Seattle 2013

Chronology of Events for Future Reference: Day 1 - Arrival @ Seatac. Rental pick up - yay, a Prius. Weather is better than Bay Area, nice and sunny. Hotel check-in (Sheraton). Large hotel room - bed is too soft. Dinner @ Shiro's (opened by apprentice of Jiro). Early bedtime in hopes of waking up at 7 a.m. to get a delicious breakfast biscuit @ Nook the following morning. Day 2 - Wake up at 10 a.m. Too late for a biscuit. Oh well. Paul's #1 priority of the day is to exchange his size 32 BR shorts for a size 31. Mission accomplished. Coffee @ Monorail. I order 2 americanos (1 black, 1 w/ cream and sugar). Coffee shop owner insists both orders must be with cream and sugar. What a jerk. Just kidding - he seems to be a nice man. Walk to Public Market, brunch at Seatown. Public Market reminds me of Fisherman's Wharf... Walk along the pier - fried oysters and clams at Ivar's. Argosy boat tour. Paul is fascinated by the barges. I am not. Visit to an antique shop - Paul says no to purchase of a vintage coca cola cooler. Time to freshen up and go to lunch/dinner @ The Walrus and The Carpenter. The Walrus and The Carpenter does not disappoint: 1) grilled sardines (hit); 2) halibut crudo (miss); 3) fried oysters (hit); 4) asparagus crudo (neither hit nor miss); 5) oysters (hit); 6) peach creme brulee (dessert). Guess who is in Seattle?? T.An - randomness. Meet T.An @ Linda's (after walking into gay bar); her friends are celebrating May 4th with sparkle donkey tequila party (complete wih 4 donkeys and mariachi band) - not my favorite. Stop @ oddfellows - cool place but too full to try anything. Day 2 is done. Fun times. Day 3 - Already time to go home :( Breakfast @ Wandering Goose - biscuit sandwich. Paul gets fried oysters and pork belly skillet w/ poached eggs. I think we can make this at home. See T.An again. Time to go to the airport. Flight delay 1.5 hours! Damn you SFO!!! Seattle is great! Will see you again.

8/10... Sure is Quiet

Husband on a business trip for many days. It is very quiet at home. Keep thinking I should start journaling offline. but will probably keep this blog for some purpose that will reveal itself sometime in the future. signing off again for now. likely will be checking in again in about a year. stay tuned internet space.

I should blog

Since Paul won't let me post on his. Wtf.

Feelings

I feel my nerves. All of them.

I suck at blogging

I really don't blog very often or well. I can't even remember why I started this thing.

Moving is difficult. Especially if you have tons of stuff and you don't know what to do with it. The solution to having too much stuff is simple: throw it away. SIMPLIFY! I've been applying this solution for the last week. Unfortunately, now I'm afraid I've thrown out things that I probably should have kept. What to do....

I hope I don't have to move again for a loooooong time. Wishful thinking to be sure.

Wedding Nightmare #2

Fiance breaks off the engagement because Fiancee will not allow him to go sky diving with wings made out of cardboard (vs. a parachute).

Strange.

Wedding Nightmare #1

Sometime during the wedding planning process, almost every bride (and maybe even some grooms) will have a nightmare about their wedding. I recently had my very first wedding-related nightmare, at least the first that I can remember. I've decided to document it in order to remind myself of everything that could possibly go wrong so that hopefully these wrongs may be prevented. This will most likely increase anxiety leading up to the actual wedding day but oh well.

Things that went wrong in my wedding nightmare:

1. Wrong church.
2. Wrong flowers.
3. All guests seeing me before the ceremony thus ruining any element of shock and awe. boo.
4. No groom to be found.
5. Missing bridesmaid.
6. Bride in tears.

That's all I remember now.

I am thankful for reality - PS booked our DJ! This is awesome and is the opposite of my wedding nightmare.

Inspiration

Table Settings



Bridesmaids



Succulents



Bridals



Be inspired. That is all.

