Saturday, March 31, 2012

Date Night as a Grown Up

Mike and I had date night and saw The Hunger Games last night.  The book is better, but the book is (almost) always better than the movie* in general.  Anyway, Mike and I got into the theater in the nick of time to find two seats together that weren't in the front rows. We settled into our seats, watched the remaining previews and got ready to enjoy the movie. 

The teenage couple next to us though, I don't think one of them had read the books. So he was asking/talking a decent amount, loud enough to be distracting. After a good 10 minutes into the movie and a few kissy noises into the movie itself, I knew I had to say something. So I leaned over, and politely asked if he could at least whisper. I'm sure he said something snarky under his breath, but to his credit, he did quiet down. Probably because I didn't ask him to stop talking, just to do so quieter.  And the kissy noises got softer too, as an added bonus.

I remember being a teenager and going to movies to make out. I remember missing about half of the movies I was with my high school boyfriend. (we completely missed the ending of The 6th Sense, and totally faked knowing what the twist at the end was when asked about it).  But also back then movie tickets were $5 a piece and you saw a movie just for the hell of it. Now, movie tickets are $10 a piece and if we go to the movie, it's because I actually want to see the movie. 

Going to a movie to actually see the movie and not to make out. Just another marker of adulthood I guess!
     
*Twilight is an example here. The movie is quite terrible, but that's because the book** is total crap.
**No, I don't care if I'm hurting stephanie meyer's feelings. She can buy as many new feelings as she need with her piles and piles of money she made off those crap books.

Friday, March 30, 2012

The devil of bras

I primarily work in the intimates and accessories area of my store since I am the area supervisor. In layman's terms: I work in the bras and purses area.  Now, knowing me like you do, this is a good fit, since I like both underwear and (if in the mood that is) purses.  And I know the area really well. I know all the brands we carry, the general look and target market those brands, which bras come in which sizes (also related to target market), which ones have under wire and which ones don't, which ones have lots of padding and which ones have none, and occasionally I remember a few of the colors too. So I think it's fair to say that I'm pretty helpful in the area because I know my merchandise. 

But what I don't do, is actually make the bras. And if you are an odd size, I know it can be difficult to find something that fits because I've been there too.  However, I am willing to compromise on some things, like trying on a different color, or giving the under wire a shot. (Oh who am I kidding? I haven't forgone the under wire since college. Gravity won that war a long time ago with me).  I really can't help you find what you need if you aren't willing to give somewhere.

It's not my fault that i can't find the 42B wireless with no padding whatsoever in black the customer wants if no one makes that. (well, no one in my store makes that).  And merely suggesting trying on the white version of the bra they want just to see how it fits seems to be a declaration of war. And when you want a bra that had no shape to itself, it's typically not the prettiest of things either.  So I'm sorry that I can't find the cute shapeless wireless miracle black weird size to hold your average boobs and broad back up bra because it doesn't exist for you to try on at the moment.  But I'm not the devil of bras you make me out to be either. Just saying.

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Details

Don't know if any of you knew this, but I'm planning a wedding.  And weddings have lots of components and lots of detail.  Lots of details. But fear not my wedding planning follower friends! Not only am I an hyper-organizer and party planner by nature, I have everything under control.

However, in all my attention to detail, I did miss a few things here and there. Such as: 
  1. Forgetting to add a few names to the guest list. 
  2. Forgetting to put an rsvp/info card in some of the invites (umm, yeah, if you got an invite without that, my bad. Please rsvp anyway)
  3. Misspelling several of my guests' last names.  So many that I've made a note on my hyper-detailed spread sheet of who I've misspelled and plan to apologize to at the wedding
And the best one of all:
  1. Getting the address of the venue wrong* on the invite.

Oy vay. With all these mistakes, thank goodness I'm not doing this** again!

*I have the number right but listed the cross street. fortunately the venue is on a corner, the bulk of the guest will take the shuttles were' providing there, and those driving themselves are familiar with Lexington.    
**Until Sharktopus and Dinocroc get married that is. By the time they get married I will have either forgotten all the delightful stresses and diy projects I did, and/or be senile.

Monday, March 26, 2012

ADH Oooh! Shiny object!

I probably have about a billion diy things to do, emails to send, and calls to make all involving the wedding (which is 2 months away!!!!!).  But then, something shiny came along and not only distracted me from the aeformentioned billion things, I completely ignored and temporarily abandoned all bubble of tulle related things.

Ladies and gentlemen, I bought The Hunger Games Trilogy. 

