A Punch Up at a Wedding

All pictures here are courtesy of neighbor-down-the-street. I love that last one! Yay!!!

Things around here will be pretty quiet for a few (more) weeks. We have another wedding to attend tonight. It will be great fun and is also a super knit-blogger meet-up wedding. Yay!

Then we head out bright and early tomorrow morning for Desert Outpost on our way to do field work. I haven't knit a single stitch or done any work besides prep for next week. The break has been nice and much needed after the flurry of experiments at DO, wedding stuff and the coming storm of field work, summer goals and the beginning of the end of my time in the desert. There are a lot of work related things on my mind, updates on the blogroll and links to do, and hopefully good reports on research (and baby blanket progress) to come in a couple of weeks!

Our Way to Fall

We ended up choosing "Our Way to Fall" by Yo La Tengo for our first dance. They are V's favorite band (besides Tom Waits and we also danced to "Coney Island Baby") and I took him to see them for the first time back in Austin. We also saw them in Hobokon, NJ on a New Years a couple years ago....


I remember a summer's day
I remember walking up to you
I remember my face turned red
And I remember staring at my feet
I remember before we met
I remember sitting next to you
And I remember pretending I wasn't looking

So we'll try and try
Even if it lasts an hour
With all our might
We'll try and make it ours
Cause we're on our way
We're on our way to fall in love

I remember your old guitar
I remember I Can't Explain
I remember the way it looked around your neck
And I remember the day it broke
I remember song you sang
I remember the way you looked tonight
And I remember the way it made me feel

So we try and try
Even if it lasts an hour
With all our might
We'll try and make it ours
Because we're on our way
We're on our way to fall in love

All the World is Green

Thursday morning- looking out on my Mom's backyard... A beautiful day Thursday for setting up. A beautiful day Friday (besides traffic pushing the rehearsal back an hour and 15 minutes)...

Saturday afternoon looking out at my Mom's backyard! The blurriness is raindrop induced. The umbrellas and shower-curtain-covered tables weren't for nothing! We were scheduled to start our running around taking fun pictures in about 6 different places at noon. I finally got dressed at 1:45 and made the call to go ahead with the outdoor ceremony rain or not. The puddles weren't so deep that you couldn't walk to the site and the cellist was cool as long as he had an umbrella. The rain held off for the giggle filled ceremony (the officiant started talking about our love of nature as 90 people sat cold and wet in the woods) and about 10 minutes worth of pictures. The dress was bustled and muddy, the veil even muddier as it fell off my head as we walked back down the aisle. Too bad we didn't really worry about rain- I was too worried about these guys who showed up on Sunday.

And I mean they SERIOUSLY showed up. This was at a friends' about 1/4 miles from my Moms' house.

We escaped North for a couple of nights as a gift from a group of friends. Beautiful weather Sunday and Monday as you can see from our view...

And to finish off the whirlwind-wedding-fun we had our "Cubby-moon!"

A loss for the Cubs of course, but an exciting 9th inning! It was a great weekend and we are so happy. Despite the laundry list of things that went "wrong" (there are a lot- from flowers being held for pests in Miami and subsequently ruined to the rain to the lack of pictures BECAUSE of the rain to fact that a tick got all up in my dress and made a nice home in my side during the reception), it was perfect. It was an adventure (thanks, weather!) and it was totally us. We are going to decompress for a few days, track down more cicadas and some more wedding pics and prep for field work (woo!). We can't thank everyone involved enough, everyone that came to celebrate with us and everyone that has supported us along the way!!

Update, bullet style!

S, V is complaining I haven't blogged in SO long. Even though we are spending time with each other FINALLY. So, for V who already knows all this anyways, here is what is going on....

