And I like it.

Before the wedding, there was a spin class at our local Y that had morphed into a spin/boot camp class.  I never tried it, but heard good things about it.  The week of our wedding, the instructor changed it to spin/horizontal training.  I was intrigued, and it sounded really hard, so I figured it would not be smart to do this new class the day before I got in the car and drove 6 hours, lest I end up limping my way through the wedding week.

However, upon coming home, my boy and I decided we’d give it a try.

Holy crap.  That’s all I can say.

Some people call it extreme conditioning.  The premise is that you spin for 30 minutes, and then move to this horizontal training portion for 45.   Here, you do multi-faceted exercises that require your entire body to execute as opposed to muscle isolation.  So in English, one example would be you get in a plank and then do shoulder raises/rows or some other arm-lifting exercise.  Or else you get these little felt pieces and use them as ’sliders’ – so your feet can slide easily on the floor – one thing she has us do is do a push-up, and then you hover at the bottom, and slide your feet in and out (kind of like a jumping jack motion, but your feet just slide on the floor).  A lot of the exercises build from a plank of some sort, so there’s a lot of core, a lot of balance…and a lot of pain.  The last two classes I got to a point in both where I seriously thought I was going to throw up.  You do one routine all week, and then change it up the next week.  Apparently it gets harder and harder – the advanced people apparently do all of this stuff on a stability ball.  I think at this point if I tried that I’d break my head open.

I really like this class.  Is that sick?  Probably.  But I feel like I’m getting more of a complete workout than I’ve had in a looooooong time.  My body is re-discovering muscles that haven’t been used in a long time.  BioFreeze has been my friend.  I’m seeing muscles start to pop out again that I haven’t seen in years.

After I explained this to one friend, she asked why I didn’t just shove bamboo shoots under my fingernails. 

I think I’m going to try to get my professor who is a marathoner and fitness guru interested in this.  Maybe I’ll get bonus points on my dissertation if she likes it.

Then again, if she hates it, maybe I’ll lose points.  Hmmmm.

The coolest part of the wedding week – beside the actual wedding, which was pretty awesome – was having all of our important friends and family together in one place.  My parents got to meet all the names that I’ve talked about for 4+ years, and put faces to those names.  Not only that, but they liked them.  My New Jersey/Pennsylvania/Connecticut friends and family got an education in the southern ways of life, and the southerner’s got an education in Yankee life.  I heard, from the other side of the room, Wendy, who has stubbornly declared that she only likes 2 Yankees, proclaim very loudly “I love Yankees!”  My godfather, a New Jersey born and raised Italian, told me at one point that Kelly shared with that end of the table that she learned how to castrate a pig.  I think he was a little nervous.

It was kind of sad to leave that.  When, really, are those people from our different walks of life ever going to congregate together in one spot again?  Some may cross paths (apparently my Dad is now friends on Facebook with Brian & Elizabeth – which is funny enough in itself, given the fact that my Dad refused to email anyone 3 months ago) again in some other circumstance, but it makes me sad that that moment in time is gone.

It’s definitely something to treasure.

Upon returning home, we did the traditional carrying over the threshold picture:

And then a not-so-traditional, but we thought was important since we now have an engagment picture and a wedding picture with this same pose.

Upon arriving home, I discovered one thing: I am SO freaking glad I cleaned the house before we left.  No need to start the marriage off with a pile of dirty dishes or laundry. 

The Friday night before our wedding, we went out with a large group of our friends to a dueling piano bar called Savannah Smiles, where they basically play music, and you shout (not sing) along.  It gets rowdy, and spirited, and we had a fabulous time.

Because we are all so mature, I think early on we decided that picture-jacking would be the theme of the night.  You know picture-jacking – when you have what would be an otherwise really nice picture of someone/someones, and some dingbat gets in the background and screws up the picture?

See Exhibit A:

Of  course, once you start, you just can’t stop.  So I will now present my friends and I (at least in the pictures that I can show on the Internet without them killing me…hehe) in what was unofficially known as our joint bachelor/bachelorette party.

