Squooshy

Me: I'm excited for our wedding. It's going to be so much fun.
Him: Yeah. And I'm excited for the next 30 or 40 years too.

Sometimes it's so sweet at our house that my teeth ache.

Return of the Felines

Happy Feline Friday! They're always better with the prospect of a three day weekend.

Now you can all see why we call her FatFat...



And here is a demonstration of why we keep Riley around despite his very annoying habit of howling in the bathroom every night between 11 and 11:30pm.


(MY GOD, THIS CAT IS ADORABLE!)

And last of all, Abbie shows her maternal side and decides to bathe Riley. Yeah, that went over to thunderous applause from him, let me tell you.



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Two tidbits:

1) Reason 5,218 Why I Love Our Photographers: When discussing our upcoming engagement picture photo session, Nate asked where we were thinking of as a site. I told him Balboa Park seems like a good choice, because there's tons of photo ops there. I went on to say that I definitely did NOT want a beach photo shoot because everyone does the beach for their engagement pictures and I want something different. His reply? "Thank God, because I've done SIX engagement sessions at the beach already this year and I'm sick of it." Heh.

2) Lesson I Learned and Passed On to New Assistant Today: When you are planning your wedding, no matter how laid back your mother is, no matter how much you love her or how close you are to her, she will, at some point, drive you completely BONKERS and make you wish you could say "Mom, chill the fuck out NOW" without hurting her feelings. Ten more months, just ten more months....

More wedding updates in the near future, by the way. Woo!

Something's gotta give

There was a time, in the not too distant past, when I flexed my creative muscles on a regular basis. I didn't just have one outlet for it, I had half a dozen. I would spend afternoons sitting in the park watching the bocce ball players as I scribbled line after line after line of nonsensical gibberish that was barely worth the paper it was written on, just to get one or two perfect lines out of my head and onto the page.

I would stroll the aisles of arts and crafts stores looking for inspiration only to suddenly find myself decoupaging my coffee table with pictures and words cut out of fashion magazines. People still love that coffee table.

Sometimes I would spend hours in a store full of fabrics, millions of colors and patterns to choose from as I picked out just the right ones for a small quilt I was making for a friend's soon to be born baby, and then I would go home and lose myself in the hum of a 30 year old sewing machine.

Occasional Saturday afternoons would find me ensconced in the local paint your own pottery store, diligently stroking bits of color onto ceramic bowls and plates and mugs that still sit in various corners of my house, reminding me of when I used let art flow through me like breath.

Last year I found scrapbooking. Colors and textures and photos all converged upon each other as I found the just right places for the pictures I treasured from the moment I took them, and I could lose myself in it for entire days.

Lately though....lately, I have not allowed myself time to be creative, and I realized today that this is why I have been unable to concentrate on anything for more than a few moments. I spend inordinate amounts of time at work surfing the web, reading forums while occasionally managing to finish a task. At home I surf mindlessly, either through channels or webpages, unable to focus on any one thing for any long period of time.

I have stifled my creative side and in doing so, I have stifled myself. I am a creative being, a person who finds as much beauty in a well-turned phrase as she does in a beautifully painted piece of stoneware. I need time to indulge that side of me, time to sit and write stories about ghosts and cats who can talk and bad poetry. Time to sit and drink a cup of tea while I really read a good book, rather than just skimming through it like I have been lately. And maybe an afternoon in front of my sewing machine, making art with a needle and thread.

Maybe then I'll be able to focus on the rest of my life a little better again.

Procrastination, table for one

I'm supposed to be gathering addresses to send to my mom for the engagement party she's throwing for us in July. And while I don't have to do anything other than show up, I can't seem to do anything other than piddle around on the internet. But hey, if I hadn't been piddling around then I wouldn't have found out that someone in the UK found my website by searching for "custard covered boobs". Ah, those wacky Brits with their odd little kinks.

In other wedding related news, I spent most of the afternoon looking into Costa Rica honeymoons after seeing Amalah suggest it to someone. Costa Rica! With monkeys! And waterfalls! And ziplines through the canopy jungles! Still cheap! The original plan was Italy (Florence/Siena/Tuscany area), but Europe's all expensive and crap. It's still our first choice but Costa Rica is now running a close second with me. So hey, do any of you have honeymoon destination ideas we should look into? Someplace relatively affordable, with lots of pretty scenery and relaxation. No Hawaii, Caribbean or cruise ideas though. Too cliche, y'know.

