why don't i comment?

it's odd you know, two bloggers who i enjoy quite a bit have said they are turning to password-protected sites. i get it, too many people know about their blogs and they want the freedom back to not self-censor. makes total sense. they even said, just comment and i'll send the info out.. well, i'll send it out if i know who you are. ahhhh yes, the key is there. even during "delurking week" where is was INVITED that you say hello, i still could not. and i actually managed to send a note to both of them today. not to get the information, no, not at all. but to wish them well and to thank them for sharing their lives with me, even though they did know that i was there.

there have been several times i've started a comment, even if all it was was "congrats!" or "great photo!" anything and i never post. ever. what the hell could i possibly be afraid of? rejection? hardly. the like 3 times i've gotten a comment i got so excited i couldn't believe it! someone reads this!!?!? no way! i've not told anyone about this blog, not at all, except for the friend that got me to start it, and i don't think that he even reads it anymore. so those 3 or 4 comments were pretty darn exciting! so why wouldn't other peopel be excited to know there is one more person reading and enjoying their blog? yeah, i've got issues apparently.

in other news, i got an "i don't need to see you unless you have another episode" from the neuro-opthamologist. yay! i do, however, have residual scarring in my left eye from the last attack. not a surprise, i know my color vision has been compromised. i actually only scored 2 plates below "normal" in the color blind test, which, frankly is frightening. but as a designer, i'm quite aware that my color vision stinks. and this fact, it's not good.

oh, right, so as for commenting? yeah, i probably still won't. cuz i'm like that.

happy birthday to me.

and what will i be doing today? going to the neuro-opthamologist 'bout the same thing i did last year on my birthday. except i had awful, painful, blinding tests done last year. which reduced me to a whimpering mess that alex had to lead around the rest of the night. we had to stop for food since it took longer than we thought. at some place i hadn't been so he needed to read me the menu then cut up my food. then we went home and i went straight to bed. it was horrible.

this is the follow up appointment i have been kind of avoiding for awhile. first it was during the honeymoon so i had to reschedule. then it was durig a week where i had other, more important appointments, so i rescheduled. then it was during the week i had off from work, perfect. then THEY called and rescheduled it for today. yeah, thanks. two years in a row, i appreciate that.

we've totally been ignoring my possible health issues. it was easy to hide behind the wedding for a long time. then we had to wait for tests. then when they never called, and just said to schedule the next round for april. (which, incidentally, i was told i had to call after the 1st of january to do. when i called on the second at 9am, april was already booked. go figure).

anyhow, i did not expect today to be anything more than a check up. but, i have been having pain in my left eye for about a month or so. i haven't mentioned it to anyone, not even alex, figured i'd just wait until today and spring it on him in the car on the way to the institute. nice, huh? we've just been so good about avoiding it. i know that's not good, but what else is there to do? it's some looming prospect that keeps us waiting every 6 months to see, do i have any lesions yet? not so fun. and i know so many have it so worse and i'm not complaining, i'm just, trying not to worry.. you know, until i have to.

BUT i could think of better ways to spend my birthday.

happy new year!

thanks goodness we rang in the new year better than christmas!

it was actually quite lovely. we spent time with some dear friends and some new friends. had a fun night of laughs and joy and tons of food (including some gingerbread i had been dying to make. i had kept seeing some at starbucks so i was determined to make some that i could eat, and it was mighty delish if i do say so myself).

then our yoga teacher had invited us to go to another studio where he teaches on new years day for 108 sun salutations to ring in the new year. oh my. that was an event.

i wasn't sure how many i could actually do in a row, but we broke it up into 4 groups of 27 so it was much more doable. it was a lot of fun and a great way to start the new year, even if we are walking funny from all the sore muscles!

hope everyone had a great start to what will be a fabulous year i'm sure!

as my mother in law said: you may not be able to add years to your life but you can add life to your years.

happy 2006!

what happens in vegas...

