muscles, and the pain makes it hard to get out of bed, walk to the bathroom, put on clothes. It hurts to talk in the mornings - Michael now understands my different noises and grunts that replace words...did I mention how wonderful he is? I take an extra long, extra hot shower. (So much for being an environmentalist!) I'm always late to work, but getting there before 9 is difficult...if I wake up earlier, I hurt more and it takes me longer to get ready. (Does that even make sense to someone who doesn't suffer from chronic pain??) I need tons of sleep.

I'm in pain all the time. All. The. Time. But at this point, after 8 years, I've almost become immune to it. I heard someone once describe it as having the radio on for a long time. When you first turn on the radio, you hear it loudly, it's in the foreground...but as you become used to having it play, you don't hear it as much, it becomes part of the background. That's how I feel - my pain has become background noise.

I take immunosuppressants to, well, suppress my immune system. Side effects - my hair is thinning, I have horrible bruising on my legs, higher rate of infections (for me, this seems to manifest itself in bladder infections), I get regular blood tests to monitor the function of my kidneys. Or is it my liver? I can't remember.

I take corticosteroids (no, not the bulking up kind!). Side effect after taking them for an extended period - I have low bone density in my hips and spine, and I'll develop osteoporosis if I take them longer. The catch 22 is that at this point, after taking the steroids for so long, it's hard to ween off of them. I've tried many many many times, but it always throws me into a flare up, and I end up back on the original dose. Another side effect - water retention...my left foot is swollen up to the size of an elephant's foot, which is not only super grody, it's also painful and sometimes hard to get a shoe on.

I've tried taking Boniva to reverse the bone loss, but it makes me throw up so I stopped taking it. Women in the restroom at work kept asking me if I'm pregnant. "Um, no, not so much, but could you get me some water?"

Not to mention...do you know how much all of this costs me?? This might be what pisses me off the most! I could be putting $100 to savings every month, for the past 8 years, plus interest...eek.

I'm thankful for my 2 sisters - one has Crohn's and the other is diabetic. We laugh about our illnesses. I call mine "my funk." Katie keeps me laughing with her poop stories, and comparing stories of people assuming vomiting = knocked up. (I just looked at my texts from Katie, and literally, 99% of them are about poo. God I hope no one ever steals my phone and reads my texts!) Jenny laughs about her "beep-o-meter" (AKA her continuous blood glucose monitor). Renaming stuff is so fun!

That's how you have to deal with it. Laughing. All 3 of us have challenges, but they're not stopping us from living our life, and I'm SO PROUD of us for that. We could pity ourselves, but we're too busy for that - we work full time, have social lives, are in serious relationships. Basically, we rock.

Photographic evidence

I used to be such a picture person. I took photos of everything - food, landscapes, people posed or candid, tons of Mac. But I've been slacking lately! Since I feel like I need to incorporate more pictures into my lovely blog, I'm going to have to steal pictures from other websites for this post. And I'll make an effort to take my own...starting tomorrow.

We went away this past weekend - 1) Camping in San Luis Obispo with Michael's family (even some Fresno fam drove down!), 2) wine tasting in Santa Ynez, 3) visiting friends in Santa Barbara. The Saturday camping activity was fishing on the family boat. Note to family for next time: don't everyone congregate at the front of the boat, because then water gushes in and the boat starts to sink, and Lauren really freaks out. It was confirmed that I get really grossed out by fishing. I hate to see the catching/killing in action. Michael's uncle caught the biggest fish caught - a small mouth bass that looked like this:











But much sadder in person because it just got hooked in the mouth after expecting a tasty treat only to be rewarded with being gutted and eatted.

On a nicer note, we joined another wine club! Longoria. It's actually the wine club we wanted to join last time we were in Los Olivos, but for some reason thought it was more expensive than it actually is. It's quite affordable, as far as wine clubs go. I'm very much looking forward to the upcoming events!

This is Longoria's tasting room:

















And their outside patio:















*Longoria pictures "borrowed" from here.

Emotions runneth over

I am so emotional lately! Ever since we got engaged, I tear up at many little things. Not bawling, or even crying, just tearing up. I imagine little snippets of what is yet to come - reciting our vows, being surrounded by our closest family and friends, the moment right before my dad walks me down the aisle, walking through the reception hall to greet every table.

