TheProtagonist5

My Wedding Day A Summary

2009-07-16T20:46:03Z

I wanted to write an archive summary of my wedding day because these moments are forgotten all too fast. I got married to Steve on July 11, 2009 in Wheaton, IL.

We had the rehersal on Friday at 5:30 pm at the church and then a laid back buffet style dinner at Steve's parent's house in Glen Ellyn after. A lot of relatives from across the country came in to see the wedding and the rehersal dinner was the first chance I had to meet them. Steve's Aunt Evie and Aunt Carol were visiting as well as his Aunt Ruth and Uncle John (JR). He also had some cousins in town, Daniela and Ryan with their kids. All three bridesmaids and groomsmen were there also at the dinner. It seemed like there were a lot of people to talk with and catch up with in conversations.

The actual wedding day started early. Steve set the alarm for 7:30 knowing I had to be at the hair/makeup place at 9am. Yes, we were in the same house, we felt like we didn't need to be elaborate and spend days apart beforehand. I think I rolled out of bed at 8am and left at 9:00ish. I got there at 9:15 thinking I was late and was suprised they were not really even ready for me. Susan was already half done with her hair by that time and Amy was getting started. Both had very cute styles they were doing. I ended up sitting around until 9:30 and not getting my hair completed until 10:30am. Then I had to wait another 1/2 hour for the makeup lady since she was working on someone at the time. I started makeup at 11am and was finished at 12pm. I was supposed to have been done at 10:30 am or 11am. I was supposed to be at the church at 11:30 and was way late.

The makeup looked ok but the hair was a bit weird for me. They decided without asking me that I should have a bunch of fake hair extensions shoved in my head to make it look like I had a ton of hair and a beehive in the back of my head. Yes the end result did get a lot of compliments but it did freak me out to have alien head behind me all day and hitting the seat in the car. Why don't they ask the person who's hair they are actually doing? It was too late by the time I realized what they were doing to make them re-do it and make us even later than we were.

I actually got there at 12:30pm and was just jumping into my dress when the photographer found us and asked for the dress to take pictures of it hanging. Ugh. I know we have to do the picture thing but this was making us even later. I would find out later that this was a critical scheduling mistake and making sure you have vendors that will listen to you about scheduling things is very important. If things are behind schedule people have to be willing to cut stuff off the plans to make up time when dinners are concerned. this is about the time the Florist walked in with the flowers. They were amazing. Purple mokara and vanda orchids everywhere with some purple stock, black callas and pink roses scattered throughout. (And some rhinestones suspended on wires.)

Anyway, we finally got my dress back and she then wanted to do pix of me in the dress in a small chapel there, and in front of a large mirror in the main room of the church house. Then we had the "reveal" as they call it where Steve and I get to see eachother for the first time that day. This took longer than expected also, and I was not able to keep them on schedule because they said I was not allowed to wear my watch because it looked bad in pictures. (if you can, wear your watch!) The photos may end up being nice but involved a lot of posing for a long time when they would change all the settings on the camera for like 5 minutes before taking the shots, I am pretty sure no natural smiles were captured during the entire day. After Steve and I saw eachother and realized hey, we're the same people we always are, we went to the church for the group/family pictures. There again we took too long and didn't get them all in because of how long it took to stage the setup of people, the setup of lighting equipment and the camera itself. Also we blinked sometimes at the flash, and had to do this close our eyes until she counted to 3 and then open them when the picture was flashing thing which doesn't get a decent smile because we have our eyes closed. I am afraid these pics will also look weird and everyone will look tired.

The most frustrating thing was that we asked everyone (both sets of parents, bridesmaids, groomsmen and 2 ushers) to be there for the pictures at 1 pm. We didn't start until 1:45 and then didn't do group shots until the last 10 minutes or so. Basically it looked like I just wasted all those people's time and told them to come when they weren't needed. I wish the Photographer would have done the group ones first and then ours later when we had time or whenever other people weren't standing around waiting. How come photographers never realize this?

So then we had to go back to our seperate areas again at 2:30 because people were arriving and entering the church. And the ushers (MIke and Simon) went off to greet them) We used some of that time to take some interesting pictures on a staircase in the church house and to eat because we didn't have any other opportunity to eat until like 7:30 pm that night. We joked that bagels were the only food that could not ruin a dress, so that was what we had to bring in. I also tried to fix my dress which seemed to not want to stay up quite right. I would find out later that sitting in a dress with a full corset is not a good idea, it breaks the structure and shoves my bustline upwards and out of the dress innapropriatley.

You might think by this point that I was pissed, and annoyed by how things were going, but really I was just trying to make it through all these prescribed set events that had to happen, per tradition, per the church and per the photographer and we never quite made it to everything. Every once in a while I would get a glimpse in the mirror of the flowers or the dress and think it didn't really look like me. I'm nowhere near this girly. It was kind of like playing a part in a movie, with a lot of staging and sets and scripts. Steve and I decided on a hollywood wedding not quite knowing it at the time. The videographer was also tailing us through the entire day. I did know that both moms liked how things looked and turned out, so that was good. At least someone thought this was going well.

The ceremony had an odd start too. I got there just as they were starting the mothers walk down the isle escorted by my brother Scott and Steve's brother Brian. They lit the unity candle and then waited for the rest of us. The guests were still arriving late (as people do in my family) and the organist started early throwing us off. Then the pastor and groomsmen missed their 3 chime queue to walk out and the coordinator had to sprint under the church in the secret hallway to tell them to get out there. Then the organist also started into the main processional too early and we were late starting that as well. Oh, well at least we all got down the isle. Even with a rehersal this never goes perfectly. Too many requirements for staging things means something is bound to go wrong. I walked down with my dad and was a bit teary with all the people there that I saw. Steve's mom slipped a kleenex in my dad's hand while we were stopped at the end of the isle and he passed it to me. Nobody noticed. (I think) Then my dad gave me a kiss on the cheek and passed me on to Steve. Steve jumped the gun and tried to do the same kiss and the pastor said he had to wait, it wasn't time to do that yet, and everyone laughed.