..should DEFINITELY stay there.

now i know why this slogan is such a success. seriously. we had the worst. christmas. ever.

i'm too done with it right now to even explain. let's just leave it at i spoke to my mom on the phone on christmas day briefly and i haven't SEEN her since christmas eve. yeah, we were all staying in the same suite. it's not pretty.

i wonder how long it will be before i hear from her again.

i'm still trying to figure out exactly what we did wrong.....

one year ago today

my granfather died.

it was a horrible last month or so for us. i'm so grateful that i got to spend that time with him and that he knew who i was most of the time and we communicated. but it was heartwrenching and so draining on my mom and i. i wouldn't have traded that experience for anything. i woould have loved him to have been able to be at my wedding. but it was his time.

which is why this yeah my family is going to vegas for christmas. it was always my grandpa's big day. he's put on his santa hat and pass out the gifts one by one. we all had our spots where we'd sit and he'd pretend not ot be be able to read the tags then get mad if more than one present for the same person was in a row. he'd save all his gifts until the end. then there was always the traditional "oops i forgot gift." we all miss him terribly.

so this year, a change of pace, and cleaning of the slatem if you will. it will be too painful to go through the old traditions which would really be new anyway since my parents have moved and all... but this year my mom wants vegas. so vegas it is.

we leave tomorrow at 2pm. ought to be interesting.

happy holidays to everyone. hope you spend it the way you hope to with the people you love.

and more with pictures

this weekend i surpassed a milestone that was only a dream 18 months ago. i have now officially lost over 200 pounds. (202 as of today, but who's couting.) i'm within EIGHT pounds of having a "normal" weight. EIGHT POUNDS. i can't believe it.

it's been quite a year i'll admit.

If you're so inclined, take a peek.

two rooms down, one to go

we're kicking some serious house butt latey.

in two weekends we conquered the big room. pulled up up the rug, painted, tore down all the tile around the fireplace, tore down that weird railing that seperated it from the kitchen, got new speakers, ran the wiring (through the walls) and put down bamboo floor #2.



oh, and we hung the new ceiling fan too. ok, alex did that, on the top of the 12' ladder. very. carefully. i don't have pictures of that yet.

all we need to do is build the bar, retile around the fireplace, hang the tv and put up the new mantle too. oh, and the curtains. i'm gonna make them. since they need to be 11' tall. and 11' tall curtains are really expensive, especially when you need 6.

but yay!

a new obsession

i love bloglines. i have heard people talk about it and i finally looked into it. i have all the sites i read in my list. it's FABULOUS! i only need to check one place and then i can see if there's anything new. lovely! now, the only problem since it takes up so much less time i need all of you guys to post more often so i have things to keep my occupied! work, bah. who needs it. actually things are picking up so it's very convenient to have this nifty feature. maybe i need some new sites to read. yes, that must be it. i have also, finally, caught up with everything since i stopped reading before the wedding/honeymoon/etc. so i feel all up to date. it's such a strange phenomenon, i feel like i "know" some of these people and clearly i so don't. it's very interesting.

i was so excited, Day, to get a comment from you. and i replied (or tried to) but you didn't put in your email. and i know i can get it from your site, but then i felt like i wasn't sure if i was "supposed" to since you didn't leave it there... i'm new at that, actual comments. it's crazy! but thank you, and i hope all is going well with the move.

and another one?

there's another friend of mine getting divorced. now. also, not a surprise so much though. but still hard. because they have a little boy. alex and i saw this one coming from a mile away though. she's young (25) he's not much older. high-school sweethearts, married for 4 or 5 years now i guess. their son is 3. sounds good right? well it was.

