Halloween

Happy belated Halloween!

I hope everyone had a good one. I went out to Oak Park and kept my mom company while she handed out candy.

First of all, it is just great that my mom is still alive and I get to spend time with her doing normal stuff like that. I know how lucky I am.

Second, my mom had a little clicker/counter thingy so she could keep tabs on how many people she gave out candy to.

Now, technically some of the kids were repeats (though some of them changed costumes before coming back) so our tally should be slightly lower but whatever... it is still impressive.

We had 361 trick-or-treaters last night! And there would have been more but my mom just gave the last couple of kids big handfuls of candy because she was getting cold and wanted to go inside!

Some of the kids were local neighborhood kids but MOST were from bad areas in Chicago. Can't really blame them for coming here- better candy and less chance of getting shot.

We were talking about making a few changes for next year. I suggested a gauntlet that the trick-or-treaters had to get through to get to the front door, but that they would get a full sized candy bar if they made it. Jim said we should plant corn in the front yard and make a corn maze to get to the door.

thank you dinner

So the other night Mike and I decided to make dinner for my parents and brother and sister to thank them for letting us use their house for our wedding. Now, I of course mean that Mike MADE the dinner, but I helped with the decor and serving and doing the dishes. 

Each place setting had a copy of the night's 5 course menu. And each napkin ring had a picture of the person whose seat it was. The photos were all from the wedding. This was Jim's picture, taken in the photo booth with my other brother Mike and his wife Kelly. Jim sat down and said, "Really?" and I said, "What?" and he said, "I don't remember ever BEING in the photo booth with them!!!"

We stayed with the red theme (same as our wedding) but decided to change things up with a bit of a different/ funky centerpiece arrangement. 

None of the pictures of the food do them justice of course, but here is the potato wrapped potato with chorizo and peas and carrots. 

The chef hard at work making some tacos. 

I was going to take pictures of all the courses to document them but then I got drunk/ busy and missed a few. This is the beef with mushrooms and soy butter. Soy butter (which is just soy sauce melted with butter I think) is AMAZING! I asked Mike why he hadn't made that for me earlier and he said, "Because we were trying to eat healthy!" Oh yeah. 

I'd say the dinner was a success. So much so that I think the fam would even be willing to let us host a party there again sometime! 

the honeymoon phase

Yup, I've become that person that totally neglects their blog.

To be fair, I WAS without internet for a few weeks there. But let's be honest, I am just lazy.

So what has happened since my last blog post? Well, for starters I got married! Still sort of hard to believe.

I had such an unbelievably positive bridal experience. I'm not really a huge fan of having so much attention focused on me... but I will say I liked how everyone was so unbelievably NICE to me! "What do you need? I'll do it." I can't believe how many times I heard that phrase! My friends and family rock!

Transitioning to married life has not been difficult at all... mainly since Mike and I had been living together and paying for stuff together for a year already. I can only imagine how big of a shock it would be for couples who haven't been doing that stuff already. Because living together is MUCH different than dating someone. When you are dating someone the time that you spend together is all about each other. But when you live together you also need to do your own thing. So just because they are in the same room as you, does not mean they need your attention.

I think the hardest part for couples are the little things that drive each other crazy. The not squeezing the toothpaste tube correctly. Or the leaving dirty clothes laying around. Mike doesn't really bother me. I've told him to let me know if anything I am doing is bothering him, but he hasn't said anything so far. It's been pretty idyllic really.

I'm just documenting this so that a few years down the road when we have kids and are driving each other crazy I can look back on our "honeymoon phase" and laugh!

pre-wedding excitement

I guess I should write a blog about this coming weekend... my wedding weekend!... for prosperity's sake.

I don't want to bore you with details and whatnot but it is going to be the best wedding EVER!!!!

I was soooo lucky that my mom and mike's mom both just let me (I would say us, but really most of it was my planning) do whatever I wanted. They didn't try to force their will on me at all and for that I absolutely adore them. Thank you!

Second, I have had so many offers from friends and family to help out that I am struggling trying to find things for all of them to do! That's a great situation to be in! :)

I'm not nervous or stressed out about the wedding. Miraculously I had enough money to pay all the vendors. The house shaped up nicely. We were able to keep our guest list to a reasonable level. True, it's sad that we couldn't invite everyone we wanted to, but we compromised and hopefully those people we couldn't invite will understand. I personally feel that all people who are married and have gone through the trial of putting together a wedding and making decisions like that should understand.

I kept waiting to get nervous or stressed about the wedding but it didn't happen. Sort of like when I was getting LASIK eye surgery. I kept waiting to get really nervous and sick to my stomach and freaked out about it... but I didn't and it was a piece of cake.

The wedding has a lot more variables than eye surgery but I plan to just roll with it and have a good time.

I'm SOOOO glad that I made my theme The Muppets. It has made planning this wedding so much fun. It definitely won't be your same old wedding!

Today I got my first ever spray tan. Which, I will admit, looks pretty awesome. Unfortunately you are supposed to do NOTHING after getting it. Don't touch things. Wear super loose clothes (no bra.) Don't carry bags on your shoulders. Don't rub against things. Don't sweat. Don't come into contact with water- which means don't wash your hands. And definitely don't shower for at least 10 hours. I of course went straight to work which meant that I ended up washing my hands, not once, but at least six times!