• I didn't hotel blog because I didn't get their wireless signal then was stricken with a migraine. Non-smoking room my ass.
• I have the cutest kitties ev-eh! Turtle, in 4 months hasn't really grown. It is weird but so cute as she is might just be eternally kitten sized. Seymour is bratty and awesome as always =)
• I got my hair done today. It fell down in the wind.
• We got the tent put up today. It also is falling down in the wind.
• My dress fitting was horrendous. The seamstress hates me but if my 2 options are 1) have an inch gap at the top of the dress or 2) not be able to breathe and having my armpits look fat, then I need a third option as neither of those is acceptable. We got it worked out alright and will end up sewing my bra into the dress after I put it on so that it doesn't peak out the back. After altering the top to fit that particular bra, she decides to just pull the bra down 2 inches in the back. This messes up the front that we just spent 2 days to fix. Apparently I am the only one who sees that as a problem.
• I need a drink and a nap.
• V and I still haven't picked a dance song...
• We spent alllll day yesterday at the mall picking attendant gifts and clothes for V. He has some nice new duds!
• V is off to pick up his tux soon. I am going to buy ribbons and make place cards. gee. fun.
• There is evidence of cicadas but I have yet to see a live adult. At our ceremony site (where we discovered there is no power) we hopefully won't have to deal with the noisy buggers. If so, my brother is going to McGuyver together a PA system with a wireless mic, a laptop and a car battery.
• My Jaywalker is totally too small even for my moms size 8 feet! Will blocking help? I was on gauge almost perfectly so I don't get what happened! I have serious issues frogging. Should I frog the whole darn sock? Phooey! I need help with this thing!

Lovely Day

Yesterday the ladies at Desert Outpost threw me a surprise bridal shower (no pics since it was a surprise)! I had no idea and it was so nice. They even came up with an animal theme complete with fish plates and dog bone cookies labelled with my pets names. Apparently before I arrived someone at the coffee shop where it was held commented that it looked like such a fun birthday party for the 5th grader who was there! Is it weird that a biologists' bridal shower can be mistaken for a kids party? They gave us what might be V's favorite wedding gift- a gift certificate to Black Jungle. Wedding frogs!!!!!
It was really nice of them to do. It has been hard planning all of this while being away from V and I don't really know anyone here expect the people I work with- and since they all have families and lives, I rarely see them outside of work hours. So, for them to take time to plan and celebrate with me really means a lot. Of course, forcing me into a boutique to pick out lipstick afterwards was a bit much (my car was getting its oil changed so I was at their mercy). I got a good, not too mature looking, non-sticky, non-fading "Cherry Stain" though so I suppose it was a smart move overall.

I am done with running experiments for now. I have to clean up the lab and my testing area. Then it is off to packing, backing up data and finishing up/practicing my talk for 7th and 8th graders tomorrow. I also have to ball up the yarn for the second Jaywalker and I (foolishly?) cast on for another pinwheeel baby blanket. After socks on size 1s, the blanket on 7s seems like the fastest thing I have ever knit! I haven't picked out what projects go with me for the wedding either. The blanket would be mindlessly good but will soon require two colors of yarn. The Jaywalker would be best if I get the yarn ready. My second silk armwamer is the other option. Not yet cast on but really the best combo of a small, non-difficult project.
Wireless hotel blogging tomorrow night! Woo hoo!

Decisions decisions

V and I have not yet decided on a 'first dance' song for the wedding. He, in particular, is a music buff and has quite a collection. I know he has at least 1 250 gig hard drive full. Possibly more.
We both are particular about our music and mostly listen to music of the indie rock persuasion. Music has played a major role in our relationship. The fact that Vance knew bands I liked that none of my friends knew was instantly impressing to me. He gave me his phone number for the first time on a mixed cd and a lot of our fun times revolve around shows and concerts.
Unfortunately, despite all of this we don't have 'a song'. There are songs we listened to constantly at different stages of our relationship but no sort of love song that we claimed as our own. So how do you pick something? A classic would be good but I am a DancingFish for a reason. I want to really, properly dance to a classic song and V and I haven't had the opportunity to learn or practice. We have a bunch of other songs we like that would be pretty good and acceptable but nothing just screams- this is the perfect song!

It is causing me major anxiety.

An approximation

I am still in IL. Storms down south and cancelled flights meant I wasn't getting on a plane today so hopefully I will get back tomorrow. I am going to get some writing done this afternoon and play with some data. Or at least catch up on permit paperwork, thank yous from my shower and my Moms Jaywalker...

The fitting yesterday could have gone better. People keep telling me I am handling it well. The dress was 3.5 inches too short. I picked shoes based on the length of the sample dress so it wasn't the addition of the shoes. They got the sample and had me put it on. Low and behold! It was longer! They are sending my dress back to the designer after measuring the length difference. I won't be back till 4 days pre-wedding. If there is anything wrong then... well, I am trying not to think about it. Instead, I came up with the following artistic interpretation of 'DancingFish as Bride with short dress.' It is not my actual dress and while my real feet ARE sort of giant, they are obviously not proportional. I did this while having my coffee this morning and just gave up on the feet. Imagine what I could have done if I were sitting in an airport, waiting for a flight for 10 hours....