I jacked Wendy:

Elizabeth jacked Wendy, Brian and I:

Dave and Brian both jacked me:

Here comes Elizabeth again, jacking Brian and I:

Notice how my boy isn’t really getting jacked?  I guess that’s the brains of actually taking the pictures, rather than being in them.

The moral of the story (besides not ever suggesting picture-jacking once, lest it become an all night event) is that I/we are so thankful to all our friends that made the trip to Savannah for the wedding, including the ones that are not in this picture.  (Now that I’m the wife, I can make the sweeping ‘we’ statements).   Words can’t even say how lucky we feel to have your friendship, and our lives are definitely the better for it.

Cheers to friends!

We got back late Monday night, and it’s been a flurry of activity of settling in, unpacking (ok, not really), and getting back to reality.

In one word, the day was wonderful.  In two words, the day was wonderful and hot.  In 4 words, the day was wonderful and hot as hell.

We had so much fun in the days leading up – every time a new family member or friend arrived in to town, the excitement level just notched up a little bit more.  Friends finally got to meet that had never met in person before, and even better, got along famously.  There were a lot of late nights.  Very late nights.  I didn’t even stay out that late in college (of course, bars in CT closed at 2, so we were kicked out by 1:30).  The night before the wedding, I did my final shot of tequlia right around 2:45 or so.

But right now, I’m sure the details are less interesting pictures, so I’ll share a few of my favorites I’ve gotten from various places so far:

I lost weight before the wedding, like any bride.  I apparently lost too much after my fitting, and the top of my dress didn’t fit.  I made do with stuffing my dress with washcloths (picture from Paige, my photog, from PH Photography):

Another from Paige: Right before the ceremony – we didn’t see each other, just stood on either side of the wall and talked.  This is one of my favorites so far:

My boy awaiting me (Picture from Brian’s live Tweet of the wedding):

Here comes the bride – me and my dad (from Paige):

Me getting my ring (from Brian):

You may now kiss the bride! (from Brian):

Me, trying to cool off after the ceremony before going outside for pictures (from Brian):

Apparently a memo went out that I never got that Polka Dots was the unofficial dress code.  Of 27 people, 4 wore polka dots – and two wore the exact same dress!  This is Elizabeth, Megan, my niece Lane, and Kelly (picture from Brian).

Not the best picture of me, but it proves how far friends will go for you – this is Wendy holding a battery operated fan up my dress in the park as I was waiting for pictures.  It was 102, with a heat index of 114 (picture from my boy):

The pyramid picture (from my boy)!

We had to take a shot with our cameras (from my boy):

Dinner (picture from Brian)

The toast (picture from Brian):

Those are my favorites so far – I can’t wait to get more!

And finally – us at the fountain in Forsyth Park (picture from Paige):

Current forecast for Saturday:

Sat
Jun 20

Partly Cloudy

101°
80°

Um….GULP!!!!!!

Today I ran around a lot, doing the final wedding things that I can do from Alabama.  I got the oil changed and the tires filled with air, ran a couple of last minute wedding errands, hit up the bank, did a couple loads of laundry, cleaned up the house some, wrote out the welcome notes for the out of town guest bags, printed them out, got all the other wedding-related paperwork, and packed up the travelling safe with the jewelry, the marriage license, the programs, and a couple other pieces of important paperwork.  Have my bags almost all packed, and just need to clean out the trunk tomorrow and replace it will all the wedding related things.

I can’t believe it’s finally here.

I can’t believe I haven’t freaked out more.  I’m a worrier by nature, a fretter, and I’m kind of anal.  I have had a couple of moments, but they’ve pretty much been moments.  That’s been the beauty of a small wedding – there’s just not a lot TO fret over.

So tomorrow we’ll pack up the car in the morning, and head out of town.  My greatest stress right now is if I’ll make it to Savannah tomorrow in time to take my dress to the dress-press people, or I’ll have to get up early Wednesday morning and do it.  Tomorrow if preferrable, but Wednesday is still do-able for me to get it back in time.

There’s a couple of final things  to take care of – writing the notes for the cat sitters, ordering the pralines for guest favors, and making reservations for a hearse tour.  It’s all little though.  It’s manageable.  I’ve got my to-do list written out by day (see? anal!), and if I’ve forgotten anything, I don’t even know what it is at this point, so it must not be *that* important.

