Thursday, October 25, 2012

I'm Moving!

You can now find me here:

 Fantastic Mrs. Ford

This is where the Husband and myself will keep you all up to date on what is happening with us.  And I'll probably continue my rants there as well.

Happy Fall!

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Before I Continue...

Ok so I came here today thinking I would tell you all why we've been so crazy busy, but then I have about a million other things swimming through my head today and I just can't concentrate on that right now.  What I am going to do is a mental dump so it's all out there and you can read it or not but it will hopefully make me feel better.

So let's start with a big question- should I start a different blog now that I'm married?  I feel like there's a fundamental life shift that happens when you get married (even if nothing else actually physically changes) and that it may warrant a new blog completely which means I may dump this one ... but I'll link it until the 3 of you who read this can change your bookmarks or links.  Even though I highly doubt the Husband will ever post anything at all I feel like the blog should include him.  Am I being weird?  It's almost like I need to shed all "singleness", if that makes sense.  Pondering.

Moving on, I'm starting a bucket list.  It's the tail end of marathon season (I guess) and I'm seeing everyone's pictures and posts on Facebook about their marathon adventures so I threw a little hissy fit and said to myself, "Dammit!  I'm going to run a marathon!!!" even though I completely hate running more than 5 miles.  So of course I called my mom and told her that I was going to run one next year and she laughed and said that it was on her bucket list so we should do it together.  BUCKET LIST?!  Perfect.  That's what I need, so I can reference it and actually have a way to track that I'm doing things that I actually want to do.  I am actually super excited about thinking up what I want to do and see in  my life.  Of course, I'm also excited about a marathon.  My friend Jenn just called and in the course of our conversation said she wanted to do a marathon (totally unprompted by me so this has to be destiny) next year so looks like I have 2 buddies!

Let's revisit the newly married thing again; it's insane to change your name.  There, I said it. Could they make it any more of a hassle?  There was never a question that I wouldn't change my name, but now that I'm in the middle of getting it all done it's a big fat suck fest.  I got like eleventy million copies of our marriage certificate so that I would "easily be able to change my name" (so says the clerk at the county office).  Let me tell you that the copies make no difference and that everywhere you go to change your names has a whole different set of hoops you have to jump through to prove you are who you are and you are a newlywed JUST. TRYING. TO. CHANGE. HER. NAME!  They act like I'm a criminal trying to steal someone's identity.  If only Heather F had more money than me, I'd be happy to take her identity.  Gah!  I cannot wait until it's over.  Apparently that takes like a year before everyone gets with the program (according to friends). 

Also, LET'S ALL FREAK OUT ABOUT HALLOWEEN!!!!!  You guys, I effing love Halloween through New Year's Day.  It's the best chunk of the year.  It's when all of the awesome happens.  I especially love Halloween, mostly because it's an excuse to dress up, but for many many more reasons. First, you get to dress up.  And I'm not talking about "It's an excuse to get a slutty costume" but more of a "who can I transform myself into" thing.  If I could legitimately dress in costume on a regular basis I would.  Let's also note that I don't do slutty costumes (in public or where anyone but the Husband will be) and it irks me to no end to see women showing their goods like I want to see them (I don't, mostly) in the namesake of Halloween.  If you are going to be slutty, be it and don't blame it on Halloween!  

Secondly, I love decorating.  LOVE IT!  I will find pretty much any excuse to decorate my house for an occasion.  I've always been drawn to darker and creepy decor so Halloween is the time when I let my creepy side take over.  I literally spend my whole year from January to September looking for darker odd objects to decorate with for Halloween.  I'm talking macabre trinkets like taxidermied creatures and old apothecary jars I can place around to creepy-looking antique photos I can replace my photos with. I the Husband would let me I would decorate my whole house in a slightly-Harry Potter- meets-haunted-house theme.  He pretty much finds it ridiculous that I could want more Halloween decorations than Christmas, but I'm getting close!

Yet another reason I love Halloween is the mood it puts me in to watch scary movies.  There is nothing better than curling up on the couch with a comfy blanket, a cup of hot chocolate or cider and getting scared of out of your  mind.  It's the best!  And the Pacific Northwest is awesomely foggy this time of year which adds to the scary factor.  

So those are the oh-so-important things banging around my brain today.  I'll be back tomorrow with some more life updates!

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

18 Days and It Feels Like Months Ago

BF and I got married 18 days ago and it's been a crazy hurricane of events ever since!  Also, I realize that I can no longer call him BF but it's such a habit and nothing else has a good ring to it... so it'll change when I become clever and figure it out.