The ceremony was nice and not too long. It involved a welcoming statement, a statement of intent from us, a statement from the parents and a statement of support from the entire congregation. Then Pastor Jay went into some descriptions of why we were here today and what all this really means. Then we moved further up on the steps and he talked more about us specifically and read from some emails we sent to him earlier in the week. I had no idea that he would read them verbatim. I liked that one of the things Steve wrote was that he loved the way she loves me. Pastor Jay thought that would make a great Lionel Richey song. Then we did the vows repeating after the pastor and I think Steve's microphone for the videographer picked up most of that from both of us. When it was all over I asked Steve if that was his car stereo in his front pocket and he said it was the microphone and I get that was all on tape.

We kissed at the top steps of the altar and walked back down the isle with the wedding party following us. Then we walked up the side isle to come back up front to greet everyone as they exited the isles. It was nice to see everyone in person at this point and have an informal recieveing line of sorts but what I did not know is that about 15% of the people did not come to the church so they were not greeted and we missed them until I randomly ran into them at the reception. Then we walked back to the altar to take some pictures with the pastor and lastly we walked out into a sea of bubbles on the front steps of the church and into the car. Those sale price Target champagne bubbles did actually work out ok. We did have a delay though since the photographer said 5 min to pack up stuff and leave again and then took pictures of a bunch of people including the bridesmaids and some guests. We ended up standing around looking out of place for a while and poor brian was holding the door to my dad's white buick for a while like he was a limo driver and everyone wondered what was going on.

After that was all settled we did get to Cantigny and I will write more about that later since this is a ginormous post.

20090711-153747 My Wedding Ceremony

2009-07-16T04:10:13Z

20090711-153747
Originally uploaded by alforque

Another fave from Andre's photos of the wedding.

20090711-194544 Wedding Photos

2009-07-14T04:13:15Z

20090711-194544
Originally uploaded by alforque

One of the many wedding photos to come, this one courtesy of Andre.

desk roses sprite

2009-06-28T08:37:45Z

desk roses sprite
Originally uploaded by Yateski

some pretty roses on my desk

Closing Time

2009-06-23T04:39:11Z

Warning - long post, skip if you like...

I closed on the sale of my condo this past Friday. I lived there for just over 7 years. From March 02 through June 09. (technically I moved out in Feb, but sold in June) It was an interesting day as most are these days when I am encountering all kinds of new things I have not had contact with before.

First off I had forgotten that Steve's place is next to the tornado siren until it went off as I was trying to gather everything and leave. I didn't know whether to grab the cats and go hide in the downstairs bathroom or to leave because the sky really didn't look like a tornado was possible. Later I found out it was in the next county.

Then I had to go to Oak Park to get a transfer sale tax stamp in order to allow the process to complete. What it seems is that Oak Park wants its sales tax up front for the deal, charged to my credit card. $8 per 1K in sale price. Yea, that adds up fast.

That process didn't take as long as I had anticipated so I decided to go see the condo one last time and get any last mail that was in the mailbox. I got there and found most of my mail had been forwarded properly and the new buyers were doing their walk through of the place. A married couple was buying it and I couldn't see how they were going to stay in that small space while married, but they wanted a 1 br, so I was happy to sell it to them. I didn't want to crash the walk through or anything but I did want to see my place one last time. They were in the kitchen chatting when I walked in, the place I used to like to hang out the most too. I remarked about how large the space felt without all the furniture in it, and they remarked at how small it felt to them. I mentioned that I couldn't change the space even if I wanted to. I showed them a few last things and then got out of their way. It was the last time I will ever be there and yet I was ok with it. I have been ready to move on for a while.

I then headed over to the closing title company a bit early which was a good thing since it was pouring rain and I had no change for the parking meters. I went to get a bottle of water from starbucks and pay the meter and the sky in the north was just black/purple. If there was going to be a tornado it was going to be here.

In the elevator going up to the title company I met my lawyer by chance, one of Steve's scout friend's dad. We were greeted by another forner resident of my building who happened to work there. (surprise) Then when they buyers arived with their lawyer we all got seated in an office/conference room with the buyers and their lawyer and realtor on one side of the table and me and my lawyer on the other. I thought it was a bit silly from a strategic perspective but I can see that you do have to pass a lot of paperwork down the line.

My realtor was running late because she had to go pick up the lock box at the condo. When she arrived at least we had 3 people on my side of the table. I did not have very much paperwork to do compared to the buyers. They had about double. I had to sign a bunch of papers confirming that I had not sold it to anyone else and that nothing had happened to the property since the offer was made. We also had to go through all the line items of fees. It ended up costing 11K in fees to sell. That was 8.5% of the selling price. Ouch. When you calculate how much you will make selling your place, remember the 8.5% in costs, even with our realtors doing the minimum commissions thing, not 5%.

Then we realized that there was something missing. My property management company had not written the first right of refusal approval in the letter they sent over. So we had to call them and have them fax it over again, and then things were pretty complete. It took a while to get through everything, we arrived at 11 am and I left at about 2:30 pm. Luckilly they had cookies there. We tried to keep it light in conversation between forms and share good restaurants and places to go in Oak Park. The lawyer and realtor both lived there too.

Then very quickly it was over. Everyone was eager to get out of there and move on so we went. I got my check and so did the lawyers and realtors. We didn't even have a chance to shake hands or anything. I was ok with it though. I had some cash back, more than I had originally put down as a deposit (because I overpaid regularly).