i met her through an online wls support group. she was a few months ahead of me post-op and she helped me through things and we shared our experiences and craziness and all that. she also has become obsessed with "completing her transformation" which has included A LOT of plastic surgery. for months, even before she started, she stopped wearing her wedding ring because it was "too big" and would constantly tell me about the guys hitting on her all the time or checking her out constantly. now, i had surgery 3 months after getting engaged. my ring only fit for a few months, for the rest of the time until about a month before the wedding i had a huge sizer put in. no way was i not wearing it. it was very important to me. (i ended up having to get it sized to a 5 from a 10). and i suppose i must have guys checking me out, but i don't notice. and i think guys flirt with me but i don't pay any heed. partially cuz it's new to me and mostly because i don't care. so it always surprised me that this was a constant topic for her.

so she's done a bunch of plastic surgery and always seems to be going out. she doesn't work (she was ina major car accident that required a major knee operation in which she had to lose weight first, hence the wls, and she just recently had that knee surgery too amidst all the ps). anyway, we just weren't surprised to hear they were separated.

now she did not want to go into the details online, understandable, but i wonder wether it's her wanting to be free to be the new her, if it's him being jealous of the new attention she's receiving and can't handle the way she's treating it, or if there was an event. i guess i'll find out eventually, or maybe i never will. but it's interesting that i was discussing her (abstractly) at my talk this week because i hear of this happening all too often, of relationships/friendships crumbling when you have wls because either the person changes and wants to get out of the relationships they are in or the other people can't handle the change, the new confidence in the person or can't handle being the bigger person (with friendships) etc.

i knew that was a possibility, and i also knew the friendships were too solid for that. thank goodness i was right.

it's not as sordid as it sounds, i don't think

so i have a friend of mine that i've been friends with for about 13 years or so. not my closest friend by any stretch, but always there and stuck around through my horrible last relationship (including the retreating from everyone, suicide attempt, etc etc) and anyone who stuck around through all that, well, that's a good friend.

anyway. she got married a few weeks after i moved back to michigan. i was unable to afford to be there for it, but sad to say, i did not take it seriously. she was one of those types that felt like she HAD to get married at a certain time. i never liked him and didn't think it was a good idea, but it was not my decision to make. her family is well off and it was a HUGE wedding. HUGE (think over 400 people).

i think they had a pretty rocky one, but she hid a lot from me, her parents, everyone. she's very concerned about appearances, even though i stressed to her that i could relate! can't make someone talk. she'd accidentally send me emails meant for him (we have the same name) and so i got some insight.

i was scared when she started talking about trying to get pregnant to "save" the marriage, cuz that works.

she started talking separating this summer. i urged her to do what was best. but every time she'd start sounding serious she'd back off with excuses like "well, i'm not sure he's take care of the cats if i moved out." and so it continued. i'd gently ask her how things were going and then i got the "we went out to dinner and talked and everything is fine now." yeah, ok, i believe that.

he refused to accompany her to my wedding. she was a bridesmaid. she said they could not afford for both of them to fly here. fair enough, i couldn't afford to go to hers, i understand that. (come to find out later he refused to come because i did not go to theirs and he had forbade her to be in mine, luckily she did not listen. but that's another story). i knew he had destroyed her self-esteem over the 6 years they had been together. she went from the assertive/loud/confident person to a shy/introverted/self-deprecating one. and it was sad to see. i hoped that coming here to michigan and being away from him would help her get the strength to leave him.

now, another good friend of mine that i work with but did not really socialize with was also part of the wedding. the reason we did not socialize is that he was in a horrible relationship too, and it just wasn't a good scene. he's a great guy but she had some major issues, they fought all the time and she was a big drinker and that's just not our scene (they broke up in the summer when she decided she wanted to move to california). like a month before the wedding i asked him if he'd be in charge of the music for the ceremony. it was all being run off an ipod and the processional was rather complicated and having someone in charge was needed. he agreed and we were all set.

now, being my wedding and all, i was a little oblivious to the goings on around me at the rehearsal and the rehearsal dinner. although i knew all the girls were quite taken by said guy friend. he was their entertainment hands down, which was actually kind of nice. but it wasn't until my side was hanging out after the rehearsal dinner in the hotel lounge when h came up to me and said "dude, you did not TELL me how cute she is!" to which i responded "but she's married." and then one of the other girls pointed out to me that she was not wearing her wedding rings. ponderous.