Boy are those books good! I haven't seen the movie yet, but I will here soon enough.  I highly recommend the series though, not just because everyone is on the hunger games bandwagon (though, everyone I've ever met who has read them does love them).  I mean, if that can distract a bride from her wedding stuff, they have to be great reads, right?  Fortunately for the bubble of tulle, I am a fairly fast reader and finished all three the books in a week.  Now if you'll excuse me, I have a glue gun that needs my attention!

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Attack Dog

mike: Mary won't be able to make it to the wedding.  But I told her to rsvp anyway on the website so you won't go after her.
me: That's too bad she can't come. Hey, why are you sicing me on people? Technically, she was your friend first.
mike: Because you will go after people.
me: True.

point: Mike.

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Countdown

I have nothing funny, witty or mildly interesting to anyone else for that matter to say except:
Dr soc and I are getting married in 70 days!!!!!!
Squeeeeeee!!!

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Joker Face

Bailey has never been a good traveler.  She started getting car sick as a puppy and then never out grew it as I hoped she would.  On top of the motion sickness, she gets anxious and moves around a lot, which makes her feel worse.  So I medicate her to make traveling easier on all of us. 

As Mike and I were getting ready to travel last week, I made sure to check we had enough pills for Bailey.  But I wondered that since Bailey is almost 5 (and has gray hair!), if by this point, she had outgrown her car sickness by now.  But since she's been medicated every (long) car trip since she was 2 I didn't know one way or the other.  But I wasn't about test my wonder by stopping the meds one way or the other. (and besides, Bailey sedated is funny)

So we're driving through the mountains of North Carolina, and I can tell the meds didn't exactly work this time.  Bailey never really calmed down from the start of the trip, so she's up and down, back and forth and just looking all around in the back seat.  I keep looking back to check on her, when I see her start to lick her nose, which is a telltale sign she's not feeling good.  And then, I see what I call her "joker face," this horrible, pinched look where the corners of her mouth pinch up and back and her eyes squint shut.  Helplessly, I just watch her get sick all over the backseat.

The poor thing looks at me for a second, her mess, and then starts to frantically cover it with the blanket we had in the backseat.  She pulls part of the blanket over it then noses it in place as if she was burying something.  She covers it enough to her liking, and plops down with a nothing to see here look.  We pulled over to get gas a few miles later, so I cleaned out the, umm, we'll say chunky parts best I could, and continued on our way without any more joker faces.  The trip home the meds worked like they should have and we made it home without incident.

But I guess I got my answer as to whether or not Bailey had out grown her car sickness. Greaaaat. 

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

What Kids Know

Remember how last year a neighborhood dog followed Mike home and for a few hours we had a 3rd dog?  Happened again yesterday. Only this time, the dog started to follow me when I was walking Bailey and Jules, and I took him home.  See, Mike treated the lawn yesterday, so I had to take the dogs on a walk to go potty.  And it was a beautiful day yesterday with the sun and the slight breeze and warmer temperatures (have I mentioned I love Charlotte weather?), so I get the girls leashed up, and we start taking a jaunt around the neighborhood.
Long story short, a cute little dog with a collar started to follow me and the girls home.  The address on the tag isn't from the neighborhood, and it's not a local area code either.  I knew I couldn't just walk away, because if it were my girls lost, I would hope someone would do the same for then.  So I scoop up the little guy and carry him home with me on my hip and take everyone back home.
I get everyone crated, call the phone number, and google search the address. This tag is from an hour and a half away.  I start to freak out.  I don't know how far away from home he is, when's the last time this dog has eaten, or how long to keep him.  I text Mike to let him know we have a 3rd dog at the moment, and just wait for him to come home to help formulate a plan.

Fortunately, Mike's home in an hour, and he thinks the best plan is to walk around the neighborhood with little dog to try to find the owner.  We still have the 3rd leash from when we took in Buddy, so the girls get their second walk of the day.  As we're walking along the area when I found little guy, there's a few kids playing in the front yard across the street.  Mike has the brilliant idea to ask them who the stranger dog belongs too.  They all say "that's Sparky! He lives there!" and point to the house next to me.  Mike rings the bell, and a kid answers the door and is happy to see Sparky. Fortunately the kid's mom is right behind him and when she sees Sparky, she is visibly relieved and thanking us profusely.  So we're now 2 for 2 on finding escaped dogs in the neighborhood and  returning them to their owners. 

But I learned a lesson from taking Sparky in for a few hours.  I learned that when in doubt, ask the neighborhood kids.  Because kids know dogs!

