Thursday Night with the Phillies

Thursday afternoon I got offered free tickets to the Phillies game versus the Padres. The seats were in the outfield, but they were second row, which is sweet homerun territory. If it were up to me, I would have passed. I had a big weekend ahead of me, and I would have much preferred a relaxing evening at home. But I know Rob would divorce me if I ever passed on a baseball game, so I called him up and asked. After a few minutes of debating, only because our car situation was inconvenient, he decided he wanted to go. That's fine. Free tickets don't pop up too often.

Luckily the weather was gorgeous. Could not have been better. And it turned out to be a fun evening out! The game was lackluster, and the Phillies lost, but sitting outside, enjoying some ballpark food with my best friend is not bad at all.

I've been carrying around my crappy camera lately. Just because it's tiny. Makes my nicer camera feel too bulky for my skinny arms.

I grabbed a Frappuccino and parked my butt on a bench. This was my view.




And this was my view down. I bought new shoes, aren't they cute? Haha.




Here I am annoying the bejeezus out of Rob.




Goofing off before the game.




Mmmm, crab fries. I don't even really like them, but I enjoy waiting in line for 25 minutes to buy some $7 french fries.







That silly "what" bubble follows me around.










The Philly Phanatic

Our Big Day

I probably emailed this link to everyone who reads my blog, but in case you're a snooper and you'd like to see my wedding pictures, checka check it out.

Our Wedding Photos

I need to do some minor touch-up action to a few of them, especially the ones of me later in the day. I have some hair and makeup issues going on. It was all the kissy stuff the photographers made us do. It's weird to see those pictures because we aren't PDA people.

Post-wedding stuff is going well. I'm feeling pretty stress-free at the moment. I need to go through all the paperwork and do some name changing soon. It's still all so strange to me!

Thanks for peeking!

The Conference Aftermath

I had too much to say and too many photos to post. So I made up a Trip Diary.

You can view it here:
Vegas Trip Diary

And view my photos from the conference here:
Vegas Photos - Part I

and here:
Vegas Photos - Part II


Photos of the wedding will be coming later. I'm waiting on the photographer right now.

I hope you enjoy it! :-)

Everyone wishes they were engaged to me!

Since I am the best fiancé in the world, I wanted to get Rob a nice gift before the wedding. The difficult thing is that Rob hates stuff. But what he loves is baseball. So I had planned to buy a pack of tickets and give Rob a "guy's night" with some of his friends and family. Well, thanks to my awesome company, who I love to death, I was able to use their luxury box for the Memorial Day Phillies game! (Fully catered, by the way.) Gosh, I'm lucky. So after many weeks of stressful planning, 15 of Rob's closest friends and family were there to meet him.

He was stunned! My plan had worked! He thought he was going to a game with three of his friends and sitting in the 300 level. He waited in the lot for his friends to show up, and all his other friends started walking up. He said he was really confused. At this point, he thought Hunter had thrown him a bachelor party, and he had no clue that I was behind it all. As they go to the gate, Rob says, "We can't go in this way, this is for suites only." Then Hunter handed him the envelope with his suite ticket and a letter from me, explaining how I did this all as a gift for him because I love him dearly. And then when he walked into the suite, his dad and brothers and uncles and cousin were in there! He loved it!

Anyway, enough blabbing, here are some photos!




Eric, RJ and Samir, donning their felt bowties, in honor of Rob.




Hunter, cheering for the Phillies.




This is the shirt that Eric made for Rob. And I didn't say no strippers. I said no "female" strippers. ;-)






Thank goodness he wore the shirt that I gave him instead. A Phillies t-shirt with "GROOM" and "06" on the back.








Group shot!

June Fifteenth

Hi there! I needed a little wedding de-stress so I threw together a very, very simple wedding website. It's not the greatest, but it'll do. It just has some of the details and such, and I'm going to post the wedding pictures up here after the hooplah.

Take a look!

June Fifteenth

April 29th NYC Peace Rally

Rob had been planning on attending this event since he first heard about it. Throughout the day he took 13 rolls of film, and here are some of his favorite results.

Making a list and checkin' it twice.

Howdy partners! How's life treating ya'll? I'm a little tuckered out. Rob and I saw Ben Folds last night and didn't get home until after midnight. That's way past my bedtime, but it was worth it because it was an awesome show! I love seeing Ben Folds because he cracks me up and his stories alone are entertaining enough. But put it with his music and I'm blown away! He always has such a rapport with the audience. I don't know how he doesn't get annoyed when people shout things at him throughout the show, but he doesn't seem to mind and he always takes requests. I heard many of my favorites, including "The Luckiest", which is Rob's and my wedding song...if we actually have a wedding song.

