I GOT IT!

My wedding dress! Unbelievable, but I'm now officially going to be a bride, and in a few months I'll have the dress to prove it!!! (In the meantime, I have the receipt!)
Mom and I had gone to Monique's Bridal up near Pottstown a few weeks ago... and I'd tried on several, finding one that I did indeed like... but I wasn't entirely convinced.

Reason being, I had seen a dress online in early August, which is what inspired me to start shopping in the first place. I called around, and there were only a few bridal shops around that carried that particular.
Arielle Bridal, in Ambler, happened to not only carry my designer, but they had the actual dress of interest in store for me to try on! So, before committing to something that I wasn't crazy about at the first bridal salon, I decided to hold off until we could get an appointment at Arielle, so I could at least try the original dress that set my wedding dress wheels in motion.

Well, lo and behold, we arrived at Arielle at 12:35, and by 12:45 I had pretty much made my mind up. Although the store model of the dress was not the right length or color, it didn't matter to me. This was my dress. I didn't want to take it off. It just felt right. While very very very different from the one I'd admired two weeks prior at Monique's... this was it. I just envisioning everything, with me and Dave smack dab in the middle, and me wearing this dress. And it's what I wanted.

YAY!!!! What an exciting, exhilarating feeling. To have the dress in which you are going to marry your love. Wow.

Now comes the hard part, however. The dress will not come in until January or February. And it is my goal to get my lazy fat ass in shape before then... so I'm shooting to be 20 lbs lighter by the time I get that phone call telling me my dress has come in. (or for some strange reason, if it comes in sooner, then my goal is to lose it by February 9th!)

But I am SO HAPPY! I got my wedding dress. YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Saturday @ 5:13 am

So, our air conditioning decided to shit the bed. It was happily cranking along in the high sixties for several weeks, but in the past two days I've come home to realize our house is unpleasantly warm, despite the rapidly falling thermometers... it's still humid and AC is still a necessity.

Unfortunately I've been plagued with a disorder... I can't sleep if I'm hot. So I fell asleep right around midnight, woke up again at 2 am, and have been completely restless since. I have, however, been able to catch up on a few back episodes of "Saved," so I guess I'm using my time wisely? I dunno. Most normal people would be lying in bed trying to get back to sleep, but here I am, blogging at 5:16 am. I'm so tired right now that delirium has set in, but yet, because I'm so hot (despite the fan blowing away steadily two feet from my pillow) that I can't fall back asleep. Ugh. And here I was hoping to get a nice solid 8-9 hours of sleep tonight. I'll be lucky if I pull of 5 or 6 at this point I guess.

I think I'm going to go stay at Mom and Dad's tomorrow night. Because the maintenance guys here won't be around (without charging us an obnoxious fee) until Monday to check our AC. And I can't deal with another sleepless night.

I just thank God that it's 68 and humid out, and this did not happen a month ago when it was 98 and humid. Lord have mercy.

Oliver the Humanzee

The other night, Dave was watching the Science channel. I'm finding myself more and more intrigued by this channel; it has lots of cool shows on space and evolution and stuff... so right after the "Neanderthal: The Rebirth" show (which was totally weird and creepy in itself), this program, "Humanzees," comes on.

It's about the possibility of human-chimpanzee hybrids. And it featured Oliver.

Oliver is this strange creature from Africa that came to the USA in the 70s, and scientists were questioning whether or not he was half human, half chimpanzee. They hinted that by the end of the show, DNA test results would be revealed to explain the truth behind dear Oliver.

Oliver looks more like a human than any monkey I've ever seen. In addition, he walked upright, liked to mix drinks and smoke cigars, enjoyed suspenders to hold up his pants, and preferred the company of humans to chimps. Especially female humans (consequently Oliver had to be sold from his first owners because he basically tried to rape his first owner's wife).

So, as tired as I am, I wait around while they show some crazy dude rolling around on the grass with a fullly grown lion and tiger, and it's ridiculously huge offspring, the Liger... and certainly not wait while they kill time explaining mules (a hybrid of donkeys and horses), while coming to the conclusion (duh) that there is no scientific reason that Humanzees cannot also exsit. Yet I find myself fascinated. Intrigued. Totally into this program. I can't stop watching. Not to mention that my darling fiance is dancing around the room like a monkey (come to think of it, he looks strangely like Oliver... bald head and such...) and saying, "is it a monkey? is it a human? is it a monkey?" and so on and so forth. So we're hooked.

Unfortunately, I fell asleep before the program ended. So I don't know if Oliver is indeed a human, a chimpanzee, or a humanzee. I guess I'll never know. (or I could certainly google it and find out, but what fun would that be?!)