Then I ran over to the florist in Forest Park, Tulipia and finailized a few things and then ran home. Steve and I had to get our marriage licence in DuPage that day too. I can't get a day off work very often with this crazy workload so we combined a bunch of things into one day. We found the licence process to be very quick and only $30 dollars. A lot less expensive than selling a house. We also got father's day gifts taken care of that afternoon and a trip to the bank for that condo money. We even snuck in a trip to target to finally get a full length mirror, I have needed one for 7 years and not had any space for it.

So it is finally over, the whole condo phase. I look back and think that the buying-moving in process seems like faded sketchy memories now, so I wanted to write it down. I do remember how excited I was at the time and how much I really liked the design of the condo. I also remember many of the rude awakenings as I discovered things like the window air conditioners, traffic, radiators and sirens are pretty loud at times as well as the neighbors in the beginning. I also found out how hard it was to carry groceries up 3 flights of stairs and find a place to park without getting a ticket. I solved most of those issues or adjusted over the years and even managed to make it a comfy place to live.

Looking back these are the few things I would have done differently:

1. Have people over more often - or stayed home and enjoyed my space
2. Pay more off on the principle monthly instead of buying clothing/decorating stuff that didn't last
3. I should have gotten a place with parking from the get-go, but it worked out in the end when I did get one.
4. I should have cleaned more often, since my allergies got a lot worse living there.

Otherwise I am pretty happy with my time there. I got engaged there. I had a lot of work experience while living there. I learned a lot about public transportation and walked more than I had ever before that point. I indulged in the things that a single girl can do and a married one might not. I indulged in vintage stuff collecting, in blogging, improv classes, flickr and internet fun. I also indulged in my own personal space and style, which will always be a combination now with Steve's. I got a cat and I slept in late and went to bed whenever I wanted. I read a ton of books and occasionally tried to cook. I was free of a lot of responsibility yet it seemed like a ton at some points. Mostly because of work. It was where I decided I wanted to be a marketer and really dug into my craft. It also really set in that I was flying without a net and my parents were not going to be there to "save" me if I screwed up. And this was the beginning of the rest of my life where I kind of had to start taking care of my parents and seeing how long I would still have them around.

All these things have changed now. The single city girl phase is over and it's time to learn to be "wifey". (joking) It is about trying to meld together living styles and families and goals. Yes, it is about giving up some of what I want, but I get so much happiness in return in general just being where I am that some of those nit picky things seem silly. Life is also a lot about trying to stay ahead of the curve with work even though doing new things gets harder and harder with the larger workload I keep getting. Sometimes with all the wedding planning and insane workload, I think being human instead of a robot is really holding me back. I should really be a robot for the job I have. It would work so much better. I will have to look into that. After the wedding in 3 weeks.

Bridal Shower

2009-06-09T18:34:42Z

I have been to a lot of bridal showers, just by the age that I am, because so many people are married already. They are always fun and interesting to see. The thing is you usually think the bride is just beaming with happiness and I was sure that everyone who had this experience was over the moon in this etherial experience. And yes it was fun but nobody knows what stress is going on undernealth the happy demeanor. When the bridal shower happens it is usually pretty close to the wedding and the amount of things you are juggling is a lot higher than you want to. I don't think I was really totally able to appreciate the event nor the tradition that surrounds it. Everything was wonderful but I was so worried about making sure people didn't think I was asking for rediculous things and makings sure they knew how much I appreciated it that I probably missed some of the fun of the event.

Steve was nice and he came along too. I wanted him to meet some new people in the family that he had not met yet. And it was nice also since it was at his mom's house. I do feel bad that Steve's mom got stuck with a lot of the work though. She didn't initially want to do the event because there has been a faux-pas about mother's giving showers being like asking for things for their kids and not proper. But that has changed in recent years. All the showers I have been to in recent years have either been at the mother's house or hosted by the moms. Plus my mom started freaking me out about 2 months ago because she couldn't do the shower at her house or pay to have it at a restaurant. My parents have seperate finances for all sorts of reasons so she felt bad asking him to do it and so it was becoming an issue with her asking about how to do it in weird cheap ways. So I bit the bullet and asked if Mrs Yates would be able to help/host. She was gracious about it and after some conference calling about what foods/schedule a shower entailed between the moms we had one set. Not too overdone or fancy per the Yates and not too small or un-classy per my mom. (I know , the irony) My friend Susan from work (who is standing up) also offered to host it but she lives in the city and nobody that I knew would be able to attend there.

In the end, I hope it was fun for people to attend. I know I was suprised at what people brought. Some of the interesting gifts were a vintage tablecloth used as wrapping on a gift, 2 waterford champaigne glasses with Champagne and my mom somehow got my dad to buy the entire crystal set of 12 wine glasses, 12 water goblets and 12 champagne flutes from Macy's on sale. I am still not sure how she got him to do that. Steve's parents got us the set of stainless flatware that we picked out to go with the vintage China I have. So it is a lot like my parent's wedding shower where they got all those sets from family too. Although with fewer family members.

It makes me miss those times when more family was around. Some of the great aunts that were there for my parent's wedding and through my childhood aren't around anymore and I know they would have liked to be there. Only one is still around and could come. My Aunt Dorothy. The rest of the people enjoyed her humor, of which I didn't remember since she used to live in Florida and I rarely saw her. It is only because now that she lives back here because of her health and to be located near family that she could come.

I wasn't sure I got to talk enough to everyone who came out to the shower or that people weren't bored at times. Some family was there but looked like they didn't know many people and were a bit bored. I was trying to speed things along because people had to leave at certain times. But hopefully people still had fun.

Then when it was all over (which was quicker than you think when you're in the center of it all) we were left in the center of a pile of boxes. Somehow Steve packed most of it into the car and we ended up with a pile of boxes on our kitchen table along with boxes still unopened from my final move of stuff from my condo. It was a bit of a mess. After a few days we have managed to tame the moving boxes and the tupperware in them as well as some of the wedding related gifts. Everybody was very generous and gave things either from the registry or really nice gifts. Not at all the variance i have seen at other wedding showers. I guess we got lucky.

