Day 583 - Dance till you drop

Last night was my bachelorette, a silly but necessary component of the modern bride's trip down the aisle.....okay, maybe not necessary but I can not imagine not having one.

For the purpose of being completely honest I shall tell you that my brain is fried. I am tired, I was drinking and as much as I am not hung over and wasn't drunk, I most certainly am finding it difficult to put words together this morning. Please ignore the choppy manner by which I relay the night to you.

timeline? Sure.... informal...choppy, perfect for a morning after blog entry.

• My maid of honor showed in the am to come with me to my make-up appointment. I had booked it for the bachelorette day so I could see how the make up held up through a full day. If it was successful and looked good I would have them do my make-up the wedding day. It was a success. 
• We returned home to wait for our "extra guest". The bachelorette was to be the bridal party plus one although later it was plus two. Unfortunately one of my bridesmaids found herself ill the night before so she was not able to make it to the bachelorette. :( But we will have to abduct her for another day out! A post-wedding celebration! 
• With our "extra guest" in tow we headed out to lunch at my friend's restaurant. I'm hoping to have our rehearsal dinner at the same location. 
• After lunch it was off to have a mani-pedi with the girls. We met up with my sister (other bridesmaid) at this point and the four of us laid back and got pampered. okay, perhaps 3 of us, my sister apparently does not find the pedicure process very pampering. We got a kick out of her squirming during the process though. 
• After this we ran back to my place to gather our gear for the night and pick up the plus 2. 
• At my sisters place we started the night with a sexy and the city party. Even cooler than I could have imagined. :) Won some awesome prizes too! 
• Then garlic fingers, penis cake and more booze. Followed by a trip to the club. 

I can say this for dancing or at least heading out to a club for a bachelorette, at least for me, is a very different atmosphere than just going out to the club. I couldn't quite peg it last night but looking back this morning I think a biggest thing is that your upcoming wedding is at the front of your mind the whole time. Not necessarily stressing you but perhaps distracting you or maybe even just adding an element to the moment. When you are going out dancing you are just going out dancing and to everyone around you that is the same fact. But when you go out for a bachelorette you are going out dancing to celebrate the end of your single life. Typically this involves some tell tale jewelry which results not only in free cover but also in congratulations from complete strangers and oohs and awws from girls who want to see your ring through their beer goggles. I had expected DJ's to be a little more attentive which at first was not the case. But when we switched bars or at least sections of the bar to another DJ he was a lot quicker to provide the tunes requested! Although, oddly enough for a bar scene, neither DJ had Shots - LMFAO something I've heard almost every time I've been out in the past year. But they did have Maneater - Nelly an older tune that my sister and I used to dance/drink to years ago. Just after that they played Low - Flo Rida a song which came out when I was pregnant and couldn't dance/drink to it at a club.
I think one of my favorite songs that the first DJ played was I will survive - Gloria Gaynor oddly enough a song I can't really stand ... I don't hate it, I just ... don't listen to it. If it is on an ipod I press skip. It's just...it is a theatrical song that you have to be in a theatrical mood to listen to. Sure enough, I dragged my Maid of Honor up unto the speakers and we belted it out to no one in particular and each other of course. So maybe it is a song I might at some point request in the future when out. Just a fun drinking out with the girls song apparently. Not a frequent one though, I put it on just now to see if I had a new love for it. I don't, in fact I'm about to turn it off when I finish this paragraph. However, it at least now has a memory to connect to it that will make me smirk when I think of me doing the running man on the speaker in my six inch heels while I told no one in particular to "go on now go! Walk out the door!" something I didn't realize was quite as dangerous until I did it sober last night. Those speakers have just enough space all around them for a heel to slip down and break a leg. Yikes, had I been drunk I think I might have injured myself quite badly! But I also wouldn't have been doing the running man on a speaker in 6" inch heels were I drunk. Nope...not a chance! 

OH another highlight of the night was that in the beginning on all the speakers there was a large group of people who were doing the same dance moves and getting the crowd in on it. They'd switch it up as if they were giving a fitness class or dance lesson. It was quite amusing. Although I didn't join in necessarily I did enjoy the random participation of the rest of the room.
Another would be this drunk girl who was loooooaadddedd t-rexing it all night. just back and forth with her trashed buddy up on the stage. she'd t-rex to one end of the room, sweep her hand through her hair then t-rex back to the other end. Ocassionally she'd switch it up by putting her hands on her hips and doing a move which can only be compared to the fresh prince doing Jump on it in high speed and then regaining balance to t-rex back to the other side of the room.