Anyway, so the last you heard from me it was a couple of days before the wedding and I mostly wasn't stressed out except for a couple things that ended up working out, but I got over it all and everything went so extremely well I couldn't hardly believe it.  Thursday afternoon BF and I packed our cars full of suits and dresses and center pieces and pomanders and, of course, our luggage.  We had to drive separately to fit it all and then I drove across town to pick up the bouquets and boutonnieres from our florist which were AMAZING and fit perfectly our venue and the attitude of the wedding.   I had forgotten that there was a music festival happening the same weekend as our wedding at Edgefield and was wondering why there were masses of dreadlocked wanderers bedecked in tie dye attire roaming the streets and the McMenamins property so it made for some fun people watching the entire weekend. We checked into McMenamin's Edgefield Hotel and lugged all of our stuff to our room.  We then changed for the rehearsal dinner, met with our family and the Reverend and then ate some awesome food! We decided that since some of our friends were staying at the hotel that night we would go out with them for a bit to catch up.  I don't think we stayed out that late because we knew Friday was going to be long, so we called it a night after a few drinks and a round or two of pool.

Friday morning was an early one!  We got up and ate a hearty breakfast around 7am and I met with my hair and make-up magic-maker, Courtney, at 8:15am.  She got to work on me while BF and the boys played the short course (golf) at Edgefield.  I spent my entire morning sitting very still and trying to not blink-cry as Courtney delicately placed individual false lashes on my lids (not something I could do very often) and then as she expertly airbrushed my make up on.  My Matron of Honor, D, awesomely brought me some sort of hot chicken sandwich and fries which I was so thankful for but then only ate 4 bites of because I was a bit jittery.  I want to say that in my case, I wasn't at all nervous to actually get married, but I was nervous that things wouldn't work out the way I wanted them to... but I think I'm so used to being in control of events at work that letting other people handle things for me was really what stressed me out about it all.  So the morning kind of crawled by because I had to be still for hair and make up, but it was so worth it because it turned out amazing!  Our photographer showed up to take "getting ready" photos of the girls around 2pm and that's when it started to feel real.

After the pre-wedding ceremony photos I about died of boredom because I had over an hour to wait before I could do anything at all.  My mom stayed in my room with me while the bridesmaids rounded up the groomsmen and got in their places and ready to walk.  I finally got to walk up to the area where our ceremony was and wait in the hall;  I got all sorts of congratulations from the masses of hippies wandering around which helped distract me from being bored and nervous.  The music and our processional finally started and then I surprised myself and got super emotional!  I don't even know why, but walking down the aisle with my dad was really hard... and I have never really been a daddy's girl and I haven't lived at home for YEARS so I don't know what it was.  We finally made it down the aisle and then the ceremony started.  Because BF and I worked with the Reverend ahead of time we already knew what he was going to say, which made it feel super slow to me, but everyone else thought it was a pretty quick ceremony.  I was afraid to make eye contact with BF for a couple of reasons, 1) because I was a little emotional 2) because I was afraid he would made a weird face and make me laugh inappropriately 3) because I sort of caught him looking at my cleavage and 4) because the sun was shining at an angle that made it hard to look that way anyway.  I think it was a good thing I couldn't look because I had a hard time making it through part of the vows (oh, emotions) so the Reverend told me just to nod which got a few chuckles, but worked! A few times throughout the ceremony we were serenaded by the music festival sound checks which was pretty funny and then a plane took off during our reading of "Oh, The Places You'll Go" by Dr. Suess and went straight up behind us (we were told it looked really cool, but we didn't get to see it) so it was a memorable ceremony.

Finally the ceremony ended and we were off to sign the license, take more pictures and get back to our guests.  We LOVED LOVED LOVED the reception.  Not only did we have BBQ chicken and brisket for entrees, but we had pie and cake!  I cannot tell you how much I love pie (too much, in fact).  My friend Paul was our awesome DJ and a couple of my high school friends came and played an hour of live music (including our favorite The Darkness Song, which was so awesome I couldn't stand it!).  I did a quick change into my "party" wedding dress which was just longer than knee length and a lot lighter so I could dance more freely.  All in all it was an incredible wedding day and we were exhausted by the end of it all.  

We drove home after another hearty breakfast on Saturday and spent the rest of the weekend recovering at home and trying to get ready to go back to work on  Monday.

Pictures to come soon (hopefully) and more about our hectic few weeks! It definitely does not feel like it's only been 2 weeks, but marriage has been good so far and we cannot complain.