Not to mention our first dance, choreographed, with wedding party back up dancers, to Thriller. Come on M, you KNOW you want to do that! Everyone needs to tell M that he doesn't really want to dance to something boring and traditional!

I get emotional at colors. Colors! Which I think I am now deeming "red and aqua." Because calling it aqua instead of tiffany blue really matters so much. The official name according to the stationery store is "berrylicious." But "red and berrylicious" just doesn't have the same ring to it.

I remember how excited I've always been, in the past 10 years, to get a phone call from Michael. I remember very specific times he called - one time, years before we started dating, he called while I was at work, and I stepped out of the laboratory into the hallway to take the call, and the world around me disappeard - looking back I can still feel the huge smile on my face. I remembered this specific instance while walking through the parking garage on my way to work this morning, and it brought tears to my eyes.

I need to invest in some serious waterproof mascara for the big day.

Red and tiffany blue

I LOOOVVVVEEEE this color combination. Perfect for a spring or summer wedding. (M will probably get mad at me for giving away too many details. =) At first I liked a darker turquoise but M thought it was too bold, so we decided on a dark red/tiffany blue combo. And I love the centerpiece with different types of flowers and shades of red!

Now that we have a date, I don't want to wait 11 months for the wedding! There is going to be a lot of google image searching "red tiffany blue" in the next 11 months. =)




















I don't remember where I found this board so I can't give credit...I think it's all over the place anyway...

The date

It's official - we have a date! July 10, 2010. It is so exciting and makes it seem more real now.

We also took some engagement photos with a really cool photographer, Jeremy Lloyd.

A little bit about my title

I've been meaning to do this post since I started the blog way back when. I love the Grateful Dead, thanks to the old ex. (haha I called you old!) I'm sure the song Cassidy was written while on acid and a cocktail of whoknowswhatother drugs and is a jumble of nonsense...but this one line stuck out to me. I want my life to be its own design. I want to be an original. I don't want to copy anyone else, or envy anyone else's life, or be pressured to live my life a certain way...I want to do it my way!

Two posts = a productive lunch hour!

Staying grounded

I'm reading several blogs by people planning their weddings and NOT planning to spend a small fortune...and it's refreshing. (A huge THANK YOU to all those people showing me that it's not necessary to spend a fortune.) We're planning to spend much much less than the average $27k - not necessarily because we don't have it, but because we don't NEED to spend that much, because we can do it for less and it will be just as beautiful, because the economy sucks and it's not smart to spend a ton of cash.

I've also talked to several friends who said they would do their weddings differently, that they would spend less if they could go back...and we want to follow their advice!

There is also the environmental hippie side of me that is saying, do you really NEED a ton of decorations and other "stuff" to be used once then end up in a landfill?

I can totally see how you can get sucked into blowing the budget because you want the perfect dress and shoes and photographer and everything else - I'm trying to avoid this. My goals are to stay frugal, keep reminding myself that no matter how much we spend it's not going to be perfect, shop bargains and sales - mostly remember that this day is about love and being surrounded by our closest friends and family, it's not about material objects.

One thing that is awesome due to the horrid state of the economy - the ability to negotiate! Every reception venue we've talked to is hurting for business and willing to be flexible. We haven't signed anything yet...but soon we will have a date and a location!

Does anyone have any amazing budget-saving advice??

So exciting!!!

The restaurant in my office building, The Nozy Cook (or the Cozy Nook depending on who you ask), is now serving burritos. Uh oh I know where all my lunch money is going now! They have a vegan version, and also a bean/cheese version that I add tomato and stuff to. I'm also addicted to their breakfast burrito (or "crackito" according to Natalie) that has eggs.

Yes their beans are vegetarian too! I made her go through her entire bean cooking process with me just in case she didn't fully understand the concept of vegetarian. (A la "You don't eat meat? OK, I give you lamb.")

Did I mention I love Mexican food??

