Hipster Ipsum - because straight Latin filler in design is so B.C.

I love this oh so very much.

My first video game obsession

I kinda suck at newer video games. I've tried to play first person shooter games like Halo and Call of Duty and it's a sad show. I usually just end up staring at the floor or sky circling around myself - which leads me to promptly get shot. Repeat. Thankfully Xbox Kinect has come along and the tables have turned. I will out MJ Experience / Dance Central your face off. Dance battle your mom. Win. Dance battle the husband. Win. Small Children. You get the picture. I'm merciless. But before all that, I had a Sega. THE Sega. Sure, I'll admit I wanted a Nintendo so when I got the Sega for Christmas, I wasn't exactly pumped. But it came with my first official video game - Black Belt. I loved that game and I played the shit out it. It was back when you couldn't save the game either so you had to sit for hours and just keep playing - or just leave it paused with the tv off until you got home from school so you could continue where you left off. It was the first video game I ever beat. Stumbled across this video someone took the time to put on YouTube and watched it - and relived being 6 years old all over again for 9 minutes and 15 fantastic seconds.

Masters of Martial Arts Expo

Today was awesome! We took some amazing classes with some wonderful instructors for an expo that our school hosted from 11-4. The Rochester school has officially been open for 2 years and Sifu invited several practitioners to teach as a way to celebrate. We had the opportunity to study some Aikido with Sensei Aldus and observe as he and his student worked with swords and did some partner work and strikes. They rolled a number of bamboo looking mats and then soaked them in water - making them "flesh like" and then placed them on stands. Then they would do a series of strikes - slicing though the mats several times with clean swoops of the sword. Sifu said that it was pretty easy to knock the stand over- more so than actually completing the cut. It takes great skill to do what we saw today. I can't even imagine practicing with a REAL sword. Very intense focus! Then we studied some Brazillian Jujitsu, Kali Arnis - which meant working with sticks with a partner. Then in the last class of the day we learned a Karate kata. I love learning forms and we actually were shown the entire form. A lot of the hand positions were different than what we study in Kung Fu - but it was awesome to really focus and try to flow though the form. It was amazing to watch Sensei Hurtsellers do the kata. I love to watch someone who has studied the art for so long. Besides my amazement with their physical movement, I like to watch their focus. You can just tell by looking at their eyes, that they are in the deepest form of concentration and visualization. He is also a great speaker like Sifu and I find myself very inspired every time we have the honor of his presence at our school. So another inspiring day yet again!

Inspired

Today I went to visit a friend who I haven't seen in several years. We grew up dancing together and I found out the other day she got hit by a car. They had to amputate her foot and knowing this, I was very worried about visiting her to find out she was going to be in rough shape. I was so worried that she wasn't ok. I can't even begin to imagine getting hit by a car. When we walked into her room - we found her a bit tired but in great shape. It was amazing that all she lost was her foot. Her right leg is in pretty rough shape, but with surgery, will be ok. But that was it! No other injuries. On top of that, she was in good spirits about it. Saying how lucky she was that was all that happened. I couldn't be more inspired by her good spirits about the whole thing. I think about how lucky she was - how much worse it could have ended up and how lucky she is that she is ok. It is a healthy reminder to all of us that complain about our day to day BS that things really aren't that bad. Here she is, hit by a car and now without a foot and totally optimistic about it - and she really should be. She survived!

A Good Vampire Movie?

Doug and I recently watched "Let the Right One In" - a swedish vampire flick where the main characters are two children. It was shot beautifully. No spoilers here - if you haven't seen it - you should!

Seriously? WTF American Apparel?

There are no words... this ad... it haunts me

MJ!!!

