Crisis Averted

My dress is back in my life. I called for the fiftieth time this afternoon and the tailor was there and profusely apologizing. He apparently got sick and was actually in the hospital. I sort of veered toward Bridezilla as my thoughts ran along the lines of, "Well, I'm sorry you were sick, but this is my wedding dress!" I didn't actually say that, though. I said I was sorry he was sick and we scheduled a time for me to come in tomorrow and make sure everything fits.

I was more freaked out about this than I was letting myself think, though, because when I hung up the phone, I started crying. It was kind of ridiculous, but just the relief of knowing I had my dress was too much for me at that moment, I guess.

We moved most of my stuff down to Providence today, although somehow my room is still a mess. Granted, I do have a few more things I'll be sending back down with Jason when he comes up on Tuesday night. Plus, I have 3 garbage bags full of stuff for the Salvation Army. Plus 2 bags full of garbage to be taken downstairs. Plus a dresser, 2 bookshelves and the bed are still here So the room is still basically full, which is kind of crazy when I think about all of the stuff that is now piled in Jason's living room waiting to be sorted through.

Jason's friend Dave and I loaded everything into my car and Dave's minivan. I told Dave he's my new hero because we fit everything in there. This is not a small feat. We moved my dresser, a 5 foot bookshelf, a 7 foot bookshelf, my desk and hutch, a large wicker chest that I keep blankets in, and at least 20 boxes, 2 of which were 3 feet square. In a minivan and an Elantra. Yeah, Dave is a moving rock star.

I'm just so glad it's done. Mostly. I just need to pack up the remnants and get things organized for the honeymoon (Yay!)

Hostage

Just as I am starting to chill out about this whole wedding thing and feel like things will work out, my dress is being held hostage. I dropped it off at the tailor a few weeks ago and he pinned the dress up and gave me a claim check and told me it should be ready by October 7th. Since that was a Sunday, I figured I would give him until Monday, which was a holiday, so I still wasn't too concerned by Tuesday. Then I started calling and getting no answer. Over the past few days I have left a couple of messages and called no less than 25 times. A couple of friends live upstairs from his shop and one of them ran downstairs last night and then told me that he wasn't at the shop.

Which means, as of right now, I have no wedding dress. This was just the first alteration. Heaven forbid, now, with a week left to go, that anything else should need to be done to the dress. I was also going to have him steam the wrinkles out of my veil, but I guess I need to have someone else do that. I may only be wearing the veil part of my wedding ensemble come Saturday the 20th.

Jason is irate. I called him tonight to tell him about it and he just kept getting madder and madder and talking about how we're going to sue if I don't get my dress.* I told him that I didn't know what I would do if I didn't get my dress, but, FYI, I would probably be in tears on our wedding day. He said it wouldn't get to that point. He wouldn't let it.** So I guess if we don't hear anything by Monday he's going to call the city or the police or the Attorney General or someone who will give him some sort of satisfaction.

The thing is, the friends who live upstairs recommended the tailor because they go to him all the time and he's great and they couldn't say enough good about him. When I went upstairs to borrow tape from one of them tonight so that I could tape a note to the tailor's door, she was really shocked and said she hadn't seen him or his van the night before, which was odd. So, I really hope that nothing bad has happened. However, I really, really need my dress. More importantly, I need my dress with the alterations completed.


*Although that's not really indicative of much since he generally wants to sue someone for most anything as a get rich quick scheme. Personally, I think this totally beats the emotional distress claim of the judge who sued the dry cleaners who lost his pants.

**So I know this is a really less than ideal situation, however Jason's fierceness about it is actually very endearing. He's all mad because I'm worried and he doesn't want me to be sad and he's going to take care of it, gosh darn it. My hero.

Dancing Poll

We're having dancing at the wedding and are working on the playlist. Sky's the limit since we're just pulling from our own libraries and putting it on an itunes playlist. My question for you is, what makes you shake your booty? I want fun songs that will make people want to dance, but don't fall into the YMCA/Chicken Dance categories.

The playlist is kind of 80's heavy right now, which is fine, but we want multi-generational appeal too. So please, I would love your suggestions.