By the end of the night we were just getting goofy and having silly fun. I even tried to get a lapdance from a poor sap. All in good fun of course and didn't expect him to nor would I have let it go on for long, I guess you could say it was just me having fun at someone else's expense and seeing if they had the balls to put on a show for fun. When he didn't we just did ourselves, everything from mocking our t-rexing girl from the other bar to a quick spurt of thriller and then just random shit we named or associated with people or activities.

All around, a great night, and when I came home and curled up with my hubby-to-be it suddenly felt soooo real once more. He said the same, with all those last little details coming to a close it feels like that wedding is coming up. Which is good, since it is 29 days away! Now if only I could help his pen hit paper so he could finish start his vows! ;) 

See below the fold for a few pictures. Mind you there is a synthetic penis so this is not for the sensitive and/or virginal eyes. No babies, NSFW and don't come complaining to me when you walk away laughing.

<3 your happy hippie bride

Day 579 - Relaxed

Things have been both rushed and relaxed all at once lately. I feel pressured to ensure everything is ready for "the big day" but at the same time I have been so on top of everything that I feel I needn't worry quite so much.
All that remains is the final payments which are for the hotel we are staying at and a few DIY things. Although I will admit the DIY will stress me out until they are done because it is something I have to make not just earn. For that end money has been a little less stressful.
In 2 more weeks my pay will be no more and we have decided that for the summer we are going to go without an additional pay. This summer will be just us as a newlywed couple. Come September we will approach additional income.
I must finish my seating chart, although I am not sure how to approach it, I must shop for some shoes for this weekends bachelorette and I must get my eyebrows bushwacked! Hair trial run is on Friday and bachelorette is Saturday. It is going to be so much fun I can already see!

My wii told me I lost 6 lbs this morning. I weighed in 3 times because I thought it couldn't be. I am still convinced that the batteries must be dieing. I shall recharge them and convince myself that is it. 6 lbs in one day is INSANE and entirely unhealthy! I would expect to gain it all back by tomorrow morning of course. Or at the very least half of it. Although, I'd be lieing if I didn't say I thought it would be cool to keep it off as it puts me 2.2 lbs away from my goal. The goal I had originally been 1 lb away from last summer. Although I have not gained an inch I did gain 10 lbs over the year. I worry that my losing it lately is all muscle loss since I have been out of training from the marathon. As per an earlier post I do not trust simply one method of measurement and resort to the photo of me while I was pregnant. I have a photo of me at the exact same weight pregnant as I was in the other photo not pregnant and I feel it best represents how you can't simply trust your mass as an indicator of your health and fitness.

In the above photo you will see the 5 month pregnant me on the left and on the right me at the exact same weight as I was at 5 months pregnant. May this forever be a reminder for me to trust the measuring tape more than the scale.

Regardless, it'd be cool to reach that goal if even only for a day. Then I'll start doing squats again and building up those muscles and thus mass. :)

In unrelated news, we watched our next movie in the string of wedding movie countdown. It was Lucky 7 a sweet movie that had me tearing up at the beginning and the end! I feel for a made for TV movie it was AMAZING and for a movie in general it was great! A predictable but adorable story with this underlying story about a relationship with your mother that can tear at your heartstrings. As a mother I looked over at my partner in crime and promised to never leave him alone to raise our daughter. I feel I shall keep this movie as I thought it was worth a rewatch some time in the future.

33 days left

<3 your productive hippie bride

Day 576 - Bottom done gone falled out!

As that number of days until our wedding gets smaller and smaller so does my brain! You hand me something, I'll lose it within a minute and where we find it will make very little sense. Our best man got to witness this foolishness first hand this weekend when he handed me his iphone for a moment. I was sitting on the sofa with it and stood up, I remembered specifically putting it on the coffee table and then going to the bathroom to help him with my daughter.
In the bathroom I used both hands to open the cupboard looking for a thermometer to take her temperature. Because of this when we later went looking for the iphone we knew it couldn't have been in my hands when I left the living room. We looked everywhere, even my bedroom. I had gotten up and went straight to the bathroom, he was here... he can verify that when we found it on my computer desk behind the dining room table his reaction was, "when were you over here?!" and my answer was, "I wasn't!!!" I swear, I have gremlins running around my house right now, that's my only explanation to where things are turning up lately.

I have tried to keep myself completely distracted and our kitchen counters have never seen this much attention. Between our abstaining and my flighty mind I have all this pent up energy to use and I have been bleaching the crazy out of my counters, stove, walls, you name it. That's not to say the house doesn't have the usual amount of chaos but it's super sanitized where it's clean and neat. I just keep looking at that number of days remaining and feeling as though I have just enough time to finish all necessary wedding tasks and that if I waste a single moment I will have to forgo something :(
This worries me so much that I use my distractions as best I can.