There is still a ton to do with the rehersal dinner, Sunday brunch and a whole host of wedding vendors. Who knows if we will get through it all without a glitch.

Moving Day Complete - Anyone want to buy a sofa?

2009-06-03T15:30:34Z

We hired movers to do the last leg of the move out of my condo and they completed this yesterday. There were 10 pieces of furniture and 3 mirrors that had to be moved down 3 flights of stairs, into the moving truck driven to Glen Ellyn and then loaded in Steve's parent's basement for storage. All this took about 4 hours and cost $719.00. I think it was worth every penny.

Three guys from All American United Moving in Elmhurst showed up on time and got going quickly. They were very good at this and made moving large furniture look easy. They did seem to have trouble with looking at the best way to fit furniture through tight doorways based on the shape because they would back in and out a few times before they got things through, but other than that it was really happening quite quickly. They wrapped the sofas in burlap wraps and then added a wide plastic wrap over it to protect them. Then they also used a long fabric strap to hold pieces when one person was higher on the stairs than the other or to hold it up on their back. It was quite humerous that the smallest of the 3 guys had my piano roll cabinet srapped to his back and walked it down like a backpack. I took some pictures, I may make a collage and post to flickr later this week.

The thing about moving is that it is so exhausting with all the time it takes and the trips back and forth. We initially packed up a lot of clutter and some small furniture to stage the condo back in November, these items are stored in Steve's parent's basement. Next, we probably made 4 trips to my place to bring things over initially in February that were essentials (like Zeus' litterbox and my clothes). We also probably have made at least 6 trips with both Steve's car and mine with a lot of other things that can be integrated in to his house (plates, pots, pans, books, small furniture) and my parents and brother helped pack and move a large load last weekend to storage in the basement too. All in all, we're tired out and nobody wanted to move anything else. So, we got movers for the big empty furniture and Steve and I carried the drawers to the bedroom set in our cars (because the bakelite handles are brittle and easy to break).

There were some tricky moments, where the sofa and the buffet didn't want to fit through doorways or around corners of the stairway. The guys couldn't believe that Mike and my brother got that sofa upstairs and that my uncle got the 7 ft long buffet up the stairs strapped to a hand cart. They asked if any of them wanted to work for them based on that knowledge. They also agreed that my "small" move was about as difficult as the baby grand piano that they moved the day before. The truck also was tricky to get in the driveway of Steve's parent's house. It almost hit the power lines and was hitting the tree a lot too. The narrow one lane driveway was also tricky because they had to back in and the truck almost took the entire width. Steve's mom's flowers were dangerously close to being run over.

And now it's done, the basment is full and everyone is happy. My place looks a lot bigger when it is empty but it also looks cold and sterile. I am suprised how much the furniture in the warm tones really changed the feel of the place. How much it changed from a box on the 3rd floor to a home when my furniture was there. I especially like that even though people said it could not happen, the large formerly built in buffet survived the trip out and into the basement. It will hopefully get refinished when we find a house to buy and be put in place permanently, but it is beating all odds already. It is such a neat piece of furniture that my great grandparents had and might get to live on in a modern setting someday. If nothing else it is a conversation piece and a historical artifact. It is really only still around because of the generosity of several people helping move it and the movers willing to move it again now.

The Sofa on the other hand is still something I would like to sell. It is oversized with large arm rests which are pretty but not practical. I am sure that it would fit better in someone's house than it does in their basement. And the matching chair can go with it.

But...I am not looking forward to moving it, or anything else again.

Later in the evening Steve and his dad strapped the mattress/inner spring to the top of the SUV and drove that over to our place. His old mattress was like sleeping on a marshmallow. Mine is a lot newer and more supportive. With that in place, I think I had the best night's sleep in a long time.

Transparency: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

2009-06-03T14:22:11Z

Transparency: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch
Originally uploaded by GOOD Magazine

I had no idea there was a huge patch of floating plastic in the middle of the pacific ocean??? Yikes.

Preview: The Twitterverse v0.9 by @BrianSolis & @Jess3

2009-06-02T15:36:12Z

Preview: The Twitterverse v0.9 by @BrianSolis & @Jess3
Originally uploaded by b_d_solis

All the apps that are built off Twitter's data make it valuable more than the site itself.

The weekend is never long enough

2009-06-01T18:40:58Z

I am always saying how I wish weekends were longer and now that we had a long weekend last week, the 2 day weekend is completley inadequate.

We had our last counseling meeting at the church this Friday night after running around nuts all week trying to get work done by deadlines.

Saturday AM I had to go out to OP to pick up the test flowers and bring them to Cantigny to see how they worked with the linnen colors. Purple/Plum is an odd color to match. The flowers rocked, the runners didn't but something will work out. The good news is that the black footed urns are way cool and I have a huge arangement at home right now full of way cool hydrangeas and orchids.

Then I had to get a parking contract/reciept signed by the guy who I rent parking from for the new owners because they would not accept the cash for the 1 yr free parking. Sigh.

Then I had to pack a few additional items and run home because my parents and Steve's parents were coming over for dinner. Partly because my mom and dad haven't seen the place where I live now and then also Steve's mom wanted to see the flowers. She agrees that they are very dramatic and unique. We thought it would be easy to do burgers on the grill and even with Steve on the grill cooking I wasn't the best host. For some reason I forgot utensils in things on the table and silly things like butter, salad dressing and salt and pepper. So I spent most of the evening running to get things for everyone that I should have had out in the first place. I guess I have a lot to learn with hosting as well as cooking.

