Adventures of a HOH, Part Two: Of Sandwiches and Margaritas and Gossip and Laughter

See part one of my HOH saga here.

Thursday night (March 27) was when the real preparation for Mandy's bridal shower began. After work, I met Roy and Jake at my mother-in-law's house, where they were loading up all the tables and chairs that we had borrowed from various people around the neighborhood. As Mandy's man-maids, I figured it was only fair that they have a job of their own. I rode with them to Melinda's house, where they quickly unloaded. We then left and went to Roy's grandparents' house for some of their tables and chairs, took the stuff back to Melinda's, and then went home.

Originally, I took a half day off from work on Friday, the day before the shower. But in light of my scary mole, I took the entire day off to go see the dermatologist in the morning and continue with shower prep in the afternoon. Right after my dermatologist appointment, I dropped Roy off at home so he could go to work. (I truly have the best husband ever. He went with me to my dermatologist appointment because he just rocks.)

From there, I went to Michael's for ribbon, Big Lots for a gag gift for Mandy, Bed, Bath, & Beyond for Mandy's real shower gift, the bank to withdraw some cash, home to load up my car with shower crap, and my mother-in-law's (Patty) house. From her house, Patty and I went to Baja Fresh for lunch and then to Costco for shower food.

In no time at all, we had a shopping cart full of food. It was so heavy that I had a hard time steering it. We were buying with 32 people in mind, and I came out $100 under budget. We drove over to Melinda's house and unloaded everything. And then the real fun began.

Kim showed up right as Patty left. We soon decided that we needed margarita stuff, so we drove to the nearest Stater Bros. and got some, in addition to some other things (like potato salad, which Kim insisted we needed. Pushy biatch!). We went back to Melinda's and began working on the sandwiches.




I had decided to keep the sandwiches really simple. I picked four recipes: cucumber and cream cheese, turkey and cheese, peanut butter and banana, and chicken salad and apple. We made a crapload of sandwiches. Later on in the evening, Angelina showed up with her husband in tow, with the cutest little teapot fountain that she let us borrow. With us four homies in the same room, hilarity ensued as we continued with our sandwich-making, began our sign-making, and gossipped.




Roy showed up a bit later and immediately stuck to the living room with the other guys. Meanwhile, back in Wonderland Prep World, Kim revealed her secret obsession by taking a bazillion pictures of me.



Don't I look just like the princess from The Neverending Story? I mean, the resemblance is uncanny, down to the bejeweled forehead and alabaster skin.

Check it:



Some of the signs that we made were hilarious. If Kim's attempt (on the green sheet of paper) at drawing the Cheshire Cat's smile wasn't enough to make us die laughing, then Melinda's (on the orange sheet) totally sent us over the edge.



I tried to draw a mushroom but was immediately told that it looked like a penis. So I drew my version of a penis to show them the difference between mushrooms and penises. They found the lesson very insightful.



Despite all the goofing off we did, we were very productive. We made a ton of sandwiches, so many that Melinda's fridge was bursting. In hindsight, we made way too many sandwiches. I blame Kim, just because she's a good scapegoat.



We called it a night and left. Roy and I went to Wal-Mart for address labels. I hate Wal-Mart and usually avoid it like the plague, but our options were rather limited since it was past 10 PM. On the way home, I realized that I hadn't prepared any of the games for the shower, so I stayed up even later taking care of that. I crawled into bed around 1:00 AM, completely exhausted.

Stay tuned for the actual shower recap (with pictures galore)!

Adventures of a HOH, Part One: Down the Rabbit Hole

Mandy's bridal shower was yesterday, and I held off from really posting any details about it here on my blog because I didn't want her to know the theme of the shower ahead of time. This is my story about the planning and execution of her shower. It truly was a labor of love.

Back in January, I found out that Mandy and Paul had decided to get married in May instead of November, and that sent me into a bit of a panic for both financial and logistical reasons. I immediately began thinking about her bridal shower and called upon the monkey and Kim for ideas for a kick ass bridal shower. The monkey suggested afternoon tea and provided me with some links to tea places she'd heard of/frequented. That got my brain working, and somehow I came up with the perfect theme for Mandy's shower: Alice in Wonderland. I would give Mandy a very merry unshower, and we would have tea, scones, sandwiches, croquet, and zaniness.