Ok, I have to admit that I loved Michael Jackson growing up and I still love a lot of his old songs. I remember visiting my grandparents when I was probably about 5 and I told everyone I was going to marry Michael Jackson while we watched the music video for Billy Jean on MTV. HAHAHA.. I still can't help but wanna dance when I hear "Billie Jean" or "Don't Stop Til You Get Enough". Shit, we even did a tap dance to a Michael Jackson medley of songs. OH MAN! And we were each dressed like different Michaels from different eras or videos - I was the MJ from "Scream" - pleather pants and all - with my sweet braces. HA. We had the red jacket with the white glove MJ, I think that was Marie!!! Smooth Criminal MJ, Bad MJ... jeez I can hardly remember. SO freaking hilarious! Sure, some of his later works were pretty bad and all that stuff about being a little kid lover was pretty bad. But I can't help but give the guy a lot of props. An amazing career paired with a tragic life. Someone who hates their appearance so much they would alter it so drastically, clearly is a very sad person.

I'm finally on Twitter... and not sure why

Yeah, I finally broke down and started a twitter account. I usually jump on this kind of stuff pretty early, but something about twitter put me off a bit. More content for me to put out there that no one really cares about but me. HA

Bye bye nasty ass couch

I love my dogs, but they seriously ruin our stuff. Our couch was so gross that I wouldn't sit on it. The years of drool, pee and who KNOWS what else was on that thing. The sweet part about our house is that we can seriously throw anything in front of it and someone will inevitably take it. Sure enough, big red was gone within an hour. I am honestly a bit sad to see it go - even though it repulsed the hell out of me.

Watermelons and appliances - oh my

After a trip to Ikea, Doug and I ended up at ABC Warehouse looking for a receiver to replace the one that burned out over a year ago. I grew up listening to the sound coming out of my television, so home theater is DEFINITELY not a specialty of mine. We ended up with a new receiver but I can't get this image out of my head. The place was loaded with freaking watermelons. Turns out we got one when we bought the receiver - weirdest promotion ever. Hoping they didn't advertise that on the radio. Watermelon with the purchase of an appliance. Man - times ARE hard!

Honeymoon pics

Finally got them up! Ever since the wedding it has been nice to NOT think about any wedding stuff. Although we are going to be featured as a real wedding in the Kansas/Missouri publication of The Knot. That will be lots of fun. I just finished filling out the questionnaire and it will be on shelves in November.

2 days to go - the car ride

Drove all the way from Detroit to St. Louis with Miles in the back seat. Got syrup shot in my eye and Miles peed on Doug.

3 days to go - the car is all packed and ready

So today was awesome! I had a great day at work. Grabbed lunch with Jason, Andrew and Robert from Sway who is working on the Taurus feature animations with us. He mentioned they were looking for art directors and I couldn't help but fantasize about the idea of living out in the Culver City area. I love California weather. Too bad there are so many damn people there.

Work surprised me with a little mini party to send me off for the wedding. It was so cute with champagne and confetti! It was so adorable. I know that Alexis had a lot to do with it. She is so damn sweet. I love sitting by her at work. I can't wait to help her with her wedding if she needs it. Anyways, the surprise was adorable and I couldn't possibly work with a better group of people.

We left work early and I went to get my wedding dress. There was a big seam down the center of the dress that the woman working there fixed for me. I was seriously about to cry I was so worried. It came out fine and I need to not over analyze the little crease here and there. I was texting Alexis freaking out and she was so sweet and called me and totally calmed me down. Like I said, she is awesome.

So tonight was a lot of packing and last minute details. I finished Miles' ring pillow. It's adorable! I am so excited I made something instead of paying out my butt on Etsy for something. The stuff was cute but so expensive. Plus it's neat to have made it myself. I also finished grouping the tables with the place cards and letterpress letters. Made signs for the tables and got everything packed and ready. My wedding dress and veil are hanging in the guest bedroom now waiting to be loaded into the car tomorrow. I am just about done and ready to head to bed. Hitting the road at 7am tomorrow so we can get in town early. I can't wait to check into the hotel and relax - maybe go swimming!