Then on Sunday we went to my place to clean out the last of the personal stuff and empty the contents into 2 cars and Steve's dad's SUV. All 3 were full and we even had 2 boxes to spare, but it took about 5 hours. We loaded about 1/2 of the stuff into Steve's parent's basement and the other 1/2 came home with us. Now I have to spend my week sorting through all our stuff and digesting my items into his house and tossing the stuff from both of us that is really old and worn.

My family was also nice to come help clean things out, my brother being the muscles of the operation. He lifted these insanely heavy rubbermaid containers full of wrapped up glassware down 3 flights of stairs. I am not sure how that was possible. They were all glad that was the last time they had to go to the condo and see it. Nobody was much a fan of my living there, because of the long drive there, the traffic, the pollution, the lack of parking and the 3 flights of stairs. (but my mom did say that it was a cute kitchen. At least Steve and I enjoyed cooking there.)

We have the movers coming tomorrow June 2 to remove the big furniture and put that all in Steve's parent's basement also. I hate that we are imposing on them but it saves us like $300 per month not having to pay for storage. Plus we go visit them more when we need to get into the stuff. After that it will be completley empty and ready for the new owners. The closing is 2 weeks later on 6/19. I had to get the movers in now since my work schedule will be too crazy then to miss a day.

Additionally we have yet to meet with the photographer or DJ and I still have to go get the dress fitted one more time. The shower is this Saturday but I am not sure what to expect since Steve's mom keeps saying it is for girls only and he can't attend. Why not??? I am not comfortable being the only center of attention at something like that. Especially if I don't know half the people.

I chased the internet and got tired.

2009-05-27T17:45:44Z

I chased the internet and got tired.
Originally uploaded by Marc Johns

Surfing isn't so much fun when you're so bogged down with stuff to do. Plus I can't keep up with the millions of little start ups there are these days. I thought this post it was particularly fitting.

Fastest Memorial Day Weekend Ever

2009-05-26T16:06:01Z

I spent the entire weekend packing up all the contents of my condo. It is odd putting your life in boxes. It is odd trying to figure out how you accumulated this much stuff so quickly? My vintage glassware collecting has gotten a bit out of hand. I am pretty sure the one thing we didn't need anything more of in the registry was glassware. Or plates. Or pots and pans.

And somehow I broke Steve's wash machine. I was washing the bathroom rugs since I've never seen them washed and wonk, I hear a crash from upstairs. I find Steve with his head in the washer finding that we had 2 rubber bands (like bungee cords but thicker) break off the drum. Aparently wash machines are just a big tub hanging on wires with a rotating spindle in the middle and 4 rubber bands keeping it from swinging and hitting the side of the metal box it is in. Steve says he can order these parts and fix it himself, but it looks tricky.

We also moved my large bookcase-entertainment center unit to Steve's loft this weekend. It took one evening to get all the books packed, remove the TV (heavy old tube style!) dis-assemble the ikea madness, carry the TV down 3 flights of stairs and into the car, put the millions of ikea pieces in the car and then drive home and unload it all. The next day it took most of all day to assemble it again (this should be a test for all newlyweds or engaged couples, assemble large Ikea furniture with no instructions and don't kill eachother) and then have Steve clean out his 2 book cases and move them to accomodate mine with the TV in the middle. Then the reassembly process with his and my books (not co-mingled, he aranges by author's last name, I arange by color, plus his are all sci-fi fantasy and my books are all non-fiction) back on the shelves took us to about the 24 hour point for the whole project.

We also emptied a lot of the closet stuff, more kitchen gadgets and the pantry. I seem to work on things in a random order. Just whatever seems most accomplishable next. When I hit a wall, I change to another room and it leaves most rooms partially packed. We still need more boxes though, that is the biggest hurdle to getting things out of there before June 2 when the movers come to take the big pieces. I still have some magazines-large books, remaining linnens, glassware and random lamps and boxes left to move.

About 80% of the stuff is out of there already. And the nice thing about doing this slowly over the last 4 months is that I have had a lot of time to integrate my stuff into Steve's place so we don't have boxes of things stacked everywhere. The only boxes we have in the house right now that we don't know what to do with are the vhs tapes and cds I had in my old place that I never use and don't know what to do with but yet can't just throw away. And the down comforter we can't use because Steve is allergic and the extra silverware set and kitchen utensils that are duplicates of what we have. We are donating a ton of stuff we found we don't really need, hopefully it will go to someone who needs these things.

We also spent time at Steve's parent's place emptying car-loads into their basement and visiting my parents house to have dinner on Memorial Day with Scott and his GF Kelly. They talk really fast and are really cuddly silly. It's a bit odd. And she is from Elburn, so talk of tractors and coach purses is common yet odd. And somewhere in the mix Helio Castronevez won the Indy 500. We didn't even watch it this year. How sad. My brother and I used to worship Indy before we had significant others. On better news though, we are eagerly looking forward to the next season of Top Gear UK which should be starting soon in late June or early July. If nothing else brings my family together, its TopGear.

On another note, Steve's mom's garden is amazing and I'd really like a garden someday although I am not sure that I could accomplish something on that scale.

White House Photography

2009-05-16T23:32:39Z

P050609PS-0286
Originally uploaded by The Official White House Photostream

I like that the president has photos up on flickr and that the photographer they use seems to like artistic shots as well as the straightforward documentary photos. Its nice to see what happens at the white house on any particular day and see a creative take on things. I hope they continue to release photos like this from behind the scenes on Flickr.

Bridal Planning Update

2009-05-11T16:29:34Z

Well this weekend was no different than the last several. Lots of stuff to do and not much sleep.

Its weird when you sit down at the computer at 10 pm or so and look up and it is 1 am suddenly. How does time travel that fast?

We thought things would calm down since we mailed out the invitations on Friday. So, Friday night I can't even remember what we were up to. Possibly sleep? I think we were working on the website and figuring out wedding favor labels and doing laundry. And rubbing Zeus' belly.