This is especially exciting considering I have implemented Nozy Cook boycotts in the past for the following reasons:

• Charging extra for ketchup to put on my veggie burger.
• Continuing to add mayo to my veggie burger even when I specify "NO MAYO ANYWHERE ON THE PLATE"
• Always charring the broccoli on my baked potato, even when I ask for it undercooked. I don't like burnt broccoli thanks.
• etc, etc, etc.
  

Shout out

I'd like to say what upppp to my 3rd loyal reader Jamie. She has a super cool blog here.

Be prepared for a ton of wedding posts

Matt, Aimee, my 2 loyal readers, this blog might start to realllly bore you. =)

I'm reading this blog - www.thebrokeassbride.com. Broke ass = my wedding budget too!! Check out some of her wedding photos. Wow. Gorgeous. Love the colors. And she won the services of her photographer! I emailed the photographer to see if he wanted to shoot my wedding for free too. Everyone send me your bloggy vibes that we get a 5 star photographer for a 1 star price.

Wedding research - the beginning

I can't believe how much weddings cost!! I'm starting my research, and it's really really ridonkulous. For the ceremony alone:

church 500 (700 for non-parishioners, but as of last night we are official members! meaning we get personalized donation envelopes instead of the generic white ones, don't be jealous)
priest 100+
church cantor 150
church pianist 150
altar servers 20
mandatory church wedding planner 150
mandatory marriage prep class 75 (or 250 for a weekend retreat, no thank you)
mandatory personality test 75
marriage license 50

Are you kidding me?? And it looks like there isn't much we can do to save on any of those costs if we want to get married in our church.

Let's not even talk about the reception. I'm starting to get quotes on those...and wow...just wow. I had no idea what things were going to cost, but after reading sooo many wedding blogs (I've found some good ones that I'm following regularly now, very helpful), I'm apparently looking at pretty average prices. The average price of a wedding is $25,000.

Re-read that...twenty. five. thousand. dollars!! I can buy Mac 625 bags of his specialty cat food for that amount = 1875 months of cat food = 156 years of cat food = I could feed 8 cats for their entire lives.

We're hoping to come in waaaaay under that average cost by limiting the guest list. Other options would be to have a lunch reception, or a reception with cocktails and hor d'oeurves (I didn't look up how to spell that word and I think I got it right, so proud of me, spelling bee champ in 4h grade!), or a Friday or Sunday wedding. But that's not us. And above all, we want to stay true to ourselves and throw the party we want. And if that party can only be for X amount of people instead of 200 people, then so be it!

Something I'm really looking forward to is several DIY projects. Invitations, centerpieces, place cards and table numbers, decorations...oh the possibilities!!

Mac is totally going to be the ring bearer.

Laziness

Thanks to my wonderful fiance, we get to sleep in our bed tonight!

For the past few nights, we slept in our guest bed. We (AKA Michael) did many many loads of laundry over the weekend, but we didn't have time to fold it, so it sat in a pile on our bed. Then *I* had the brilliant idea that we didn't actually have to fold 10 loads of laundry if we slept in the guest bed! Brilliant, or lazy, it could go either way.

I woke up this morning to our real bed freshly made with clean sheets, and all the laundry folded and put away. Amazing.

Please tell me I'm not the only one who is this lazy! There was just so much going on and we were so tired after work last night to fold laundry!

Randomness

I'm so ridiculously happy!!! It is not an exaggeration to say I thank God every day for all of the wonderfulness that he has given me.

I'm going to wear more dresses this summer. I'm self conscious about bruises and cankles, but I'm going to get over it and look cute in dresses! I'm wearing a dress right now actually.

My older seeeester got married yesterday!!! I'm so excited for her. She is having a BBQ/non-traditional reception with all their friends in September to celebrate. The BBQ is totally their style and I'm so excited for it.

Mac is deathly afraid of my vacuum. However, I have all the windows open right now and TWO neighbors are vacuuming and he isn't afraid of that. He did, however, jump about a foot in the air when my phone fell two inches from my laptop to the couch. He is a crazy kitty and keeps us laughing every day.

Speaking of cats, my friend Kim lost her cat Chester recently. SO sad. I cried. Please see the following SAT-style description of how awesome Chester was...