I still can’t believe we are leaving tomorrow for this whole adventure.

I’m so excited to see my family, my friends, the people so near and dear to me that I never get to see.  I can’t wait to spend time with them, and show them parts of the city of Savannah that I love so much.  I’ve gotten a bunch of emails the past couple of days from people telling me how excited they are, and they are so awesome to get.  It makes me so happy that people are excited.

So months of preparation are coming to a close.  The weather forecast looks good, albeit very hot.  High of 97 is predicted right now.  I might just be the bride that dumps ice down my dress.  Or something.

I can’t believe it’s finally here.

And that I’m finally going to marry my best friend.  That’s the absolute, hands down, best part of all.

Saturday meme’s are so much fun.  I got this from my favorite place to look for meme’s – Tense Teacher!

1) Are your parents married or divorced?
Married – just celebrated their 37th anniversary.

2) Are you a vegetarian?
Oh dear gosh, no way.  I love steak.

3) Do you believe in Heaven?
I don’t know.

4) Have you ever come close to dying?
Nope.

5) What jewelry do you wear 24/7?
None.  My e-ring and watch I wear the most, but I take them both off to shower, and I take my e-ring off when I go to the gym.

6) Favorite time of day?
Whatever time it is when everything is done for the day and I can kick back and relax.

7) Do you eat the stems of broccoli?
Yes.  I didn’t know that you weren’t supposed to?

Do you wear makeup?
Um.  Lately the answer is no, as I’m desperately trying to clear my skin up before the wedding.  I usually only do if I’m going out though.

9) Ever have plastic surgery?
No

10) Do you color your hair?
Yes.

11) What do you wear to bed?
A big oversized t-shirt, or a cami.  I can’t wear shorts or pants of any kind – they drive me batshit crazy.

12) Have you ever done anything illegal?
I speed.  I’ve stolen.  That’s about it.

13) Can you roll your tongue?
Yes

14) Do you tweeze your eyebrows?
Yes

15) What kind of sneakers?
Saucony’s have been the best for my poor battered feet.

16) Do you believe in abortions?
Um.  They aren’t unicorns.  They happen.  If you’re really asking if I’m pro-choice, then the answer is YES.

17) What is your hair color?
Some sort of brown.  I’m not really sure.

18) Future child’s name?
I have no idea.  Right now I don’t even want to have kids.

19) Do you snore?
Yes!!!  And apparently I can snore while I’m sleeping on my stomach.  That, my friends, is talent.

20) If you could go anywhere in the world where would it be?
I’m going – Italy and Greece, next May!!!!

21) Do you sleep with stuffed animals?
Not anymore.  I did when I was a child.

22) If you won the lottery…
There would be no more debt, ever.  And I’d live off the interest.  And I’d spend a year travelling and not worrying about the cost.

24) Hamburger or hot dog?
Cheeseburger!

25) If you could only eat one food for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Pasta.  Because there’s all sorts of varieties of it.  Of course, I’d weigh 300lbs, but whatever.

26) City, beach or country?
Beach

27) What was the last thing you touched?
A graham cracker

28) Where did you eat last?
Jim N Nicks for BBQ

29) When’s the last time you cried?
Yesterday.  I was frustrated and mad.

30) Do you read blogs?
I do, but I’ve gotten really bad about reading beyond the ones on my reader.  I haven’t been able to balance that, plus school, plus wedding planning, plus living my life.

31) Would you ever go out dressed like the opposite sex?
Well.  If you want to get technical, I have.  I mean, guys wear khaki shorts and polos, right?  And jeans and t-shirts?

32) Ever been involved with the police?
No

33) What’s your favorite shampoo, conditioner and soap?
Paul Mitchell for Color Treated Hair.  I love how it smells.

34) Do you talk in your sleep?
I mumble and whimper.  I don’t think I actually say words.

35) Ocean or pool?
Ocean.  With real waves, not this pansy crap that’s in the Gulf of Mexico.

36) What’s your favorite song at the moment?
“Gives you Hell” by the All American Rejects.