On Saturday I got engrossed in Flickr and tracking down the origins of these cool looking lamps, (is mid century finally growing on me? After I sell my heywood dining set?) and then went to go get my hair and makeup done as a trial for the wedding. What was supposed to be 2 hours ended up being 3.5. Ouch. The guy who did my hair was quite unique. He had a mohawk and a mullet at the same time. I think my hair/makeup turned out ok. I just have to make sure they do the more age appropriate french twist rather than the HS Prom twist with curls all over.

Then we met up with Steve's parents for dinner for Mother's day at Pal Joey's. A small restaurant they want to have the rehersal dinner at. Sinde this is like the 20th restaurant we have considered, I really don't care anymore. We just have to get it booked because we are running out of time.

Then I chatted with Janice via skype after I took the rabbits nest of teased hair down. It is cool to be able to chat real time like a video phone with Skype. I haven't talked this much to Janice in years. Her father in law is in the hospital recovering from a brain tumor that was removed. I hope he gets better, although it is serious and nobody knows what will happen.

On Sunday we ended up doing some work at home and more laundry and then went to my parents house and out to dinner with them and my brother for mother's day. Omega isn't fancy but they have some of everything and that is good for us with a variety crowd. They gave all the women there roses even though I am not actually a mom, except to 3 cats. We do say go find dad or mom to the cats when they want attention. It's a little weird but that's what you do before you have kids right?

At my parents house I tried to make up the wedding favors with all the little clear plastic boxes and the bulk packs of candy I ordered online from JellyBelly.com. Jordan almonds are easy to find but most of them are harder than a rock and break your teeth. Only Fannie May has good ones, and only in multicolor for 17 per lb. Out of 3 boxes we got about 1 lb of white/pink almonds. I guess we get a lot of green/blue/yellow snack leftovers. I am mixing the almonds with chocolate candy coated mints and then i have a seperate mix of jelly beans and champagne bubbles. If you put the mints and champagne bubbles together someone would have puked when they ate them at the same time, so we have 2 different kinds of favor candy. And I only had enough for 58 favors so I have to go order more again. Sigh.

Then we went back home and finished up more on the website and I finally found a design to copy for favor label stickers from etsy. And I scanned in some vintage wedding family pix. If you want to see the site, it is steve and cherie dot com.

Then we realized we forgot the laundry in the dryer AGAIN and had to put that away at 1.30 am. I am not sure how I got up at 6:30 this morning.

Finally!

2009-05-08T15:10:01Z

We did get a second offer on the condo yesterday at the last minute and even though they knew there was an offer they were competing against (although they did not know the amount) the offer ended up being exactly the same. So, this makes me think that only the most price consious people are in the market right now since both offers were more than 10K lower than my already much lower than (20K below) market price. When all this adds up, I am going to loose money on this condo. Not in buying price vs selling price, but when you figure in how much money I put into it in the last 7 years plus the buying price. I strongly recommend people not buy unless they intend to live somewhere potentially "forever" and pay it off early, since that is the only way you can make a profit on the investment now.

And I have to figure out how to sell my remaining stuff that I can't keep, and move the things we can keep within the next 4 weeks??? Just what I need right now! More stuff with deadlines. I know my ulcer is back because of all this happening at once...

So, after we got the paperwork signed we turned to our other task of yesterday evening. Stuffing wedding invitations. We got them assembled and stamped within about an hour and a half but then when I was falling asleep Steve told me that we forgot to stamp the return envelopes before putting them in the invite assembly. Arrghh!

It was about 1 am when he thought of this and we contemplated ripping them apart, ordering more stamps and envelopes and paying the higher postage and then though why not just slip in an additional stamp on its wax paper through the side of the envelope? The envelopes were rectangular flapped with only glue on the bottom so there was about an inch and a half to slip in a stamp with tweezers. I am not sure how all that happened though since I was not awake. I thought we would re-do everything and went back to sleep, Steve fixed this. He is amazing.

So, now I have a billion page webtrends report to do and a deadline to complete it by, so I have to run.

I wonder how many more near missed we will have like that one?

Sold - Sort of

2009-05-07T15:43:28Z

Well we did get an offer on Tuesday for my condo. It was 14K below my asking price. We compromised (I really did more of the compromising) and found a verbal agreement price. The thing is, since then there has been no time to really go further. I can't get to the Realtor's office until Friday after work, and she can't make it out to where I live or work during this time either. I hope the potential buyer isn't offended if there is paperwork waiting but this is a seriously crazy busy time for us.

I have a huge report due by tomorrow for a client and I will be working here late tonight and possibly tomorrow night also. We are also working on getting out the wedding invitations by Friday/Saturday also because the postal rates change on Monday. It took one night to print the names on the inner envelopes and one night to print the addresses on the outer envelopes (last night). I was suprised that Steve's color laser printer could print all these, it saved us a fortune. But it is time consuming. I am glad we didn't try and print everything ourselves, that would have completley overwhelmed us.

We improvised a little doing the inner envelope names in the lavender color used on the invite (rather than black) and adding a semi-transparent lavender monogram to the outer envelope. I am always suprised how Steve's and my knowledge comes together to make things work.

He was a master of the mail merge and setting up the printer to find special envelope settings that slow down printing, since the ink was curling off when we did it the regular speed. And I was the one doing the font choosing, font matching, color matching and layout stuff. (no fake embossing or shadowing fonts please! That is so desktop publishing 1990's!) For a while we thought that we could use a graphic from the invite but it didn't work. I think Steve was just curious to see how the magic wand tool worked even though the image wasn't the right size or resolution. Anyway, it's an adventure and hopefully we will get through it all.