Kim : Chester :: Lauren : Mac

I'm pretty much non-stop looking at invitations and colors and dresses and everything wedding related. We're hoping for next summer. The only detail we have planned so far is that it's going to be as small as possible. Seriously...small. The thought of a huge event stresses me out. But the problem is...Michael has a huge family! It will take some creative planning, but I'm soooo excited about the planning! You should see the monster of an Excel spreadsheet I have going on right now.

It's a gorgeous day and I'm going outside to take advantage of it!

My favorite movie is the Lion King.

I've watched it literally one zillion times. I can quote the entire movie while watching it.

Michael and I have been saying this scene from the Lion King all weekend.

Betrothed.
Be-what?
Betrothed. Intended. Affianced.
Meaning...?
One day, you two are going to be married!

When I grow up...

I want to be a party planner. Or wedding planner. Or something of that nature.

It seems fun. And I'd get to plan the crap out of parties. Which I love. (Hello, Michael's birthday trip to Paso!? That turned out to be a complete success!) And I wouldn't be stuck staring at a computer all day. And I'd get to interact with people other than dorky engineers and geologists and scientists.

Seriously, if you got the engineers and geologists and scientists all in one room, I could pick out who belonged to which category, just based on appearances. And I could, to 98% accuracy, pick out which discipline they belonged to...eg, I could take all the scientists and classify them as chemists, biologists, etc...

I don't think I'd ever have enough guts to change careers like that. Or money to start my own biz. Or any clients. And then I wouldn't be able to say that I'm saving the world, which is a huge plus of my career.

That is kinda what I do now as an engineer. Except replace "party" with "soil vapor and groundwater treatment system."

I got my C card!

I ramble when I write long posts, it’s just what I do! And I didn’t proofread this post, because it was too long, so hopefully you can decipher my retahded English skills. I also started writing this on Easter, and continued writing over the weeks following, which is why the timeline is a little effed up but I'm not going back and changing it now because I know you're smart enough to figure it out. =)

The Easter weekend was very special for me. I’ve been in RCIA, with Michael and his mom as my sponsors, since last October. At the Easter Vigil, I was confirmed and received my first communion. Back in October when I started RCIA, I didn’t think I would actually convert, I knew I had many questions and I wanted to learn more about the religion because it is important to Michael and I wanted to support him. When Michael and I talked about religion, he always made sure to tell me that I didn’t need to be Catholic for us to get married…we talked about how we wanted to have similar beliefs so we wouldn’t confuse the bejesus out of our bebes. And we did have similar beliefs. Now that I'm Catholic, I really don’t believe anything differently than before. I've been searching for religion for nearly 10 years now, and I've formed my beliefs…by becoming Catholic, I found a community where I can practice those beliefs. It is an amazing feeling…for 10 years I knew I wanted to be part of a religion, I knew I believed in God even though I was not taught that as a child (my mother is an atheist and looking back I think we were taught that there was no God, look at it through science, God can't be proven so you would be stupid to think there is a God, etc). Anyway, 10 years is a long time to be searching for something that you know you want, something you know you need, and not knowing what that something is. It is an amazing feeling to finally know what it is!

So like I said, I didn’t know back in October if I would convert. I kept asking questions and getting great/intelligent answers, and being involved in intelligent conversations about religion, so I kept going back. And somewhere in the middle of RCIA I realized that I had found the something I had been searching for. Something that gives me strength to deal with the lows in life, something that helps me celebrate the highs in life, an outlet to help me be thankful for all that I have and for the amazing world around me…also something that connects Michael and I and brings us closer together, and will continue to do that for the rest of our lives…and something that I can hopefully pass on to my kids.

Before Easter Vigil, everyone in RCIA said what they were thankful for. I'm so grateful to have Michael, whose love is never ending and is so supportive of me, and a relationship more wonderful than I ever could have imagined. And I'm grateful for Michael’s mom, who is like a mother to me, who is one of the most giving people I've ever met, and is a role model for what I want to be like when I am a mother myself. My sponsors were perfect because both Michael and his mom are examples of what a real Christian is (Lauren history: I grew up in a TX town where many people called themselves Christians but I don’t think they actually knew what that meant, and my family was hurt many times by their ignorance and unkind actions, so I always had a dislike for Christians until I moved to CA and saw that people can be Christians AND nice people), and their (Michael and his mom's) example helped lead me to the Catholic Church.

