We are eight weeks out from the wedding. Definitely crunch time. Lots to do.
Chris and I were in unbelievable form on Sunday. After our morning exercises (10 mile run for him, a tough yoga class for me) and some errands, we had lunch at Cafe Laurent in Culver City (actually breakfast, as they don't serve lunch on Sundays) and proceeded to be wedding maniacs.
First stop, Men's Warehouse where Chris got sized and picked tuxes for his groomsmen. I mentioned that Chris' suits are usually too big and our salesman assured us it would fit him perfectly. Chris thinks he pulled the measuring tape too tight but we'll see when the tux comes in. Wedding party tuxes? Check!
We had a couple of hours to kill before a cake tasting appointment and decided to stop by the Fox Hills mall to look at wedding bands. Contrary to my instincts, we ended up spending an hour at a jewelry kiosk inside the mall. The woman was using the hard sell but we found nice, stylish, simple rings at a decent price. Wedding rings? Double check!
Last but not least, cake tasting. Five flavors, two people = 2 1/2 cupcakes each. We couldn't pick one so we picked three. Black forest, white cake with fruit, red velvet...everyone will be happy.
I've been modeling my wedding band to everyone I see. I really like it.
Eight weeks. Still need photographer, transportation, a rehearsal dinner location, presents for wedding party, undergarments, shoes, invitations, etc.
Monday, August 9, 2010
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Wedding burnout
A little more than two months from the wedding and I am tired of it. It's all I spend my free time doing. Frankly, there are a lot of other things I'd rather be doing.
But it's crunch time and I need to get moving. Still need a cake, a photographer, invitations (they're being designed), playlists for when the band's not playing at the reception. Also need wedding rings, vows, pre-marital counseling, etc.
The music aspect of the reception has me plowing through old and new stuff. I want dance music and I like hip-hop but the lyrics just won't cut it at a wedding. I've never really thought about how inappropriate most rap songs are. They're either cursing or abusing women or cursing. Same goes for my favorite Mexican rock-rap act, Molotov. Lyrics about having sex with people's sisters or admiring women's breasts are too tacky for a family event. My in-laws are not Latino and I certainly don't want to feed into some vulgar stereotype. I can hear it now, "What does 'chi-chi' mean?"
But it's crunch time and I need to get moving. Still need a cake, a photographer, invitations (they're being designed), playlists for when the band's not playing at the reception. Also need wedding rings, vows, pre-marital counseling, etc.
The music aspect of the reception has me plowing through old and new stuff. I want dance music and I like hip-hop but the lyrics just won't cut it at a wedding. I've never really thought about how inappropriate most rap songs are. They're either cursing or abusing women or cursing. Same goes for my favorite Mexican rock-rap act, Molotov. Lyrics about having sex with people's sisters or admiring women's breasts are too tacky for a family event. My in-laws are not Latino and I certainly don't want to feed into some vulgar stereotype. I can hear it now, "What does 'chi-chi' mean?"
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Screwed
A woman has been hired full-time to our team. This is her first job out of college. She got the best shift available.
My request to switch out of my Tuesday-Saturday shift was denied. I am bitter. I know where I stand with my boss now so my only course of action is to begin sending out resumes again.
I feel much like my sister who had seniority at her job as a high school counselor and was demoted to the classroom in favor of worse paid, less experienced counselors. Hard work is not rewarded in our professions, it seems.
My request to switch out of my Tuesday-Saturday shift was denied. I am bitter. I know where I stand with my boss now so my only course of action is to begin sending out resumes again.
I feel much like my sister who had seniority at her job as a high school counselor and was demoted to the classroom in favor of worse paid, less experienced counselors. Hard work is not rewarded in our professions, it seems.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
July 6th, 2010
My Fourth of July weekend is finally coming to an end. Since I work Tues-Sat, my three day weekend doesn't start until Sunday and I have Tuesday off. It really feels like forever even though I worked Saturday and had to deal with work stuff Saturday night too.
Great weekend. It's the first 4th in a long time that I wasn't running around fighting traffic down at the beach. I'm usually in Manhattan Beach or Venice where an acquaintance of mine is part of a block party every year. No one told me about the party this year so I accepted an invite to a friend's pool party within walking distance of my house. That was the right plan. Chris and I walked over, ate lots of food, took tequila shots, watched the neighborhood light up, ate more food and walked home at maybe 10pm? The idea was to get to sleep at a decent hour but my neighbors' fireworks kept that from happening. I thought about calling to police to get them to stop. Yes, I was willing to be a party pooper because honestly, I don't think people should be setting fireworks off all night long. A couple hours, sure, but all night? No.
