That's Good! That's Bad...

"I love that you get cold when it's 71 degrees out. I love that it takes you an hour and a half to order a sandwich. I love that you get a little crinkle in your nose when you're looking at me like I'm nuts. I love that after I spend a day with you, I can still smell your perfume on my clothes. And I love that you are the last person I want to talk to before I go to sleep at night. And it's not because I'm lonely, and it's not because it's New Year's Eve. I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible."
--Billy Crystal as Harry Burns in When Harry Met Sally

Today is Kyle's and my SEVEN year anniversary! It's our last anniversary before we're a married couple, so it's kind of a big deal. Unfortunately, I will be spending it chewing Tums and sipping Sprite Zero.

My stomach decided to turn upside down over the weekend. It doesn't bother me much if I'm sitting or lying down, but too much movement turns it into an acid volcano. Since yesterday I've eaten pizza and crackers.

But other than that, I'm doing just fine. We went to another cake tasting last week and now have our baker. He's Greek, and his cakes were TO. DIE. FOR. We're going with white cake with butterscotch caramel filling, white cake with raspberry filling, and chocolate cake with caramel filling. I am not a cake person, or a butterscotch person, but MY GOD they were delicious.

Also, had a dream last night I had to get ready for my own wedding, including changing into my wedding dress, in the back of a car.

Let's Get Musical!

"Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise."
--The Beatles, 'Blackbird'

Last weekend Kyle and I went to a couple of concerts. The first one was the Battle of the Bands at The Underground in Forest Park. More than 40 bands in the Cincinnati area had entered to compete and this was down to the final four groups. And one of those bands was the Plastic Inevitables, starring Kyle's cousin Phillip. And they WON!

It was a lot of fun, and the Plastic Inevitables has a unique sound. If you want to hear any of their music, check out their Myspace page! I recommend their song "Hollis, The Flaming Youth." Keep in mind that the quality of the sound isn't the best because they recorded it in their garage. However, along with the $4,000 prize, their win from Battle of the Bands also grants them recording time at Moonbeam studios.

You can read an article about their win here.

And that wasn't the end of our musical weekend. I had gotten Kyle concert tickets for Christmas for one of his favorite bands, Anberlin. The concert was Monday at Bogarts, and even though the opening band was ridiculously awful, we had a great time. I'm pretty much obsessed with this song. It's called "Impossible." And if you do watch that, please oh please don't judge the song based on the music video. It's kind of stupid.

The Rodeo

"In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."
--Martin Luther King, Jr.

Howdy! I'm back from Texas, and I had a great time with Amanda. She lives in this little town called Plano, and it turned out to be a really fancy pants place. Everyone drives either a huge truck or a sports car. The weather was unfortunately a little chilly, but it was still warmer than Cincinnati!

Amanda's apartment was great, but the best part was her kitten, Gray, pictured with me below.

He was so sweet and cuddly! And whenever I took a shower, he liked to sit up on the counter next to me and poke his head in and lick the water from my nose. He also liked waking me up in the middle of the night to sleep on my face.

Amanda is as big a Harry Potter fan as I am, so we decided to make butterbeer one night! And it was fantastically delicious.
It's made up of brown sugar, butter, cream and cream soda. and it is mmm mmm good.

AND the most exciting thing of all! I went to my first--and last--rodeo!

We drove about 45 minutes away to this town that reminded me of Gatlinburg. It was filled with fun restaurants and souvenir shops. And by the way, I am such a sucker for touristy spots. I could spend hours and hours there, I just eat it up. So while we were waiting for the rodeo to begin, we did a little shopping and I tried on a cowboy hat. I did not, however, purchase it, because it was $5o, and I am frugal.

We didn't really like the rodeo. I'm not sure what I was expecting--I just figured if I'm going to be in Texas, it'd be a crime not to go to a rodeo. But none of us was too pleased with the way the animals were treated. Whenever a cowboy would lasso an innocent calf, he'd just yank the rope and strangle it so it slammed into the ground. It was actually kind of horrible to watch.

This is our "Yeesh!" face.

And bull riding? They tie these ropes around the backs of the animals so they're really uncomfortable and they buck around. So they hold on with one hand and wave their hats in the air and everyone cheers like "YAY! That is one angry innocent creature! That cowboy sure is pissing it off! Hang in there, buddy, YEEHAW!"

That is not sportsmanlike.

And it got worse! Halfway through the rodeo, they asked all kids ages 12 and under to come down and chase around this innocent calf. Whoever got the ribbon off the tail first won. WTF? First of all, who would let their child down there? We saw a few kids get trampled, no lie. Secondly, that poor little guy! He's being bombarded by hundreds of kids in front of all these people. That must have been terrifying.



By the way, if you listen closely enough, you can hear me say, "What the hell kind of place is this?!"

So aside from two hours of animal cruelty, we had a great time. :)

Come Back to Texas

"Come back to Texas
It's just not the same since you went away
Before you lose your accent
And forget all about the Lonestar State
There's a seat for you at the rodeo
And I've got every slow dance saved
Besides the Mexican food sucks north of here anyway"
--Ohio (Come Back to Texas) by Bowling for Soup

A few months ago, my best friend from high school moved a jillion miles away because her boyfriend got a job in Texas. She wasn't able to come home for Christmas or anything, so I haven't seen her in months!

Therefore, I'm leaving on a jet plane tomorrow to spend a long weekend in Plano, Texas!

I'm really excited to hang out with Amanda, but I'm a little nervous about getting there. I've never flown by myself before. I was fortunate enough to find a nonstop flight, so I'll probably be okay. Still, I kind of suck with directions.

Wish me luck! I'll be back Monday!

Being Productive

"Neither a lofty degree of intelligence nor imagination nor both together go to the making of genius. Love, love, love, that is the soul of genius."
--Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

I know, I know. It's been a while. But I hope everyone had a safe and happy holiday.

As soon as I went back to work with the Boys and Girls Club, I had the joy of taking care of all of the second and third graders by myself for an entire week. The woman I usually work with had an extra week of vacation. The kids were still hyped up on Christmas spirit and sugar, so it was all in all an incredibly difficult week. They seem to have simmered down, but there were times I thought I was going insane.

Anyway, I'm also pleased to announce that I'm kicking ass when it comes to planning the wedding. I've had a very productive couple of weeks. I now have a DJ, a photographer and a photo booth. I'm going to a cake tasting tonight, and I tried on my first wedding dresses over the weekend. WOO!

And to top it all off, I've officially launched Kyle's and my wedding website! Check it out here!