Learning: It Happens

Well, I have been married now for two weeks and two days. In these two weeks I have learned a number of significant things and I'm going to tell you about them now, in bulleted fashion. Some of them are directly related to marriage, others are just things that have come up in my new domestic experiences.

• It's a bad idea to set bananas on top of the stove when the oven is on. We have black bananas. Luckily Drew will eat anything (and even say it's good).
  
• Boys are good at killing bugs. Technically I already knew this, because of my Pops, but for the first time I am not living at home and there's still a man around to kill the uglies. So I'm counting it. It goes something like this: "Bug!" *squash*
  
• Not all boys are messy and smell like, you know, boys.
  
• It is, in fact, quite satisfying to do all the housely things while Drew does the income getting things. Soon I will take to wearing dresses and heels everyday, along with my apron.
  
• Living with The Roommate didn't prepare me for sharing bedspace but she did prepare me for Drew having the worst alarm in history, leaving candles burning while we're gone and turning the light on when I'm sleeping. Oh wait, he does none of those things.
  
• A king-size bed makes sharing bedspace easy as pie. I can just roll over and have my own continent. But why would I roll over in the first place?
  

So yes, there you have it. A lifetime of learning in two weeks. I mean, surely this is all there is to it, right? I've got this marriage thing down.

A Substitute

Before I get into the meat of this post, let me just say that in the process of making muffins this morning, I burned three of my fingertips when I grabbed the muffin pan out of the drawer below the oven. Apparently it had been helpfully preheating along with the oven. It was hot. I have five blisters and at this moment I am clutching a frozen pack of ham and typing one handed. I just wanted you all to know how hardcore I am. Also, don't try to get things out of the drawer below the oven when the oven is on. That is my bit of wisdom for today. Anyway.

Now, let me tell you something about that wonderful place called D'CALC. For those of you who don't know, D'CALC was my apartment in Indiana that I shared with Ferskner and Marcue. It was glorious for many reasons and D'CALC was unique in many ways, but here is one of those reasons:


Furry pumpkin! It's exactly what you think it is: a real pumpkin stem with a pumpkin-like body made of (fake) fur and stuffing. Neato and bizarre, yes? It was a Christmas present for Ferskner from her brother. Ah, the love. Anyway, we weren't quite sure what to do with it, and it kind of moved around the apartment for a while before settling down on top of the television. It was a great conversation piece, and sometimes I find myself thinking fondly of its weird, soft pumpkin body.

(Thanks to Marcue for the furry pumpkin picture I pilfered from her blog.)

Now, let me tell you another story. One of our wedding presents was a tall pillar candle from Yankee Candle with an apricot honey scent. We've been moving lots of stuff from Maison Graham to Appartement Graham and one of them was the candle and holder. A few days later I headed out to Wal-Mart in my car, which smelled unusually delicious. Later in the parking lot, I was putting things in the trunk when I noticed the candle holder sitting in the back, on the shelf between the seats and the back window. "Oh ho," I said to myself, "I forgot all about that back there. I wonder where the candle is..."

Yes. The candle was there. Not looking quite like a pillar anymore.

Rather more like a sea cucumber yes?* A waxy sea cucumber. What does this have to do with the furry pumpkin? Maybe not much, really, but I've started calling the waxy sea cucumber furry pumpkin. It's odd, unexpected and I keep putting it different places around the apartment. It's not a furry pumpkin but it is a nice, indirect reminder of D'CALC. Like the glow in the dark bat in my car.

*Sorry for the lame picture, but I took it with my webcam. The screen on my trusty camera broke the other day, alas.

A Bit of a Tease

Well, I am married now. It is quite nice. I don't really care for gushing about things on blogs or the internet in general--real life things, that is. So I'm not going to go on about the infinite blessings of marriage or the bliss that comes from having such a hot delightful husband. I am happy and loved and that is all. Consider that my official endorsement for marriage.

So anyway, as much as I would love to tell all about The Day we're still waiting for our pictures, and what kind of post would that be without pictures? But luckily all the honeymoon pictures are right here on Vera. I'll post a lot more pictures on Facebook, after I can post wedding ones, but I thought I would give a little rundown. For you OCD people, sorry to do things out of order. It's good for you!

The day after the wedding we headed off to sunny southern California. We spent the first day at the aquarium on the pier. We touched sharks! Little sharks, but sharks nonetheless. We also saw sarcastic fringeheads and humbugs. Oh, and also Julie & Julia, though not at the aquarium but rather the nearby theater.

Oh dear, my husband is a shark.

We went to Huntington Beach the next day. I decided that I like the beach after all and could spend a lot of time there. The sand! The water! The waves! Delightful. That opinion would probably change depending on the crowds at the beach, but there weren't a lot of people there that day.