We slept in Monday and went over to Chris' mom's house so he could help her with some things. She keeps asking about the wedding and I don't have much to tell her about it. We're not registered yet, we haven't sent out invites, etc. She's from the South too, so my lack of tradition has got to frustrate her to some degree.
We had lunch with Chris' roommate at Don Antonio's on the Westside and then went to the mall to pick up a present for Chris' dad before hitting the 4:20 show of "Get Him to the Greek." Oh my god. The mall was swarmed! Not a parking space in sight. We aborted mission, ended up at the Westside Pavillion to regroup, and decided to park at the park in Rancho Park and walk over to Century City to see the movie. It was either that or get super frustrated trying to find parking at the mall. It was a nice day. The walk was nice.
"Get Him to the Greek" was fun. My expectations weren't that high, which helped, but it was funny and edgier than I expected. My only complaint is Jonah Hill as a leading man. He's too fat to be a leading man. Fat guys can be funny or character actors but they are not good straight men. I just didn't buy that he was married to a cute, hard-working med student. There's a threesome scene and the last thing I wasn't to see was him making out. Ewwww.
Our evening ended with a couple of episodes of "Deadwood." Perfect.
Today I slept in and took a long bike ride on the South Bay bike path. Watched Uruguay lose to Holland in the World Cup semifinals, went to the Manhattan Beach farmers market with my sister and brother-in-law, stopped at Trader Joe's and then holed up at home. Watched "The Reader" today. It was okay. Kate Winslet was solid as usual and of course she wins an Oscar in a role where she's naked a lot. Halle Berry was naked in "Monster's Ball." It helps.
Emmy nominations come out Thursday morning which means I'm at the office by 5:15am. The good thing is that unlike with my last job where I was on my own, lots of people work at that horrid hour at The Hollywood Reporter.
Two people on my team gave notice last week. They're scrambling to hire one of our temps full-time now. I told my boss that the new hire should get my Tues-Sat schedule since I have seniority and should get the Mon-Fri shift. He didn't sound convinced. If he doesn't go for it, I'd better brush off the 'ol resume and get to it.
Great weekend. It's the first 4th in a long time that I wasn't running around fighting traffic down at the beach. I'm usually in Manhattan Beach or Venice where an acquaintance of mine is part of a block party every year. No one told me about the party this year so I accepted an invite to a friend's pool party within walking distance of my house. That was the right plan. Chris and I walked over, ate lots of food, took tequila shots, watched the neighborhood light up, ate more food and walked home at maybe 10pm? The idea was to get to sleep at a decent hour but my neighbors' fireworks kept that from happening. I thought about calling to police to get them to stop. Yes, I was willing to be a party pooper because honestly, I don't think people should be setting fireworks off all night long. A couple hours, sure, but all night? No.
We slept in Monday and went over to Chris' mom's house so he could help her with some things. She keeps asking about the wedding and I don't have much to tell her about it. We're not registered yet, we haven't sent out invites, etc. She's from the South too, so my lack of tradition has got to frustrate her to some degree.
We had lunch with Chris' roommate at Don Antonio's on the Westside and then went to the mall to pick up a present for Chris' dad before hitting the 4:20 show of "Get Him to the Greek." Oh my god. The mall was swarmed! Not a parking space in sight. We aborted mission, ended up at the Westside Pavillion to regroup, and decided to park at the park in Rancho Park and walk over to Century City to see the movie. It was either that or get super frustrated trying to find parking at the mall. It was a nice day. The walk was nice.
"Get Him to the Greek" was fun. My expectations weren't that high, which helped, but it was funny and edgier than I expected. My only complaint is Jonah Hill as a leading man. He's too fat to be a leading man. Fat guys can be funny or character actors but they are not good straight men. I just didn't buy that he was married to a cute, hard-working med student. There's a threesome scene and the last thing I wasn't to see was him making out. Ewwww.
Our evening ended with a couple of episodes of "Deadwood." Perfect.