4 days to go - 1 year since Doug proposed

Doug proposed one year ago today out in Big Sur while hiking through the mountains. It is hard to believe it has been a year already and that our wedding is this weekend and at the same time - I guess a lot has happened between now and then. It still cracks me up he proposed on Cinco de Mayo - I guess I am part Mexican so it works out.

Man, I am feeling it today. I did alright most of the day. Walking around with my head in the clouds and then about 10 minutes ago I hit a wall. I think all these late nights, restless sleeping patterns, and early mornings are getting to me. I got quite a bit accomplished today. Talked to the videographer who is super sweet. It is a woman which is awesome. She apparently used to shoot for the news so she sounds like she is going to be totally on it, which I love. My natural wooden altar got the axe today when I spoke with the florist. I had mentioned that we couldn't have anything stake into the ground at the gardens when I asked for the altar, but apparently they built it that way anyways. So now we can't use it. So they are refunding my money. I have way too many other things to worry about than let this upset me. I wanted to save a few bucks here and there anyways so it works out. I am just a bit bummed because it would have been gorgeous. Now I don't have anything special about the ceremony decor. In fact, I have no ceremony decor now. Which kinda sucks actually. Maybe I will email amanda and see what we can do with that 300 bucks for the ceremony space. I sent the hotel guest bags off with Brandon today, who is leaving tomorrow for STL. The first of the group to head out. I am really looking forward to everything being done and relaxing in my hotel room. Hitting the pool even. I bought several swimsuits online and will be returning what I don't like. I needed something for the honeymoon!

We stopped in at Kung Fu today to say bye today. Blackcoated beginner class. Sifu was so kind and is going to allow us to take Tai Chi classes as a gift. I have been wanting to try it. It is going to be hard with the schedule but I am excited to try and make it work! As we were leaving Ms Donnie was so sweet - wishing us the best and crying - she made me cry too! She is so sweet. I wish she could make it to the wedding. It would be so special to have her there, smiling at us. Her smile always makes me feel great! She has this amazing way of making you feel great. I am definitely going to miss the dojo while we are away. I think it will be fun to practice while on the honeymoon. You can't beat doing forms on the beach!

5 days to go

Today was pretty low key. We got a ton done over the weekend so tonight we didn't do a ton. We took the dogs to the vet so they are up to date on their shots. Rufus is staying at puppy camp/the pet ritz over the wedding weekend. He loves it there. Then Doug got a haircut. Earlier today though, Doug stopped in at the jeweler and picked up my wedding ring!! I am so excited. He won't let me see it finished. I think that's kinda cool. It will be super exciting to see it on the wedding day as we say our vows and exchange the rings. I also got my engagement band back with a pink tourmaline stone in it. It's pretty! I am excite to have the band back. I am obviously attached to it for sentimental reasons. It was cute when Doug pulled it out of his pocket in a little black satin pouch at work today to give it back to me with the new stone. It has been weird the past week without the ring on. I have gotten used to wearing one all the time. I also bought a swimsuit for the honeymoon! I actually bought two. Zappos has free next day shipping on clothes so I picked up my top two and we will see how they fit. I also started Mile's ring pillow. I will take pics tomorrow and update the post. Tomorrow is cinco de mayo/our 1 year engagement anniversary. It still cracks me up he engaged on cinco de mayo. ha. Makes it easy to remember!

6 days to go!

Today I am putting the name tags on the birds. Alexis helped me gather a decent amount of these cute little tags made by Martha Stewart. I put the names of each guest on a tag and then designated their table assignment on the back of each tag with a cute set of stamps we found at Michael's. Since each table is designated with a letterpress letter, each tag as a letter on the back. Here are a couple of pics of some of the birds I took outside to hang from our blooming crab apple tree. The tree smells so amazing right now! I am glad we are in town to enjoy it. Later I plan to start Mile's ring pillow.

One Week from today!