I find I don't really want to talk about the wedding because I want it to be full of surprises for people. I mean, not huge surprises, so don't get your hopes up. But I love surprises. Even little ones. That's probably why I haven't been flooding this blog with tons of details about my wedding over the past few months.

Speaking of surprises... Mike is off doing some surprise thing for the wedding which he won't tell me about. I keep saying that I hope he is off organizing a surprise Flash Mob. He tells me not to get my hopes up.

the story of my life

I love looking back and finding things that I have written years ago. I also miss writing in notebooks. I think I do my best writing in notebooks. They always say that if you are having trouble writing that you should just start and see where it goes. You don't have to have a storyline all plotted out. Anyways, this amused me so I thought I would share... (And I am going to resist the urge to edit it right now.)

She sat there with her pen in hand. Trying to decide what to write. She always veered towards fantasy stories about magic or strange alternate dimensions. Her own life never seemed "brilliant" enough to write about.
Yes, she could see it now. The storyline would go a little something like this...
Girl, aged 25, moderately attractive. Moderately attractive? What's that? Sounds to vain and overreaching to write "she's hot"?? But you want people to know that she's not bad looking. I mean, when describing her people wouldn't just say "Oh yeah, Nikki, she's really nice." I mean, she's better looking that that.
Not that there's anything wrong with being nice. I'm nice. No, I'm not. Who am I kidding?
Where was I? Oh yes, my character description... girl, aged 25, moderately attractive. At times nice (that's my glass-is-half-full way of saying sometimes bitchy.) Who apparently can't keep a straight train of thought going for more than two sentences.
Storyline... gets up, works out (sometimes), goes to work, hangs out with friends. Riveting. Yes, I can see that captivating the hearts of audiences worldwide.
So instead I write fantasy stories. And not fantasy stories about me either- but about teenagers. Why? Do I have some sadistic wish to relive my teenage years?
Or is it that teenagers make for more interesting characters because of their willingness to make such rash decisions? I mean, think about some of those plots... ooh, a door opens to another world, what will my character do? Will she rush right in? It's not much of a story if she doesn't. But would I rush through a door to another world? Let's think about this one... How long will I be gone? What if I get fired? Who will pay my rent, my bills? What's the weather like there? I should bring some clean underwear? What kind of story would that make? She stumbles across a strange portal to a magic world... she starts to stem through and then decides... I better go pack a bag. Cuz let's face it- I can't even go out to the bar without my big purse. Who knows when I'll need my chapstick or tampon or lotion or gum or toothpicks- yes, that's right, I even carry toothpicks from time to time.

hit the nail on the head- depression

So a friend shared a great link on Facebook yesterday. It is a website with pictures of famous people doing things that you wouldn't expect.

http://www.cracked.com/blog/14-photographs-that-shatter-your-image-famous-people/

I found in fascinating. Because it is true that we end up having a very limited view of people. If you think about all the different facets you have to YOUR personality... why would a celebrity be limited to just the one idea we have of them?

Anywho, that is not the point of this post. The article also gives a description of depression that I think is so right on the money:

#6. Kurt Cobain Eating an Entire Pizza

Via Flavorwire.com

... it's still a shock to realize sometimes the man just sat down and ate an entire pizza like Shaggy from Scooby-Doo.

This is something everybody should understand about depression, by the way. Tell me you haven't at least once heard somebody say, "I refuse to believe it was suicide, I was just out with Mike two weeks ago. He was laughing and joking and eating an entire pizza like it was a video game power-up."

Via Flavorwire.com
Then later played "Cat Puppet" with his daughter while doing a high-pitched cat voice.

Well, depression works that way. Movies have given us a skewed idea of how it works, because there, when a character enters his "dark period," it's with a montage full of sad music and drinking and moping in dim rooms. Real life isn't like that. Not only do moods fluctuate, but even when you're at your lowest you find yourself in social situations where you're not allowed to show it. If you're in a dark place but can't get out of your nephew's birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese's, you're going to put on a smile for the camera. You feel selfish bringing everybody else down. You put on a cheerful mask.

Then, ironically, if you start playing the role of the tortured artist later, you have to worry about the opposite -- being photographed in a moment of being goofy and carefree.

Read more: 14 Photographs That Shatter Your Image of Famous People | Cracked.com http://www.cracked.com/blog/14-photographs-that-shatter-your-image-famous-people_p2/#ixzz1uvv2GsMX

do you like this song?

So yesterday I had to give a one day combo which is a thirty minute herbal wrap followed by a one hour massage.

Only the therapist in the room before me (I only work second shift on Sundays) was running late. So I only had about two minutes to put my room together. But that went fine and I got my client and put her in the wrap and then I left her to heat up and relax for the thirty minutes.

Then I undid the wrap and then we do the massage in the same room.

And as I started the massage I heard the little disk-skip noise that the CD does at the end of the CD when it starts over again from the beginning. And I thought to myself... that's weird because it is a 80 minute CD and I only started it about 40 minutes ago. And then it hit me... I had accidentally hit "repeat one" instead of "repeat all" when I stuck it in... which means that she had been listening to the SAME song on a loop for her entire 30 minute wrap!!!

Oops!!!

Now, it is random relaxation music and it is possible that she didn't even notice because, quite frankly, all the music sort of sounds alike anyways, but I felt really badly. She was happy at the end though.

And then my second client was rewarding herself for finishing grad school by NOT having to hang out with her mother-in-law of Mother's Day. I love my clients.