foto time!

it's wintertime. i'm in hibernation mode. i am craving large-scale indoor projects. this happens around this time every year, more so as i get older. good thing i have a wedding to plan for and decorate!
yesterday we spent a good deal of time at william's work, working on save-the-dates (they don't mind if we use their equipment after hours, we provide our own ink, etc.). it's all designed! i must say that william did a very nice job. so we're almost ready to print and ship. i will be hand-addressing envelopes. . . i hope they look okay. a calligrapher, i am not. i used to have nice handwriting, but now that i take notes very quickly for part of my living, it has steadily gotten worse. hopefully i can access my super artsy side. . . which is not that artsy as many of you can attest (those that know me in "real life").
i am also undertaking a scanning project. . . of scanning in my family's photos. there are a lot of them, and i know we'd all like to have them, especially some old photos of my grandma and her family. i became obsessed with this notion, and with part of my christmas money i bought a pretty nice scanner on amazon this morning. also the photos could be used in a wedding slideshow at some point.
project undertaken!
it was kind of nice to work on things yesterday and today and feel marginally productive (yesterday i'd call very productive, today not quite as much, despite my trying). this month is going to be nutty. we're both in a wedding on jan. 19, so we're gearing up for that, plus my job is about to get super busy again (please no long hours, please please please). i did write two stories and do some editing, plus i cleaned a little and worked out.
oh yeah. that's the other thing. no big resolutions or anything but i am attempting to take a little better care of myself until the wedding. i'm not worried about my weight, but my flab has hit max capacity and needs some toning up. plus i'm hoping i'll get that anti-anxiety, positive mood thing that everyone talks about having once in a workout routine. i wouldn't really know--i worked out steadily the last two years of college, mostly because i wanted to avoid doing homework, and didn't see a whole boatload of results, but i guess idid feel more productive. and i had toned arms. and when i moved home, i did most of it myself, not needing a guy to carry all the heavy stuff. ok. so i probably had a lot of results. but i hate it. it takes a lot to motivate me, even more than the cellulite on my thighs. i do want to be able to go, go, go more. . . more energy would be great. . . i'd like to have less back problems and this might help, and my posture totally and completely sucks, so it'd be nice to stand up straight on my wedding day. so far i've run on the elliptical (surprising even myself with distance and speed, although nothing to brag about), and i have done some situps with a medicine ball and some boxing thing with weights. which almost killed my arms. we'll see how easy it is to get a shirt on tomorrow. no promises, just going to try to do better. and actually do it, not talk about doing it. twice already in the last week. . . will do more this week.
so anyway. i thought i'd post some of the fruits of my labor. i still need to post of my gifts and such. . . later date on that one.

this is one of my favorite photos of my grandma marion, who's my mom's mom, who died of parkinsons disease in 1994. i was close with her.


here's another of my favorites, with her twin sister and another friend. they are quite young. my guess is teens? she was born in like 1916.


another one of my favorite outfits she had:


ok, now one of my handsome grandpa, her husband. (maybe not her husband at this time)


oh, here's another favorite of my grandpa. love the fedora.



then, of course, one of her wedding day. i love this for so many reasons; my great-aunt fixing her train; they're not quite ready; the cocky pose of my grandpa, the cars in the background. and yes, she was tiny--4'11'', and he was 6'2''ish:


and, me, at age one. the glamour girl thing had already started.


more to come!

jitters

i have so much to do, i'm paralyzed. ever have this happen? i started the day with grand plans of getting a lot done, and now it's 5 and i don' have enough done, and i know i have tons to do and there's a holiday, and probable working late in the very near future, and i had too much coffee this morning....
i hate when this happens.

all is quiet on new year's day

i'm tired. i've been sick. i'm starting to finally feel a little better, but i've still been coughing myself awake at night. stupid. sounds like around the blogroll people have been sick over christmas. that should be illegal!
i have been meaning to post photos but i haven't had time (aka william has not formatted them for me yet). i have lots of fun things to show you, presents and good deals, etc. exciting! (I got three dresses on j crew's final sale for $130, including shipping--i think that's a good deal! They are adorable and will be perfecto for Hawaii).
i don't have much to say. . . being sick really limits your talkies. i am however reading special topics in calamity physics. . . it totally reminds me of a heartbreaking work of staggering genius (which i loved). i'm sucked in but not sure how much i love this one yet.
maybe i should start setting out my goals for 2008. i kind of like making those lists. ok. here we go. a partial list, not ranked.