so my guy friend, being a biker, took the girls on spins around town, which they loved. hell, i love riding on it around town when he rides to work. and everyone was having a good time. end of night, he had to stay, too much to drink and ended up staying in the room with two of the bridesmaids as i was staying with my maid of honor that night.

nothing happened, since it was a group deal and i left on my honeymoon and all was well. when i got back i realized that they had been talking like every day since the wedding and that she had started divorce proceedings.

since then (remember my wedding was sept 10) she's gotten her own apartment, all the papers are filed and the court date is in a few weeks.

now the thing is, my two friends are together now. she did not cheat on her husband while she was here. but they are definitely an item now. she's coming here for the week between christmas and new years. and they wheels are in motion for her to move here at the end of the school year (she's a teacher).

now i never thought of them as a couple, as that was not a possibility in my mind. but knowing them both very well, it works. absolutely. also, knowing them both, i know their feelings are legit. she'd already turning back into the person i knew before. which is so great to see. her friend and family on the east coast don't see it that way. they think she's leaving her husband for him. and that's not the case. at all. her marriage was over a long time ago but since she hid so much from everyone, well, they didn't know.

it's weird now things work out. the prospect of her being here and so close to me again is so not something i ever thought would happen, and truthfully, i'm pretty excited. for them and for me.

the pleasure was all mine

so my caseworker lady from my surgical group left that old group to start a new one nearer to me. (mine was over an hour away). i never had gone to any of the support group or post-op meetings because they were always on like a wednesday evening at 6 and there was no way i could get our of work exactly on time, fight the rush hour traffic and hope to get there even remotely on time. anyway... after i got back from the honeymoon, said case worker called me and told me about her new position and asked if i'd be willing to come and be a guest speaker at their first meeting. i was pretty flattered that she asked me and i of course readily agreed.

the meeting was last night. i took great pains to make sure i looked good, dragged out the makeup, did the hair, everything. debated on what to wear, knowing everyone would be checking out my body closely as I did to older pre-ops back then. i wore what i consider The Best Jeans Ever? (yes, i stole that from seeing Cecily's references to her dog. my apologies for the rip-off). ANYWAY, so the jeans. they are fabulous. and a red button down shirt. i was feeling great, of not a bit nervous.

so we get there and go up to the room that we were supposed to and find it locked. well, now i'm confused. we ended up traipsing all over the hospital trying to figure it out then finally found the information desk and they pointed us in the right direction. i was annoyed, since we were told the wrong room, but also since now it looked like i was 20 minutes late, which i HATE being late. but whatever.

we went over all of my pictures that my buddy keith and i had carefully taken and documented along the journey which i think was really helpful for everyone to see. i got to tell my story and even take a lot of q&a and i gotta tell you, i loved it. i loved being able to share my experiences and offer reassurance and as my case worker puts it "be an incredible role model." now, i'm not sure about that last part, but it still felt nice.

and how weird was it that for the first time in my life i was conscious og being the absolutely thinnest person in the room. very strange feeling.

I've come a long way baby.

thanksgiving

we really did have a lot to be thankful for this year as alex's dad came home thanksgiving morning and we were able ot have our dinner together as planned. everyone was quite relieved. it was a nice time and festive. i brought a few dishes over (that I could eat) and some pies that were no-sugar-added that i made. two pumpkin, two pecan. it's funny as generally no one wants to touch sugar-free stuff and we ended up not having any pie to take home as everyone divvied up the leftovers, even of my splenda cranberry sauce. that was the one everyone ate. go figure!

it's all good, although i was hoping i might get a little pumpkin pie! oh well.

we spent the rest of the weekend working on the house and beginning to look at furniture to put on top of our beautiful new floor. we're starting the next room after christmas, new tile around the fireplace and bamboo in there as well. and the bar. he wants to build a bar. like a breakfast bar type thing. god help me.