However, when the day comes to an end and I sit down to say goodnight to the world I always come back to that same beautiful fact. In 5 weeks I will marry (yes I'm saying it again) my best friend!

Years ago we made a video to tell the story of how we ended up together and now here we are taking that next big leap. I laugh sometimes when I think of how much life has changed in the past few years. I laugh and say, "Had someone told us we'd end up here 8 years ago....we'd have rolled our eyes."
Anyway, the video of our story has always been a pretty good summation of our union and to this day the blooper reel makes me snicker. We had so much fun making the video even though it took far longer than we expected and two different days. Now I make videos in a very different way and am currently completing our wedding video for the day of the wedding. Fun times. I can not wait to walk down the aisle towards David. To see him for the first time that day and then of course take out some of this pent up...erm... I'll end this entry here ;)

<3 your ..um... forgetful...um...what is it... oh yeah, hippie bride! 

Day 574 - Final details

Today was the day we confirmed our meal selection, went through some final details and picked up my wedding dress. If I could describe my feelings today as one feeling I would. However, my feelings are really just a cluster of random extreme feelings. Fear, excitement, butterflies, love... is love a feeling?

With the venue appointment I was so full at the end it was unbelievable. It was nice to sit down with our co-ordinator and put those final layout descriptions on paper. I now know where I'm going to put specific things as well as where I will be coming in during the ceremony and even discussed a room divider to add something to the room. The way the room is I will be coming into the room, turning left then right then right again at which point I will be facing David.

Because of this I thought the room divider would remove the visual part of the left turn and as a result I'd just be walking across the back of the room and then up the centre.

After filling up on food and details plus paying off the remaining balance of the venue it was off to pick up our wedding dress. First we had to drop the groom and children off at home so there'd be no worries about loading the dress in the car nor risk David seeing it. As I put it on I was nervous and excited all at once. I love how it fits me since I've lost all the baby weight, I am worried about how the bouquet may hide me as it's big and I'm small. I'm worried about the fact that it's not a sweetheart neckline and so I may look smaller than usual. I'm worried about armpit fat. I'm just worried about so many things but mostly just excited to be marrying my best friend.

Lately I have been listening to loving music a lot just to envision the day. I have even changed my ringtone to what my daughter refers to as, "your dress song mommy!" she of course is referring to the video I have of me saying, "Yes to the dress" where the song played in the background.

At the venue today while trying to envision the layout and deciding on where aspects would go, where the aisle would be, where the groom would be. We had David stand at the end of the aisle and I walked down towards him. It was the closest to "real" we've had so far. Makes me that much more excited for the next 38 days to go by.

<3 your organized hippie bride. 

Day 570 - My big confession!!

First off, the geek in me must proudly proclaim that there are 42 days left until my wedding! If you don't understand why that is important .... pick up a book!

Second thing on the agenda would be the surreal feeling of getting married. As I sent David out today to get the comforter from the laundry room I realized, for whatever reason, that we were going to be getting married! I do not know if I have yet mentioned this, however, several years ago I spent a good year being completely unable to wrap my head around the idea that I was dating him. I blame this on us having been best friends for so long. In fact early in our relationship I'd find myself missing my high school friend on msn. I would be sitting on the sofa beside David and wondering what David was up to lately. Of course it was more of a feeling than an actual inquiry but it was a very real feeling. The only comparison I can give can only be appreciated by parents. When your child grows from a baby to a toddler or from a newborn to a baby you know it's the same child but a part of you misses the other child they used to be as though you have lost the first child and this is a second. You know in your heart they are one in the same but they are also so different that there is a part of you that goes to that crib wondering what happened to your baby.

Fortunately I never had to truly mourn for my friendship with David as we have always and still are friends first. It matters not what the circumstances he is and always will be my best friend. I go to him for everything and have a strong rule with friends, don't ever tell me anything I'm not allowed to tell him unless it is a surprise for him. For as much as I don't necessarily run to him with every detail of my life or my friends lives I keep no secrets from him for David is my best friend and the love of my life.