1. make desserts from my new cupcakes and desserts cookbooks.
2. make more dinners -- hot dishes, soups, and inventive things. break out of our mold a little.
3. get married
4. get finances in order
5. learn to knit
6. find at least five new bands/singers/artists that i love
7. make wedding scrapbook
8. blog more and with more quality
9. exercise. at least a little.
10. be an even better dog-mom
11. take a risk or two. . . shake things up a little
12. work on the green living thing. . . expand past carpooling, earth-friendly cleaning products, and recycling
13. send more snail mail
14. read more books, i've been slower lately.
15. practice patience
16. get published nationally (what? if i don't put it out there, i'll never work for it.)
17. take a helicopter ride in kauai
18. keep in better touch
19. finally decide that i'm good at something—anything!there must be something.
20. enjoy the hell out of my 27th year on earth. my 20s are rapidly disappearing.

keep it down now, voices carry

friday morning, i woke up sounding like a man. like the movie big, only i switched genders. it was scary. throughout the day my voice went from mannish to the chain-smoking timbre of marge's sisters. by the end of the night, my voice was a squeak. i went home fairly early from a friend-gathering more because i was frustrated i couldn't speak over the din of the bar. i woke up saturday morning feeling like utter crap. throat swollen, ears hurting, no voice, a cough that hurt . . . this is supposed to be my christmas vacation?
we have been having problems with our upstairs neighbor, who has been significantly louder lately, both late at night (read: between hours of 12:30 and 2:30, or later) and also, strangely, in the early morning (read: 8:00 is too early to be playing christmas music and clomping around in your shoes, woman). friday night/saturday morning. . . 1:30 rolls around. . . and here comes the drunken chatter and horrible music blasting. it woke me from my mouth-breathing sick sleep, enough so that i woke william up to point out that she was having yet ANOTHER party. he was still asleep, oops. he said i quickly went back to snoring, and he laid awake, pissed that she was making noise and irritated i had awakened him to point it out. (note: I think i was kinda out of it). 6:22 am: my alarm goes off. the buzzer. i always wake to the radio. william had accidentally slid the bar over earlier in the evening. i was so confused. i hit the snooze, did some sleepy mental calculations. . . and had to wake him again to ask what day it was. "saturday." was the muffled, curt response. ok then! i got up and looked out the window. . . and it was raining/snowing. it was actually quite pretty outside.
when i finally was fully awake around 8:30, which is early for me but stupid upstairs drunk woman was up, clomp-clomping around, and i was feeling pretty crappy. i've endured several cases of tonsillitis, and so i decided i better go in to the doc's office before it got worse. boo urgent care. i mean, thank you docs, for working on crappy days, crappy hours, for people's strep throats or puking flus. . . but urgent care sucks regardless.
my wait was fairly painless since i brought a book with me, but the drive sucked. that rain/snow mix i mentioned? yeah. . . terrible driving. my windshield wipers were not working very well. thank god my doctor's office is in a neighborhood i could drive with my eyes closed.
strep: negative. doc's diagnosis? laryngitis. . .and maybe a virus? i reminded him of my excruciating cases of tonsillitis, so he took pity and gave me a z-pack anyway. he didn't want to be feeling guilty if i developed something else on christmas.
so i started taking that yesterday, and i do feel quite a bit better. (although docs, please note: thanks for finding an alternative to pencillin for us allergics, but could you find something that doesn't rip your stomach into shreds? respectfully, katie) although i did cough a lot last night, enough that william was waiting by the side of the bed this morning with a shot of robitussin.
today my voice has been returning, but i still have this damn tickle cough and i'm still fairly hoarse. i'm also cold, but that might be because it's so awful outside. we have a "snow and blowing snow" advisory. what?! lame. we don't handle the mn winters on the news like we used to. everything's an advisory these days (although, snow was snaking across the freeway in creepy, trippy ways today and i saw my fair share of spinouts in the ditches.) it's also pretty cold, and when you have floor-to-ceiling windows. . . it's drafty.
anyhoo. . . christmas shopping is done. tomorrow night: gorging at my sister's house. sweet. hope z-pack won't make my stomach so unhappy tomorrow.
also: why when i'm home sick do i not have a ANTM marathon or even the 90s countdown to watch? terrible tv today, just terrible.

