On why there is a hand imprint in my forehead

"Wow. Look at all that rain. It's really coming down. Hurray for no more drought!"


- 15 minutes of rain later -


"OH CRAP! Guess who forgot to put their car top up? That's me!"

Moving, but not really.

Everyone knows that the first rule of blogging is that you never write about your work, unless you enjoy being unemployed. You also never write mean things about people you know, unless you enjoy being hated. The people rule doesn't bother me so much as the work rule does because funny stuff happens at my work ALL the time. Like that one time? Yeah, that was funny. And that other time? Totally Dilbert-worthy. And then there was that ONE time. I still laugh really hard about that one.

But I can't write about those. Most of my week is spent doing things I can't blog about. That, my friends, is depressing. The only thing worse than not being able to blog about work is that up until recently, most of my week was spent underground away from people. And to an extrovert like me, that felt like it could be a layer of hell. However, this week I moved offices! I moved from a cave where I was isolated to an office with people! Not only are there people around my new office, but from my desk I can see a faint glow of natural light over the cubicle wall across from me. Clearly this is a step up. I am climbing that ladder of success. At least I thought so until my brother, who is an intern where I work, pointed out that he moved upstairs with the executives and he has an actual window in his office. Apparently the graphics department scored higher than the project administration department on the favored office scale. But I'm not complaining. I have people now. People who I want to hug and squeeze and name George.

I think I'll bake them brownies they are so awesome...

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The Dress Story

Something old, something new;
Something borrowed, something blue.

There are some wedding traditions that I prefer to ignore. Like the garter toss. But there are some that I made a point to keep. Like getting married on the upswing of the clock and following the little poem above. The "old" part of my wedding was the dress. It was my mom's altered and updated.

Here's a picture of my mom and dad on their wedding day:

Did you catch the pleats in the skirt? Totally cool for 1982. Not so much for 2007. When I was 13 my mom asked my sister and I if we ever might want to wear her wedding dress. Since at 13 I hated the world, I am sure I responded with something like, "Ummm... no. I'd rather die." So my mom broke the seal on the stored wedding dress to see if it still fit (I think it did). Fast forward 10 years and now I am engaged. When I was thinking about what I should do for my wedding dress, I figured I would humor my mom and try her's on. It fit perfectly. I did some research on how old wedding dresses can be restored and up-dated. Unfortunately, opening it 10 years ago let the dress yellow a bit. Here's a view of the back when I tried it on:

After some alterations here's what it looked like on my wedding day:

Photo taken by Bonnie Burman.

The dress got a major make-over. It was whitened and we took the sleeves and the high neck off of the dress. We also replaced the skirt to get rid of the pleats and lace and have a more simple skirt. I'm not really into that much lace. I wanted a simple, yet elegant dress and got one! Our seamstress did a great job. Here are some pictures of the work in action:

The dress turned out perfect. It was exactly the right dress for me. Which is funny because it was exactly the right dress for my mom. It was the first one she tried on 25 years ago. Plus, I didn't have to go gown shopping. I think I may have called the wedding off or eloped if I had to pick out a wedding dress. When we were at the bridal shop looking for bridesmaid dresses I watched girls try on wedding dresses. They did not look like they were having fun! With every new dress they tried on, the looked a little bit more stressed. It probably didn't help that most of the dresses were strapless and those squeeze the begeebees out of you and look horrible on most body types.

Anyway, here's the dress again in it original state, in progress and then finished:

Photograph taken by Lori Pritchard

It was an honor to be able to wear my mom's dress. I loved having a dress that was so unique and special. Thanks mom for letting me rip apart your dress to make it mine!

Phone conversation with my Grandma

Me: "Hey Grandma, I'm married!"

Grandma: "I know. You didn't invite me. I'm mad at you!"

"You are mad at me? Then I guess I won't come over and show you pictures."

"When would you come over?"

"Wednesday."

"I might be over the mad by then."

"Ok."

"I told your dad I wouldn't talk to you, but I'd talk to Ben. I don't want him thinking I am crazy or anything."


I love my Grandma. She cracks me up. She did continue to give me a hard time about having a small wedding until I reminded her that the only guests at hers was her mom and the preacher's wife...

How we make this marriage work...

Me: "So the bed's comfy enough for you?"

Ben: "Yeah. I just wish it was a king. I could use a little more room."

"What are you talking about? I woke up this morning and was amazed at how much room I had. The bed is huge."

"Show me how much room you had."

This is where I demonstrate how I was sleeping

"See tons of room."

"YOU ARE TAKING YOUR HALF OUT OF THE MIDDLE OF THE BED!"

*******
Later that same day:

Ben: "So I took a nap this afternoon and it was really nice to lay on my right side without worrying about falling off the bed."

Pictures from our mini honeymoon

Please ignore the last post. That post was more "Me Andi. I married. Can't write." than an actual interesting post. This next post will be a quiz.

This is a picture of:

a. Ben when he is hungry

b. Me during our first argument
c. A shark


This picture is of:
a. The honeymoon suite Ben booked for us
b. Our new pets
c. The reptile cage at the aquarium


This picture shows:
a. Ben looking deeply into his own eyes
b. Ben looking deeply into his own eyes
c. Ben looking deeply into his own eyes

We had a fun time at the aquarium yesterday. I had never been and they have some pretty cool exhibits. The weekend was just too short....