I’m off to the rehearsal. Don’t know if I’ll be back again.
Considering that I’m bringing my laptop with me, it’s likely.
Had my second ever manicure today. Don’t think I like French manicures.
Running around with a chicken with its head off.
Without the spraying blood all over the place part.
But there’s still time for that.
Just kidding.
OK! Later!
Tomorrow I’m getting married!
Whoo hoo!
Pimple Update - Because I know you guys are on pins and needles wondering about it…The pimple emergency has been downgraded to a mere Green Alert. With the help of some Neutrogena Persegel, the pimple should be a mere memory tomorrow.
So much to do! So much to do!
By the way, it was Claudine’s birthday yesterday. Happy Birthday sister…not that I forgot it, because I DID call her yesterday, I just forgot to mention it here.
SHIT!
I’m moving at a million miles a second right now, so much to do.
Got our wedding license this morning, which was a surprisingly painless process.
The most painful thing in the last day to do was the seating chart. UGH! NEVER give people a choice for food, it makes things 10x harder. I knew that, but I gave in to pressure to give people a choice of food. DON’T DO IT! And our count was off about about 4 people for our final numbers. I’m not going to deal with that - I sent Dave over to the hall to battle it out! He should be able to handle it, he has his bachelor party today!
And it’s going to be BAD. I know the guys throwing it. And they know their bachelor parties. It’s going to be smutty, sinful, dirty, and many bad things will happen.
Am I scared?
Not really.
After Saturday, he’s mine. All mine. FOREVER. So says DuPage County.
Anyway, my bachelorette party was a pretty smutty time, anyway. We’ll be even after this. Well, his will probably be worse, but that’s ok. Just as long as he makes it to the church on time, I’m all good.
I must go and get my trial hair done.
Hope you all are doing well!
Well, yesterday was my last day of working at the office. It wasn’t quite what I had expected it to be. I was expecting long farewell speeches, taking a long and lavish lunch break, cleaning out my desk all day, hugs and tears as I left the building early. You know, the usual stuff. But I was on a conference call pretty much all day, had time to run, eat lunch, then run back, went back on the conference call, missed all the rest of my coworkers leaving because I was on the phone, stayed at the office til 6:30, on a conference call , then quickly shoving all the stuff in my desk in plastic bags, and hugging the last two people left in the office goodbye. I didn’t expect to work so hard my last day, or to be treated the way I was by some people. Well, at least some people came by when I was on the conference call to say goodbye. And I still have a job.
You know, if I had time, I would have gotten really nostalgic and weepy. I’ve pretty much grown up working at –Systems. I’ve been there since right after I graduated college, answering phones and logging in calls. I consider a couple people there to be close family. I consider the guys to be brothers, and I’ll really miss the camraderie and support of Amy. Who will give Amy hugs when I’m gone? Life won’t be the same without having someone linger around my desk, hovering at my window and getting me into conversation. Or without the singing of forgotten 80’s tunes with the lyrics changed. Or group trips to Jewel for lunch and M&M cookies. Or happy hour(s) at Mother Hubbard’s. My favorite waitress will forget about my Jack and Cokes! And without Tony around, who will eat my leftovers? Without Don, who am I going to have the pleasure of waking up when I catch him sleeping? And no one talks about ass or bodily functions like Bryan. And who is Sammy going to tell his secrets to, or ask advice about life or if his outfit is coordinated? And how I’ll miss Jerry’s one liners and begging me to stay for one more beer. And now Dan’s jokes about what he does with my sister at night will no longer be as effective without me there.
I’m going to miss working with people. Bryan suggested that we hook up a webcam and just have it on all the time, and I’ll be on speakerphone the whole day, so it’s like I’m still there. I love working for this company almost as much as I hate it sometimes. And the people there that I adore far outweighs the people there that I could live without ever seeing again.
I heard this song on the radio after I left the office….it was then that I actually got kinda misty…
Green Day
Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)
It’s something unpredictable
But in the end is right
I hope you had the time of your life
So take the photographs
And still frames in your mind
Hang it on a shelf of
Good health and good time
Tattoos of memories
And dead skin on trial
For what it’s worth
It was worth all the while
It’s something unpredictable
But in the end is right
I hope you had the time of your life
So goodbye for now, –Systems. I’ve got a lot of memories to take with me. Good times, dude. Good times.
To balance out Monday’s great day, Tuesday’s was a mad rush of panic and stress.
First thing, I passed out in the living room the night before. Woke up an hour after I usually leave for work. Got to work at 10:00, an hour and a half late. Open up my mail, and the first email I have is the president asking me to come meet with him. He then tells me that I need to make a report for him of all the things I have worked on with clients in the last couple of weeks, so when I’m out, they’ll be prepared if these people call.