Speaking of weddings, we went to Rob's uncle's wedding last Saturday. It was a good time! Here are some photos from the event.

A photo of the lovely bride and groom:




Here I am before the ceremony:




Here's a shot of Rob with his father and brothers:




And me and Rob at the end of the night, looking slightly weary:



Our wedding stuff is moving along. I ordered our favors, I bought some shoes. I'm feeling a little bit better about the guestlist. I think that if we do go over 30, it'll only be by a few people. Also, I had some email communication with my photographer yesterday. She's so great. Really, really helpful. I can tell that she wants to do a good job for us. We were going to have them for an hour after the ceremony and then three hours in the Skyloft, but now that's changed. They'll come 30 minutes prior to the ceremony to get those sappy "getting ready" shots and then we'll take approx 40 minutes of group shots afterwards. Then she wants to take us around the hotel for some nice photos of the two of us. And we'll have them there for 2 hours in the Skyloft instead of 3. I'm really getting excited now! 49 days!!!

Another thing I've been working on is the song list. This is the one area of the wedding where Rob wants some input. I'm a little concerned because I know if it were up to him, it'd be an all old-school-rap wedding. I threw a little in. Some "Dowhatchalike" at the request of Jeope. A little Young MC, a little Tribe, a little Beastie Boys. But I don't want to alienate our older guests, so I made sure to throw in some James Brown, Stevie Wonder, Devo, Parliament. You know, mix it up. If Rob vetoes my Earth Wind and Fire, there's gonna be hell to pay. If you people have any requests or suggestions, post 'em in my comments!

My Three Second of Fame

Hi folks. It's been a while since I've posted. I’ve been a busy bee lately though. Work has me swamped due to a huge conference next week, although I think the craziness for me ends today. And then with Easter and wedding stuff and other family obligations, I haven't had a moment to relax.

But I'll take a few minutes to give you some updates.

The OC
So, those of you who knew about my connection to "The OC", I had my three seconds of fame last night. And in case you have no clue what I'm talking about, read this. I was lucky enough to participate in the project discussed in the article. My duties pretty much consisted of "vectorizing" (or would it be "vectoring") sketches of all the characters. I perfected my mad Illustrator pen tool skillz. Anyway, the unveiling was on last night's episode, and they were kind enough to show the animation for three whole seconds. They also played these two speed-commercials for downloading the full animations, but if I blinked I might have missed them. (Actually, I did miss one because I couldn't un-mute the tv fast enough.) So that's it. A bit anticlimactic. I haven't even seen the final versions of the animations, and since I don't have a VCast enabled phone (or Verizon service for that matter), I'm not quite sure when I might. If any of you do have VCast and want to buy (I think you have to buy it) the first episode, click here for info. Eh, it was still loads of fun! And the extra pocket change was nice. I was able to buy myself a few treats and have a bit of leftover for wedding stuff.

The Wedding
Speaking of wedding stuff, onto the nuptial update. Things are moving along. I got my gorgeous wedding band last weekend. I still need to take a photo. Five round cut diamonds. Makes my finger all sparkly-like. I finally booked the hotel and the flights. I'm still freaking about our guest limit. We are totally going over it. But I'm going to let Rob smooth-talk the MGM lady. I really can't believe it's less than two months away! I think it is going to be such a great time and I am so so so glad we are doing it this way. If I'm getting this stressy over a simple Vegas wedding, imagine how I'd be if I were having a huge production!

Miscellaneous Goings-on
Okay, okay, anything else going on? Oh, Rob's knee surgery went super. He only had to get scoped, so he didn't even have to use his crutches. He'll be break-dancing by the wedding. Um, I'm going to see Ben Folds next Wednesday. Should be a good time. I'm going to Rob's uncle's wedding this Saturday. I'll hopefully have some pictures to post next week. And tonight we're heading to our old college for a retirement party for Rob's favorite professor. I haven't even driven by TCNJ since I graduated. And I didn't even walk, so that also was anticlimactic. Next weekend we are going to NYC for some peace rally/march. Rob is hoping to get some good photos, and I'm hoping that the weather is nice so I can ditch him and go shopping in SoHo.

Shout Outs
Shout out to the folks that I know read this! Yo Jeope! Yo Mary! Yo Lew! Yo Devon! Yo Maria! Yo Dave! Um, and yo to anyone else who stumbled in here! I gots to get my work on, so catch ya on da flipside.

It's official!

(Jeope, stop reading here.)