Tuesday, September 25, 2012

3 Days. I Think I'm Allowed to Have at Least 1 Meltdown...

3 Days until the big day!  I'm insanely anxious because I don't really have anything to do and I had preemptively taken the entire week off of work just in case I had a million things left to do.  So I've been cleaning the house and packing/ re packing our bags for the weekend and finding the minutiae to do around the house.

We've been relatively drama free, no major Bridezilla moments... unless you ask my Mom.  For some reason my mom has it in her head that I am stressing out beyond belief about this wedding.  I did have a little freak out when I went to pick up my 2nd dress at the shop and they told me they already gave it to someone (if you showed up at a dress shop to pick up a wedding dress and it wasn't there, would you freak out a little?  Indeed) but it turns out they gave it to my mom when she was there picking up my sister's reordered bridesmaid dress.  I think I had a valid reason to get upset... and I didn't get upset at the lady at the shop, I just tried to get to the bottom of what had actually happened.  Note to bridal salons:  DON'T give the bride's dress to anyone but the BRIDE unless the BRIDE tells you that someone else will be picking it up.  That's what made me mad- I had no idea my mom picked it up and they didn't actually know she was my mom, they just saw she was picking up the bridesmaid dress for my sister and OFFERED to give her my gown as well. I think that is insane.

Anyway, what I've had a bigger freak out over is my sister.  I love my sister to death.  She has a tendency to be irresponsible and a total ass.  Case in point:  She told me that she would be the designated driver for my bachelorette party.  I thought that was pretty awesome and she even paid for a bunch of the bachelorette party favors and decorations and made cupcakes.  This seemed to show that she was being responsible and awesome, but then the night in question happens and my other friends tell me that they think she is way to drunk to drive so one of my other friends had to drive us home.  We made it safely and I didn't get mad at my sister because those things happen, but since that was something she volunteered to do I am a little miffed.

Secondly, my mother informs me last night that my sister won't be at the rehearsal dinner.  Let me say that again... My Sister.  Won't be at. The REHEARSAL DINNER.  WHAT?  BF and I have had our wedding and rehearsal dinner dates and time since JANUARY.  Everyone involved in our wedding has had at least 7 months notice as to when they needed to be available for the rehearsal dinner and for the actual wedding.  I even asked my sister last month if she had requested the days off for the dinner and for the wedding and she said yes.  Apparently she did not and has to work during the dinner.  I'm not worried about her not rehearsing because, let's face it, it's not that difficult to walk down an aisle and stand there.  What I am pissed about is that this is a bridesmaids duty to be at the rehearsal and the wedding ON TIME and to make things easier for the bride.  Am I totally wrong here?  Also, I want my family at the rehearsal dinner!  

My mom says I'm overreacting, but I think it's just plain rude to totally disregard your bridesmaid duties, especially when we gave everyone MONTHS of advanced notice.  My parents keep telling me not to stress about it, but I'm not stressed I'm just angry that again my sister can't be a responsible adult and manage her schedule properly.  

This whole thing boils down to the fact that I hate having to accommodate my sister ALL THE TIME.  It's been this way our whole lives.  She doesn't plan ahead and doesn't manage things very well and then expect people to accommodate her or to bail her out of her problems... which my family does for EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.   I want her to know that it is not ok to flake out on her responsibilities and that she needs to figure it out!  What do you guys think?  

My opinion is that I have a right to be upset about this; I'm not letting it ruin anything but I think my sister needs to know that she is letting me down and that it is not ok.


Wednesday, September 19, 2012

This Week's Lessons

Oh the things you learn in life!  Or, really, the things you learn while trying to be proactive about having to change your name a million different places because you are getting married.

Why is it so hard to change your name?  Getting married is the easy part and saying you have a new name is cake, but then trying to get everyone to change your last name in their system is one giant headache.

There are some things that I cannot change my name on until after I have the certified copies of our marriage license like my drivers license, social security card and bank/credit card accounts.  But in the spirit of being organized and ready to be married I found a few things at work that I could start the process of changing my last name before I had said license.  So that's what I aimed to do.

On Monday I notified work and submitted the proper forms to have my email changed and my login account information changed to my new name.  They asked when I would like the change to take effect since while they change it I will not be able to login to any systems at work.  I said this coming Friday after business hours would be great and they said perfect!  And everything was perfect until this morning.  I came into work and found that I  couldn't login to my email, so I called our help desk.  The help desk researched what was going on and found that my email and login information had actually been changed super early this morning and they had not, in fact, waited until Friday.  Fine, I thought, this works too!  But no, it did not.  Because they prematurely set up my  new email and login, they deleted my old profile... the same profile with which I access pretty much every other system that I need to work in during the day.  That means that no matter how hard I tried I could not get anything done because my old login was now defunct and my new login was not yet in the system.  

