Thanksgiving is a holiday close to my heart. And its my first away from my family. And it makes me really really sad.
As Doug and I were in the car the other day, I asked him - what can I expect from Thanksgiving. It wasn't an off the wall question, as Doug's brother in law asked me to bring over pepperoni bread. FOR THANKSGIVING. Doug replied "its the same as your thanksgiving, no different" (we spent last Thanksgiving in Albuquerque).
Liar.
Its not the same. Yes we'll probably have turkey and mashed potatoes and stuffing. Maybe even some sweet potatoes. But its NOT the same. There will be no red chile. No late night turkey quesadillas with green chile after we come out from the food coma. There will be no tortillas, no peeking out the window to see people putting up their luminarias. No calabacitas.
I tried to explain Doug all of this, and he really thinks it will be the same. In desperation I even said "there will be no cranberry jello mold". He said "we're not really jello people" (which defies the logic of white people, but that's a different story for a different day) and I said "I hate cranberry jello mold too. But I'm sad it won't be there".
Like most things, I'm more saddened by the idea. I'm sure I'll have a fabulous time as long as nobody puts out any miracle whip
PS - There will be tamales. I sent out an email saying that I didn't care if anyone ate them, because that meant more leftovers for me.
coming up with a wedding invitation list is no small feat for the two of us. While Doug has lived here for most of his life, his friends and family are chock full of world travellers. And my family and friends -- well, lets just say that I moved around enough for all of us. And while the majority of our friends and family comes from either New Mexico or Illinois, the amount of people living in different states and even different countries really wowed us. Check it out for yourselves (and before you have a cow, Shelly, this is the number of invitations/families not the number of people..and for all of you white people who are used to small weddings, yeah thats about 350ish people we're inviting):
| 69 | NM |
| 52 | IL |
| 12 | CA |
| 11 | CO |
| 8 | AZ |
| 7 | NY |
| 5 | NV |
| 4 | TX |
| 2 | UT |
| 2 | KS |
| 1 | OH |
| 1 | NC |
| 1 | MN |
| 1 | MD |
| 1 | ID |
| 1 | HI |
| 1 | GA |
| 1 | WI |
1 United Kingdom
1 Hong Kong
1 Australia
Pretty amazing right? We're blessed to have people planning to travel across oceans just to see us get married!
Think back to your very best day in life. For most of us, it includes a very significant event. A wedding, or a birth or even a break up. But can you identify the best day where nothing of significance happened? There are a few days for me like that -- one is a spectacular day in London that included some fish and chips, watching the sun go down over London Bridge and the Thames river, and a slide down this giant modern sculpture at the Tate Modern museum. I can't pinpoint exactly what made it so perfect, but for one day...that was my reality. A million fun, thought provoking, and different things were at my finger tips.
I'm luckily that I have one more day that things came together so unassumingly. October 25, 2005. A trip to Los Angeles with my Mom - her first experience into my Counting Crows world. Sure I could've invited someone else - but my Mom - well, she can be a good time - and she's never experienced a big Hollywood rock star evening. Like most good stories - it started with Fish Tacos and ended at The Roosevelt Hotel with Topanga from Boy Meets World. But what happened in between was the fun part.
My mom sat next to a drunk loud mouth from Chicago. And four years later - we're preparing to get married.
After that, we agreed to meet a friend with a soft Texas accent and a penchant for leaving I-pods on planes and tickets at home. Four years later, David is one of my closest friends.
And I find both of these things to be quite amazing. Yes, the show was amazing - and we had a good time at the after party - but meeting two people who would change my lifes direction so much in one night - now that's some pretty good odds.
This morning i stepped on a staple. A big freaking staple. I'm not sure if it was a carpet staple or one of those staples that holds together a cardboard box, but it really didn't matter because I was much too concerned about the freaking staple lodged inside my foot.
Doug was blessed with the sensitivity gene and after he took the staple out, and watched my foot start turning a crimson red, he said "MAKE SURE YOU DONT GET ANY BLOOD ON THE SHEETS".
Dismissing it, I thought it was a heat of the moment thing. That is, until I brought it up in our instant message conversation a few minutes ago.
[10:41] DSLLSD: I love you though...
[10:42] Leecha98: love you too, even if you tell me not to get blood on the sheets when im in great pain
[10:44] DSLLSD: THEY'RE NEW SHEETS!!!
[10:45] Leecha98: I STEPPED ON A FREAKING STAPLE
Apparently new sheets trump pain.
here's stating the obvious: Doug and I bicker. I use the word bicker instead of argue, and I think there's an obvious difference. According to dictionary.com:
bick⋅er1
/ˈbɪk
ər/ 
Show Spelled Pronunciation [bik-er] Show IPA
| 1. | to engage in petulant or peevish argument; wrangle: The two were always bickering. |
ar⋅gue
/ˈɑrgyu/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [ahr-gyoo] Show IPA verb, -gued, -gu⋅ing.