So I know we already set a date and I bought a dress and all, but Rob really wanted to surprise me with a traditional proposal. And even though we've pretty much known about getting married in Vegas for months, I've been in suspense, awaiting my engagement ring.

Well, today was the day!!! And Rob is so creative. I give him mad props. Here's how it went down.

I was waiting to get picked up at around 4:30 when my boss's husband (who happens to be the VP of IT) saw me in the hallway and handed me a package. He said the courier just dropped it off for me. I looked at the return address and it said, "Ben Folds Five Guy," which is what Rob had written on a scrap of paper with his phone # the night that we met. At that point, I pretty much knew. I opened the box, and in it I saw my beanie kids. We have these beanie kids that look like us. Beanie Melissa and Beanie Rob. And years ago I bought them a tux and wedding dress, for fun. So they were in the box, in their wedding attire, along with a poem/riddle, and a pair of binoculars. The note had said something about him being hard to find, so I used the binoculars to look out my 17th story window. And there, across the street, in Love Park, right in front of the "LOVE" sculpture, was Rob, holding a big sign that said, "Will You Marry Me?" I was dying! I couldn't stop laughing! So I called him and he had all these people in the park jumping up and down and cheering! He told me to meet him downstairs. So I rushed downstairs and Rob was standing in the small park in front of my building. I ran over to him and my high heels sank into the soft ground! When I reached him, he got down on one knee and proposed. Of course I said yes. I mean, we already put down deposits on the hotel, the chapel, the restaurant, and the photographer! :-) Then he said, "Don't you want to see the ring??" So he put it on my finger and it fit perfectly. My smile was so huge that I was getting facial cramps.

After we went up to talk to my boss, who was in on the whole thing and was taking photos of us from the door, we decided to go to a nice dinner. It was a perfect evening! And can I be honest? I can't stop staring at my ring!! It's so silly, but I love it!

Alrighty, here are some photos of the evening.

This is a blurry photo that my boss took from the door. I thought the "knee" thing was so silly so I kept trying to pull him off the ground, but he wanted to do it right. Some lady honked at us and yelled "congratulations!" out her car window.



Here is a picture of the sign he made. He couldn't believe how long it took to color the whole thing in with crayon!



Here's me at dinner. I'm a little worn out, and I look it.



And here's Rob, posing as usual.



And here's our wine. We actually bought a bottle of wine. We've never done that before at a restaurant, isn't that funny?! But it seemed like the appropriate occassion. The waiter was so nice and polite, I loved it! And I had some White Sturgeon that rocked!



And of course, photos of my new, beautiful, engagement ring! Rob knows my taste so well. I absolutely love it!! He's the bestest evah.




The best part about the ring though, is when you turn the ring on its side, there is a little diamond on each side. You can see it in this photo. I think that's so cool!



So yeah, Rob gets props. As my mom said on the phone today, "He did good."

Females Only!

Disclaimer: The following post will consist of wedding talk. I don't need any males rolling their eyes at my post, so if you're a guy, quick! Hit the back button!!

Well, the big news is...I BOUGHT MY WEDDING DRESS!!! (Actually my parents bought it, but that's just a technicality.) I am so excited about it! I get butterflies just thinking about it all! Okay, breathe...breathe. That's better. My mother and I went to three boutiques. Two were awful and felt like thrift stores. One lady picked out ten of the ugliest dresses I have ever seen. They made me feel like a hooker, which I suppose is appropriate in Vegas. But the one shop was awesome and the ladies were super helpful! The dress that I got is one that I would never, ever, in a million years want to try on...and it's nothing that I would ever see myself wearing. In fact, it looked hideous on the hanger. But the store owner swore that it would look great on me, so I gave it a shot. When I put it on, I felt like a movie star!! Okay, so it was twice as expensive as I ever wanted to spend on a wedding dress, but it's worth it!! Mainly because I'm not the one paying, teehee. Oh, I love it though. It isn't very vegas-y and isn't modern or anything, which was the theme I was going for, but I knew that if I didn't get it, I'd regret it.

Now it's time to start looking for a veil and shoes and jewelry. Yay for dressing up!