The rest of the day I’m trying to tie loose ends with clients, suffering through painful conference calls, and trying to clean out my desk some more.
And throughout the day, my cell is ringing off the hook. First, my banquet hall calls and tells me that they need a final count and that the money is due, paid in full today. I give her the count, and she say’s she’ll call back with the amount I have to pay. She calls back, and says that she can’t find last year’s menu, and she doesn’t have the prices. So I call Dave and ask him what the prices are. I call her back and tell her, and she says ‘You’re wrong, those aren’t the prices. Call me back with the real prices, or fax me the sheets.’ Argh. So I call Dave back. He’s out shopping by that time, and will go home later and fax it over to her.
Then my cake people call. The money is due today.
Then my flower people call. I need to pay them ASAP for them to start the order.
I have NO idea when I thought I was going to pay these people. For some reason, I thought all the money was due the day of the wedding. I messed up majorly.
Then my photographer calls. She never got the fax that I sent her of the timetable for Saturday. Unfortunately, Dave has the papers. She’s fine with getting an email from me.
Dave calls and we squabble about the numbers. How many beef, how many chicken. I knew giving people a choice would be the death of me. And I don’t have a list on me, so I have no idea what the numbers are. I’m on my way home, I don’t have time to call home and check the numbers.
I get home, a bit frazzled. I call Dave and he says he’s faxed over the information. I call the hall, and she gives me a price. And it’s more than $10,000 more than I had originally calculated. I’m stunned. She says it’s due by 8pm. It’s 7pm. I don’t think I even have that much money in my account. I sit and calculate and recalculate the costs. I can’t figure out how I miscalculated so badly. Then I realize that we had some last minute cancellations that were included with the final numbers. I call her back, she says she’ll call back with a new number.
She calls back, and apologizes becuase she had miscalculated the first time. The number she gives me is $100 less then what I had originally calculated. *wipes sweat from brow* Ahh….good.
So I run to the bank, get a cashier’s check, and run to the hall. She then tells me that the seating cards are due on Thursday, as is a seating chart. That’s easier said than done with my mom doing the seating arrangements as well as Dave’s mom. Those chicas need to haul some ass and get it done.
I seriously made about 20 million calls today.
And I was THIS close to losing it, but luckily we had a killer sunset which calmed me down a bit….
One more day of work!
3 more days til the wedding!
Joanna has some new pics up from way back in February at the World Cup Short Track in Salt Lake City. You can check them out at her site: Apolo Anton Ohno Portal.
Here’s my favorite:
What an intense stare. Yowzas. Thanks for pointing me out to the pics, Joanna!
2 more days of work.
5 more days til the wedding.
Many people in my position would be freaking right now, but I’m as calm as can be.
Why?
Because today was a good day. Ice Cube would be proud.
It started out with an e-card from a great group of ladies. You know who you are, and thank you. Also, thank you to all the people that have been sending me cards of encouragement. You guys rock!
I have been fretting over places to take pictures after the ceremony. Me and Fatima went to the Morton Arboratum yesterday, and it just wasn’t a wedding picture type place. I was going to have Fatima and Dave scout up the Botanical Gardens up in Winnetka. But today, I was making some calls to some other places, one place in particular. It was a place that I had tried before, but they had never called me back. And I was thinking that getting this place would be next to impossible, anyway: Wrigley Field. I mean, how awesome would that be? To take pics in the outfield against the ivy? Dave loves the place…he used to live right by there when he was little, and he LOVES the Cubs.
So I called. And I asked if it was possible that I can take my wedding pictures there. And the lady said sadly, ‘Ohh…I don’t think so. Sorry…’ and I was just about to hang up when she said, ‘Let me transfer you to someone who could maybe help you’. So she transfers me to a man. And I ask if I could have my wedding pictures taken at Wrigley. He asks me when the wedding is. I say Saturday. ‘Ohh, you’re cutting it close’ he replies. Yes, I know I am. He asks me how many people are in the bridal party. I say 18. He sighs, ‘Wow, that’s a lot of people’. Tell me about it, I say. He then tells me that they run tours on Saturdays when there isn’t a game. I’m disheartened. He asks me the time, and I tell him around 3:30. Then he says, ‘Well, I can’t guarantee that you’ll be let on the field, but I’ll give your name to security.’
I’m ready to hang up the phone in disgust…
‘Wait, we can do it?’
‘Yeah, but I’ll see if they can let you on the field. We can let you in the park. That won’t be a problem!’
OMG. How cool is that? So I told Dave that I found a place to take pictures, but it was totally out of the way. He said that we shouldn’t bother, and so I said ‘OK, I guess you don’t want Wrigley Field’. And he was like ‘WHAT?!?!?! Yes! Can we take pictures next to the ivy? Can I have a picture on home plate? Do you think I should bring my glove? Awesome! Cool! That is so great! Awesome!’