Alas, for that first year I would randomly say, "I'm dating David!" aloud to no one in particular. I'm glad David never found this offensive although at first he found it confusing. What was so strange about dating him. I of course explained to him and being that he knows me so well he understood. Lately, I have had similar thoughts regarding marrying him. I will be standing there at some moment in my day, perhaps folding his boxers, perhaps putting his oatmeal packet into the recycling (because he always forgets to do that) and for an instant my mind flashes from age 10 until now and WHAM I say, "I'm marrying David!!!" I guess it's like I instantly say aloud to no one in particular, "if you had asked me when I was 10, 13, 17 any age before 22 if I'd be marrying David and I would have scoffed at you. He's my best friend, we're just friends." I'd have likely msn'd him that night and said, "Oh Em Gee you will not believe what my neighbor asked me today!" we'd have laughed, he'd have joked "What's so bad about marrying me?" and I'd have told him, "oh shut up!" he'd have likely responded in some pervy fashion and the conversation would have digressed.

Lastly on the topics today is the movie pick of the day. It's not exactly last on the conversation topics but it is related to the last one. Tonight's movie was Confessions of an American Bride I just realized as I typed that title that it is similar to my own blog title today. Not planned, happy accident.

Not a great movie as it was made for TV. However, the storyline was sweet, funny and put together nicely. If only they had a budget and could have bought some nice actors they might have had something. They nailed your standard bridal problems and bridal feelings pretty nicely. Of course not every bride cheats on her groom as was the case in this story but still, for the most part it was pretty bang on. I did laugh though and said to David, "I hate movies like this!"
David - "Why?"
Me - "Because this *gestures to scene* raises the romance expectation to completely unlikely heights. No guy is ever going to do that!!!"

It's funny because the date scene I was referencing was more romantic than the proposal scene. Yet the proposal scene leads to my problem. Worse yet, my problem is a little personal. I'm not ashamed of it. Audience just might be a little sensitive to it. To remove all chance that you can blame me for reading further while still increasing your curiosity I'm going to go ahead and say that the problem is of a sexual nature and that I'm going to put it under the blanket where it's safe from accidental site.

To save my hubby-to-be's ego though I can assure you it's not THAT type of sexual problem. Oh no! Anything but that sort of problem. No.... this a problem of traditional proportions... very traditional!

You have been warned, and perhaps you have become curious but mostly you have been warned!

Day 569 - Movie Days

For the past few days David and I have debated over whether we have watched Three Men and a Little Lady so today I got up before David and skimmed through it. Right up until 30 minutes in I was sure I had never seen it. At 30 minutes in it hit me like your life supposedly flashes in front of your eyes. I knew how the movie ended. Not just how it ended in a prediction kind of way, but the last 20 minutes of the movie were clear in my mind. I spent the next 10 minutes skimming through the rest of the movie. Skipping ahead 5 minutes at a time to fill in the void that should have been the movie in my subconscious. Turns out that the ending is the only memorable part of the movie. The original was definitely far better than the sequel. Guess that is what it means for a movie to suffer a severe case of sequelitis.

Tonight's movie was to be Only You a movie in which the lead actress was told by both a Ouiji board and a fortune teller that she would marry a Damon Bradley as a child. Later, shortly after she is engaged to marry a man of a different name she receives a phone call from a former classmate of her husband who regrets he can not attend. What is his name? Damon Bradley. Of course she flies off in hot persuit of this Mr. Bradley and chaos ensues. It sounds interesting in a "meant to be" kind of way however even as I sit here watching Bonnie Hunt (or as I remember her from childhood Alice Newton from Beethoven) help search for Damon Bradley I can't help but think I have seen this movie before too.

David, in the meantime, has ventured off to play video games leaving me to tidy up while watching Only You convinced this is another movie that has left my mind with only patches. It looks like tonights movie will end up being In & Out afterall.

This wedding movie countdown turned out to be a good idea, as much as it's not uber romantic and even sometimes gory, as last nights Very Bad Things would prove. It still has gotten my mind off just how close the wedding is coming. With the exception of our hotel we have paid off all our wedding with only $104 left to pay. This is a reason to celebrate if you ask me! The additional good news is that we managed to pull this off *knock on wood* for just $5000, our original budget. We went over by a few hundred but all things considered I call that a win.

Now to finish folding the laundry while watching a movie I'm sure I've seen before. *sigh* I wonder if it was and will be again a moderately good movie.

<3 your hippie bride

Day 568 - Movie Nights & Stag parties

As I near the end of bill payments, wedding planning and worrying about forgetting anything I have been trying to steer my focus towards fun. In 2 weeks I will be celebrating with some of my favorite people at my staggette. I've been listening to clubbing music to get myself psyched to dance all night in a few days.