******
Things are coming together nicely. Last night I met with the caterer and Deborah, our friend who is acting as the day-of coordinator, and I feel totally confident in both of their abilities. My caterer is doing two shindigs this weekend for 350+ people so basically she could do my piddly little 85-person wedding sleeping, with her hands tied behind her back, underwater.

I scored with Cambridge Parking and Transportation this morning. The guy in charge of permits is a total Boston guy who let me block off 10 meters near the church, which they usually don't do for weddings, and only charged me for 5 meters. He asked me to bring him a finger sandwich after. Or it was more like "aftah".

This weekend is the big move of my furniture and large boxes and everything else I won't need for the next couple of weeks. It's really not going to be too bad, I just actually have to take the time to throw my remaining things into boxes over the next couple of nights. For those of you in the market, I highly recommend a scientist boyfriend because they have access to awesome moving boxes. Right after we started dating, he gave me some boxes for my move labeled "Hazardous Waste" with big orange warning symbols on the sides. The majority of my boxes for this move have pictures of fruit flies all over them. Much more interesting than the liquor boxes I usually use, and I have less chance of being mistaken for an alcoholic.

Work In Progress

Disclaimer: Jason is the one who emailed this to me.

Ring A Ding Ding

I got my ring on Friday night! So maybe two weeks before the wedding is cutting it a little close, but Jason feels sufficiently guilty and I won't dwell on it. Basically it's been a whole panoply of procrastination and finding the right thing. The important thing is, I have it now.

I sort of figured it was happening Friday night when Jason A) asked if I could be down in Providence by 8 PM, and B) wouldn't tell me where we were going for dinner, and C) took me to a fancy-schmancy place for dinner. Our normal Friday night is me showing up in Providence whenever I get there and usually wandering over to Apsara Palace* with Matt from Jason's lab and sometimes Matt's girlfriend. So this was different.

So I got to Providence by 8 as requested, and we headed to a fancy place where I had lamb and chocolate strawberry trifle.** Then we headed down to the river to go for a walk, which I figured was where the magic would happen. We walked down toward the river and I saw the gondolas that they have out on Waterfire night were there. I said, "Oh look, they have gondolas out tonight too." Then Jason started talking to the gondolier and I realized that the gondola was there for us.

We went on a nice ride down the river, and the gondolier, Marcello, serenaded us. Jason had brought sparkling apple cranberry juice that we drank out of champagne flutes. At a certain point Jason officially popped the question and I said yes and got my pretty ring that I'm still getting used to wearing and not catching on things.

Afterwards, he was so pleased to know that he had managed to surprise me with the whole gondola ride. Very cute.

So now I suppose it's officially official with all the officialness. Good thing since I've been planning a wedding and all.


* I recommend the Summer Rolls, Hot & Sour Soup, Singapore Noodles and Bee Boong with Seafood AND Tofu. Jason recommends the Scallion Pancakes. Matt recommends the Sesame Tofu and Seafood Bean Curd Soup.

** My new favorite dessert, and I am very happy that my friend Aleigh got me the trifle dish off my registry and that my friend Elaine got the little footed dessert bowls that kind of look like mini trifle dishes so they're perfect for serving the trifle, as my mom pointed out to me. By the way, registering rocks.

Moving In

Last night I made a good dent in packing up my stuff for my move down to Providence. I have been trying to move down gradually, taking several boxes with me every time I go down, and loading Jason's car whenever he comes up to take back down with him. We're moving my furniture next Saturday and I'm hoping to just be left with a bed and some clothes to get me through the last week in my old apartment.

Jason's sister is taking over my part of the lease, which worked out very well. We were going to swap beds, because I think mine is slightly nicer, but as we really thought about it, the idea of swapping one queen size mattress and boxspring for another queen size mattress and boxspring seemed pretty ridiculous. Especially since moving the boxspring into Jason's apartment was a feat of engineering due to an annoying metal railing on his porch and a sharp right turn immediately inside the front door. Maybe eventually I'll reclaim my own bed, but for now it's all Marissa's.

As I was getting into the packing I started thinking about what I was doing and feeling excited about the prospect of moving in with Jason and living with him and starting our life together. It made me happy to think in just a few weeks we would see each other every day and not have to deal with the two-city thing anymore.