So now that Easter came and passed, Michael and I have still be going to church most weekends. I’m not going to be one of those people who thinks they HAVE to go to church every Sunday or I'm going to hell. It’s just a calming and almost meditative experience for me, so I like to go as much as I can to sorta take a deep breath and relax from the craziness of life.

I just had a great talk last weekend with Kari’s mom, who has studied many different religions. I really admire her for that! I don’t think anyone is right…I don’t think anyone is wrong…I think religion is a personal choice and we are all going to the same place, no matter if you pray to a Christian God, Hindu gods, or you don’t pray at all. I want to use my religion to be a better person in this world, not to worry about what is going to happen after I die.

I hate that some people assume I became Catholic so Michael and I could get married. Several people commented "Now that you're Catholic, there must be an engagement coming up soon!" Uh no, I did this for me, not him, thankyouverymuch.

Creative!

I made this diaper cake for my wonderful friend Candice, who is due this summer. I had so much fun making it I had to post it here! I used 140 diapers, rolled up, to make the "cake" and decorated with pink and brown ribbons and bows and flowers and fun baby things like a rattle and pacifier holder. I'm definitely not the uber creative type, but I love to exercise that side of my brain when I have the time. My next project is sewing nursing covers. (I think 99% of my friends are prego right now. =) I started making my first one, which was turning out really cute, and my sewing machine died! It's old and can perform two whole types of stitches...I bought it for like a dollar on ebay to see if I would get into sewing, and if I should invest in a more expensive machine. I will buy a better machine at some point in the near future, but for now I'm borrowing Kim's, who doesn't use hers. It has 25 stitch functions and is way more fun than my old POS! So anyway, I'm sewing these nursing covers, even though I'm pretty sure all of my friends already have nursing covers...but hey, maybe they need two! I'll post pics when they're completed. I have a list of things I want to sew...like matching boxers for Michael and I, how cute/make ya puke a little bit in your mouth are we?!

Another angry post

My little sis told me my last post was a bit too angry for my blog, but I've felt angry all week (ohhhh let me tell you, Michael has enjoyed that...not!!), so here is another one.

I'm at Subway today, ordering a sandwich. Two guys come storming in...both early 30s-ish, white, major attitudes. (Not that I'm racist against my own race, but they reminded me of the spoiled brat frat boys I went to USC with who thought they were better than everyone else because their daddies have money.) The guy says to the entire restaurant, "Is that someone's HONDA?" No answer... He says louder, "Hellllllooooooo, is that someone's HONDA??" A second guy replies it's his. The first guys says, "You're bumper is touching my VIPER!" Long story short, they go outside, the VIPER guy pulls his VIPER forward, and realizes that there is, in fact, no mark at all on his VIPER. And then of course there was engine revving and peeling out as VIPER guy drove off.

1. We don't care what kind of car you drive. You could say "you're touching my car" and that would have the same meaning. But no, you decided to announce to Subway that you drive a VIPER, and try to make the other guy feel less than you for driving a Honda. You do realize you're at Subway, right? Home of the $5 footlong. Maybe if you go across the street to the fancy and expensive steak house, you'll have more luck impressing people.

2. Maybe you should have thought to pull your car up to inspect for scratches BEFORE you go shouting for the Honda who hit you. Just an idea...

3. Unrelated, but VIPER guy's buddy was wearing a sleeveless T-shirt. Really? Gross.

Next week, I promise happy posts, with possible topics being animals, vacations, and/or my C card.

Dear old people, stay away from my computer, thanks.

Stick to your type writers.

Did you know that MS Word has this awesome function that allows you to automatically create a table of contents?! If you create headings throughout the report using a number format instead of typing them out manually, you can generate a TOC and then you don't have to go through a 500 page report and manually type all page numbers into the TOC, and then re-enter them manually when the pages change, and then re-re-enter them when the pages change yet again!