However last night at dinner, I'm trying to explain this show to Jami and Mo, and they are in absolute hysterics. But I guess you'd have to see it to believe it. They start asking lots of questions, and I'm having trouble answering them with a straight face, so I promise them that as soon as I can, I will enlighten them about Oliver with some solid info.

Well today I came into work to find some links for Jami and Mo about Oliver, and I came across this:

http://cecimoz.co.uk/portal.php?page=3

Apparently I'm not the only person who found Oliver so interesting.

Long Live The King!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060810/od_uk_nm/oukoe_uk_ireland_goat

Bestest and Favorite

Well we are two weeks shy of what Dave and I are calling our 2 year "anniversary," at least until we get married. And I'm trying to think of something really special for us to do. I think, given both of our situations, we'll forego gift giving, but a nice night out to celebrate is a necessity! :)

Ok, so for those of you who feel like being technical and reminding me that it's not REALLY two years, first of all, fuck off. Second of all, who cares? So we took a 90 day break in the beginning... but why is anyone else worried about it? It's not your life, so why bother bothering? I am calling it two years, and I do not feel as though I should have to shorten it because of what happened. We're calling that a mulligan in the grand scheme of things.

Anyway... I was just thinking this morning on my way into work, about how vastly my life has changed in just 24 months. This time, two summers ago, I was working 10-12 hour days at Banyan, playing a lot less soccer, drinking a lot more alcohol, singing a lot more karaoke (which I will admit I miss...), and wondering if I'd ever find someone to love me again. And I was very depressed.

And then, that fateful night at Beth's apartment, everything changed. Two years later, I have a husband-to-be who makes me smile more than anyone in the world. Despite the struggles we've faced in the past year or so, I know we're going to make it. We both possess strengths and weaknesses that truly make it work... without them, we'd be goners. But it works, and I couldn't imagine it any other way!

Dave's Mom told me recently that he said to her, one of his reasons for wanting to marry me was because, "I don't bug him." And I sorta chuckled, but I know exactly what she means. Dave could be viewed by some women as a very difficult partner. I, personally, think he's fantastic. A woman who requires a ton of attention, constant accompaniment everywhere she goes, and wants to be pampered and babied would NOT find those qualities in my Fiance. He is very independent, and yes, while he gives me all the attention I could possibly ask for, we maintain our separate lives, interests, and worlds. And those worlds come together quite nicely. But Dave requires his alone time, and I give him that. I play soccer a million nights a week, and I am always running here and there to have dinner with this friend, catch a drink with that one... so it makes coming home to him even more exciting, because we AREN'T inundated with eachother.

Dave once swore to his friends and family that he'd be a bachelor for life. After he and his last girlfriend parted, ways about five or six years ago, he decided he was done with women. Every relationship he was in, the woman expected more of him than he was willing to give, and demanded things of him that he was incapable of doing. But then I came along, and suddenly, Dave found himself WANTING to do the things that I asked of him, and making the sacrifices necessary to make a relationship work, because "I didn't bug him."

He tells the story quite often of one of his previous girlfriends, whom he dated for several years, and how on Sundays she used to pull the advertisement section out of the paper, and (not so) casually drop the jewerly store inserts into his lap... I guess this woman thought this was a perfectly subtle way to hint at what she wanted. But Dave said it used to drive him crazy.
I, on the other hand, told the poor guy right before he proposed that "I wasn't ready to look at rings yet, because it was too big of a committment." Well, that was a really big lie because of COURSE I was ready, but knowing the situation he was in, I didn't want him to feel any undue pressure so I sorta brushed it off to help lessen any stress he might be feeling about it.

So behold... the two year mark is fast approaching. And I look back on every single day of that two years (ok, for those of you who are counting, minus those 90 days, sorry...) and thank God that Dave and I were brought together, and that we don't "bug" eachother, and that we are in this for the long haul. I couldn't imagine a better partner in life. You are my bestest, and my favorite, and don't you forget that!

I love you, David! Happy (almost) two years together!!!!

PURPLE!!!!

I found this on theknot.com today. For anyone out there who feels as though purple is not a good wedding color choice, think again! It was listed as one of the top 10 wedding trends of 2006!

Think Purple:

Last year it was teal; this year a more royal shade, purple, is in vogue in every tone -- from the lightest lavender to a deep eggplant. What better way to take your aubergine palette up a notch? With a great pattern. Think starbursts, swirls, and playful dots on anything from the invite to the bridesmaid dresses, wedding cake, and cocktail napkins.