Next we have to start working on updating his place to sell. Watching the home staging shows on HGTV has been interesting. We have a lot of work to do there. The Tv shows seem to do a few things:
1. Update all the linnens - target modern stuff, solid colors, neutrals for drapes, beds and towels.
2. Remove clutter and all personal items, make it look like a hotel - minmal wall hangings, no pictures of people who live there.
3. Fix things that need repair - mostly superficial things, they don't do places with big problems.
4. Paint all neutrals - white - cream - beige - mocha only.
5. Remove 1/2 the furniture to show the room space, plus people look at and judge your place based on your stuff. Less stuff means less judgement and more looking at the actual rooms.
6. Update light fixtures since new ones can be aquired cheaply and they are somewhat easy to change.

Also, for some reason the cats are fighting again. Zeus & Pogo have sorted out their differences, but Zeus chased Cinnamon away from the water bowl yesterday in an attempt to dominate the kitchen as his territory and Pogo litterally attacked her when she was going to the water bowl last night. I wish they wouldn't pick on their sister since she is already so terrified of Zeus and hides most of the time.

Maybe an offer?

2009-05-05T14:59:27Z

My realtor thinks that there is a buyer who wants to make an offer on my condo today.

I haven't heard yet but I am a little nervous that I could get this close and have things not work out.

I did have another offer about a month ago that was an FHA loan, but the terms of the association by-laws prohibit FHA loans with an obscure and indirectly worded phrase about the association purchasing the condo at any time from you, and we had to decline the deal.

This could be the culmination of 6 months of cleaning, de-cluttering, packing, moving and marketing blitzing to get this property to move.

I have to say that the realtor was good but the market has been so awful that even she had a hard time getting people to look at it. I took things into my own hands with a blog page about it, some extra ads I paid for out of my pocket and by watching the home sales shows on HGTV and trying to make my condo even more staged to sell. Oh yea, and I dropped the price 20K. (I know, ouch)

I do think I have a good handle on the advertising aspects of selling a property now, and if anyone is looking to sell a home/condo that has been on the market for a while I am pretty sure my marketing skills can at least double the exposure it is getting now. How many months it takes to sell though is still anyone's guess.

My goal was to cut the time in half that my place would need to sell and since the average for my building has been 12 months, and I'm at 6 now, I may have hit that target.

Now all I need is an actual offer like she said would be coming in today.

Oh, and I sold my heywood wakefield dining set to a very nice Oak Park Jewelry designer via craigslist. We have to go help her and her husband move it out tonight.

Now I just have to sell the sofa and chair set too.

Liquidating your life is an exausting process. Especially for me since it took so long to get things aquired in the first place (because I am too picky about quality and price) and so many years to get settled there happily.

Red Roses

2009-05-05T04:26:59Z

Red Roses
Originally uploaded by strz2009

Hanging Pots

2009-05-04T04:44:40Z

Hanging Pots
Originally uploaded by strz2009

Some new garden pix posted at Flickr.

I am trying my first attempt at gardening without a safety net of having my mom around to make sure things work. We will see if it works out.

Barack Obama walks the family dog

2009-04-29T15:52:25Z

P041409PS-0401
Originally uploaded by The Official White House Photostream

Or maybe the dog is walking him?

It's nice that they have put candid behind the scenes photos up on flickr like this for people to share. It's an interesting look at how things must be there every day.

Frankie Manning memorial Jam - Fizz - Chicago, IL

2009-04-29T13:59:45Z

Doug's video of the Frankie Manning memorial Jam at Fizz Monday night. I have a feeling people were dancing all over the world that night. I wasn't there in person but I was in spirit. Thanks doug for posting! Some great dances from some people I haven't seen in a long time. Miss ya guys.

Weekend Logs

2009-04-29T02:54:47Z

I am just logging some stuff about the wedding planning process here. If you're not a fan of wedding stuff you may want to skip it.

This weekend was as crazy as the last few. I had some actual work I needed to do but couldn't even get to.

We strated out by re-aranging the furniture in the bedroom. Its not essential but how much time do we really have until Steve's place is going to go up for sale? I don't know and starting the staging process and updating is probably better done over time than all at once.

This has become a multi stage process since Target doesn't stock things in more than ones or twos so you end up running all over town for 4 drapes.

Saturday we ended up finally getting to the invitations sort of. We had to make an insert map and hotel info card. Steve decided he wanted to be in charge of this so, I was ok with that. The invitations came in from wedding paper divas which is cheaper than most stationery places, and they look ok. The cardstock is heavy but somehow bowed out and not completley straight from how it was cut. I am seeing how the price makes a difference on these things. I am glad that the printing is correct and except for a false alarm that we had with my mom calling freaked out that they were printed wrong because the test card on top had bar codes on it, we seem to have completed the ordering process correctly with almost no assistance.

We also got a last minute request to meet his parents at Gino's East for dinner to try the food because they want to have the rehersal dinner somewhere casual. I am not sure why they are making a big deal about trying pizza that is dependably good, but I am just relieved to have the location determined about 3 months after the discussion started. Pizza for a rehersal dinner isn't my style but I really just wanted it booked.

We also had to stop by my parents place on Sunday to drop off their computer that Steve fixed from a virus eating it and discuss the Sunday brunch and the hotel info for relatives and guests they were talking to already. We found that the family only group for the brunch will be more than 60 people. Yikes! That is almost as many as the wedding. I am not sure it was intended to be another big event? I thought those were more for out of town travelers.

There has also been a big bru-ha-ha about the shower. I don't think I am supposed to be involved in that but Steve's mom and my mom aren't really seeing eye to eye on that. I have been called in to mediate. Mostly because my mom wants all kind of fancy and doesn't really have the money to pay for it. Its odd. I am really ok not having a shower at all. We have a lot of stuff already from 2 homes, do we really need more?