Monday, March 12, 2012

Do Over

Since Mike and I are both the 2nd kid out of two to get married in our families, our wedding is a chance for a few do overs. 
For example: Mike's parents asked if they could invite a few of the people they didn't invite to his brother's wedding.  And for my family, my sister gets to spend time with the family she didn't get to at her wedding, and my mom can get pictures she didn't think to get at my sister's wedding. 

But while we're a do over of sorts, we're also just as equally a last chance too! Because if you don't get your requests in for this wedding, c'est tout!  

side story: I'm pretty sure my mom wanted to marry me off to the best man (or any of the other guys guys there in uniform really) at my sister' wedding so she could have another naval academy chapel wedding.  Never mind that cougering wasn't as in vouge at the time, or that I had just become single, or that the naval academy was my sister's thing and not mine.  And while I admit to be a sucker for an officier's uniform, that even if I did get a naval academy wedding, my sister would be pissed, and my mom would be impossible!

Thursday, March 8, 2012

The College Experience

When I worked in the hospital, I was the 2nd youngest one there. (the youngest was my 23 year old coworker who was every bit of 23 and will always be my 23 year old coworker).  Anyway, one of the nurses I worked with, her youngest (daughter) was getting ready to go off to college and leave the nest for a bit. So my coworker was trying to get a few more mother/daughter bonding type things in before the daughter heads off. One of these events was a sappy tear jerker movie filled night, that were "the kind of movies you should see before college and see with your mother."

I start cracking up, because:
"When I left for college, the movie my mom wanted me to watch Animal House!"

I think my mom had a more realistic view of what college was like. Just saying....

Friday, March 2, 2012

Out of State

Last weekend Mike and I took a weekend trip to Columbia, SC for our anniversary.  Columbia happens to be where USC is, and being the academics that we are, (and, that our hotel was close) we walked around campus some.  At some point I joked who would have thought we would be going on college visits so soon. To which Mike replied that our children would not be going to USC because it's out of state. 

Which I agree with since there are plenty of schools in North Carolina they can go* to, and that are far enough away for them to feel like they are going away to college. (Hell, even if they go to UNC Charlotte, they're living in the dorms to get out of the house.)  Unless they are going for a very specific reason/program, the kids shouldn't need to go out of state.**  And they certainly aren't going to do out of state like I did*** either, and hour and half away. If they go out of state, I want a 5 hour drive and a state**** in between us to make it worth it!

* except Duke. Not only because I'm a UK alum, but also because it's private and if we're not about to pay out of state tuition then we sure as hell don't want to pay private tuition.
**personal example: my parent's told me they wouldn't pay out of state tuition for an in state education. Interior design at one of the top schools in the country? That's an out of state education.  A Ba in sociology? In state all the way.
***and they are not doing undergrad like I did either.  I am proud of my BA because I earned it, but I don't want my kids to struggle like I did for so long and be as miserable as I was in doing so.
****the exception for that is West Virgina. While Virgina is directly between North Carolina and West Virgina, I think we all know that West Virgina is a driving through in the daytime state and never a stay for any reason state.

Thursday, March 1, 2012

And Guest

Our invites are in the mail and on their happy way, so now I'm just excitedly waiting for the rsvp's to come pouring in.  (yes I know, if I keep watching the rsvps, it will never boil).

To be able to invite all of our friends to the wedding, we decided to eschew the blanket "and guest."  Everyone invited will know at least a few people there besides us, and of course those with a significant other will be invited with the SO.  Old school etiquette says this is unacceptable, but new school says this is ok. While there are some etiquette rules that I totally said "blow me" to, like, hand addressing the invites, or spending a boatload of money on a professional calligrapher as an almost* acceptable substitute for hand written,** there were other things I do care about. Like who to address the invite to.  

Not to say that the generic "and guest" is a bad thing.  I've been and brought the and guest before, which is fine.  It is not fine however, to be addresses as an "and guest" when you are engaged to the person who is actually invited.  I was actually super pissed when I saw that invite.***.  And then, to add insult to injury, not only did they not bother to find out my name, neither mine or my ex's name was even on the seating chart****.

*Martha Stewart can be such a bitch!
** Calligraphy is acceptable but printing on a computer is tacky.  And using any sort of label in general is a cardinal sin.*
***though I shouldn't have been all that surprised really. This couple had a Friday night wedding and scheduled a smoke break in between the ceremony and the reception.
****That however, was mainly my ex's fault, seeing as he thought rsvp* meant saying "dude, you know I'll be there right?" a day before the wedding.
*We went the whole hog blasphemous route and not only printed computer, we printed from a computer onto a label.
* NO. That is definitely NOT an rsvp.