i never said nothing

i just caught a second of liz phair on vh1. and can i say, that it was an awesome peak point to an otherwise low day? she is so sexy! and it was a 90s clip and the song made me heart race. plus. her music. goes right to my heart every time.
liz phair is one of my idols. i feel silly being 27 and saying that. but i love her. i'll never tire of exile in guyville....and i know that's so cliche. but it is a "rad record" as jewel was quoted as saying. it's so intricate, the lyrics are so good. whip-smart is great too. i even like her pop stuff (most liz fans don't).
i even wrote women's studies papers about her lyrics.
so imagine the total and complete paralysis that came over me when i was about 10 feet from her, and she looked into my eyes, and said, "hello!" and she looked genuine and interested and it caught me so off guard.
but before that happened. . . kilipino said to me, "don't turn around, and act cool, because liz phair is coming this way." i totally thought she was joking. but she was not.
i'm not sure what look crossed my face, but i had a physical reaction. i could feel my heart racing, my knees getting weak. like the cutest boy in high school suddenly noticed i existed. that's the closest thing i can use to describe it.
i was lucky to share this moment with two friends, kilipino and fatty.
some guy came out of nowhere and asked her to sign an album. it was about this moment that it was really liz. like really. i remember she said "i will, but i have to go in there [gestures towards tour bus] but i'll be back and do it then."
we looked at each other in wide-eyed surprise. we hadn't intended to be standing outside her tour bus, but we were without much realizing it, as we were playing the "what do you want to do now?" "i don't know," game. suddenly, here was liz.
thanks to kilipino, we got autographs when liz came off the bus. (she had a sharpie in her purse). we also got photos. liz asked US if we wanted to take photos. thanks again to kilipino, who is known for having EVERYTHING in her purse, we have photos.
seriously, liz phair put her arm around me, put her face against mine (imagine my shock, i was trying to maintain a respectable distance so she didn't feel creeped out), and we took a picture. i was rendered so brainless, i could barely eke out a thank-you. after the oh-so-sweet interaction, we walked away, shaking.
i called my brother, and left him a message on his answering machine, which started out with me talking quietly, but finished with "LIZ PHAIR TOUCHED ME!" kilipino called her brother, who upon hearing we had in fact touched liz phair, asked 'so are you reeking of female sexuality now?' why yes, yes we were.
we get into the car (fatty had parted ways with our crazed selves). we pull up to the first stoplight, where an unsuspecting biker is waiting for the light to change. kilipino rolls down the window. and yells. "HEY! liz phair just TOUCHED MY BEST FRIEND!" the poor guy practically fell off his bike.
if you know either me or kilipino in real life, you know once the idea came to us to yell this news. . . we couldn't resist. just once wasn't enough. poor people the whole way home (and yes we took some detours) were treated to us yelling this phrase over and over. we were just so excited, we had to tell the whole world. as usual, we were each other's best audiences.
we just laughed and laughed and laughed and shouted as if this maniacal but joyous yelling confirmed that what had just taken place was not some kind of dream. it was real. i laughed so hard that night it occurred to me that i shouldn't be operating a car. my stomach hurt, my cheeks hurt, tears were streaming out of my eyes. i can remember kilipino's infectious giggle echoing down grand avenue.
it was a perfect summery night in minnesota. it was our glory ride.

winter warmth

today i said: it felt warm out today.
and my dad said: yeah, it really did. well, it is 24 degrees.
something is wrong with the world when 24 feels warm. like winter.