we keep this up and i'll be pretty attached to this house. it's already starting with him. and all of these improvements were only uspposed to be for resale. i'm starting to think that things might be changing. but that's ok. i think. for now.

must every major holiday have a cloud hanging over it?

last christmas was rough. very rough. i mean, having my beloved grampa's funeral on christmas eve, it doesn't' get much more brutal than that. having spend the previous month sitting at his bedside with my mom watching him die. it was very hard. i mean, for weeks i was the only one who could get him to eat or drink anything, and when he started praying, oh man. and christmas was always his thing. he wore the santa hat and handed out the gifts. needless to say, it wasn't very festive. and this year my parents are going to vegas for christmas and we're going because i know my mom needs me with her this year.

so, now alex's dad is in the hospital. he has all the same things my grampa had, chf, diabetes, etc etc. and he is roughly the same age. my grampa was 77. young. his dad is early 70s. so.... not all that dissimilar. he had the heart attach monday. as of yesterday they found some blockages. they are doing tests right now to determine if he needs a bypass. alex is a mess. i feel like an old pro. i know the hospital drill, we did it for years with gramps. so, i dare say tomorrow will be a hospital bedside day. and that's ok. we gotta do what we gotta do, right? as much as my FIL annoys me and frustrates me, i know how close they are and i'm behind that and will do whatever we need to do.

don't get me started on his mother. i never had a problem with her until now. and i don't know how to deal. that's a story for another time.

the floor

we have a floor people. i repeat, we have a floor. over 1.5 years of only having a subfloor and WE HAVE A FLOOR.

i can't even fathom it.



(did i mention we put it in all my ourselves?)

all my dreams shattered in less than an hour

my entire life i've secretly wanted to be a choreographer. i know, i know, silly. i never even took any sort of dance ever. i mean, come on, i was a really heavy and shy kid. dance wasn't happening.

so now that i'm all in shape (relatively) and we've become exercise freaks (who knew?) and i've run a 5K, i figure, well, it's time to be adventurous.

i see bally's has a hip hop class. i figure aerobics set to hip-hop right? i can do that. sounds fun. yeah, well, that wasn't the case. after the warm up which consisted of about 1000 different kinds of crunches and a gazillion lunges we launched into the choreography. choreography people!

at first a part of me, that little wanna be hip-hop dancer was excited. it was a disaster. i. cannot. dance. to. save. my. life.

no news is good news... right?

so i've heard nothing from the neoroligist about my mris. i think that's good, right? i mean if there was somethig horrible on it someone would have called me, i'd think. right? i suppose this means i need to call his office. soon. not yet. i'm enjoying thinking that everything is fine. give me a few days.

in other, more exciting news, my flatiron finally shipped. omg i can't wait. i have no idea how i've lived without one all my life.

two for one, what fun!

so saturday i had to go my mri. i was already in a pissy mood, due to, in no small way the actual mri. i've got a claustrophobia issue and the first time i got one i really flipped out. they had covered my eyes up. they told me "most people like it this way" and having not had one before, i believe them. it was horrible. i was *thisclose* to making them take me out. whn finally the table started moving out i was so relieved until they jsut injected stuff in my arm and put me back in! horrible.

at any rate, the last set was much better. i'm sure since i knew what to expect and since my eyes were open (if i so chose) and there was a nifty little mirror in there that allowed me to see out. all was great. until they tried to do the injection and blew the vein in a BIG way. and it hurt like hell i thought i was going to die. ok, maybe i'm exaggerating, but whatever. it hurt, ok?

so needless to say, not looking forward to it all again in saturday, especially since it was nly like 3 months since the last series. so i get there, give them the paperwork. of course they can't find me old last name/new last name debacle. they find me. then tell me "oh we only scheduled you for one you'll have to come back for the other one. perfect. let's do this TWICE. kickass. i didn't argue, what could i do at that point, right? so i go in and freeze my ass off. hell people! it's freezing in there! some heat would be nice. whatev. so we do the whole first set, no injections, takes an hour. fine. as i'm leaving they tell me we can do the other one tomorrow. we have an opening so you don' have to reschedule. ok, that sounds nice, i'll do that. at 7AM!!! eh, fine.