37) What’s your favorite color(s)?
Blue

38) Window seat or aisle?
Window

39) Ever met anyone famous?
Yes.  I worked in concert promotion for a couple of years.  U2, REM, Bonnie Raitt, Stevie Nicks, Harry Connick Jr., the Beach Boys, Ringo Starr, Sarah McLauglin, Chicago, Olivia Newton John, the Indigo Girls, Ann Wilson of Heart, June Carter Cash, Live, No Doubt…I met a lot of bands.

40) Do you feel that you’ve had a truly successful life?
So far, yes, but it’s not over yet!

41) Do you twirl your spaghetti or cut it?
Twirl

42) Ricki Lake or Oprah?
Neither.  Blech.

43) Basketball or Football?
Football.  Basketball just sucks, unless it’s March Madness.

44) How long do your showers last?
Too long.  10, 15, 20 minutes.  Until the hot water runs out.

45) Automatic or do you drive a stick?
I have an automatic right now, but I can drive a stick.

46) Cake or ice cream?
Ice cream.

47) Are you self-conscious?
Oh my gosh, YES.

48) Have you ever drunk so much you threw up?
A couple of times.

49) Have you ever given money to a tramp?
Yes.  There’s one guy in Atlanta that used to sit on the 10th street exit with a sign that said “Won’t lie, need beer”.  I gave him money a bunch.

50) Have you been in love?
Yes

51) Where do you wish you were?
In Savannah!

52) Are you wearing socks?
No

53) Have you ever ridden in an ambulance?
Yes.  Twice.

54) Can you tango?
I can do a bastardized version that I make up!

55) Last gift you received?
A wedding gift from old family friends of mine.

56) Last sport you played?
I was a springboard diver in college – that’s the last official time I competed in anything.

57) Things you spend a lot of money on?
The basic needs of life.

58) Where do you live?
Alabama

59) Where were you born?
Connecticut

60) Last wedding attended?
Sheesh.  If this meme were next week, I could say MINE!!  But I think it was my friend Stephanie’s in 2006.

61) Favorite drink(s)?
Amaretto Sours

62) What’d you do last weekend?
A lot of yardwork – raked the rest of the leaves in the backyard (so they would spread out and dry), then blew the leaves, weed wacked, and spread grass seed.  Went to the gym.  Watched The Reader. It was a low key weekend.

63) Most hated food(s)?
Most southern style vegetables.  They’re slimy.

64) What’s your least favorite chore?
Anything to do with the dishes – washing them, putting them away, loading/unloading the dishwasher.

65) Can you sing?
I think so.  I don’t think I do it well, but I can do it.

66) Last person you instant messaged?
Elizabeth.

67) Last place you went on holiday?
Savannah

69) Current Crush?
My boy.

It’s been a long time since I’ve posted any photos that I’ve taken, mostly because I haven’t taken my camera out and played with it lately.  I’ve missed that.  It’s only in the past couple of days that I pulled it out and shot a few things.  I’m woefully out of practice.  That’s bad.

However, I did get a few new ones, and since most of the wedding prep is done for now (with the exception of the random things I think of), there’s not a lot of news to share.

I met with my advisor today about some projects we have in mind, some things we need to work on.  I asked her as I left “So what do you want me to do with all of these?  What’s the priority?”  She said “Take a break, get married, and take lots of pictures to bring back and show me!”  Haha.

So I’ll share pictures!

This is one of my roses right after I watered the bush the other day.  It’s doing great.

This guy lives in the bushes by the front door.  You’d think I’d remember this, and not get startled when he appears in front of me.

My friends and I have decided to post our prom pictures online.  This isn’t a tragically unfortunate dress or hairstyle (thank GOD).  What’s most amusing to me, that is lost in the picture taking of a picture (my scanner won’t work) is the massive tan line I have from my watch.  This is me and my dad.

And finally, Emma, my little lady cat.

You know what is stupid?  I mean, really, really, really stupid?  I did my comp exams, and like a responsible person, I talked to all my committee members in advance.  They asked me what I wanted to do my dissertation on, and three of them tailored their questions specifically to my dissertation.  Great, right?  So I take the comps, and when I defended them we talked about my dissertation, and two of my committee members told me congratulations, you essentially have your dissertation proposal written.