The first thing I did was secure a venue. I knew I needed a fairly large backyard, and Melinda was happy to let me use hers. At that point, I hadn't seen her backyard yet, but once I did, I knew it was the perfect spot.

I worked with Stacia, who did all the paper products for my wedding, for the invitations and thank you cards. Here's the invite design:



I chose that particular picture because it incorporated quite a few aspects of Alice in Wonderland, which I thought was cool. Here's the thank you design:



The next thing I began thinking about was cake. I really wanted a cake like these:




But with the complicated design, I couldn't find anyone who would do it for a reasonable price. Instead, I settled on red velvet cupcakes but again ran into issues. Finally, I said to myself, "Screw it! I'll make the cupcakes myself!"

By this time, Kim and Melinda were pretty heavily involved in the planning of the shower. Once the date was set for March 29, we planned on getting together the night before to make the sandwiches, cupcakes, and cookie favors.

In the meantime, I ordered a croquet set and cookie cutters in the shape of the card suits and began thinking about games and sandwich recipes. One of my co-workers offered to make a giant papier-mache mushroom and told me that I should dye the grass purple. I thought those were really great ideas, but it all just seemed way too complicated. It also quickly became apparent to me that Melinda, Kim, and I would be in way over our heads if we were going to make the sandwiches, cupcakes, and cookies the night before. Luckily, my friend Jessica from work has a sister named Heather who runs a bakery business on the side. After speaking with Heather, we decided that she would do the cupcakes and cookies, leaving us novices to take care of the sandwiches - and for me to obsess over other details.

A couple of weekends ago, I met Melinda and Angelina for lunch, and naturally, the conversation turned to the shower. We ended up going to Goodwill after lunch, and we found a huge amount of tea cups and saucers for the shower for a good price. Angelina also suggested buying the tea for the shower at Clark's, so that is what I did. And with the (almost daily) help of Melinda and Kim, other details of the shower, such as sandwiches and games, were firmed up.

The point of this whole blog entry is that this shower really was a group effort, from its inception to its end. This group effort played in even more heavily during the preparations the night before and the shower itself. Both of those recaps are coming soon!

*****

On an unrelated note, I want to say thanks for responding to my scary mole post. I realize that I am overly paranoid, and that is definitely due to the melanoma blogs I have read. I did get in to see the dermatologist this past Friday, and she is going to remove the mole at the end of April. She didn't seem overly concerned about it, as it is probably a benign lesion. But, as I have very fair skin, there is no being too careful.

Also, I am way behind on my blog reading, so if I haven't commented on your blog in awhile, that's why. I do plan on getting caught up sometime before the end of 2008.

Lastly, my Spring Break officially ends on Tuesday. I will be in school four nights a week this quarter instead of my usual two. I am going to, once again, be one busy mofo. For this reason, I am so glad the shower is over!

All it takes is one moment.

Did you know that your life can change in just one moment? One little piece of time can render you speechless, breathless, overjoyed, saddened, defeated, and everything else in between.

Tonight I was washing the dishes. There is a mirror above the sink, and I happened to catch a glimpse of myself in that mirror. In particular, I noticed the small mole near my collarbone - it's a newish mole, formed within the last year. The last few months I have been asking Roy if he's noticed if it's gotten bigger. Just today I called the dermatologist and made an appointment to have it looked at. I have hated it ever since it made its appearance, as I am not a big fan of moles.

And then tonight I noticed a small speck of black in it. And I immediately felt like I couldn't breathe, because that black is not a good sign.

It looks like I will be calling my dermatologist again tomorrow to see if they can get me in sooner.

I am scared. I keep telling myself that it's probably nothing. But what would I do if it really was something?

I'm not sure. But I feel changed, somehow.

Leslie, the Bwitish-accent-bastardizing poppet with more energy and love than a million toddlers on crack.

In an email that I received from Myra earlier this morning, that's how she described me. And here I just thought of myself as enthusiastic.

Myra has now left the building! (Or at least I think she has.) Last I heard, her plan was to leave on her long drive to Maryland today. We did some celebrating and sending off for her, though.