My skin is totally breaking out because this wedding is starting to get to the point of stressful. I thought that having a vegas wedding would prevent that from happening, but turns out it's unavoidable. I had a major freakout on Monday night. A few weeks ago, the woman from the Skyloft sent me a hospitality menu, with prices for hors d'oeuvres and an open bar and such. The open bar was priced at $28.50 per person for three hours. Okay fine. Sure, that's a lot, but it's understandable at a nice hotel. Well, Monday night, the in-suite coordinator sends me an email with a special Skyloft menu. Open bar was $65 per person for two hours!!! I started having a panic attack! I can't afford that! That's insane!!! And get this. The bartender fee in the original menu was $100 for three hours. This new menu had a bartender at $150 for two hours! That is so wrong because you know it’s the exact same guy doing the same exact job! Rob calmed me down and I wrote an email back to the woman, asking about the price differences. Turns out the original menu was sent to me by mistake, but she said that they would honor that pricing. PHEW!!!!! I dodged the hugest bullet right there. Can you image? Who can drink $65 worth of alcohol in two hours?? I don't drink that much in a year! :-)

I'm also having one other wedding issue right now. The paperwork I just got said that there is a limit of 30 people for a reception in the 2-bedroom Skyloft. That's not good. My "definite" guest list is at about 25 right now, but I was telling all my fellow HOWies that they could come by. Now I'm afraid they won't let anyone else in. I have to contact them and find out what the deal is. I didn't think that was going to be a problem, but since I'm paying per person, they want to have a guestlist finalized prior to the event. UGH! This wasn't supposed to be a hassle. It was supposed to be quick, easy, and cheap. So far, I'm just getting "quick." I figure maybe I can do the regular reception from 7-10, and then send the bartender (and the old folks) away and have a byob howie party at 10pm. The night will still be young. I'll need a power nap at some point, but ya only get married once, right?! Well, hopefully.

Anyway, I'm trying to keep my freak outs to a minimum. I just keep looking at the pictures of my dress to calm me down. It's going to be a very special day. I know it. But I was silly to think that I was going to be a calm, collected bride throughout this process.

Since Mary asked, here is a photo. :-)

My Pursuit of a Great Show

Just wanted to share my excitement about my upcoming Saturday evening. I get to see my favorite band in the whole wide world perform! Belle & Sebastian! If you don't know who they are, please look into it because they are incredible. They have a very unique retro sound and they put on one heck of a show.

I bought their new album, The Life Pursuit, a few weeks ago and it has already become a favorite. In fact, I enjoy it even more than their previous few albums. Plus the packaging totally rocks! I paid the extra few dollars for the album that came with the dvd because it had this really neat packaging. The dvd-less cd was in a regular jewel case. (I'm such a design-dork.)




This show should be great. I saw them at Across the Narrows last summer but they were only allotted 35-40 minutes. Both times I saw them prior to that were at the Tower Theatre. It's a great theater for a mellow show since there are seats, but Belle & Sebastian are a little more upbeat and I would have preferred a setting where I could have danced. Well, the seats didn't stop this one nerd guy. He was about 7 rows from the stage and stood up and danced like a fool, despite the angry people behind him. He caused some problems. And then at the end of the show, this musclehead tool climbed on stage and proceeded to take off his shirt as he danced. What a dork! Belle & Sebastian isn't exactly stripper music. I think the band was really annoyed. I know I was. How full of yourself must you be to go on stage and take off your shirt??? Ugh. Anyway, this show is at the Electric Factory, which sucks on one hand because it gets so smoky in there, but is great on the other hand because I'll be able to dance my tushy off!

Monster-dudes

Ahhh, I feel refreshed. I took the day off of work yesterday to venture out into the world of wedding dress shopping. I went by myself to David's Bridal and tried on about 6 dresses. I probably would have tried on a lot more, but the lady that was helping me was a frantic nutcase, and I didn't really want to ask her for anything! She was so pushy. I told her I needed my mom to come back with me, but she kept trying to get me to buy the dress on the spot. "I'll wait if you want to call your mom now. You can use our phone if you want!" Um no. "How soon can she come in? Tomorrow? This weekend?" Um no.

And she wasn't just pushy with sales stuff. I'm trying to get changed and she's all barging in, throwing a dress on me in 2.3 seconds. It was like she was timing herself for speed. Anyway, I found a dress I really like. Not sure if it's "the one", but it's a front-runner right now. I didn't just want to post the picture of me in the dress, but if you really wanna see, you can click right here. I know Rob doesn't check out this blog anyway.

In other news, I WAS CRAFTY! Yay! I finally squeezed in some craft time Tuesday night and yesterday afternoon. I saw this blog and I thought the little felt dollies were so cute, so I had to make some of my own.

Here they are:







These monster-dudes are tons of fun to make! And so easy! I can just plop myself on the couch with some felt, thread and buttons and craft the night away. I think I'm just going to make hundreds until they infest my house. Then I'll put them in drawers and cabinets and the fridge. Kinda like mice or silverfish.