What better movie than Very Bad Things to show you how terrible things can go! I had watched a preview going in and thought I had a general idea of how things were going to go. I was, for the most part, wrong. I knew the first thing was an accident, I knew a lot more happened based on a shot where there were only x number of people in the vehicle covered in filth. What I did not realize, however, was that most of the events were not accidental. Take the hangover and turn it into a horror film and that is basically what you had.

I'd say the only parts I found enjoyable in the movie were the parts revolving around the bride-to-be. This was not because I too am a bride-to-be. This was instead because she was such a horrendous bridezilla that she was completely removed from the entire situation! Two severely handicapped children just suffered a rather large loss and slam something down in frustration thus throwing off her seating chart and her response is your classic "Why does all the bad stuff keep happening to me?!" Because of that role and the absolute, "I really hope there is no one out there actually like this." factor I did find her part slightly amusing. But the ending, although karmic in pay off, was so over the top and had no real point aside from Karma, that I was laughing not at the ending but at the fact that this was how it was ending. Not a great movie, not a movie I'll be rewatching and certainly nothing in comparison to others movies I've watched over the past few days.

But, perhaps a movie I can jokingly tell the Best Man is his "what-not-to-do" list movie. But then I would have to force him to watch it and that's just cold. Seriously though, if you're going to watch it, go in with low expectations and a large amount of some type of intoxicant!

<3 your hippie bride

Day 566 - Movie Nights

Marriage and relationships are made up of many things. One of those things is dividing tasks between parties. Today's tasks are play video games until way too late at night and watch one of the movies on the list of wedding movies until way too late at night. Guess who chose which.

It's quite simple really, when I spoke with David I learned that he had already watched The Other Sister, we had both already watched Wedding Planner and I, of course, had already watched American Wedding. I am surprised to learn he has not but not too anxious to watch it again myself. Seeing as he has already viewed The Other Sister and I had not, we decided that today I would watch it while he played some racing games on his PS3. An easy decision honestly given our individual personalities.

Not even halfway into this movie I was completely taken in by the characters. Such endearing and lovable characters. The sweet and wise quotes from them as well as the heartfelt, innocent moments only capable to be had by someone of an innocent mind. Then juxtaposition to, "we could try page 89....but I don't want to do page 155!" Hilarious and sweet all in one. A must see. I can't think of a single thing wrong with this film!

I love that in a way they approached two major issues in society. Obviously focusing on the handicap issue more than the other (spoiler and don't want to ruin the movie) but all the same. Nice added touch.


"Look, walking Wally is walking for us!"

<3 your hippie bride

Day 565 - Movie Nights

Day 3 of our movie nights.

It's a good thing we've watched 44% of these movies already because at this rate we're certainly not going to watch all 50 before our wedding in 46 days.

Tonight's movie was actually a movie we started to watch several nights ago. The first night it was interuptted by cranky moods. The second and third night it was interrupted by company. The fourth night we began to watch it but my throbbing headache forced us to finish halfway through and resume on today, the fifth night.

The movie was Bride and Prejudice not altogether a bad movie by any means but Kal Ho Naa Ho still kicks it's bollywood butt! The music was no where near what KHNH had and the storyline was predictable of course. What it did have going for it, however, is that not only did we know the sinister english man had something evil about him but we actually were curious to find out what it was. We had our usual outbursts of predictions as to what his back story was, but nothing we could commit to. When finally it was revealed we were basically right on all accounts but still we hadn't been able to commit to it.

A movie worth watching but hardly a top ten for wedding movies in my book.

Our next movie night will be one of the following:
The Wedding Planner (CHEESY)
American Wedding (FILTH)
The Other Sister (never watched before)

I vote we watch the one we've never seen simply because we're semi-low on time. But I suppose I should run this decision by my other half.

Until then, I shall rate the movie on my flixster account as per my habitual routine and then tuck myself in for tomorrow is another day.

<3 your hippie bride

Day 560 - RSVP

Today is the first of June which means the time to RSVP has passed. We actually had almost all the RSVP's in. The open dance invites were left with 21 who have not RSVP'd however 8 of those RSVP'd verbally and 1 of those expressed to me yesterday that she would not know until she heard back when her surgery was. There is obvious leniency with the open dance as the restrictions are far less. Still, it's nice to know your numbers by a date with some distance to the wedding.

I hope to see no more drama around this guest list but I am not going to count my chicks before they are hatched. For now I am just going to look forward to the next part, solidifying the vegetarian custom menu, verifying the numbers with the venue, rehearsing our coreographed dance, our stag parties and then marrying my best friend. 52 days to go. :)

<3 your hippie bride