Don't Cut Your Hair Unless You Know For Certain You Are Not Getting Married A Year Later

Top 5 reasons for drastic hair cuts:

1. To be fashion forward like Rihanna;
2. Following break ups;
3. More efficiency in getting ready in the mornings;
4. Summer heat;
5. TBD

So back in March 2010, I decided to cut my hair really really short - kinda like a boy's haircut. I'm not really attached to my hair and have always been pretty comfortable growing it out long, then cutting it, and then cutting it some more. But the shortest it had ever been prior to the boy-cut was a short, above-the shoulder bob. So at the time I was thinking about going all out with the boy-cut, it was growing out from the latest bob-cut (prior to the bob cut it was just long and straight and long). At the time just prior to the boy-cut, it was pretty much at that annoying, ugly stage where the hair is just below the shoulder and had no shape or purpose being the way it was. So I thought - "off with the hair!" Quite liberating actually for the reasons listed above (except No.2).

Fast foward a few months and I'm hoping my hair will be long enough to be pretty for the wedding. No regrets for the short cut but it's a bit limiting for wedding purposes. For instance, a lot of veils are held in place with a comb. The veils I tried on simply slid down, and off, my short hair since I didn't have anything to hold it in place... not even enough hair for a little ponytail :( Of course, there are options for short hair. But honestly, the options seem pretty limited. My hair is just a little bit unacceptable right about now.

Yay! More Things Accomplished...

So here I am nearly four months into our engagement and it's now safe to say... mission accomplished!!! Just kidding, not quite yet. But we have managed to complete most of the big ticket items:

1. ceremony site and officiant (yay!),
2. reception venue (yippeeee!),
3. day-of-coordinator :),
4. caterer (yummy!),
5. florist (yay!),
6. makeup artist (yay!), and
7. of course the wedding dress (and bridesmaid dresses).

I love having things to do, especially if wedding-related. Also, I confirmed with my now-married-friends who previously planned their own weddings - much of the planning/preparation occurs during work hours. Thanks for the validation!

Anyway, my new plan for staying in the wedding business long after I'm married off... I'm going to be a calligrapher! Great idea yeah?

Okay, back to my real job :(

P Has A New Game....

Example of game being played:

M: I'm tired.

P: Me too.

M: I think I'm going to take a nap.

This is where the game starts....

P: Me too. (P start to snicker)

M: What the hell is wrong with you?

P: (continues to giggle) Nothing...

M: Ok....

P: I order you to take a nap (starts laughing)

M: Huh?

P: I order (giggle) you to ... lay down

M: What? Are you okay? I'm trying to take a nap.

P: (starts laughing out loud) I order you to close your eyes (begins to laugh hysterically)... I order you to breathe. I order you to wake up after your nap....


I want to know, do future husbands come with an "off" button?

Ivory Dresses

I had no idea what I was getting into when I began the process of finding my wedding dress. Everything I knew about wedding dresses came primarily from a couple of months of research in the form of watching every episode of Season 4: Say Yes to the Dress (great show by the way!).

Shopping for a wedding dress is on a completely different level from any other type of shopping I have ever done - for clothing or otherwise. I guess it would be safe to liken this type of shopping to shopping for a car - with all of the appointments, consultant/salespeople, contracts, looking for bargains or sales, etc. First off, what the heck! I had no idea white dresses could come in so many different styles with so many different embellishments. Sillouette is important - did you know that? Basically, I got to choose whether I wanted to look like a fish (mermaid), an instrument (trumpet), a princess (ballgown), a greek goddess (sheath), or a letter in the English alphabet (a-line). (See below for examples.) Don't even get me started on fabrics.... I seriously had the hardest time trying NOT to think about tablecloths and doilies.

After a while, these dresses began looking more like frosting on a wedding cake, mummy wrappings and even crumpled white bed sheets - none were the desired effect I wanted if I had to walk down a church aisle in front of 150 people.


(I'm a fish!)


(unhappy princess)


(bedsheets)

Despite all of these things, the entire experience was memorable and fun! Most importantly, I got to share the bridal shop experience with the women that I love - my mom, my aunt, my cousins, and some babies (oh yeah, including one baby boy and my dad)! And there is a happy ending! :) I found a dress that I love (thank you family!) and that I can imagine getting married in. Now I hope that mr. fiance loves it too....

Tips: I have no tips to offer other than to enjoy the experience... it only comes once in a lifetime for most of us. Maybe twice if I can convince the future mr. that we should have a vow renewal ceremony :)

Budget you ask? Following the dress purchase, mr. fiance said we needed to sit down and talk about our "real" budget. I love him :)

I can't wait to see the dress again in another 6 months!

Goodbye Workbag...