Moving all my stuff over by the car load like we did on sunday again makes me think I have too much stuff and need to purge more than get new things. But everyone says that these are the pots/pans/plates/fancy things you will be using for the rest of your life. So we have a registry and everything. What we really need is to sell both places and figure out where to live.

I am also a bit freaked out that I am so behind on some things. I finally read a real simple weddings magazine this week on the train and aparently nothing is real simple. I am behind on things they list to do 3-4 months before and we have 2. So maybe I will finally get Mario Tricoci to book an apointment after 3 emails and 3 phone calls or maybe I will book someone else. Maybe the dressmaker will get back from vacation and be able to fit in my alterations, or maybe I will have to find someone else. It's all these things hanging out there in limbo that drive a girl nuts. I am also in the midst of trying to start to sell furniture on craigslist. And that first wedding dress.

I wish I wasn't in a crazy time at work, but I am there too. And we may loose a large client that I work on, so I may also be out of a job come fall. I wish things could calm down. I really need to concentrate on work and all this wedding/moving/home stuff is taking its toll. I think I know what people mean when they realize they had so much freedom and time when they were single. Life was just so much simpler that way.

But Zeus is sitting on my desk and that makes me happy.

Bertone Mantide 18

2009-04-28T15:56:32Z

Bertone Mantide 18
Originally uploaded by jalopnik

What the monkey is that?

Something has gone terribly wrong with the wing and tail light design.

Perhaps it swallowed a windmill?

Interesting picture of the day.

Frankie Manning Passed Away This Morning - Sad News

2009-04-27T15:19:13Z

I just read on Mugsy's twitter stream that Frankie Manning pased away. He was 95 years old and inspired millions of people to learn to dance, shim sham and lindy hop. He was both an icon of dance in America and a role model for us all in how to live a fulfilling long life.

I went to the annual swing camp in on Catalina Island back in 1999 early in my swing discovery and lifestyle. We were traveling all the way from Chicago to this tiny island off the coast of California to take classes and go to dances with the largest group of lindy hoppers we had ever heard of.

That was where I first saw Franke Manning and began to learn about the story of how he became the inspiration for so many people in Lindy Hop. (among other fantastic classes and events that week) Franke Manning was in several movies and traveled with Whitey's Lindy Hoppers for many years until the swing trend slowed down.

Then he went to work for the post office for 30 years. Nobody remembered that he was a dancer until some people dug up some old film footage in the early 1990's and found him living in New York City.

They slowly convinced him to teach them to lindy hop and they went and started the swing camp and spreading the gospel of sorts. Now millions of people swing dance better because someone who really knew the dance could tell them how, rather than just guessing from watching a video.

Maybe we all have a purpose in continuing life here on this planet and maybe the world needed Lindy Hop. That was Frankie Manning's mission to bring it to all corners of the world. He will be missed.

This is a clip from Frankie Manning's most famous Lindy Hop dance sequence in the movie Hellzapoppin (1941).

Weekend Recap

2009-04-20T15:52:20Z

Just a post for the logbooks. This weekend was busy and as always we can't get it all done.

Friday night we ended up just getting pizza and trying to corrall the house into some order.

We also chatted with Steve's mom and decided that because of a lack of any other affordable restaurants we will have the rehersal dinner at Ginos East. I know, like a kids pizza party. His family is paying though so what can I say?

Saturday AM I met with the person who runs the BackGarage Blog and she was way cool.

Saturday Afternoon I went to my folks house just to drive my brother's car to his house since the shop that fixed it after the crash delivered it to my parents house and Scott was still loopy from his wisdom teeth being removed. Then my parents picked me up later to bring me back to my car. My mom could have easily done this but she is invoking a "can't drive more than 2-3 miles from the house" rule. It pisses me off because she used to drive everywhere and now she can't take I-55 to Rt 30 or 290 to Harlem or even 75th to Naper to Ogden. She is scared of nothing, it's her way of giving up or something, she isn't even 70 yet. I hate reinforcing the behavior by driving her places, I don't have time to be a chaufer also. Steve's parents don't have these issues.

Anyway, saw Scott, he is doing well after the wisdom teeth removed. His cats got big and are really cute.

Then I went home to find Steve with his car in pieces. We went to Stir Carzy for dinner and then found that it was time for bed.

Sunday AM I went to A Joyful Occassion in Naperville and bought another wedding dress and veil. This one actually fits correctly and is more flattering since it involves a corset. (and not that expensive) I will sell the first one either on ebay or craigslist. Steve's mom and my mom were there to see it so we don't have any criticisms at the last moment when nothing can be changed. Yes my dad had to drive my mom out there and sat in the car reading the paper the whole time. Steve came also, he thought it worked well also. Luckilly I can keep my white shoes to use with this new ivory dress. The moms talked me into buying the sample dress and now we just have to get it hemmed.

With the dress in the car on the way home we picked up brake calipers at Auto parts store for Steve's car.

Sunday afternoon Steve and I crashed. I am not sure why I can't get decent sleep these days, waking up all the time means we nap like seniors. Weird.

Sunday evening Steve put the new calipers on his car. That whole brake line fluid thing is messy and corrosive.

We also tried to do 3 loads of laundry and 2 loads of dishes.

I got to chat with Amy S for a while, good to catch up. Must call Janice soon too.

We are also trying this thing with the cats where we play with them for 15 min a few times a day to get the energy out and they won't pick on eachother. Seems to be helping, but not great for a packed schedule. It was a suggestion from the book "Cat vs Cat"

Then at like 10 pm I got to my emails and took until 1 am to get the inbox cleaned out.

We got the official first bill for the reception. And the first big payment is due. Gulp.

I never even got a chance to work on the wedding web site nor any of the blogs. Poo. The house is also in desperate need of some vacuuming and there is still more yet to be moved from my Condo to Steve's place. Maybe next weekend? Oh yea, we will be addressing and stuffing invitations next weekend. Fun!