working on finding fonts for the wedding invites.

it's been a long day. and i am not getting enough sleep.i am allowing my night-owl tendencies to take over, when i really, really shouldn't. mornings are brutal for me, under even the best of circumstances. i hate the lack of light.

i'm tired. i must lay down. i just felt bad; i haven't been blogging a whole lot since november ended. bad me.

every time i see you fall . . .

today i went to the airport and had my reunion (with two other very close friends) love-actually style, with the kilipino. she has been away since february, and so much has happened--and stayed the same--since then.
i was overwhelmed, like completely overwhelmed, when the tv lit up at the baggage claim and i knew for sure the flight was coming in. i started to cry before i even saw her. the tears started flooding when i turned around and she was running down the hallway towards us. it felt so good to hug her, to actually have proof of her after very hurried phone calls or hastily typed gmail chats.
the kilipino and i have known each other through a lot. we have been friends now for eleven years... since when our parents had to give us a ride somewhere. then through drivers licenses, proms, college, first jobs, life crises. she has always been there for me when i have fallen. she sings me songs on the phone. she cries if i cry. and if something goes well, she is right there, jumping and screaming and dancing with me. she is funny as hell. i swear that sometimes she has ESP. she knows the right thing to say or do, she picks up on little cues. her kind of friendship is so rare, something i am learning the older i get. i was talking to her mother tonight, and she was saying to me how important it is to have friends with history, people who will be with you through everything, grow old with you.
i have a kilipino-shaped hole in my life while she lives in paraguay, yet i was so for this, so want her to do this and succeed, wholeheartedly. i love how happy she is. it's weird to think that on my wedding day, she will be an eleven-hour plane ride (or more—to hawaii it'd be like 20 hours)—a hemisphere away. but i know i will still feel her.
i'm so lucky to have a few friends who fall into this category, who know me inside and out, who know my imperfections and downfalls, my weaknesses, and still love me. and consider me a friend to them. we have supported each other through ups and downs, be it outside forces or between ourselves, for a long time. today in the airport, i could feel it physically, a pull, my steps quickening, a squeeze, my tears, her tears, my friends' tears. it was like suddenly, seeing her, my heart ached that much more for how much i have been missing her, now having her close to me.
the emotions are so close to the surface today. just bubbling right underneath my skin, cells pulsating. tears at the ready. overjoyed. overwhelmed.
my cup runneth over.

the weather outside is frightful

long, wonderful day. christmas with the will side of the family. lots of good food, nice gifts, and baby-holding. will post details later.
tomorrow, one of my bestest friends in the whole wide world is coming home from paraguay after being away for ten months (it's just a short break, then she goes back). i miss her like crazy and yet it's been a pretty fast ten months. i'm so excited to see her. . . i'm too excited to sleep.

making sense

Just wanted to check in. Got some amazing deals yesterday at the mall. Will post pictures soon. Check this though: dark green trench coat with full skirt, black mod coat (both cheap, or on sale), beret, belt. Happy birthday to me!
Also awesome dinner was had: seared tuna, salmon, baked goat cheese, asparagus with balsamic vinaigrette, decadent chocolate cake. Sophia in a can for me. Summit Pale Ale for William. We had really great conversation. It felt like a date from a long time ago, that kind of energy, coupled with our history as a couple—
That's an interesting thought. We're really getting to a place where we have history. We have been together more than two years now. It'll be nearly three when we get married.
In the grand scheme, I know that's nothing. But despite the troubles we've both encountered in our short years together, we have gelled, more and more each day.
I never dreamed I'd move in with a boy six months after I met him.
Everything has moved so fluidly, so quickly, but also on this track that seems almost predetermined.
In any case, it was really just stars-are-aligned kind of day. We had fun, we talked about lots of interesting things, we flirted, it made me even more convinced that regardless of what other questions I might have about my life, William and I make sense. No question there.

it's my birthday too yeah!

