Holy matrimony!

It was a weekend of weddings. I went to both the wettest wedding I've been to and the shortest wedding I've been to (mutually exclusive). Both weddings were outside and with all of the rain we've been getting around here, I was curious to see whether they would actually occur outside.

We were convinced that Saturday's wedding would be at the church instead of outside since it had rained, but when we got to the church, there were no cars in the lot. Out at the farm, I was somewhat worried that my car would get stuck in the mud. I got a kick out of the pastor thanking God in a prayer for the break in the rain providing a window of opportunity for the wedding and then probably five minutes later, it was totally raining. Umbrellas went up throughout the crowd, which of course resulted in blocking some people's views. My dress was pretty wet and my program was pretty soggy before the pastor said he was going to ask us to do something pretty unusual -- to pick up our chairs and take them to the large tent set up about 50 yards away where the wedding would resume. The meal afterward was crazy delicious, and the "cake" was really cool; it was tiered tables of cupcakes.

Sunday's wedding fared better in terms of weather. It was late evening and very beautiful. And it was very down-to-business, lasting less than 15 minutes, I believe. One guest was a bit late and missed the whole thing! I loved the atmosphere in the reception tent because by that time it was pretty dark outside, and the tent was lit with paper lanterns. The dinner was really, really good (as were the beverages). I had so much fun at the reception with a group of friends from high school, including of course the conversation that could be titled, "Remember Mark Smith's girlfriends?" during which I (perhaps a little bit tipsy) blurted out, "Remember the one that looked just like him?"

Oh, plus, bonus! I got to get a [share of a] water buffalo in their name through Heifer International as a wedding gift! And I have had a years-long wish to gift someone with a water buffalo!

Is this something that only happens to women?

Have you ever tried to get the DMV to change the figure in the "Weight" category of your driver's license when you get it renewed? It's been four years since I last renewed mine and it's still good for a few years, but the times I have tried, the conversation has gone something like this:

Me: Can you change the weight?
DMV Lady: Oh, we don't really need to do that.
Me: Well, it's quite a bit different from what's on there.
DMV: How much different?
Me: 1** (which of course, is still not quite at what it should be, but it's getting closer)
DMV: Oh, well, that's not that much different (even though even my fake figure was a good 20-25 lbs more than what's listed). I'll just increase it to 1** (about 10 lbs more than what was listed).
Me: Ok...

I'm surprised I haven't been accused of having a fake I.D. based on weight alone since it's still listed as a number from sometime when I was in high school! Goal: Next time I get my license renewed, not even need to ask that the weight be changed. Halfway there already!

Up in smoke

I was just thinking it will be cool to watch my ticker at the right end up at zero. Except I'll probably miss it like the times I wanted to watch my odometer roll over to 100,000 or 30,000. What will happen when it hits zero? Will the ticker thing blow up into a little puff of smoke like when you remove an application from your Dock on a Mac? I love that little animation and sound. Sometimes I add an application just so I can remove it into a tiny explosion of smoke. Poof.

Change

Today I have new housemates. And while I'm so incredibly socially awkward around people I don't know, I'm excited about the change. Also, we will no longer be an all female household, which is a difference I think will be good.

Ha!

I just had a good chuckle with my co-workers. So I was checking out the NHS website and was thoroughly pleased to find they still offer Hobby Club as a club that meets during some specified period of the school day. Here's the description from the website:

Hobby Club is for those who wish to share their hobbies and promote them to other students. It is a time to share activities and interact with students who have similar hobby interests. Activities may include guest speakers, student presentations, and other gaming and hobby activities.

One year I and my three best friends joined Hobby Club. At least at that time, the way Hobby Club operated is that everyone in the club met in the same room, but you'd break into groups based on your respective "hobbies." My friends and I realized this would be an excellent way to get to spend time together at school basically doing nothing. We told the sponsors we collected stamps and named our sect of Hobby Club "Stamps 4 Life." The ruse was aided by the fact that I had in my younger years been a stamp saver (I wouldn't call myself a legitimate stamp collector since I didn't know anything about collecting stamps), so I would bring in my stamp books, and we'd have them open around us during club time, but we'd just talk the whole time. If a sponsor would come by, we'd tell them we had a good lead on a possible guest speaker. I had totally forgotten about S4L (as we called ourselves for short), and I am so glad I was reminded of it today.

Bonus!

A cd I bought over the weekend came packaged with what are, as far as I can tell, two identical cds. Sweet! Two for the price of one. Except it would be better if they weren't the same cd.

I haven't been hungry for Chinese food in a really long time.

"the break-up song"

The other morning on the radio they were having people call in with songs they hate to admit they love. One of the callers' was "End of the Road" by Boyz II Men, and the dj was like, "Oh! The break-up song!" which struck me as sort of funny because my memory of it is a get-together song. I know that doesn't make much sense given the lyrics, but I don't know that I ever heard/read the lyrics too closely, so... The song fits in my story as the last song played at my eighth grade rec (the party for 8th graders at the end of the school year). I think it was the only song I danced to all night, and as the song was ending, my date asked me if I wanted to go out with him. Aw. And that's the memory "End of the Road" always conjures for me.