So the other day I went to see if I could take the disc with all my answers on it and copy it to a flash drive.  Sounds reasonable, right?  Then I could just copy/paste the relevent parts into the proposal, and add where things needed to be added. Right?

Wrong.

I was told “No”.  Because apparently ‘they’ did this in the past, and past students shared their answers with other students taking comps.  Because apparently some professors just use the same questions, so students were essentially just re-writing the answers of other students.  So to combat this, they stopped giving students their answers on discs.

But guess what?  I have hard copies of my answers?  So what the frig does that solve?  I could still hand out hard copies of my answers to anyone that wanted them.  Not that it would do them much good, since my answers are so specifically tailored.   And also, because professors don’t make up new questions, I have to get punished by this?  LAME!

So right now I’m re-typing my comps answers into the proposal.  This is SO stupid.

In positive news, I’ve already got 20 pages in, and I haven’t even written the methods section yet.  I’m estimating by the end of this week, I’ll essentially have 60 pages, with the need to fill in a few portions.  And then, the proposal will be done.

Does anyone want a copy of my answers?  Because now I just feel compelled to hand them out to anyone that wants them, just out of spite. 

A couple of months ago, the back yard was a wilderness. Ok.  Not a wilderness.  But it was carpeted with a solid cover of leaves from autumns past, and I, quite frankly, was afraid to walk very far in it.  If I took the trash out, I tried to leap from the deck, over the flower bed, and walk the shortest line to the garbage can.

I don’t know what lurks in leaves.  I don’t know what lurks in the backyards of southern homes.  There could be snakes there, for all I know.  The last snake I saw live and in person was a garden snake when I was about 6 in Connecticut.  I’ve seen dead ones on the road here.  One of them was a poisonous one, I was told.  So my knowledge about snakes pretty much can be summed up as this: They live in the south and there’s more than just garden snakes here.  Don’t ask me what they look like, or where they live, or where they like to hang out, or where the most likely spot is to find them.  I don’t know.

Anyway.

So I didn’t go in the backyard much, because it scared me.  I decided about a month or so ago that feeling like that was fairly ridiculous.  I mean, I am 31.  I shouldn’t be afraid of the backyard.  Thus, I embarked on a ‘clean up and plant nice stuff’ project.  I managed to swing by the local nursery right as they were having a big sale to clear out the old plants for the new.  I bought hydrangeas, an azalea, a rose bush, and two other bushes that I can’t remember the names of.  Then I smiled really pretty and begged my boy to buy a new leaf blower (seriously, I’m really easy to please), I got some new shovels and a good garden rake and I was ready.

We spent one weekend about a month or so ago working on the backyard.  I got about half of the leaves blown into the burn pile, which he tended to.  It was huge.  I don’t know how we didn’t burn the neighborhood down.  He burned, and I tended to the leaves.  And then I spread some grass seed in a small portion of the backyard.

Then the rains came.  And they kept coming.

The new grass grew, but the remaining half of the leaves got soggy.  Really soggy.  This past week, we’ve had a strech of dry days, and considering temperatures are starting to creep into the 90’s here (and I’m a total freaking wimp when it comes to the heat here), I figured it was now or November to get the leaves up.  So I did.  I spent the better part of the day today getting the rest of the leaves up, and seeing where the remaining bare spots are.  More grass seed will get purchased and spread – tomorrow, most likely – and then operation “Make the yard pretty” will be complete.  Well, until the leaves fall again.

But I’ve got my super duper leaf blower for that!

Now the backyard is cleaned out, and it looks nice.  Two of the hydrangea bushes are blooming with a fervor.  Two more are a little behind, but one sprouted a tiny bud recently.  The azalea bloomed, and is now just growing.  The rose bush is doing fabulous – it was promised to bloom through fall, and it keeps growing and blooming.  An autumn sage was recently purchased, so it’s little, but I have faith it will catch up.

This all makes me so happy.  I realized today that I might just be *that* person – the person that LIKES to work in the yard.  The person who takes pride when it looks nice.  The person who might just be slightly anal about it.

So get off my lawn.