so i get up way too early for a sunday get ready and leave and realize on the way to the hospital that since i can't drink anything before the test, and this is the one with the injection, this is not going to be pretty. my veins suck and the only way that they are ok is if i load up on the water. oh well.

at least i've dressed better for this one. many layers and i make them give me a blanket too. and of course the injection took 3 tries but at least they did not blow the vein. course i left while alex was still asleep and apparently i forgot to tell him (or more likely he forget/didn't listen) so i turn my phone on on the way to starbucks to get a much deserved latte most mri and he's like "where the hell are you!?!!?" it was like 10am by then. thanks dear.

so, we wait. and i rescheduled my appointment with the neuro-opthamologist that was supposed to be tomorrow. it was a followup from 3 months ago but then i figured i'd have to fill him in in the diagnosis, the new dr who will not confirm the diagnosis, the new symptoms, the PRK and not have the new mri films. figured it would be better to wait. damn a lot happened in 3 months.

saw this on another blog. cracks me up.

Google for "[insert name here] needs" and post the top ten results.

Christina needs to hear from you right away so she can plan effectively.

Christina needs to advance from good to great.

Christina needs to own her whiteness and stop trying to be a rapper 2.

Christina needs someone who can handle her behaviors in a patient, consistent and loving way and who can demonstrate an appropriate role model.

Christina needs to wear clothes ON TOP of her underwear.

Christina needs to consume 1725 calories per day to maintain her current weight, and 2225 to gain one pound per week.

Christina needs our votes!

And yes, Christina needs here own podcast if she will.

Christina needs to get her angels back.

Christina needs to come down to earth and not expect so much.

someday i'll get to it

you know, to the rest of the wedding story and the honeymoon. someday. soon. i'm trying to decide which wedding pictures to order they are just so amazing. everyone tells us we look like magazine ads in them. and they're right. it's so weird. we do look amazing. weird to say that. weirder to keep saying "my husband."

anyway, we did go see the new neurologist again. yeah, remember all that crappy stuff that was going on that i neatly tucked away as i was busy getting married? yeah that. time to deal with that again.

the good news is that my leg issue disappeared. i don't know when. but i realized sometime at club med that it was no longer tingling. probably on the trampoline. man we had fun. anyway... i also noticed at club med during morning stretch class that i now have an issue with my right arm. only the right. whenever we're exercising (usually yoga) ad my right arm is above my head when i lower it i get shooting numbness from my shoulder to my fingers. not too fun.

so anyway we go see him (man i love that doctor) and tell him what's been going on. he checks me out again and says my reflexes are better than he expected them to be. he also told me all the extra testing he did (to make sure my body could handle the drugs) all came back clean and normal. all the consults he had in regard to my surgery all said if my tests were clean i was fine for the drugs.

all well and good right? well except he's not convinced i even have ms. or that i need to start the drugs. SUCH a change from the old neurologist. keep in mind though that she did not do the correct mri series on me. so this saturday i go and get the correct series done. if it shows any lesions anywhere, i have ms and we start therapy. if there are still no lesions, then we do nothing. until i have what appears to be an attack, or in 6 months when we need to repeat the cycle.

here's to a clean mri series!

where did september go?

i have had no time to write and i'm afraid by the time i do that i will have forgotten everything. ha! no way. i can't believe it's october already. where did september go? my god it was all a blur.

so here is a recount of the last few weeks, in abbreviated form.