The difference

The difference in response to the VT tragedy as opposed to the Nickel Mines tragedy interests me. First off, I will fully admit I am not comparing apples to apples when I talk about responses: The response to the Nickel Mines tragedy I'm talking about is what I got from mainstream media; the response to VT I'm talking about are informal responses (i.e., Facebook). So I know this comparison is flawed (I will note that searches for "Charles Roberts," "Charles Carl Roberts," or "Nickel Mines" result in few Facebook groups and only one that is profane; this is not surprising to me since I think the Facebook community would feel more connected to a tragedy at a college.). I remember how amazing, humbling, and peaceful it felt to go to cnn.com after the Nickel Mines tragedy and read as the top story headline, "'We forgive them.'" Has the response to VT in mainstream media been the opposite? No, it hasn't. But I am terribly saddened to see so many hate-filled Facebook groups in response to VT. Some examples:

• Cho Seung-Hui is pure evil
• Cho Seung Hui, if you had a myspace, Tom wouldnt be your friend.
• Cho Seung-Hui can go to hell
• Cho Seung-Hui never got laid!
• Cho Seung-Hui was efffed up yo!
• Cho Seung-Hui Is A Douchebag
• Cho Seung-Hui is a coward and will rot in hell!
• Cho Seung-Hui IS A pile of SHIT!!!
• Cho Seung-Hui is a fucking dumbass
• Cho Seung-Hui should not be buried in America
• Cho Seung-Hui is a pussy
• FUCK CHO SEUNG HUI [several variations of this one]
• If I Met Cho Seung-Hui I'd Mess His Life Up
• I HATE Cho Seung-Hui !
• I Hope Cho Seung-Hui Burns in Hell

And the list goes on. A search of his name results in 177 groups. Are there group names of compassion? Sure there are. Thank goodness. But it is still so sad, disappointing, scary to see so much hate. People are angry. I get that. Would I be able to respond with such immediate compassion like the Amish affected by Nickel Mines were a similar tragedy to happen to me? I couldn't guarantee it, but I know my response would not be like some of these groups. I would venture a guess that many of these groups' creators and members are not directly related to VT; I don't know. How will our world ever get better if we don't care for each other? If we don't care that so many people are hurting? That so many people need help? That includes people who commit terrible acts against others.

On a much lighter note, the last sentence of the following I've read in several articles about VT puzzles me:
A doctor at a Blacksburg hospital described the injuries he saw Monday as "amazing" and the shooter as "brutal." "There wasn't a shooting victim that didn't have less than three bullet wounds in them," said Dr. Joseph Cacioppo of Montgomery Regional Hospital.
Because wouldn't the sentence, "There wasn't a shooting victim that [who] had less [fewer] than three bullet wounds in them," (emphasis on the had, not my other comments) mean what he intends? So one would think that saying "didn't have less" would mean the opposite. And, yet, I don't think it does. This has been bugging me for days, and I keep thinking through it slowly in my head trying to work out where the double negative or something is to make it the opposite, but it seems that they do actually mean the same thing. But I welcome someone to prove me wrong because then all would again feel right in my grammar world.

One weight off my shoulders

Yay for getting my taxes done before April 14 this year. Well, not really – I still didn't get them done before April 14, but since tax returns aren't due until April 17 this year, it's like I got them done April 12. Good job, me. And, you know, almost done...I still have to mail in my signature page.

It was a good weekend. Friday's weather was crazy. Snow coming down. It almost foiled my attempt to get some good eatin' this weekend, but we were successful on Saturday, and I greatly enjoyed the best verenike and ham gravy ever and bohne berogi whatever that word is that I'm realizing I don't know how to spell and new year's cookies with glaze, not sugar (the best way). Mmm.

Also in the good weekend was the calling of our youth(?) associate(? I don't remember what the title is) pastor, which passed with 98.5% of the vote. Sweet. I'm really excited about it and really excited that the family will be in our congregation for at least the next three years. What a good addition.

Lunch time! And off to the post office.

What in the hell?

So I'm auditing this theology and pop culture class taught by a theology prof that meets in the science building, specifically on the physics wing. Any more disciplines want to jump on board? Anyway, today there was this odd burning smell that came about partway through class.

Someone said, "It's probably just a chemistry experiment gone wrong," to which the professor replied, "Now, why do you automatically assume it was a chemistry experiment gone wrong? How do you know it wasn't a theology experiment gone wrong? Trying to summons Satan or something?"

Funny stuff!

To the max!

I had a great weekend in Denver with my modmates. It mostly consisted of hanging out and eating. Always good times to get together with those girls.

Easter weather was pretty...off. It snowed here on Thursday, which was a rare opportunity to see blooms and buds with a pretty thick layer of snow. Weather for traveling was ok, though we did see a number of vehicles in ditches, including a couple of RVs. It snowed on each day in Denver, and I don't remember the sun being out. This caused the odd phenomenon of not seeing mountains while I was there because of the thick clouds.