Another tip...you don't need to create 1,000 files for one report. Instead of creating separate Word documents for the cover, TOC, section 1, section 2...references, you can put them all in the same document! You can manipulate the headers and footers by inserting page breaks. A drawback to creating 1,000 files for one report: you have another 1,000 documents when you pdf the report. And a draft pdf. And a final pdf. And separate files for each of the 10 appendices. Ahhhh!! If you condense your shit a little, then when I have to go back to reference your 5 year-old report, I don't have to spend an hour just searching for the correct section. Uh. Maze. Ing.

Come on old people, I know you can do it!

This has been my world this week

I get in the elevator to go home after work, another guy gets in after me. We are both texting/emailing on our phones, totally oblivious to the rest of the world outside our phones. After about 2 minutes, he all of a sudden says, “is it just me or is the elevator not moving?” We had both forgotten to push the lobby button. Oooppss! We were both like, OK let’s not tell anyone that just happened.

I’m at Joann buying fabric, and there is no line to have my fabric cut, and there are two ladies behind the counter waiting to cut fabric. I put my fabric on the counter, and the lady asks if I’m ready.

Lauren: Yes

Joann lady: OK. Please take a number.

L: What?

J: Please take a number.

I look around to make sure I’m not cutting in line. There is definitely ZERO line. There are definitely TWO ladies waiting to cut my fabric. I take a number from the wheelie thingie anyway…

J: Number 8!

L: Yeah, right here…

J: Great, how can I help you?

Seriously?? I thought that kind of thing only happened in movies or sitcoms!

Hi fishie!

Recently I was walking in the grocery store parking lot, and I crossed paths with a bird. I said, "Hi birdie!" Like I'm 5 years old or something, haha, but I'm totally OK with being a dork like that. It reminded me of the time Rich and I were snorkeling in Hawaii...this was one of my first times snorkeling, if not THE first time. So I'm swimming along, saying "Hi fishie!"..."Oh, you're such a pretty fish!"..."Want some food fishie?" Rich swims over to me and says, you know people can hear you talking through your snorkel, right? HAHA!

An extension of my previous post

Like I said in my last post, M and I are starting to pray before we eat dinner. Last night was the first night that I attempted to say the prayer. And it's hard!! I'm not an overly creative or elaborative (ha like the word I just made up??) person, so I didn't get much further than "Thank you Lord for this meal and all you have given us." Apparently I need practice.

More birthday postage!

I was dreading this birthday, but it ended up being one of my best birthdays yet. It was literally like 3 weeks of celebration. Maybe 29 isn't so bad after all. =) I was surrounded by friends and family that I love dearly, including the loves of my life M&M. I'm so thankful for all that I have. It's easy to compare my life to others and say "I wish I had that and that and that," but when I start feeling like that, I try to realize what I DO have compared to people who are less fortunate. That is something that Michael and I are doing during Lent. We didn't give up anything. We are also making budget rules for ourselves...so instead of "spend less money on dining out" I'm going to limit myself to buying a mocha latte only on paydays, etc. Yes peeps, that is every other week. After looking at my Quicken I couldn't believe the amount of money I spent last month at La Muse buying mochas!! Completely unnecessary, especially during this economy crap. And, we are cooking more at home. Our RCIA leader suggested that we take that even further, and each time we cook a meal, hold hands and thank God for the food and all we have.

Anyway, back to the feeling super fortunate thing, by making this conscious effort to realize exactly how well off I am and not focusing on what I don't have, it makes me want to do something for others. I don't really know what I would do though. Maybe even something as simple as a donation to our church. I'm officially accepting suggestions!

Gum

I have to buy the Costco sized thing of gum because I literally chew like 8 pieces every day at work. I ONLY chew dark blue extra...except lately I have been incorporating a little Orbit Wintermint into the mix.

Thank God Chase is taking over

I bank with WaMu because it’s convenient. There is a branch downstairs from my office, so it’s easy to go to the ATM or go inside. Hopefully Chase will bring some much needed changes.
I tried to make a $85 purchase yesterday, and my card got declined. I use Quicken religiously, and I know have more than 85 fucking dollars in my account. Michael had to use his debit card to pay instead.