Today I slept in and took a long bike ride on the South Bay bike path. Watched Uruguay lose to Holland in the World Cup semifinals, went to the Manhattan Beach farmers market with my sister and brother-in-law, stopped at Trader Joe's and then holed up at home. Watched "The Reader" today. It was okay. Kate Winslet was solid as usual and of course she wins an Oscar in a role where she's naked a lot. Halle Berry was naked in "Monster's Ball." It helps.
Emmy nominations come out Thursday morning which means I'm at the office by 5:15am. The good thing is that unlike with my last job where I was on my own, lots of people work at that horrid hour at The Hollywood Reporter.
Two people on my team gave notice last week. They're scrambling to hire one of our temps full-time now. I told my boss that the new hire should get my Tues-Sat schedule since I have seniority and should get the Mon-Fri shift. He didn't sound convinced. If he doesn't go for it, I'd better brush off the 'ol resume and get to it.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
From zen to bullets
Monday is my Sunday and I usually spend the day holed up on my home. I hit a yoga class in Westwood in the morning and then drive home to Wilmington for the remainder of the day. Laundry, bills, and maybe a car washing follow.
In rare instances I make plans on Monday with require me to stay in L.A. Such was the case yesterday. I did my typical yoga thing, showered and waited to hear from my cousin Adrian, who I was meeting for drinks sometime during the day. I killed time looking online for hotels for our wedding guests. Found some really nice places (B&Bs in Los Felix, Silverlake, Rancho Park) but not big enough to accommodate all of our people.
Adrian calls and says he forgot he was doing his brother a favor and entertaining friends of his from Munich. They were going to go to the shooting range. I've never been to one so I agreed to try it.
The Los Angeles Gun Club is off Alameda in the industrial part of downtown L.A. It's a simple operation with attendants signing people in and renting them equipment. I don't know one gun from the next but our German friend wanted to fire one of the biggest guns they had -- a 50mm Magnum revolver with a super long barrel. I'm not sure what the others were (a baretta?). We donned our safety goggles and headphones and headed in.
The first thing that struck me was the noise. Guns are loud. I ended up buying earplugs to give my ears a little more protection. Then there's the smell of guns and the residue that ends up on your hands and arms.
The other people at the range were young and mostly in groups. The guys next to us had something that the Terminator might use. I thought, "This is perfect training ground for gangbangers."
I had never shot a firearm and I was pretty bad at it. The guns were heavy and I kept anticipating the kickback. Believe it or not, I did my best shooting with that humongous Magnum. It was the last gun we shot and it's so heavy, it doesn't kick back as hard as the other ones.
Our German friends were having a blast. Stefan took pictures of his wife loading the gun, holding the gun; snapshots of our targets before and after; us posing with our shot-up targets. Germans aren't allowed to own firearms so this was a treat. "Better than Disneyland," we said. Stefan even bought a t-shirt!
It was fun but tiring. I didn't want to shot after my first round. My arm/hand strength is so weak that I couldn't even pull back the slide on the Baretta to ready it for firing.
The movies really do glamorize guns. They make it look so easy to point and shoot and actually hit your target. I was scared around the guns, to tell the truth. They are dangerous. One false move and that's it.
I don't think it was an "only in L.A." day to go from yoga to the pistol range but the two activities are definitely in different worlds. The uniting factor is exhaling. In yoga, you exhale when exerting yourself. At the range, you exhale to steady your trigger pull.
In rare instances I make plans on Monday with require me to stay in L.A. Such was the case yesterday. I did my typical yoga thing, showered and waited to hear from my cousin Adrian, who I was meeting for drinks sometime during the day. I killed time looking online for hotels for our wedding guests. Found some really nice places (B&Bs in Los Felix, Silverlake, Rancho Park) but not big enough to accommodate all of our people.
Adrian calls and says he forgot he was doing his brother a favor and entertaining friends of his from Munich. They were going to go to the shooting range. I've never been to one so I agreed to try it.
The Los Angeles Gun Club is off Alameda in the industrial part of downtown L.A. It's a simple operation with attendants signing people in and renting them equipment. I don't know one gun from the next but our German friend wanted to fire one of the biggest guns they had -- a 50mm Magnum revolver with a super long barrel. I'm not sure what the others were (a baretta?). We donned our safety goggles and headphones and headed in.
The first thing that struck me was the noise. Guns are loud. I ended up buying earplugs to give my ears a little more protection. Then there's the smell of guns and the residue that ends up on your hands and arms.