Okay, okay, I'll go do the address thing now. Meh.

Snark: The New Family Value

So I realized something about my mother and I the other day.

We are Total Snobs. Seriously. Every ounce of cattiness and snarkiness that I every exhibit can be attributed directly to my mother. She and I can snark about just about anything and anyone, and we can do it without looking like total bitches. (Partial bitches maybe, but not total bitches.)

Case in point:

This year is the Year of Weddings in my family...Son is getting married, Scandalous Uncle is getting married, and I'm getting married. My mother and I have spent many an email session snarking on invitation mishaps and etiquette snafus, because to us, there is A Way Things Are Done and other people are just not following that Way. So far, we have snarked on invitation font choices, the lack of second envelopes, second marriage etiquette (and lack thereof), and the clueless behavior of Scandalous Uncle, always with declarations that MY wedding will have none of these issues. Riiiiiiiight.

When we aren't snarking on weddings, we're snarking on clothing choices, rude behavior, weird recipes, whatever.

We're like Joan and Melissa Rivers, only fatter. And nicer. Because really, our snark is not evil or malicious. It's more of an amused snark, the patented "Can you believe he/she/they said/wore/did that???" snark that my mother's Southern blood is infused with. And with a GRITS mama, how could I not end up with some of that snark running through my own veins?

Ah well, we could have ended up bonding over something more evil. Like voting for Bush or something.

Financial Planning 101

About a month ago, one of my coworkers invited a bunch of us to go to lunch with her...cheesesteaks from a place nearby for free, if we just sat and listened to a 15 minute spiel from an AmEx financial planner. She also said that the place made the best cheesesteaks she'd had since she left Philly, so hey, I was in. On top of that, I had actually just looked at Kevin and said (because I think about things like life insurance and financial plans and joint accounts a lot more often now) "We should talk to a fianancial planner soon", so it was kismet.

So we went and sat around some plastic tables, me and my boss and a bunch of other coworkers. We laughed a little at the goofy financial knowledge games that the guy had us play, but by the end of it, I figured hey, we might as well go in and talk to the guy and try and get stuff together since he's offering us a free consultation. Besides, he did buy us those awesome cheesesteaks.

A couple days later, Mr. AmEx gave me a call and we managed to pin down time when Kev and I would both be able to get to the office....in mid-May. In fact, it was scheduled for last Wednesday. We had scheduled it for a Wednesday because we figured by then we would be done with our Wednesday night bowling league and shifted over to our Tuesday night bowling league (man, do we belong in the Midwest or what?) But then kev decided that he wanted to bowl two nights a week, and I didn't realize there was going to be a conflict with our Super Financial Guru Meeting until like...two days before the meeting.

So I tried calling Mr. AmEx but the extension on his business card kept dumping me into someone else's voicemail. Since it was lunchtime, I figure he was just out of the office and maybe he had inherited someone else's extension and hadn't changed the voicemail for some reason, so I emailed him. No response appeared, so I figured I would try calling one more time before I went home that afternoon. This time I got a receptionist and when I asked for Mr. AmEx I received a very bored "He's no longer with us, would you like to speak to his manager?"

Uh, no, thanks Receptionist Barbie, I would NOT like to speak with his manager because things just got officially weird. I mean, hello! You'd think someone at the office would have checked the guy's calendar and called people he was supposed to meet with to tell him he'd elft. Of course, I have no idea if he left because he wanted to leave or if he left because he was run out of town for stealing clients' money. All I know is thank goodness I wasn't able to meet with the guy right away since my GOD, he probably would have cuased us to be even more broke than we already are.

Maybe he got fired for buying too many free cheesesteaks for people. Heh.

Felines!

(I have to apologize. Someday I will return to writing entries that involve actual words and thoughts and typing and don't depend on the cuteness of my cats. I can't seem to get my brain to concentrate long enough to actually write something cohesive and intelligent and possibly amusing. Seriously, I think I have more than a little bit of ADD going on here because I can't seem to keep my train of thought on a steady track. It's more like a hummingbird than a train, this brain of mine, just darting here and there with occasional pauses that amaze those watching with how perfectly still it is. I don't read anymore, I skim. I will freely admit that dude, I barely got anything done at work this week because I couldn't focus long enough to actually be a hard working member of society. Hell, the only reason I remembered to do Feline Friday this week is because Kevin reminded me to do it. So yeah, felines below. Enjoy!)

