runs nekkid through thread
Aww, what a nice story behind your marriage, FCM! And happy 25th Anniversary to you and FCD. I must say, though, that the silvered macaronied shoe, while the floral arrangement is very pretty … well, the shoe is a bit … odd. 
Mind you, it doesn’t really look like a shoe much, at least not in the photo you showed us. 
I’m about to scream here at work! I don’t even want to share what it’s about mainly because it’s so utterly pointless and mind-numbing. Ah well. Happy Eid, Dotty; I know you’re counting the hours now, probably, until your vacation. And I missed you, Soapy; please share with us about your trip to Boston!
more later …
Showing off your shortcomings?
Aww, that was the cutest story, FCM! Congratulations on your anniversary! Personally, I think the shoe thingy has a quality of tacky fabulousness to it, and I bet swampy will agree with me…
My mom and stepdad eloped to Tahoe after living together in sin for ten years. I think he actually had to divorce his second wife to do that, but it was all cool–they met while he was still married and he had his ex-wife’s blessing to court my mom. They were all very civilized about it, I must say. They had the best relationship I ever saw, and when he died he had his second ex-wife holding one hand and my mom holding the other. They were together twenty years, and he died ten years ago this October. The main reason they got married was just to nail down survivor benefits and to make sure they could make medical decisions for each other–they really didn’t need any more confirmation, they were true soulmates.
My road was a little rockier than theirs (although my mother EARNED her right to a good relationship by dealing with my dad for 23 years!) and it took me a while to find the right one. My first husband and I were high school sweethearts, met when I was fourteen and we just started assuming we’d get married, an assumption that became much more definite when I got pregnant at sixteen. We had a JP wedding with just my family attending then dinner afterward at a favorite Japanese restaurant. We divorced when the kids were preschoolers.
The second time around was the marrying for stability one. We met at a bar when I was going through my resentful-at-wasting-my-youth stage and I did a fair bit of clubbing when my ex had the kids for the weekend. Second husband was ultra-conservative, ultra conforming, the totally safe guy. We dated for several months then he asked us to move in with him–he was the owner of a big four bedroom house he lived in alone, so it was a logical move. He proposed to me on our first anniversary of meeting each other and a year or so later we did a nice little wedding, I catered the reception at our home myself. We led a very suburban, normal, dull as ditchwater existence and eventually I decided to go back to college when I was in my late 20’s.
Where I met Himself. Still a teenager (he started college at sixteen and he was nineteen at the time) we met when I overheard a conversation in the cafeteria between him and another guy regarding the merits of two guitarists–Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton, I think. Not being a terribly shy person, and also because I thought Himself was about the cutest thing I’d seen in a long time I stopped and told them they were both full of shit because Jeff Beck blew both of the others outta the water. Himself later told me that when he was a very young boy he had a dream of THE perfect woman for him and when he saw me his thought was “Oh, there you are!”
We became friends, spent a fair amount of time together, mostly in a state of raging hormonal lust but being cool on account of the age difference and me being married and all. We ran up some huge phone bills, since he was on a different phone carrier than I was and even though we only lived ten miles apart it was long distance–yes, this was back in the Dark Ages, circa 1986. We held out for almost two years before we finally admitted we couldn’t keep our hands off each other. One thing led to another, led to another and second husband and I divorced in 1989 and Himself and I moved in together. We’ve never actually legally married, though, in all this time though we did have an SCA wedding sixteen years ago. We’ve considered getting a domestic partnership license, though, just for housekeeping purposes but we don’t want to be married, per se. So I guess we’re the anti-Fairy Chats since we can’t seem to make up our minds to commit to each other!
So, I spent yesterday helping my partner reclaim his home–since his soon-to-be-ex-wife has FINALLY moved out he’s retexturing the walls and ceilings (popcorn ceiling removal, ugh!) and repainting and has done some other renovation work. I’m so glad he’s back in his house, and it’s not altogether altruistic because I really miss going up there to hang out–he has a nice big chunk o’land out in the boondocks of Vancouver WA and I love going out there and clearing brush, burning shit, shooting things and admiring Cootie-cat’s latest dead mouse. I took both dogs with me and they had a great time running around–I had to educate Bear about livestock a bit, especially since he thinks donkeys and mules are for playing with and I didn’t really want him to get kicked! Widget’s an old hand up there and helps chase the neighbor’s billy goat home when he goes wandering–he’s a nasty, mean old thing who’ll butt you if he’s in a mood, which he usually is.