they say it's my birthday today! i'm 27. i just woke up a little while ago and william is making me a red pepper and cheese omelette at my request. it is my day to do whatever i'd like. . . what shall i do? i'd like to visit j crew perhaps. maybe do some wedding stuff. and we're heading out to dinner tonight, i'm not sure where yet. we talked about the sample room, where i can get all my favorite things--little mini plates of food that are high maintenence (usually requires putting things together or lots of prep time in the kitchen), and they have awesome cheese plates, plus wine flights. we haven't been there in a while. . .
mmmm. not sure what to do with my whole day. . . what a good feeling.

engageaversary

today marks the day we got engaged in hawaii! we have already been engaged a year. it's actually a little hard to believe, but also very cool. or v. cool as i have been tending to say lately.
lots of stuff rocking and rolling over here so forgive the short post. i have a bachelorette to pull off on saturday and a shower and snow emergencies to dance around. . .not to mention a headache.
lastly, i have to mention the six degrees of separation to the mall shooting in omaha yesterday--william's aunt works in the store and was there when it happened. she hid in a dressing room. we have been thinking about her and that awful situation.
that's a lot of facts and not a lot of writing, but i must run.
happy engageaversary to us!

three and a half hours.

forgive me for not being personality-plus today. i had three meetings get rescheduled or canceled. i had to cancel plans with a friend. i had to go to the dentist. it took me THREE AND A HALF HOURS to get home today. 12 miles. 3.5 hours. almost all freeway driving. you do the math. add to that the seriously frantic need-to-pee feeling. mm hmm.
now: i ate some quick dinner, and am on the couch with william and molly. ahhh. . . i'm home. finally. and i'm fried, so we'll talk later. love you!
updated to add: I think also that someone told me I needed a makeover today. wow. way to crush the spirit, dude.

everybody's workin' for the weekend

hi friends. this week will be a crazy one, i can just tell. i'm overbooked already. and it's only monday.
i have been running all night and i'm wicked tired. my eyes are starting to close as i type this. so i must run.
but coming soon: the bachelorette party i'm planning. a bridesmaid dress story. how i love target. my just-thinking-about-all-the-stuff-i-have-to-do-gives-me-heart-palpitations month of december.

but for now: beauty rest. god knows i need it, with my two giant blemishes and wrinkles around my eyes.

twenty years of snow fallin'

yesterday the reports started coming in. the first real storm of the winter. now, just because we are minnesotan doesn't mean we don't get freaked out for the first real snow. they had maps, they had dopplar, they had the vipir machine going--a meteorologist's dream.
i figured, hah. it's never as bad as they make it. at 2 am, it was still not snowing. this morning is another story. it's coming down, and not in that cute, christmas-movie, snowglobe-y way. it's small pellets of snow, hurtling down to earth at a 45-degree angle. i took molly out. she loves the snow. the world sounds. . . insulated or noiseproofed when it's snowing. cars don't seem as loud, you can't hear your footfalls (unless the snow is squeaky), less people are out and about. it's kind of a cool non-sound, actually.
mo loves snow. she was prancing around and kicking her feet and shaking her body like crazy. cute to watch. when it gets deeper, she'll roll in it and stick her face in and look at me with nostrils full of snow. at least, she did last year.
william is at a friend's bachelor party in chicago this weekend, so i'm on my own with mo. girl's weekend! my sister and mom are similarly widowed, as well as my brother's girlfriend. (those guys are hunting.) i woke up this morning and the two of us girls were taking up the whole bed. we snuggled and dozed together without any morning people up and about. now mo is back to sleep on the couch next to me, and i'm contemplating my next, slow, lazy move. maybe make some coffee although it is 11:30 already.
tonight i'm going to see the chamber orchestra play. sister has season tickets with her hub, but he's gone, so i'm taking his place. we're going to stop and have flirtinis at pazzaluna, the restaurant next to the ordway. i'm just going to sleep at her house tonight so i don't have to do a lot of extra driving around in the drifts.
not a bad day/night for the first snow.
ps. so i missed two days for nablo. not bad for my first, right? one was due to internet error, too, so i tried to blog, but was thwarted. the last day? i fell down before the finish line.