First, the newest addition to our family...The Smashed Cat!
(This was a gift given to me by my future mother in law, something she lovingly painted for me. She did an amazing job with getting the startled look in the cat's eyes down just right.)



Here we see the cats being introduced to the alligator head that was sent to us from Florida. Notice the size of Abbie's eyes.



Abbie gave the alligator a good once over, being sure to memorize every single smell that emanated from it.



Riley extended the Paw of Friendship to the alligator, but he was totally shunned.



And now, for something SO VERY CUTE that your head may explode. When we were at the (World Famous San Diego) zoo last weekend, we found out that there was a pair of 2 week old cheetahs hanging out in the nursery. Kris and I couldn't get over there fast enough to see them.

Cheetah #1 kept its back to us the whole time, very intent on sleeping.



Cheetah #2 kept stretching and squirming in its sleep, which made Kris practically break the glass to get in a steal it. Who can blame her?



Later on Random Scribblings: My mom's throwing us an engagement party! And I don't have to do anything for the party other than show up!! And I am so excited about not having to do any planning I may pass out.

Talking without saying anything

I have all these ideas about things I want to write about, about things like the day Freckles was talking about my pink pants and how they were something that I, with the personality that I have, can totally carry off but that she would never dare to try on, much less wear proudly, and how I've realized that being the Pink Pants Girl has made me into one of those leader types that other people listen to for some reason.

And things like how we got a letter from Kev's mom the other day, tucked into only the second engagement card we'd received, a letter that made me tear up when she talked about how excited she is about our wedding and how she was proud of us and how I was the perfect person to be her daughter in law.

Other things, about my birthday and the perfect gifts I got without asking, like the sewing maching The Moms randomly chose for me, or the perfect little pink and brown jewelry box that Otter gave me, or the book about scrapbooking and the Visa gift card that I'm going to use to buy a new bowling ball and the Lane Bryant gift card that I'm going use to buy something totally girly and springtimey.

Or about the alligator head that Kev's mom sent us from Florida and how it makes us laugh and laugh and how Abbie sniffed it so close that she kept poking her little nose with the sharp, sharp teeth and the ideas we've had for using it (candy dish, business card holder).

And then there's the random referrals I've had pop up lately in my stats, referrals from people looking up "Joe Rouer's bar" that make me crave another one of those burgers, and how sorry I feel for the person who searched for "Pt. Loma cheating fiance", and how I don't have a clue why someone would do a search for "burger belcher" but I find it hilarious that they ended up on my page.

I'd like to talk about all of that, but right now I need to go run errands and scarf down some lunch and somehow break through this wall of blah and get some damn work done.

Now THAT'S what I call a birthday

Man, I knew turning 30 would be fun. There's no way I could possibly explain how much fun I had this weekend right now because I am worn out (because I'm old now). But these two pictures should sum it up pretty well:

Self portrait, after 3 Screaming Kikis:



Yet more evidence that we are indeed perfect for each other...



Three days worth of dinners and laughter and drinking and zoo trips and pictures and sex. Aw, yeah. I love being 30.

Friday of the Felines

Short one this week because dudes, I'm tired. Happy though. Great birthday dinner tonight and drag queens tomorrow. Woo!


Here's Abbie, stalking my shoes. I can understand though, because I have such cute shoes.




Riley doesn't tiptoe through the tulips but he does divebomb into the roses.




And just because it's super pretty, here's a picture I took of a bloom on a Chinese dragon blossom tree in my friend's backyard on Beltaine.

Five things not related to anything

1) I got a new purse last weekend and I love it more than I really should.

2) There are currently 19 things written on my to do list for today, and another 37 that I have not bothered to write down yet.

3) My 30th birthday is this week, and so people are coming to town. We will be partying with drag queens and visiting horny pandas at the zoo. Rock the fuck on.

4) Happy Beltaine! Now is the season for screwing your brains out, so get to it!

5) I'm taking an internet break for the rest of the week, so don't be offended if I don't answer your email. I still love you, I just love my sanity more.