My daughter just texted me that she’s feeling punky a bit and stayed home from work but wants to go walk the dogs and catch some lunch, which sounds like so much fun–guess I oughta hit the shower or something…
Yay FCM! That is an awesome story.
Oops, I misread the title. I was expecting Elephants.
The mayhem and mania is over.
No serious goofs - certainly nothing worthy of showing up on America’s Funniest Home Videos, not that I’d expect the Disney / ABC people to acknowledge SSM. I think the worst part was guests seating themselves before they were even supposed to be in the area, and before the seating had been set up properly. (Ack! There’s no aisle to walk up!) So, we had someone kick everyone out of the seats so the seats could be set. Other than that, the worst thing was that the rental company shorted us one glass on the order and another glass disappeared. No biggie - I paid the 50¢ damage deposit, so all was well in the end.
We had about a zillion people asking us what the music was that we used for the processional, and at least as many people that were impressed with how we did the processional. One of our internal guide words was “neotraditional” - taking old traditions and making new interpretations of them. Not only was there no bride to be “given away” but there were no parents and nobody was wearing white, so we resculpted it, and received rave reviews. As I told the Fair’s entertainment director, “Hey, we’re actors!”
Does this mean there will be more weddings that use Tattoo? Maybe. Will there be more weddings that don’t use Pachelbel’s Canon? We can hope. I do know that we scrapped the usual format and baked in a bit more theatricality than is done in most weddings. I almost regret that we didn’t have anyone shooting video, as we hit our marks and knocked their socks off.
Off now to breathe and get back to work. Hold on… phone’s ringing.
Oh crud! They’ve rescheduled my procedure for tomorrow to be two hours earlier, which tangles up a handful of things. Grr…
Gotti– Mazel Tov on your marriage! All the best to you and yours!!!
Congrats, gotti and gotti-hubbie! Flings rice and confetti Yay you!
Congrats on your successful Pachebel-free nuptials, gotti! It sounds like a great time was had by all.
In other news, I just polished off a jerk chicken roti. It was good. I’m alternating between feeling stuffed and wanting another one (which is part of the ongoing struggle between my stomach and my brain for control over my eating habits).
Ahhhh, isn’t this lovely! One enduring marriage of 25 years and one new beginning. ::sniff!:: Best wishes to all! 
Lovely story, FCM!
Congrats, gotti!
I am working on reconciling expenses to the budget and they aren’t. One group’s expenses are way out of whack, but the others add up perfectly. Of course it would be the group with the largest budget and most expenses. I think I’m going to have to start over again from July. Plus, I’m a month behind, so I’m just now getting to October and I got November on Friday. There is a slight possibility that someone is playing games with their expenses, but I really, really hope that’s not it.
My boss seems to have lost her mind. She doesn’t seem to understand that now is not the time to rock the boat. I’m in survival mode, as in, I’d like to remain employed. But her? I don’t know what the hell she’s doing. Annoying people who have the ability to [del]fire[/del] lay you off or restructure your position out of existence is a bad idea. Doing so when it’s likely they’ve been waiting for such an opportunity seems like a **really **bad idea.
Congratulations, gotti! I love weddings! Sniffle…I’m glad it all went so well. May you have many happy years together.
Smarty, I could always send you out to one of my SILs’ homes in the boondocks of Vancouver, WA – one lives on a few acres with a few head of cattle and heaven only knows that else, and the other runs a plant nursery so has acres and acres of pretty growing things. The third SIL just grows bitchiness, from what we can figure. :rolleyes: But they all do live in very pretty places.