The other people at the range were young and mostly in groups. The guys next to us had something that the Terminator might use. I thought, "This is perfect training ground for gangbangers."
I had never shot a firearm and I was pretty bad at it. The guns were heavy and I kept anticipating the kickback. Believe it or not, I did my best shooting with that humongous Magnum. It was the last gun we shot and it's so heavy, it doesn't kick back as hard as the other ones.
Our German friends were having a blast. Stefan took pictures of his wife loading the gun, holding the gun; snapshots of our targets before and after; us posing with our shot-up targets. Germans aren't allowed to own firearms so this was a treat. "Better than Disneyland," we said. Stefan even bought a t-shirt!
It was fun but tiring. I didn't want to shot after my first round. My arm/hand strength is so weak that I couldn't even pull back the slide on the Baretta to ready it for firing.
The movies really do glamorize guns. They make it look so easy to point and shoot and actually hit your target. I was scared around the guns, to tell the truth. They are dangerous. One false move and that's it.
I don't think it was an "only in L.A." day to go from yoga to the pistol range but the two activities are definitely in different worlds. The uniting factor is exhaling. In yoga, you exhale when exerting yourself. At the range, you exhale to steady your trigger pull.
Monday, May 24, 2010
moving along
Things are moving along on the 'ol wedding. Chris and I went to a tasting yesterday for catering. Reasonably priced, nice vendor. We're going to see another one and then decide.
My wedding dress came in the mail Friday and it's perfect. No alterations necessary. Thank you Nordstrom.com!
First thing's first though. My sister turns 40 on Thursday and we're having a birthday dinner Friday night with her friends and the family. We can only remember her ever having one party before. And once again, the price is right -- $20 a head, including wine! And if you pay in cash, they don't charge you tax. What a deal!
Work is okay. I was scolded in an email Saturday morning about something I put on our homepage. I think my boss thinks he's going to be fired so he's on us about every little thing. I'm not worried though. It'll pass. There are only 10 million other things to do and worry about. This one will pass.
I'm going to write a condolence card tonight for one of my co-workers, Carlos. He was one of the building's maintenance men. Super friendly, always in good spirits, even with my grouchy officemates. He was in his early sixties and died very suddenly. He is missed.
My wedding dress came in the mail Friday and it's perfect. No alterations necessary. Thank you Nordstrom.com!
First thing's first though. My sister turns 40 on Thursday and we're having a birthday dinner Friday night with her friends and the family. We can only remember her ever having one party before. And once again, the price is right -- $20 a head, including wine! And if you pay in cash, they don't charge you tax. What a deal!
Work is okay. I was scolded in an email Saturday morning about something I put on our homepage. I think my boss thinks he's going to be fired so he's on us about every little thing. I'm not worried though. It'll pass. There are only 10 million other things to do and worry about. This one will pass.
I'm going to write a condolence card tonight for one of my co-workers, Carlos. He was one of the building's maintenance men. Super friendly, always in good spirits, even with my grouchy officemates. He was in his early sixties and died very suddenly. He is missed.
Monday, April 26, 2010
Frustration
Am I turning into Bridezilla? What is wrong with me? Any change to my plans and I feel like crying.
I was supposed to drive down to Newport today to try on a potential wedding dress. I called to double-check that it was still in stock and it is not. That threw me for a loop; made me grouch.
My whole day was planned around the trip. I even skipped yoga this morning to get my oil changed for the ride. Instead of showering so I was clean to try on the gown I could have instead kept my grubby clothes on and worked out.
A friend had suggested another boutique in South Pasadena to check out wedding dresses and since Newport was out, I figured I could do that. Then I called the store. They are closed Mondays. That seems to be common with these shops. There's a bridal resale boutique near my work but it's closed on Mondays too. Grrrrr.
I was supposed to drive down to Newport today to try on a potential wedding dress. I called to double-check that it was still in stock and it is not. That threw me for a loop; made me grouch.
My whole day was planned around the trip. I even skipped yoga this morning to get my oil changed for the ride. Instead of showering so I was clean to try on the gown I could have instead kept my grubby clothes on and worked out.
A friend had suggested another boutique in South Pasadena to check out wedding dresses and since Newport was out, I figured I could do that. Then I called the store. They are closed Mondays. That seems to be common with these shops. There's a bridal resale boutique near my work but it's closed on Mondays too. Grrrrr.
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