The Dumpster Strikes Again

Bryan has found another treasure by the dumpster. At the time we're supposed to be packing up and slimming down our belongings to merge into one house, he picked up a 4 channel PA system next to the dumpster in his apartment parking lot.

This is the story I heard from him [paraphrased]:

"I was getting my mail when I spotted this PA just sitting
next to the dumpster. I thought to myself, 'this could be a piece of crap, or
maybe, just maybe the person throwing it out got a *new* PA and didn't want this
one anymore.' So, I grabbed it and immediately called my brother to find out how
to test it out. I didn't have any speakers, so I plugged a converter in and a
pair of headphones and tested out each channel with my microphone. Jay was more
and more excited as each channel worked successfully. He mentioned that all I
needed now was a pair of speakers [pause, waiting for Annie's reaction]
and that if you were upset I could just give it to him and Gioia would
understand."

Normally, I would be a little upset at such dumpster collecting activities, but we do need one for the wedding, so it worked out pretty well this time. I had to put my foot down tonight though when Bryan mentioned that maybe we should go take a walk past the dumpster. That seems to be one step to close to diving.

The Last Monday for the Next Two Weeks

Today is my last working Monday until August 18th and it was very much a Monday.

I woke up this morning at 7:00 AM in a panic becuase I had an appointment at 7:30 AM with a client in Australia. There was no time to shower, so I got dressed, brushed my teeth, grabbed my coffee, which fortunately was pre-programmed to brew for me, and rushed off to work for my appointment with Brisbane.

The first corner I drove around there was a huge construction truck and a lady holding a stop sign, so I detoured around the block and back onto my regular route past the construction.

I turned right and immediately braked for a dump truck with it's flashers on. Finally the dump truck turned left and I was on my way again, but not for long.

A biker zipped in front of me to turn left causing me to slam on my brakes and have a mini heart attack. I drove up a little more and suddenly a truck pulls out of a drive way in front of me (he must be friends with the biker) and precedes at 15 mph in a 35 mph zone. We finally get to a two lane road and a bunch of foggy mist hits my windshield so I turn on my wipers, but with all the recent fires my car is covered in ash and dirt so it just smears to the point that I can't see out except through a small 2 inch clear spot. My washers don't work anymore on my 94 Sentra, so I pull over, dump a bottle of water on my windshield and get back in.

I'm finally at work, set up my laptop, get my headset on, pull up my calendar and there's no 7:30 AM appointment. There never was.

Probably if I had stopped to be patient while the construction was going on in front of me I would have realized that I was making it all up in my head. I just sat at my desk, laughed and at least I got some work out of the way early this morning. Next time, I'll check my calendar before leaving in a panic. What a Monday.

Another Bridal Shower!

The girls at work were very sweet and threw me a fabulous bridal shower after work yesterday. I had such a fun time and was really touched that they wanted to do that for me.

We had a wonderful spread of food too! Cheesy potatoes, macaroni and cheese, cheese platters, mozzarella cheese sticks...

We also had some delicious brownie bites, cake, and I think there was a salad too. Good thing my dress has already been let out; hopefully it doesn't have to be let out again.

They also decorated wine bottles with little tuxedos and veils, which were perfectly sized for my ears. Maybe I'll start a new trend of ear veils. What do you think?

Near the end of it all, I got to open some presents and was very happy to receive more gifts from our registry. My favorite is the salad spinner and yellow "Livestrong" tea kettle. I had such a wonderful time and can't stop smiling. Thank you everyone!

Things are getting done...with only the occassional outburst

Wedding plans are coming along really well.
We knocked a lot off the list this weekend, including: ceremony music, house music, wedding day assignments and scheduling, and lots of other minute details not worth typing out.

We've been trying to have fun as well so as not to get totally wrapped up and stressed out with wedding planning. On Thursday night we went out for Thai with some friends and to say goodbye to our good friend, Julie, who is leaving for Boston this coming Friday. On Friday we ate BBQ at our friend Vicki's house and on Saturday ate BBQ at our friend Julie's house (another Julie). You can never have too much BBQ!

It was also on Saturday night at Julie's house that we saw our friends Steff and Nelson who just got married a few weeks ago. They looked so relieved and relaxed. I wish that was us, but they were just in our shoes 6 weeks ago, so I guess everyone who doesn't elope goes through it. To some extent, it is a gratifying experience because we're throwing a party on the biggest day of our lives.

Steff asked me how everything was going and I immediately burst into tears. I guess I've been storing up my stress as is my usual way of dealing an overwhelming amount of activity. I was quite embarassed, ran to the bathroom, while Bryan asked, "Steff, are you on that?" Apparently, I was not the most pleasant person that day. After a few moments of venting and eating, I was better. Planning a wedding is hard work and it's tough to just have fun. We are blessed to have lots of family and friends (like Steff and Nelson) that are willing to pitch in, help us move, help us plan, and make sure our upcoming wedding is lots of fun despite any little details we may forget to take care of. Afterall, I don't think anyone will care if we don't tie a bow on the party favors.

Packing and Parting

Only 3 weeks until the big day and only 2 weeks until we go down to San Diego to make the final preparations for the wedding.

We are really excited and I've never been so happy to pack boxes and move. Usually moving is such a chore, but when you're getting married and moving two apartments into one home to share with your new husband or wife, it's really fun!

I'm moving into the new place on the 31st and Bryan is going to move his stuff in over the weekend on August 1st and 2nd. Fortunately, my mom is coming up to help and our friend Vicki has volunteered as well, so we should get this move done in no time. Maybe we'll even have a couple hours to spare to organize a little bit before heading down to San Diego on Monday.
Of course one hard part about moving in together is deciding whose stuff to keep and whose to throw away. The majority of my furniture has been gifted or purchased new whereas Bryan has found several peices next to the dumpster at his apartment complex. I have a feeling they will return there just as one nightstand already has. Hopefully another young bachelor will spot it and make good use of it until his fiance makes him throw it away and so the cycle continues.

I'm just glad Bryan doesn't have a Lazy Boy. I've heard stories about wives trying to get rid of those.

Dreams are Weird...

I (Annie) had a dream last night that I was bathing a cat with bunny ears. It was some sort of new genetically engineered hybrid. The cat was also not very nice (probably because I was bathing it) and kept biting and clawing me. It grew larger and larger until it was the size of a great dane or so. I wasn't scared in my dream, I was very sympathetic toward the cat, feeling as though it spent its whole life rejected because it had bunny ears and no one wanted a cat with huge ears.

Who knows why we have such weird dreams, but it is fun to try and interpret them. For example, seeing cats in dreams (particularly agressive cats) supposedly suggests that you are having problems with the inner feminine part of yourself. To dream that a cat is biting you, symbolizes the devouring female- like you are taking and taking without giving. Or it may represent some sort of fear or frustration especially when something is not going as planned. (I read all of this on a dream website for the fun of it, I don't really take much of it to heart).

If you dream you are in a bathroom or are going to the bathroom, it supposedly relates to your instinctual urges, or some sort of emotional or physical burden you need to relieve yourself of.

So I guess since I was bathing a cat in the bathroom, I must be acting selfishly and need to relieve myself of stress before I turn into Bridezilla. Or maybe I just had to go to the bathroom and was really frustrated that I couldn't because I had to bath an ugly cat.

Beautiful Sunsets In SLO

Due to the recent fires, we've had some really amazing sunsets. It's a high price to pay, but you can't help but be in awe when you see these. It's hard to capture on my little digital camera, but last night's sunset was a beautiful red.