Yes. I think Dave rather likes the idea.
And, after that, my office threw a surprise Bridal Shower for me! Isn’t that so awesome?!?! I’m really going to miss that place. I even got a little misty. We all sat around the conference room table eating lunch together, and they even got me tiramisu! And afterwards, my old co-worker Abie came by and dropped off a card. It was so awesome to see him again, I’ve missed him so much!
Later on in the day, Sammy and Isabella brought over little Max. He was adorable, and I’m surprised the Isabella was up and walking after having the baby. Max was SO COMPLETELY ADORABLE. I could hear my biological clock pounding in my ears. And it was so sweet to see Sammy with the baby. He’ll be a good loving dad. He brought Max over because he knew I was leaving, and he wanted Max to see his Tita Christine before she left. (Tita = Aunt) I was touched.
After work, I headed out to the church to pick out music for the ceremony. Me and Dave sat there (Dave’s home now, yippee!) and listened to the musician play different tunes. We were sitting in the empty church, right next to the piano. And I admit, when he played the entrance song for the bride, I got a little misty.
And I looked over at Dave. I know I don’t talk about him much here, but I’m so excited to be his wife. Sometimes, when I look at him, and think of how much he means to me, I could just cry. He is such a wonderful, beautiful person, inside and out, and I love him so much.
And he’s pretty hot, too.
And so ends my good day. Days like today make bad times like the last couple weeks worth it.
2 days of work.
4 days left.
So I’ll recap my night on Saturday, well, as much as I can tell, anyway. It’s been a pretty busy weekend.
First of all, let me say that although I don’t have a ton of female friends, the ones that I have I wouldn’t trade for the world. These gals worked so hard to try and give me an unforgettable night, and I love them for it. They rock.
So I had no idea what was going on Saturday, but we had a room at the Crown Plaza and we partied there. Then later on we went to Rush and Division and partied some more at the bars.
OK. That’s all I can tell you about the night. Thanks for listening.
Fine! I’ll tell you more. You squeezed it outta me. I’ll just give passing thoughts on the weekend, as much as I can relay, anyway…
- Whoever was staying on the 4th floor of the Crown Plaza and complained to management about us - I’m going to find you and kick your ass. The whole hotel knew we were having a party there, and NO ONE calls to complain about loud music and thumping at 8 in the evening.
- Rosen’s makes some pretty interestingly shaped cakes.
- Pin the Macho on the Man. Oh, and what a man!
- Mother’s on Division will never be the same. And I am SO sorry to all the people who had to listen to me sing ‘I Will Survive’ on karaoke. I’ve never performed in front of people before. They made me do it.
- My girls gave me various tasks to do during the night. I would like to thank all of the eager volunteers who helped me in accomplishing those tasks - Abraham, Rudy, Burly Guy, Beau, Brandon, Tall Guy, MILF, Tall Guy’s Friends, Boots, the US Marshall and others.
- I would also like to thank the person who gave me a dollar in appreciation for my mad dancing skills.
- I’m happy to say that I remembered most aspects of the night. OK, maybe the last parts are a bit foggy. I drank a lot, but I tried to mindful of when I would hit that brink of ‘I’m so wasted I’m going to the bathroom and throw up and subsequently fall asleep in the stall.’ Uh, not like that has ever happened before. Anyway, I felt good all night.
- I never knew that so many people would be open letting a strange girl with red highlights, a tiara and a veil stick a penis wand in their ear. I think some people even enjoyed it.
- There’s a camraderie that happens between bachelorettes that are out with their parties. Many times when passing by a fellow bachelorette, my gaze was met with the same ‘Hi and yes, these girls are torturing me too, but I’m so drunk I’m thinking that the humiliation is fun. Oh wait, it IS fun. Oh, nice penis wand!’ look that I gave to them.
- Whip cream is pretty hard to wash off your pants.
- My legs are sore. I think I pulled a muscle. I can’t run or walk down stairs. I’m fine with walking and going UP stairs. The injury was due to a incident involving a pole, a stool and “White Horse” playing in the background.
Yeah, so that’s about all I can let out. Let your imagination work wonders.14 hours of fun. Thanks to all the girls that came out, to all the ones that couldn’t, we missed ya.
Here’s a pic that we had taken early on in the night…the rest, well, heh, the rest may never see the light of day.
Busy day today, but just wanted to stop by and say HI.
Had my bachelorette yesterday, and I’ll give an almost-full recap of that later tonight, but I just wanted to comment on how sore my leg is right now. I think I pulled a muscle. Doing what? you ask? *evil grin*
6 days! 6 days!