thursday, september 8
first day off. i start the day with my b12 injection. fun. we then go downtown to have breakfast and do some errands. i get my pedicure done (to save time tomorrow) i leave alex at the mall with his dad to pick up tuxes and have lunch and i run to the seamstress to pick up my dress. my dress is gorgeous. and as i look at it i think "who the hell is getting in this tiny thing?" talk with the seamstress a bit, she's so awesome and was so good to me. leave there, race to the house to hide my dress away and go back to meet alex. do some more last minute errands then it's time to go to the airport! trish and melissa were going to be arriving! as we're getting off the exit, ym mom calls. they are stuck in traffic at the windsor border. we assure her it will get better and then hang up. alex drops me off ot go in and meet them and he stays with the car to avoid having to park. perfect timing, trish's plane had arrived and melissa's was landing. i wait... and wait... i forget how big the terminal really is as i wait on the other side of the glass doors. finally i see trisha. and she come through the doors... and walks right by me. nice. i call out to her and she's like OMG i didn't recognize you AGAIN. now, it's only been 2 months since i've seen her but i guess another 20 pounds down and now no glasses as well can really throw someone. i am so excited to see her! she grabs her luggage and we wait for melissa. she arrivs a few mintes later, more hugs and happiness then out to the car.

we race off to the seamstress (again) as we're dropping off the skirts for her to press. so nice of her!! then it's off to the hotel for check-in. by this time mom has called again, they're still in traffic and she hopes we have dinner plans. we tell her we'll make reservations for 8 at one of their favorite places that is very "ann arbor" and tell the girls the same. they drop off their stuff and mom and crew arrive at the hotel. aunt bernie walks right by me in the lobby as i go to greet her. ok, i haven't seen her since christmas, so.... we figure out who's riding with who and we're off. dinner was fun.

alex and i go home to spend out last alone night there.

friday, september 9
friday morning i meet mom at the sheraton ad we head off to the salon again. i get my manicure started and my mom gets her feet done. meanwhile alex picks up trish and melissa and drops them off with us mid-morning. then he's off to run around like mad and get everything together and over to the sheraton for set-up. the girls and i have a nice time and the salon is really fun ad it's relaxing ot just hang out with them. my mom and i walk downtown to pick up some food for everyone as we're getting hungry. alex calls to say he's headed t pick up marie at the airport. he does and drops her off with us so she can get her nails done too and i bring melissa and trish back to the hotel as we now don't have room for everyone in my car!

when we finish we go back to meet up with everyone for the rehearsal. jon and jackye have now arrived. we all drive over to the garden ad get stuck in some MAJOR traffic. ah well. we all make it there and alex arrives with his boys who have driven up from ohio. the garden lady tells us what we need to do and i take over all the processional stuff. i admit i knew exactly how i wanted it and had it all worked out. you see, the garden we chose does not have a central aisle, but rather side ones and we are ALL walking in to the same song so it was going to be interesting to see how it panned out. much to my delight it all worked PERFECTLY. amazing!

we run through everything then off to change for dinner (since we did not have time before the rehearsal).

dinner was really fun. unfortunately, my sister and crew did not make it in time. we did do a presentation to alex's parents since september 9th is their 30th wedding anniversary. they were very touched. by the time dinner wound down, my sister had arrived at the hotel so alex and his boys take off and me and my girls and boys head over to the sheraton. i know where sharon's room is so i head up to greet her and my brother, who i have not seen since christmas falls over when he sees me, especially dressed up in my pretty rehearsal dinner dress. they haven't eaten so we decide we'll all go down to the restaurant and bar downstairs, and i tell them i wan tot change and i'll be back. i walk down the hall and see tom (my sister's practically ex-husband that came along) who i haven't seen in a long time, maybe more than a year. i'm not thinking so i smile and wave and say "hey tom!" and he is all confused and it takes him an amusingly long time to figure out who i am. man, that doesn't get old, i swear. :)

so we all go down to the bar/restaurant and have a GREAT time. omg it's so much fun. finally we decide to call it quits and i head up to spend the night with melissa. it was nice, kinda college-days again. good to spend time with all by friends again.

whew. that was a long one. i'll save the wedding day for next time.