However, when he came over later last night and we started going over the schedule for the wedding day the familiar feelings of stress set in and I found myself getting snippy with him again.

So the bad news is, I'm really stressed about the wedding and all the various details actually working out. It has kind of become something to get through. The good news is, I really am excited to be marrying Jason. In the end, that's the important part of the equation.

Load Off My Mind

I just got permission from a friend of mine who works around the corner from the church to use a few spaces in their parking lot. Now I don't have to wrangle with the city of Cambridge for some spots on one of the busiest weekends of the Fall.

Grease

You know, if I'm going to waste calories on crap food, I'd really like the crap food to be worth it. At one of my jobs I am at the intersection of nothing and the Mass Turnpike, wherein we are extremely limited in our choices for dining establishments. I thought I had found a good little lunch spot that made a decent grilled chicken salad, until I noticed the last time I went there that even though the food prep lady was wearing a rubber glove (ONE rubber glove), she used the gloved hand not only to prepare the food, but also to take your money and count out change. Then she would go back to food prep and NOT CHANGE THE GLOVE. I give her props for only using one hand to prep the food and for only touching the food with that one, gloved hand, but I think she kind of missed the health department's point.

So today I ventured into the little corner market, which has a surprising array of Asian grocery items at extravagant prices. I wanted to buy some red bean mochi, but it was $4.99 for a little package. They have a lunch selection of hot Chinese food and I decieded to throw caution to the wind and have General Tso's chicken since I've only had salads and sandwiches on whole wheat with no mayo for lunch this whole week. I got the chicken, some fried rice, and 2 little crab rangoons for $6.

And I just threw most of it away.

I don't know if I'm just getting hypersensitive to unhealthy stuff, or if this was especially bad, but the amount of grease in my little package was unreal. I kind of want to wipe my mouth out with a napkin to remove the grease layer. Even the rice was greasy. I mean, I know it's fried rice, but come on. It's like they fried it, and then stuck it in a big bowl of oil, and then served it up. The chicken was absolutely tasteless. I probably managed to consume a few hundred calories despite tossing it and that just kind of makes me mad. Such a waste.

*************

I really liked the Autumn template I had up last night, but the colors Blogger offers are very limited and the only darker color than the red for the text print was black, which sort of loses the point of the pretty Autumn template. I wish I could leave the orange in the background, but lighten the area in a block right around the text. I suppose I could just bold all of my entries from now on. Anyway, still futzing - in my spare time.

And, holy crap, I'm getting married 3 weeks from tomorrow. One thing I have to say about work being so busy is it keeps me from obsessing too much about the wedding, but on the other hand I keep remembering these little things and then realizing another week has passed.

Shocker

Take the Quiz here!

New Template

Before I add all the links on my sidebar and everything, what do you think?

Made-Up

A couple of weeks ago I ventured to MAC with my friend Andrea, aka MAC's best customer, to buy wedding make-up. I wanted some quality stuff that would work for the wedding and that I could also wear every day because despite faithfully putting on a bit of make-up every morning, a couple of people recently have mentioned how I don't wear any make-up at all. Hmph.

So you can imagine when the MAC girl got done with me I felt like I was just about ready to start swinging around a pole, if you know what I mean. I did buy the foundation (very sheer, very nice) and the moisturizing concealer and the eyeshadow. I have been gradually adding more to my make-up repertoire in the morning, in an effort to look more professional and grown-up. I have started wearing mascara even, which is a big step, but honestly it really does make my eyes look nice.

The one thing MAC couldn't help me with was lipstick. I am looking for a long-wearing all-day type lipstick and MAC didn't have anything like that in a color I liked. I popped into Sephora and the saleslady put a lip stain on me which promptly sank into every little crevice on my slightly chapped lips and made me look like a corpse. A corpse with bleeding lips. Pretty!

Tonight on my way home I stopped at Macy's and got conned into an Estee Lauder lipstick. No, actually the lady was very nice and helpful and patient and we found a great color, but I discovered shortly after buying it that the phrase "All-Day Lipstick" doesn't mean the same thing to me and Estee Lauder. So that's going back to the store.