The next two days we spent at Disneyland. We saw the fireworks shows, ate delicious foods at the Blue Bayou and Club 33 (jealous?) and recreated a few pictures. Yay, Drew has his own bling now that needs to be resized.

The next day some fellow out-of-towners backed into our rental car (with us in it) in the Target parking lot just as we were leaving. So much for those fancy cameras to help you back out of your parking spaces, huh?

We spent our last California evening at another beach, Sunset or Surfside, depending on your source. Either way it was pretty much deserted (save for a dead pelican), the sunset was lovely and the waves were big. It was also windy, as you can probably tell from this picture, which is one of my favorites.

So there, in brief, is our honeymoon. Soon enough Facebook will have many pictures and you can see such delights as: an Ingres portrait that looks like Rufus Sewell, the Queen from Snow White in the flesh, me being washed away by waves and the infamous dead pelican.

A Place in Which to Live

In honor of today being our pick-up-the-keys-and-start-moving-in day for our little abode, I will now tell you all which place we signed for. Or rather I will show you.


Yes, we are moving into Place #2, which clearly none of you were fans of judging by the poll. So now I will explain why we picked this place over those others. Firstly, it has lots of space, both headspace and er, body space? Anyway, yes, space. It's true the kitchen is small, but we decided the rest of the space made up for it, and since neither of us are cooking aficionados, we figured it was enough room for our two person needs. Maybe we'll kick ourselves later, but it's all part of the learning process right?

Second, we really liked all the light. It's on the main floor and there are big windows in every room (save the bathroom, which is okay with me). We're fans of windows, as demonstrated by my self.


Third, there are bunch of miscellaneous reasons: off-street parking, a cool, shady street (as in tree shade, not hoodlums), distance from undergrads and, of course, it was a good monetary deal. Plus, we liked it.

Now you're probably wondering about places 1 and 3. Well, here's the scoop on place #1 that you couldn't tell from the pictures. It was actually a studio apartment with a bonus room. And while we could have had everyone hanging out on our bed to watch movies, we weren't super keen on the idea. The bonus room wasn't really big enough to do anything with and there wasn't really any closet space either. We did like the floors, the big windows, the nice-ish kitchen and the cool shower. But we wanted a living room.

We did really like place #3 too. It was a nice size, the kitchen had new cabinets and utilities were fixed. We probably would have applied for it if the lady had given us the application soon enough, but despite our multiple requests she took her sweet time and we didn't get it until we were getting ready to sign for place #2. It didn't really bode well for good management. Plus it was in the basement, something we were ready to overlook, but were also hoping to avoid.

Oh, and all the bathrooms were all pretty comparable, in case you were wondering. (Besides the cool shower [It was elevated. Elevated!])

So. That's the story. Place #2 is now officially ours. We just started moving in the essentials. Art books and DVDs.

A Dress for the Viewing

Many moons ago when this whole wedding planning thing started, it was agreed that the Mister wasn't going to see so much as a thread of my dress before the actual wedding day. It was a great plan and it's been fun to have this big, white, sequined secret from him. But, truth be told, I'm kind of tired of keeping it secret so today I'm going to show you all my dress.

Yes yes, I know there's that whole secret thing. Drew never ever checks this blog though, and if any of you happen to see him start typing the URL, just distract him (this is best done by saying the phrase "frilly things").

So, here it is! It's everything I ever hoped and dreamed possible in a dress. I wanted to look like a princess and this goes above and beyond my expectations. It's going to look even better after I get my perm on Friday.

My favorite parts are the puffiness and how the sleeves look like seashells. Plus, all the fabric will shield me from the August sunshine. Ah, sweet dress bliss. If you're looking for a wedding dress and want something special, you can go to the website where I found this one.

Also, don't forget to vote in the apartment poll. And don't forget to come to my wedding.

Stuff: It's Happening

How funny is it that I'm getting married in about 2.5 weeks? Pretty funny. Anyway, after spending many an hour on craigslist for the past month or so, we finally found a place to live! And better yet, we got a contract and we signed it and we're moving into it in a few weeks. (As opposed to finding a place and wanting a contract but not getting it until weeks later because why would a manager want people to fill out contracts and rent their properties? Right?)

We looked at a lot of places, and we took pictures of quite a few of them (sadly there are no pictures of the Tiniest Studio Ever). So, here are some pictures of three places. Can you guess which one we got?

Place #1:

Place #2:

Place #3:

Things: We Do Them

I know, I know, I'm really going to write a post about the Titanic exhibit but first I want to do this one, since I've been plotting it for weeks now. Onward.