I call customer service. CSR#1 informs me that he can see the attempted transaction, and my card got declined because there was a problem with the merchant’s terminal, not my card. “Michael’s card worked just fine, can you explain that?” He repeated the same thing. “Is there a way to prevent this from happening in the future?” He repeated the same thing, and added that my card is fine so I can expect to be able to use it anywhere. “But it didn’t work fine at this location, so how do I know it won't happen again?” He repeats what he has already said…again. This is going nowhere, so I hang up. I go to the ATM and pull out $100 to repay Michael.

I called CSR#2 this morning to get someone else’s opinion, but don’t tell him I called yesterday. I explained the situation, and he says there is a hold on my account due to suspicious activity. Hmm, interesting. “I called yesterday and someone else told me something completely different, can you explain why?” He said he did see that I called yesterday, but today there is a hold on my account. Apparently the $5.40 pending charge from Netflix on my account that I have been charged monthly for about 3 years is suspicious. Okkkkaaaayyyyy. He transfers me to the fraud department to lift the hold.

I explain what happened to CSR#3. She doesn’t see a hold on my account. There is no report of suspicious activity. She says she will verify the $5.40 pending charge just to be extra extra safe and will put a note on my account that I called.

What. The. Fuck.

If only there weren’t a WaMu right downstairs! I would switch to BofA in a heartbeat.

Happy Birthday Lauren!

It's going to be a great year!

(Even though I'm old...)

Happy birthday Mac!

Today is Mac's birthday. I can't believe he is 7 already!! We bought him the automatic little box as a combo Christmas/birthday present, which is probably more a present for us than him. =)

I've had a headache for a week. I think it's a migraine but I'm going to the doctor to find out for sure. It has really sucked and I've had problems sleeping, which means Michael has also had problems sleeping. Sorry baby!!

I didn't give up anything for Lent. I wanted to, and I tried to think of something, I just couldn't think of anything good/possible/meaningful. I'm still thinking about it so I might start it a little late. I want to learn more about it and fully understand it before I partake, and not simply do it just for the heck of doing it.

I'm so excited to go to Boulder this weekend! Yay skiing, hiking, picnicking in the mountains, shopping on Pearl Street, birthday dinner, and meeting my dad's new girlfriend! I automatically like the new girlfriend for the sole reason that she is not the horrible bitch that was the previous girlfriend. No really, some of you guys met her, you know it's true!

I know my blog sucks, I'm OK with that

I mean, I don't know, I'm vain. I write about me, all me, all the time. I could probably write about some of the complex shit that goes through my brain all day long, like what if aliens are watching us, and how many Earth-like planets are out there besides us (I read a CNN.com article on this topic this week, and it was fascinating, but of course not enough information to satisfy me. They made a comment about something to the effect of, life could be sustained on another planet if there was water. Isn't that kinda human-centric? What if aliens living on planets in the Milky Way don't need water at all, but are actually made of 99% mercury, or even better, 99% of some substance that humans don't even realize is real. I start thinking about stuff like this, mostly what is out there, where the universe ends, and where we came from...and it frustrates me that I will likely never know the answer.)

Anyway! Back to me!! Me me me. I've had a killer migraine for like 24 hours now, and the only migraine medicine I had expired in 2006, but I still took it and it worked only a little. Enough to make me not want to shoot myself in the cabeza. Luckily Michael is on his way home from the Rite Aid right now with new migraine medicine so I should be better soon. Point being, I've spent a lot of time today lying in bed, in the dark, with minimal sound, which has given me time to think and think about posting more pictures on here. If you actually get to the pictures after reading the entire intro, you deserve a cookie.

We have 2 of these lovely white, tall, rotating fans. They do not have remotes, as we are keeping the fancier fan that has a remote for ourselves. If you want one or both* of them, they're yours. Otherwise, Goodwill has yet another donation coming from us.
*Did we promise one of these to Michael's old roommate? I can't remember. If we did, then you may only take one.

First Ash Wednesday! I know Ash Wednesday isn't exactly a picture-worthy holiday, like say Christmas, but I like pictures, and in my opinion, first things are picture-worthy. So this is Michael and me in his car after my first** Ash Wednesday Mass.
**OK I went to Ash Wednesday Mass with Michael last year, but I didn't get ashes, nor was I in the process of becoming Catholic, so it didn't really count.


Cooooold chillin'