–verb (used with object)
| 3. | to state the reasons for or against: The lawyers argued the case. |
| 4. | to maintain in reasoning: to argue that the news report must be wrong. |
| 5. | to persuade, drive, etc., by reasoning: to argue someone out of a plan. |
| 6. |
to show; prove; imply; indicate: His clothes argue poverty |
Our impassioned debates are over things that people don't agonize over
He sorts and washes things by color. I do so by fabric and color (towels have their own separate load)
He rinses things and puts them in the dishwasher, I have to get all the gunk off (some may call that washing)
He wants a laser show at the wedding. I would rather not risk seizures
He has to have the sheets and duvet straight before getting into bed. I don't even need to have sheets on the bed to fall asleep.
He thinks chili beans are just beans - no meat. Chili is something completely different when it comes from Texas or anywhere east of there.
Really, we could have a better use of our time than bickering but I think somewhere deep down (or maybe just if you scratch the surface) we enjoy bickering. Or perhaps I enjoy being right and Doug enjoys the same. Anywho, some people sometimes misinterpret it. They think we go to bed angry - but the truth is, a minute after he jokingly tells me how much my cooking sucks, I can look into his eyes, kiss him and wonder how I got so lucky to have a man who argues so passionately, love me so passionately too.
And that's how I know I'm marrying The One (either that or I got a concussion along the way)
I love autumn in New Mexico because it just nudges you along. I miss autumn in New Mexico - smelling the roasting of green chile in the parking lot of the grocery store. The last bits of summer at the State Fair. The cool crisp mornings of Balloon Fiesta that give way to warm sunny afternoons.
Chicago isn't quite the nudging type of city. Autumn smacks you in the ass. And as I sit here looking at the 10 day weather outlook (highlights include freeze advisories, 44 degree highs, rain and wind) - I'm tempted to complain about how cold it is, and how I'd rather be back home.
And then I think back to yesterday's trip to the mailbox. The cold wind rushing through my skin. The scream of thousands of leaves trying to hold on to the dying trees. The fleeting thoughts of the first sign of flurries that will come in the next month or so. No, there's nothing subtle about autumn in Chicago, but maybe, just maybe Im finding joy in that too.
what I'm about to say may shock you.
I slept with David Letterman too
1) I get up for work before Doug does
2) I get dressed in the dark.
Why would these two confessions shock you? Well, I'm not well known for my ability and eagerness to get up early. I also don't really turn on a whole lot of lights when getting dressed because Doug is still trying to get a few more Z's before he has to get up in the morning. Why I would try to be nice to someone who gets to work from home and stay in his pajamas all day is debatable, but that's a story for another time.
Generally speaking, the whole getting dressed in the dark thing works out for me, and to be quite honest, I think I would do it even if I didn't have a bedmate who wanted more sleep. But on certain days, I cross my legs in a big meeting and start chuckling at myself for doing such idiotic things:
That's right - rocking the navy blue socks with the all black outfit.
And yes, my legs really are that white.
a funny thing happens after you get engaged. You feel like you can conquer the world and decisions are just decisions - they're not life and death questions you ask yourself. Then you really delve into wedding plans. And trust me, no one cares about your wedding plans quite as much as you think they do. So the last five months I've started building my dream day - and I had all these ideals that wedding planning was going to be the best 14 months of my life - and now
Day 1 is like: Everyone is going to be soooooo bending over to get my business - I will be treated like a queen.
Day 30: Hmmm, well obviously there are a few incompetent people in the wedding business who don't know how to return a phone call.
Day 60: It must be going into their busy season and its really difficult to plan a wedding from a far
Day 120: The whole wedding industry is incompetent and NOT in tune with my needs.
By day about 135 - I'm stalking my venue coordinator so I can get my final contract and by Day 140 I've just been given up and want to postpone or elope.
And then it happens. Everything aligns when you're home for a short weekend in Albuquerque. The venue coordinator is there, you don't care about alcohol not being served past 11pm and you take a pen and sign that piece of paper - and you get hope again.
So for now I'm taking the week off of all things wedding and basking in the glory of signing a contract that states I will have a wedding.
And I'll see you on May 29th at the Balloon Museum in Albuquerque.
I want to be trendy. Most of you will laugh because I spend my days in ripped jeans and stained solid colored shirts. I don't really do my make up all that fancy and my hair can be disastrous (I like when people at work ask "did you oversleep today?")
Anyway, getting highlights was a big deal for me. And I decided I should continue the trendiness with a couple of dresses that were unmelike but beautiful nonetheless. One of them is fuschia. And I say to myself, I WANT TRENDY HEELS. What does that even mean? It means that I want something that isnt matchy matchy. In my mind, I want yellow or green shoes. Maybe gold or even navy shoes. But I'm deathly afraid of getting all dressed up with my trendy self and someone says "what's up punky brewster". This is totally illogical right?