So, as you are all probably aware, much of the dating period for me and Drew consisted of webcams, phonecalls and heaps o' pining. And while long distance does allow for plenty of conversation and games of Solitaire Showdown, there are a lot of things that are impossible or not the same (watching the same movie at the same time is not the same as watching it together, this we learned three times over). Now that I've been here for a few months we've had some time to fill in some gaps. I like to think we're balancing out all the unconventional aspects of our relationship with a bunch of normal, everyday activities. For example:

We go to the dentist.

We read books.

We shop at the local Walmart.

We exercise and get really sweaty.

We work in our home office.*

We agonize over what to get from the blue Red Box.

We celebrate memorable occasions at memorable locations. (And drink too much root beer)

We enjoy cheap Chinese food while dressed in our finest (mmm,chow mein).
(I know, it's the same one. I just like the pictures. Look at that boy in argyle! So dreamy.)

Of course, we do a lot of other things together too like make pies (technically "pie"), patronize the local theater, go to movies, take walks, have thumb wars, play card games, flail over Half-Blood Prince and, as always, argue about who's prettier.

Not to mention things like buy lanterns for centerpieces, look at fancy cakes, discuss the necessity of guestbook pens, injure digits for love's sake and the like. My, what a busy summer it's been.

*All right, so technically we borrowed IKEA's home office. What else are we supposed to do when we have no home and no office?

I just went to this

*is spooked out*

This Link: I Like Everything About It

Extra bonus: if you look at some of the file names for the pictures, you can tell someone at the Telegraph website doesn't know much about Star Wars. It's called an Ewok!

The Mall: I Mostly Like It

I went to the mall today*, primarily to pay off my dress**, but of course I wandered around for at least two hours going into stores, leaving, going back, walking back and forth as is my custom. I really like the mall. I think this is partly because during most of my growing up years the mall was a few hours away, and I only had Wal-Mart and JC Penney during the inbetween times. Whatever it is, I still really like the mall and it's always a little bit exciting to go. But today I decided there are a few things that I don't really like, and even though these things can happen at other store-type places, I encounter them mostly at the mall. Let's review.

• Interested employees. I can appreciate employees when they ring me up or when they organize things in a pleasing fashion, but mostly I want them to leave me be. The worst place this can happen is at the underwear store. Is it just me or is it a little uncomfortable to have a stranger hovering about when you are rifling through the clearance underwears?

• The pushy booth workers. There's nothing better than someone just sitting at their kiosk reading a book and completely ignoring me. I don't want a new cell phone plan and I don't care about having fingernails with the sheen of a newly waxed floor. On the other hand, the Hickory Farms people may stop me as often as they please because I'm always in need of beef stick and smoked cheese.
  

I guess there wasn't much of a point for this blog. Just a few random things that caused me minor vexation for a few minutes. I still like the mall.

*I started this blog on Monday and finished it on Tuesday, so technically I should say yesterday.

** I would love to post pictures of the ensemble, but a certain Intended frequents this blog so you will have to wait until after August 15th.

A request

Dear roommate:

I know we haven't known each other long. Really, we don't know each other at all because you are never home and I'm never home. I'm always asleep in my saggy bed by the time you get home. I like being asleep. It's relaxing and a good thing to do in the night times. So when you come in in the wee hours of the morning and turn the light on, it really angers me in my half-awake, irrational state. I'd really like to get a little more uninterrupted sleep before your crazy alarm goes off with the singing and the sitar. Plus, I don't want to despise you because I don't even know you, but at 5:30 this morning I did feel a little twinge of loathing mixed with my vexation.

The hall light is your friend and mine.

Sincerely,
Me

Conquered: That's What I Am

Here's another blog post I don't really know how to start. Hmm.

I went to Disneyland last week. I got engaged. Now I'll tell you how it happened.

The day was Thursday, our first day at Disneyland. I had pretty strong suspicions that there was going to be a proposal while we were there. Nay, I should say strong certainties, though I wasn't sure what the ring status was. I gave D-Rew a little teasing during the day, asking him if he had everything and if he had any souvenirs for me. When we were on Soarin' in the mid-afternoon I went so far as to pat the side pocket of his shorts and lo and behold, there was a small box in there. Then I felt really bad for spoiling things a bit, since I don't ever *really* want to have surprises spoiled (even surprises I'm expecting). As it turned out, he wasn't sure I had felt the box so that was something.

Anyhoo, a little while later, back in Disneyland it was about dinner time and my family was discussing where we were going to eat. The plan was set and we were going to head over there but D-Rew suggested we take a walk first. So walk we did. We walked all the way over to Snow White's Wishing Well by the castle, seen here:

Okay, so you can't see the actual wishing well but we were standing by the railing anyway. There was a goodly number of people standing about just then and so we discussed the color of the water while they wandered away. Finally there were just a few people standing around and Mr. Graham said he did, in fact, have a souvenir for me. And then he pulled out a ring. A ring with a star and Mickey head with rhinestones. Nice, right? Classy. I gave it a few ooo's while I tried to figure out which finger I should put it on. Was it substitute for a real one? Was he just a dense boy? However could I tell for sure? I settled on the middle finger of my right hand for no particular reason. Nice.