In the end, I may just go with Cover Girl. Last summer I bought this long lasting lipcolor that really does stick on my lips and not let go. The color I have is too pink for the wedding day, so I'm hoping they have a good color for an Autumn afternoon/evening wedding. Unfortunately, unlike the department stores, you can't try Cover Girl on, so I may waste a little money in my search, but hopefully not too much. You would think the fancy make-up people would want to cash in on that long lasting lipcolor thing.

On another note, yes, yes, I know I need to fix my template. But, let's see, last night I was working until 10:30. I wasn't actually AT work. I left work around 8, carrying a large sheaf of papers to go through once I got home and had a little food and sanity. Today I had an all-day continuing legal education class, which is fascinating, but means that tonight is catch up on work time. Same goes for tomorrow after part 2 of the CLE class. So, template is kind of low on my list.

My sister* Beckie referred me to this template site. I lurve this girl's templates, only... Well, when I did a test run with my blog on one of the pretty, pretty templates, I realized that the text colors blend too much into the background colors and that the text is very very tiny. I don't really have the patience to figure out the html and change these things, which is really too bad because I like the templates a lot. Maybe I should email the designer and make suggestions.


*Not my real sister, but everyone always asks if we are sisters because we look so much alike. There is this picture from her bridal shower that we both had to look at for a few seconds before figuring out who was who. When I used to hang out with her and her two little sisters it was like insta-siblings.

Target* is Not My Best Friend Anymore

You know what a bride one month out from her wedding doesn't need? A discount department store emailing her last minute wedding weight loss and fitness tips. Yes, I KNOW everyone is going to be staring at me all day and I should be subsisting on water and fruit and maybe some ex-lax because I'm THE BRIDE and it's ALL ABOUT ME**, but seriously, shut up.


*One of the places we registered.
**You would not believe how the websites and the bridal people push the Bridezilla mentality.

Hyperventilating

A friend just casually mentioned that my wedding is the same weekend as Head of the Charles.

My wedding is in Cambridge.

Holy crap.

Sticking my head between my knees now.

More Wedding Stuff Because I'm Getting Really Boring Like That

Well, I finally sucked it up and went to the tailor yesterday to get my dress altered. It needs to be let out of course. Sigh. The shop is on a semi-busy street and I was standing on the little stool facing the mirror for about a half hour, my back to the windows, my zipper not quite up all the way, as if to say, "Hello, world! Check out my bra!"

The tailor was recommended to me by a couple of girls who live in an apartment right above him. Personal recommendations are always good. Plus, his name is Coco, and I couldn't resist that. While he was pinning me up, my friend Christy walked by outside and came in to say hi. And thus I was able to prove that I do indeed know the girls upstairs.

The best part is the alterations are going to cost around $100. That's to let it out, hem it and bustle it. Considering David's Bridal was talking $250-$300 for the same items, I think I came out pretty good overall.

And that's really the last big thing. I just still need to order the flowers and the pies.

Oh, yes, the pies. After pricing a few bakeries and really dragging my feet on the whole cake issue, Jason and I made an executive decision to have pie instead. A cake would have been $200 minimum, but probably more like $250 or $300. Cake isn't my favorite dessert really and Jason hates frosting*, so after salivating over all of the pies at the Big E this weekend, we decided pie would be the way to go. Nice fall pies like pumpkin and apple and maybe I can get some pecan thrown in for the Southern side of my family (aka 3/4 of my family). And a big vat of vanilla ice cream for a la mode. Just thinking about it is making me want some in a way that wedding cake never did.

Oh, and apparently my template is permanently gone, which is a shame since I really liked it. I guess it's an excuse to look for a nice Fall/Winter look. You know, in my spare time.


* I know this is a common dislike, but, really? You hate frosting? I don't understand. Sugar, butter, vanilla, sometimes chocolate. What is there to hate exactly?

Technical Difficulties

I have no idea what's up with my blog template and neither does Blogger apparently. I'm going to wait it out a couple of days and then look into redoing my template.

Accessorizing

Taking a poll. So I thought I was going to wear my Nana's opal necklace on my wedding day, however, I wore it to church last week and realized the pendant kind of swings around a bit and I would probably need to be resettling it properly on my chest periodically and I'm going to be wearing way too much clothing* to be worrying about that too.