You have been good to me all these years. You have belonged to me since my first job as an attorney. Sadly, you were victimized by my dog too often. Nonetheless, you were resilient. Unfortunately, this most recent attack has left you completely unusable. You will be missed. I hope the recycling gods are good to you.

Goodbye tote bag... hello backpack!

The Countdown Begins

My favorite hobby these days is wedding planning. This is the most fun I've had since before grad school. I have no idea why wedding planning is so fun. It's not something I've really thought about until April 24, 2010. But it has been pretty all consuming.

We have 369 days to go until we are bound contractually to be together forever. Now and after we die. That is a comforting thought. Only three weeks into our engagement and we've accomplished little and yet so much:

1. Ceremony site (check)

2. Reception venue (check - almost)

3. Wedding coordinator (check - almost)

4. Budget (work in progress)

5. Bridal Party (check)

My least favorite aspect of wedding planning is budgeting.... I hate it. I hate numbers. Especially numbers that have $ preceding it. I think that's Paul's forte. Thanks Paul for our wedding :)

April 24, 2010

Espousal

For posterity!

New Shoes

UGGs. The first time I saw a pair of these things was my first year in law school. I thought they were the fugliest shoes I had ever seen and firmly believed they should not be worn in public (but okay in the privacy of one's own home). They are houseslippers/houseboots. Nonetheless, they were and continue to be popular. I had hoped the UGG shoe fad would fade away. Most importantly, I never thought I would own a pair. But then again, I live in the Bay Area. It gets cold here, sure, but not even the coldest of days in San Jose (high30s-40s) can justify the purchase of ugly shoes at a price of $140-$200+ a pair.

On January 9, 2010, I purchased my first pair of UGGs. The sole reason: an upcoming trip to the East Coast. I anticipate that I will be walking around a lot in cold, snowy, cold, cold weather. I need to be warm, especially my feet and everywhere else on my body. I tried on my first pair of UGGs yesterday and walked out of Nordstroms in them (post-purchase, of course). They are as comfortable as house-slippers and make my feet sweat.

I love my new shoes; they will keep my calves warm.

Paul Shin - Can you remember my name?

My boyfriend. He is special. He is the one who came up with the domain name for this blog. The thing that is most special about my boyfriend is that at this very moment he cannot remember the name of my blog. It has my name in it. He is very special.

Need to Update

Resolution #_____ for year 30: update blog more than once in a while and figure out how to post some pictures. Will be back to complete a post with at least some information that is of interest to me.

Target Practice

Last Saturday I went to an indoor shooting range for the first time under the tutelage of my little brother.  First things first, ear protection and eye protection are required at all times inside the shooting range - just like in the movies where people have ear muffs and goggles :)  Another thing, people bring in what look like assault rifles, which is pretty scary.  But no worries, there are no maniacs here!  Just recreational target practitioners like yours truly.  It should be noted that guns are loud even with ear protection.  It took me some time to get used to the sound and not flinch each time I heard a gun go off.  I really hate the head/body targets... I opted for the concentric circle targets.  My brother got the body targets which he turned upside down so that it wouldn't be too disturbing to shoot at.  Oh yeah, gun powder smells cancerous. 

Here's some of the advice my brother gave me that made no sense whatsoever:

"don't aim, just shoot" (huh? what's the target for?)

"pull the trigger slowly" (I am)

"pull the trigger slower than that" (I am)

"let the gun scare you" (it does scare me)

"don't anticipate pulling the trigger" (umm, yeah)

"ok you know what to do....." (yes I do)

Now I want to buy a handgun for recreational purposes only and not for target practice on any live animals but simply to become an expert marksman - Thank you 2nd Amendment.  Safety first! 

I should mention that my brother was sweating profusely throughout this process.  Afterwards he told me this was not because he was worried about me... nope, he was more worried about whether I would damage the guns.  Siblings.

Pet Fish

My pet fish is dying or dead right now.  I named it "Mac" when I first got him from the pet store.   He's a blue betta fish and has lasted for over three years.  I'm not sure how to dispose of him - is flushing down the toilet too insensitive?  I think so.  But I don't know of any alternative.  Also, I'm not sure if he is really dead.  Three signs that he is dead: 1) he is not moving; 2) he is lying on his back at the bottom of the fish bowl (which I've never seen before); 3) he is discolored.  Maybe he's just sick.  When I first got him I would spend hours just watching him swim around instead of studying.  I am distraught. Should I get a replacement?