But then he said he had something else for me. And then there was kneeling and hand holding and a box with a little sparkly thing for me inside. Words were said, words were said in reply and oh, just look at the reenactment pictures (they are highly accurate, besides our different clothes).


And then we were happy and took pictures of ourselves before getting some handy dandy tourists to take some for us. Here, look at both:

So...yes. That is how it happened, and it was lovely. And soon we shall be wed and that will also be lovely. I went to Disneyland almost exactly a year ago and it is funny how different things were on this trip. Life changes really fast sometimes, but luckily in this case it changed for the better. Is "better" the right word? That doesn't seem to quite cover it, but you know what I'm saying. And as another bonus, now my Mother need no longer despair at my life long lack of interest in marriage.

PS: We've been engaged since March 21st. Did you know I've had a life goal to be secretly engaged? (I didn't know how I was going to do that when I didn't want to get married, but you know. Whatever.)

PS #2: If you want to read this story from a different perspective, you can check out Drew's account here.

May: It Was Big

I'm really not even sure how to begin this post. May was one of the more eventful months in recent history, probably the most eventful since I last did the graduation thing at BYU in 2006. At any rate, I've been putting this post off for a while now, but I'm leaving for Disneyland tomorrow and I know I'll want to post about that as soon as I walk back in the door. So I have to do this post now. You know? Hmm. Well let's get to it.

I finished classes, as you all know. A few days later about half my family came to town and we picked up this fellow at the airport. More on the termination of our long-distance affair to come...I should say termination of the long distance aspect, since the affair part is still in full swing.


A few days later, I graduated. It was great, though a bit sad as these kind of conclusions often are. I think this one is still kind of sinking in, and it will probably still be sinking in until a) the fall, when I am not in school and/or b) my degree gets me a job. But it was good, and it was nice to have my family around to fawn over me and take me to dinner. My last graduation was a little overshadowed by other, less pleasant circumstances and so this one seemed even more celebratory. Also, Drew got me a pink Shuffle and I named it Miranda. I suspect this was all a ploy to get me to use iTunes. To sum up: graduation=fun and good.


This is maybe one of my favorite candid pictures ever. It's a caption contest waiting to happen!

So that was graduation. It was fun. This was also my last weekend in Bloomington. Maybe I was little crazy to have this idea to graduate and move in the same weekend, along with having family about. Still, it all worked out, and William and Marissa were so helpful in carrying anything and everything I put in their hands out to the cars.

In the end, it was sad to say goodbye to Bloomington. I never planned on really settling in there, since I knew I'd only be there for 2 years at the most. I just wanted to get in and get out without forming any serious attachments. But confound it all, it happened anyway. So, my list of people to miss just got a lot longer, but life goes on in this way, I suppose. One of the very best things about Facebook is that it makes it so much easier to stay in touch with people. So, thank you, Facebook.

So then it was back to Rolla, where we stayed from Sunday night until Friday morning. It was nice visit, though it went by so fast I forgot half of the things I meant to do/pack. I also got a cold on Thursday and was pretty much out of it all that day, but la dee dah, it was a nice place to stop for a bit. We saw fish, ate delicious foods, played some Lego Star Wars, petted the kitties, Drew showed off his mad puzzle skills and I, for one, stared around at all my belongings in awe. On Thursday night we put a portion of these belongings into trusty little Leeloo, and headed off on Friday morning. Oh, by "we" I mean myself and Drew.



The roadtrip to Utah was pretty uneventful. No bad weather, no mishaps, just rolling hills/flat plains/moutainous mountain scenery and roadkill. We stopped at two little diners in an effort to find one of those magical local places with food like unto perfection. While we did get some good food, we also got this rather wretched Milky Way pie in the middle of Kansas:


The texture was weird and gelatinous, it didn't taste like a Milky Way and it was just kind of goopy. Also, there was a ridiculous amount of unnecessary meringue on the top. It didn't even look pretty! Then again, once you've had Slice of Pie, every other storebought pie is bound to be a disappointment.

So now here I am, back in Utah, right where I never thought I would be again. I still feel pretty transitory, since I don't have a place to live or a job and all my things are in piles and boxes. Still, hopefully I will soon have both of those things and clothes on hangers to boot. Pretty much everything is still sinking in: no more school, no more trips to MCPL, no more permanent living in Missouri, no more webcamming (phew), etc. etc. But so far, so very good and I have survived my transplanting with only a wee bit of trauma.

Oh, and did I mention I'm going to Disneyland this week?