So here's the thing. I have a lovely strand of pearls that my parents gave me when I graduated from law school. They are slightly off-white (as pearls are), but my dress is white white. Too clashing?


I bought these yesterday:
I tried them on and was shocked that they didn't make my feet look like giant white boats like every other white shoe I have tried. They're actually pretty cute and the shoe store owner had the brilliant idea of dyeing them black or something after the wedding so that I could wear them because honestly, when am I ever going to wear white shoes again.



I tried on my dress with my shoes and my veil yesterday and, holy cow, I look like a bride!


* One of my panicky thoughts last night as I lay in bed running through my list of what's left to do was, "What happens if I have to pee?!" Seriously. I have no answer.

Weather

I’m going to ask for a little intercessory prayer to the weather gods on my behalf.

1. The whole idea behind getting married in October was so that my family could all revel in the charming Autumn in New England scene. However, the leaves have started to change and while I find myself oohing and aahing over some particularly lovely bright red explosions of color, it is TOO EARLY. I want foliage in the pictures! Slow it down, New England!
   
2. October can be kind of fickle weather-wise and just Sunday I heard of a wedding in October a couple of years ago where it just poured. Eeek! No rain on October 20th! It can be cloudy all it wants. In fact, cloudy would be great for picture time since then we wouldn’t be all squinty and have weird shadow patterns on us. But, please, no rain!

Thank You For Being A Friend*

You know what's awesome? Friends, that's what. Or, maybe it's that's who. My Masters in English is serving me well, apparently.

Anyway, ever since we started planning the wedding, friends have been generously offering to help in any way they can, even saying two or three times that if we need them, they're ready and willing. I feel so loved and supported. Since I am trying to keep this as simple as possible (and on the small side) there hasn't been too much we've needed help with yet. But it's wonderful to know that our friends want to be there for us.


* And now you have that song going through your head for the rest of the day. You're welcome.

Checklist

Today I:

1) Finished buying everything for my centerpieces.

2) Decided that we will be doing the flowers ourselves, even though I may regret it the night before the wedding, but I know I can count on at least 3 good friends helping out, one of whom I just found out today used to work in a nursery making corsages and boutonnières. Score!

3) Bought gifts for 3 babies because, oh my gosh, everyone is popping out the babies lately. There are still 2 that I need to buy presents for. Sure, I enjoy trotting around the baby department at Target, but I just have to say there are a LOT of babies in my life lately.


I still need to:

1) Order a cake. I have to go into the bakery at 8 AM on a Saturday morning because I need to get in there before the crowds descend, and seeing as how it's a super popular bakery in the North End, the crowds, they do descend. I was going to do it a couple of weeks ago, but wow, do I need to get up early to make it to the North End by 8 AM. On a Saturday.

2) Get my dress altered. It's official that the dress will need to be let out. My amazing adventures in weight loss hit a snag in about June when I started working real jobs and Jason got in an accident and I bought a new car and I started spending more time down in Providence and the wedding planning kind of took over my spare time and thoughts processes. So I believe I've gained back a few pounds. Boo! However, I gave Jason a reality check a couple of weeks ago when I made him stand on my scale and I have a feeling that once the wedding is done and I am moved and we're living in the same place and not doing this driving an hour to see each other thing and I am doing the shopping and the cooking, we can get the weights under control.

3) Buy a guest book. Why are all guest books tacky tacky tacky? I can put together a classy and simple wedding, but heaven forbid someone make a classy and simple guest book. They are usually padded with lots of bows and glitz and sometimes feathers.


Jason and I spent Saturday night printing out invitations and they look great, if I do say so myself. The invitation itself has a pretty gold leaf at the top, to go with the whole Autumn in New England feeling of the wedding, and Jason put a watermark of the church we're getting married in behind the print. However, due to some issues with the envelope printing that were partly my fault and partly Word's fault, we only got half of them printed. So if there are any family members who hear about, say, the Escos or the Blooms getting their invitations, while say, the Szabos did not, rest assured that you will. This weekend we only made it through the R's.

I Was Run-ning

Jason has a friend who is doing this.

Mostly, we figure, because he's insane.