I've spent quite a chunk of my day so far on the phone with various departments trying to get my old/new information updated and corrected so I can actually DO SOME WORK.  This also means that I cannot track my actual work hours either, which may end up impacting my pay unless they get it fixed before I'm out of the office for a week.  I'm sure they will, but I'm a little worried right now!  Don't worry, I'm keeping notes on my hours worked so that when I can access the system again I can update my hours. 

They make this quite hard on those of us who choose to change our names.  

So this week I've learned the importance of waiting to do things until they actually have to be done because sometime proactivity isn't helpful.




Monday, September 17, 2012

I'm Almost a Mrs....

That is so strange.  I am so excited to be marrying my best friend and frankly, the best person I know on this earth, but I'm a little sad that I'll be losing my "maiden" name.  (Quick side tangent, stay with me here:  Have you ever stopped to think about the phrase "maiden name"?  Because I did this weekend and when I actually gave it some thought I had quite a literal picture pop into my head of a young maiden who all of a sudden is an old maid.  Anyone else? ... nope?  Just me?  Ok then.)

It's not that I'm super attached to my name... it's not a bad name at all, I just never really gave it any serious thought beyond this is my name and it connects me to my ancestors and identifies me from other Heathers out there.  And now all of a sudden I'm like how do I preserve my maiden name so it doesn't get lost for time and all eternity!?  Don't get me wrong, I definitely want to take BF's name, but I'm waxing nostalgic about my own last name.  I'm contemplating getting my family crest in a necklace or ring to wear... or maybe a new tattoo is in order? 

Also, it is already raising issues at work.  Because I am taking time off before the wedding I requested a new name plate and a name change on our roster so that when I return it'll already be done.  We abbreviate most people's names around here and on our upcoming conference roster we have everyone's initials next to their conference responsibilities.  In a meeting the other day one of my coworkers was talking about how we've divided up the work and then paused mid sentence for a few seconds and then continued with, "I see that we've given H.F. a few things to do, but I've never met them!  Who is that?".  Followed by the silence of me not realizing that those were MY initials and that we had already changed my name on this list as well. 

But really everything is going well and BF and I have finished the last of our little "to do's" before the wedding so we are literally just waiting to get to the wedding and be married.  

11 Days!

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Waking Up to Fall

This weekend was a strange one, in weather terms at least.  It was summer-warm and then autumn-cool; it rained, then shined, then sprinkled, then shined, then 5-minute-thunderstormed, then sun again.  But in the midst of the weather-mania is a constant that I'm starting to remember- cool evenings and changing leaves.  I'm totally excited.

I LOVE Fall.  I say it every year, and every year it becomes truer and truer.  This year especially so.  I find myself pining over the cozy sweaters and tall boots that are daily being presented in store windows and shelves.  I am craving soups and stews and searching for new recipes to bolster our old favorites.  I am itching to bake some fragrant goodies and I'm perusing the craft and decor websites for new items to add to my collection.  My mind wanders frequently to Halloween costume ideas, possible seasonal party opportunities and how in the heck I can make my house look like Hogwarts without my neighbors and friends thinking I've totally lost my mind. 

Also, we are getting married in 18 days.  I'm more excited each day!  Just a few small details left to nail down (like actually putting the center pieces on the tables the day of the wedding) but we are set!  This coming weekend I have my trial run hair and make up.  She said it could take 4 hours... but will be much faster the day of.  I have never just sat for 4 hours so this will be interesting.  I had the hardest time finding a lipstick since I don't wear a lot of make up normally; who knew that that would be my most manic point in this whole wedding thing so far.  I did happen to find an absolutely awesome mascara (not all natural and eco-friendly like I normally like to use) at Sephora- Diorshow Black Out Waterproof mascara.  Boy-Howdy is it waterproof!  I tested it on Saturday and it is BLACK BLACK BLACK.  It didn't smudge or flake off at all even though I was running all over town and got a little sweaty doing yard and house work in the afternoon.  It did not come off with my regular face wash, so I slept with it on (after washing the rest of my make up off; I will need to get a heavy duty eye make up remover for this stuff!) and woke up sunday looking like I had just put the mascara on.  Totally perfect for a possibly-teary wedding day!

What are your favorite things about Fall?