After sleeping on it, I decided I really need to do the hat for SIL over again in a slightly lighter weight yarn – I mean, the one I knit originally is warm enough for an Antarctic winter, but probably too warm even for the mountains of Idaho. We’re talking warm. So since I adore it myself and freeze my ass off, I’ll keep it. In the meantime, to my delight, I went “shopping” in my yarn stash and discovered some nice sport-weight wool/alpaca blend that I’d totally forgotten I had, so I’m starting anew with that yarn. There’ll be enough layers that it will still be warm, but not insanely warm. It also won’t weigh five pounds, which is what the other hat feels like! :eek:
Other than that, I got the work done this morning that I needed to, so after a break to throw the Kong for Isaac, it’s time to get back to work on something else. Things will probably get very slow over Christmas (I hope!), so I need to do what work I can while it’s available. Even though I’d really rather be knitting, obviously. Story of my life. Why can’t I win the lottery? Oh, wait, I have to buy a ticket. Sigh.
Happy Anniversary, FCM and FCD!! Congrats, gotti and DH!!
Our two-year anniversary is tomorrow.
I just found out that a guy from my old church who was (I think) 105 just died. The last time I saw him, which was probably 3 years ago, he was still very sharp and knew who I was (even though we’d only met a handful of times) and always asked about where I went to college/grad school since he’d worked there eons ago. Nice guy. And really, living to >100 and being pretty healthy (I think he was only in a nursing home for the last 6 months or so.) and having your memory in tact, isn’t so bad! But it’s still kind of sad too.
Gotta run to a meeting! More later!
Our “dirty little secret” is that we’ve been together for seven years. It’s only been very recently that we could have a definitive expression of our relationship.
OK so I killed the thread again. 
My church had a progressive dinner over the weekend, and we hosted a group for the entree course. KT thought a Greek theme would be good so I made spanakopita and he made souvlaki, rice pilaf and veggies. It was really good - as was all of the food! - and we had a really good time. I think this may have convinced KT to go to more of the social things at church. I’m fine with him not going to church services, but the more I get involved socially at church, the harder it is when he doesn’t want to go to dinners and such. So I think this helped him see that we’re not the proselytizing type and that they’ll all be glad to see him at church functions even if he doesn’t come to church.
And have I mentioned that the food was good? 
Thanks for all the nice words and wishes. And I uploaded another view of the shoe. I think it captures the essence that is our shoe.
It was a Monday. Glad I’m home. It’s cold outside and rain is in the offing - over the next 3 days. I get to go to DC tomorrow with 3 guys from work. I’m hoping one of them will drive, but I’m prepared just in case. They won’t be happy if they have to crowd into my little Scion.
That’s all for now. Enjoy view 2 of the shoe.
FCM, I still say the shoe has a certain je ne sais quoi, and I’m defending it in all its shining splendor if for no other reason than Moses would dig it…
Tigs, if the one with the nursery is ever hiring, let me know. That’s the kind of work I could get into right now.
Daughter and I took the dogs out to the river for some much needed R&R (that’s “runnin’ and rasslin’”) and tennis ball abuse. They had a great time, so did we. I like my girl–I love her, of course, but she’s also my best friend aside from Himself. Daughters are the greatest bane and greatest boon to mothers…
Happy anny to taxi, too!
Happy Anniversary FCM & FCD
Blurfy blurfday to everyone else who is in that frame of mind
It is very tough to type with a kitty on your shoulder, especially when said kitty’s tai; swishes back and forth over the keyboard
Howdy Y’all! I didn’t post this mornin’ cause I went into work early to brush up on a few things before I took a turn for the day bein’ QA. It went ok. So yay for me.
Ok now on to other things…
gotti congrats to you and DH. I’m glad things went off well.
Congrats on 25 years MOOOOOOM! The shoe is to die for. I want it. I would display it prominently just for what it is. I mean, who wouldn’t want a spray painted macaroni shoe with a floral arrangement?
Now I will make everybody jealous. MOOOOOOM showed me, in person, the very building in downtown Green Cove Springs, FL where she and FCD tied the knot! I’m special!
Yays, boos, hugs, gropes, trouts upside the haid as needed.