I would like to say I hope I can avoid ever eating at Chipotle again. I was filling out my calories from the weekend, and, dang, the chicken fajita burrito (so not even any beans in it) is 1219 calories. WTF?? That sucks. Not to say I didn't enjoy it though... Other fun food experiences were the Ethiopian place we went to last time I was out there, which I enjoyed even more this time, Beaujou's Pizza, which was delicious, and Kaladi Brother's Coffee, which was quite tasty.

All in all, when thinking of what my weekend was and was not, I'd say it was to the max, but it was not stranger drugs.

First, second, third

First of all, shout out to local businesses! I went to one yesterday, and the guy gave me a $3 discount for no apparent reason. This in and of itself would be sweet, but factor in that it was $3 off an $8 purchase and wow. At a 40% discount, I should have spent more money!

Second, a chalkboard in our office proclaims, "This has been a bird-free work zone for 3 days." We have had a high population of fowl in our office this spring. It's always really sad because we have a lot of windows in the office, so the birds run into them a lot trying to get out. If only they would try a little lower where there's actually an exit to the great outdoors through the windows we open for them. I bring this up now because of Monday's incident. Due to my eternal non-promptness to work, I actually missed out on the excitement, but it's still an interesting story. So my co-worker gets in and sees one of the large plants in the room broken on the floor. Then she sees it: the dead bird on the floor. Gross! And poor little guy. There was also a lot of bird poo around the windows. Dude must have been stuck in here for a long time over the weekend trying to get out.

Third, I'm going to Denver tomorrow, and I'm super excited about it. I only wish it weren't so short a visit. Oh life with all its silly responsibilities and all. Work, psh.

Sure, it's common sense for most people

But others may not yet know of the precautions one must take with one's grillz (open image in new tab and see "Cautions" at end). The only Care Instruction I have violated it #7.

When I grow up

I just spent a little bit of time reading online profiles of cats at the San Francisco SPCA, and I decided that what I want to do when I grow up is adopt cats. I love them! Except I don't want to be the weird cat lady, and I don't think there's much money to be made in adopting cats, but except for those minor details...tails, heh heh

Jesus is coming – duck!

Earlier this week we watched Johnny English, and one of the extra features is "Observation Test" that shows you a short clip of the movie and then gives you multiple choice answers, and if you get them right, you automatically earn your license to kill or something equally cool. My title is one of the choices given to the question of what some character had tramp-stamped on him (the real answer was "Jesus is coming – look busy"), and I distinctly remember finding the "duck!" answer quite hilarious. But I suppose that could have been the gin and tonic talking laughing.

Saturday marked the 2nd annual "Screwed out of green beer on St. Patrick's day." When, oh when will it ever become a reality? I just know that green Coor's light tastes infinitely better than boring old beer-colored Coor's light – why must I be deprived of this succulent beverage? Haha.

This week I did something I hadn't done in a very long time – spent the entire evening from when I got home at 6:30 until 11 reading for pleasure. I finally finished a novel (another thing I hadn't done in a while). I know it was good because it made me cry (not the only criterion for a novel being good, but if it's there, it usually is). And it was one of my favorite kinds of cries – the one that you're doing while thinking both, "This is so sad and also so beautiful."

The story of my first memory of crying over a book: In fifth grade we read Where the Red Fern Grows. During one of our in-class reading days, I unfortunately reached the last section. It was so sad! I cried and cried. Trying to shield my face from the rest of the class by putting my head down and the book up only resulted in getting my desk all wet. How humiliating! Of course fellow fifth graders had absolutely no qualms about pointing out my crying and laughing about it. Next time I'll have to relay the story of what stands out as my worst public cry experience.

This commercial's song has my favorite lyrics ever

My boss gave me this mug today. So awesome.

When I was home for lunch

[I'm in the kitchen and hear a knock at the door. I wasn't expecting anyone, we rarely get drop-ins, and one of my housemates was home, so I figure it's for her and ignore it. Then the doorbell rings. I wait, assuming the housemate will get it. She doesn't. So I go over and open the door to someone I've never seen before.]

Me: Hi.
Her: Hi.
Me: [blank stare]
Her: I'm here for a massage.
Me: [The blank stare comes back for a bit while my mind races, trying to come up with an appropriate response.]
Her: Am I at the wrong house?

Luckily at about the same time, I think of the woman down the street who gives massages and direct her there. But I sort of wish I would have invited her in and had her lie down on the couch in the living room. Or maybe the broken futon in the back room. I wonder how long it would have taken her to realize I wasn't a licensed massage person. Or if I could have made some money off of her.

New personal best

Time: 1 hour
Strides: 9300
Miles: 6.5
Calories: 770

That's like 2000 strides more that my previous personal best. And the nicest part was that that last 30 minutes went by like nothing. Just watch, now tonight or Saturday will probably be hell. Why is that?