So I subscribed to weather.com for the 10 day forecast leading up to the wedding. As of a few days ago, the forecast was for showers 70%. Today it is saying partly cloudy! Let's hope that continues to unfold that way throughout the week. My mom is so sweet. She keeps telling me she is talking to the Big Guy about sunshine. I guess when you are talking about God as the Big Guy, it should be caps? HA. Anyways, I start these out and then update them at the end of the day. Somehow it helps me remember to do it. This is really just a form of an online journal. I like writing about things I want to remember. I can't wait to be doing our room in St. Lucia ;)

So I tried on the wedding dress for a final fitting today. Good thing I went out and tried walking in it. I kept tripping on the front. Turns out it was still too big. So they are taking it in a bit and it should sit higher and no more tripping. I was freaking out a little. My mom and I then went to Costco and picked up stuff for the guest hotel bags. I got lots of yummy snacks, threw an itinerary in there, an STL visitor guide, some water, mints, tide for sink washing (if they are like me, they'll need it), and put them all in the reusable target bags I bought a few months back. I think its a fun little package to get when you check into your hotel. So I packaged those all up tonight for each out of town guest

Then I put ribbons on the bubbles I picked up for the ceremony. Somewhere in there Miles hopped on video chat with Doug while he was at the office printing the programs. HA - this picture cracks me up!!! hahahaha..

8 Days and counting!

Yeah, tulips along the garage!! I planted them the fall before last and they get HUGE.
Anyways, today I drove to work to some classic MJ - Billie Jean, Don't Stop Til You Get Enough and Dancing Machine are just the best at putting a smile on my face. Then when I got to work I cut a couple big checks. I paid the balance I owed with the caterer in addition to paying the florist. It feels good to have everything paid for and not have a bunch of debt. I am so excited and kinda proud of myself for all the saving I did throughout the year. I put away 55% of every paycheck to pay for this wedding. I received help from my mom and Doug's parents and between that and the savings, everything is paid for! Woo hoo!!
Besides cutting checks, I didn't do a ton of wedding stuff. I filled out the tags for the guest bags. I also went to Kung Fu. It has been hard to make it with all the wedding stuff going on and work being a bit busy. Sifu was relating the 5 ways of being a great martial artist to how I could write my vows. It was very funny. After class, we talked a bit about the wedding and the honeymoon. He is so kind and such a wonderful teacher. I keep wishing I would have dragged myself in there sooner. At least I am there now.
We received the envelopes and cards for the guest book/jar table. They are so cute! I love the little envelopes. Paperpresentation.com had a great selection. We also received the stand for our hammock! I am SO excited to bust that out this summer. My aunt and cousins bought us the hammock itself for a shower gift. SO sweet! Then the Fitzpatricks were super kind and bought the stand and yesterday the picnic basket. I miss getting to see them. It has been too long since I have visted Alpena. It would be great to go up there this summer to visit with Doug. They are wonderful people.
Anyways, my mom and I are going to costco tomorrow to pick up some goodies for the 21 couples that are traveling for our wedding. I am hoping to find some sweet little vodkas and orange juices to throw in there. We will see what they have. Tomorrow is my final fitting for my dress as well! I can't wait.

9 days to go

Doug had to leave early this morning for a shoot. So I have been up since 5am. I am looking forward to today. I went to Om Spa in Dearborn and got a facial. My skin was SO dry. It was nice to relax and have someone take care of me for a little bit. It was a great experience. I could totally get hooked on going to spas. Too bad it is so expensive. Other than that, I sent a final count to the caterer for food and got all the details figured out with the florist. So tomorrow morning I will be mailing the last two checks for vendors. Then I am totally all paid up! Yeah! I stopped at Joann Fabrics to get the materials to make Mile's ring pillow. I decided it was way cheaper to make it myself and I found the cutest DIY on MSW. We received a couple gifts in the mail today too. A sweet picnic basket from the Fitzpatricks and 2 sets of the silverware we registered for from Doug's neighbors the Landers. So exciting!