March 13 was Myra's last day at work, and it was one hell of an emotional day. We had a department taco bar potluck with tons of dessert. I made cupcakes. (Actually, Mandy made them. But I frosted and sprinkled them.)



A lot of pictures were taken, and many small speeches were made. In the privacy of my office (and other offices, I'm sure), many tears were shed. (In case you guys haven't gotten it yet, I am a sentimental fool and am going to miss my pal very much.)



Last week (March 20) a select few of us got together and went to Casa Maya, a yummy local Mexican restaurant for dinner. Our mission: to celebrate Myra! (I was also secretly celebrating the end of the quarter.)

We had chips and salsa and margaritas, which never gets old. I had a lamb taco and a cheese enchilada, both of which were awesome.



Again, many pictures were taken! And Myra got lots of gifts, including a care package from me.



I haven't included any pictures of our other cohorts in here, because they're all legal types and just might sue me.

I had planned on seeing Myra one last time before her departure, but it just didn't work out like that. While I'm sad about that, I also know that this is not good-bye forever. In fact, this is an excuse for me to visit the East Coast.

In all seriousness, Myra's friendship means so much to me, and I hope she finds lots of happiness in Maryland. I already miss her so much.

Pookin' per Nub

Back when Mandy and Paul were interviewing photographers for their wedding, we decided that I would take their engagement pictures 1) to save them some money and 2) so I could get some practice with my (then) new camera. Yesterday was the big day, and I was super excited. Roy and I met them at their house, and then we walked a whole hell of a lot. We had a great time with them, as always.

I learned so much yesterday! I learned that it's important to check all your camera settings before starting the shoot (and I'll explain why later). I learned that photographing people is much more rigorous than photographing inanimate objects. I learned that photography is hard and tiring. But it's also so much fun.

I am not a professional photographer, but I think the job would be fun and something I would love to do. Whether or not I have the talent or business sense for it remains to be seen. For now, photography is a wonderful hobby for me. I am grateful for people like Mandy and Paul, who were wonderful guinea pigs and very patient with me.

Many of these pictures did not turn out the way I expected them to. I actually had my camera on the wrong white balance setting for most of the shoot, and many of Mandy and Paul's photos are tinted blue as a result. I was really bummed about this last night, because I put a lot of work into finding the right light for the shoot. I also distinctly remember thinking before the shoot that I needed to check the white balance setting. But making this mistake has also (so far) helped me to find more creative solutions in Photoshop.

Anyway, here are a few of the pics! I'll be posting more (as I edit them) onto my flickr page. Feel free to check them out! Also, your honest opinions are most welcome.

(I don't know why, but when I upload pics from flickr, the quality isn't nearly as good. These actually look a lot less pixelated in person.)












Congrats to Mandy and Paul, who are no longer "pookin' per nub" now that they've found each other.

It's nice to feel loved.

Blood, Sweat, and Tears

The winter quarter is officially over for me. After hours upon hours of work, everything is done, and I am a somewhat free woman. I am so relieved. I am so tired. I feel like I could sleep (and cry) for days.

These last few weeks have been really hard. I've started several blog entries, wanting to put my thoughts into words, but something stops me or pulls me away every time. In some ways, I have been more productive than I have been in a long time. In other ways, I have been just simply overwhelmed. It's definitely been a mixed bag.

But I am officially on spring break! My plans for spring break are to work (of course), relax, and just enjoy the small amount of freedom I will have. Next quarter I am going to finally be submitting my thesis proposal to the graduate committee, which means that I will finally start writing the damn thing. I'm also going to do my internship; I will be something similar to a teaching assistant in a class called Advanced Poetry Writing.

Despite how hard this quarter was, it was really rewarding. I truly kicked ass in my creative writing class. I was the old me again: I really gave it my all in true overachiever fashion. I suppose I was successful in my thesis planning class, although I didn't have the proposal finished by the end of the class. Whatever - I am still really proud of myself.

For the first time, I can finally see myself graduating with an actual Master's degree! I will soon be filing my grad check. Only two more quarters to go! I can't believe it. By the end of 2008, I will have my Master's degree, barring a disaster.