How are these NOT wedding shoes?

My Mom and I went shopping today. It was a fun time and the final pieces of wedding related stuff is coming together. I got undergarments and earrings. The earrings were 50% off! Woo Hoo!

Thanks to my hefty tax return and my Moms' encouragement, we went into Anthropologie. I spend hours drooling over their clothes online at Desert Outpost. I was appalled last time (the first time) I went there and discovered my ribcage was to big for any dress I liked. This time wasn't as bad. I wanted this....

However, the biggest size they had was a 4. Me in a 4? Yeah right. Instead I found a cute little blue/red stripey number (on sale!) that will be perfect for the post wedding Cubbymoon (we have super awesome access to great seats for the Cubs game 2 days after the wedding). No picture online anymore though. I also got this to dress up my wardrobe a bit...

I think it might be the first thing that is pink that I have owned in a looooong time. It was %50 off as well =)

Finally, I found my shoes for the wedding. I am still working on securing the color I want in the size I prefer (So far I have them in one EU size too small but they fit and aren't uncomfortable. They might be tight with socks on). The sales guy was appalled at the idea they would be wedding shoes. He gave us his card and wants pictures of these with the dress. I figure what is the point of buying nice shoes to wear only once under a long dress? I will wear these ALL. THE. TIME. They are really, really comfortable and there is no way I will slip and fall even if it rains. The company seems like a good, environmentally conscious one. The vegetable based dyeing process, use of recycled and natural rubber, and hand-stitched upper make them seem like they are a good investment that will last a very long time. They match our colors even! I absolutely love them!!! I must attend to a kitty now...

Fit to be tied

I am in wedding dress fitting hell. Despite being a week and a few thousand miles away from any actual dress fitting. We are getting jerked around by the bridal shop. The dress will be in in March, the dress will be in in April, the dress is in the store room, the dress won't be shipped till mid-May. I started leaving bitchy messages yesterday and V called me a bridezilla for the first time. Finally I got a real-sounding answer that the dress will be in by next week. In order to save my sanity and hopefully start my cool big time experiment sometime soon, I am piggybacking a trip to IL onto my trip to a conference this week. I will get to fly out of a bigger airport that I am close to anyways as opposed to driving 4 hours each way to fly out of a smaller airport. We will have to see how that goes...

Yesterday I got a call from a co-workers wife. He is out of town so she invited me to stay in their extra room for the week. I jumped at the opportunity, despite having only met her and her daughter once. A real bed, a great big hot shower (with a water softener!) and non-microwaved meals. Plus they have cute chickens and kitties and bunnies!! (don't worry I am taking my camera with me tonight!). It is just so nice of her to think of me and everything- it is probably the nicest thing anyone has done for me since I got here. Given that I am scheduled to drive all day Thursday (with a stop at my field site) and give a talk on Friday, a few good nights sleep will be important for me this week. Plus. BUNNIES!

More interesting than the last one...I promise

Wow, sorry about that ultra boring last post there, peeps!

I am still knitting on the Fetching gloves- I will have all but the thumbs done tonight. I am a bit nervous about the thumbs with them being made with live stitches from waste yarn....

I took yesterday off from knitting and went for a run instead. I was up to 4 times a week before my trip to IL but between having a cold and it being cold outside- I haven't run since then. Luckily the weather looks good all week!

On the work front- I sent the first draft of the major manuscript to my advisor today. Yay!! It is a really rough draft but I am so intimidated by it being such a major manuscript that I am completely stuck with it where it is. I used to think that papers needed to be perfect before anyone else saw them. Things would sit on my desk or on my computer screen for days, weeks, months at a time while I tweaked and revised them. Currently, I think that if stuck the best thing to do is to get it to a coauthor. A different perspective might fix MY stuck issue in a matter of hours. Even small edits might get me into thinking about the issue differently to fix it myself. Especially on projects that are not my dissertation work, I will take as much help as possible from anyone willing to give it.

Finally- I just bought my ticket to fly home for my wedding! V is a bit bothered that I bought plane tickets for a wedding taking place 3 weeks after ours before buying a ticket for our own wedding. Tickets for the later one were cheap so I pounced! Plus, I wasn't 100% about when/how I was getting back to Desert Outpost after our wedding so I waited. Anyways, Yippee! So excited!!! Here's a cat!!!

pomp and kitchen tools

I was in IL for my bridal shower last weekend and can not believe the amount of stuff we got! Everyone was so generous and I am really amazed at (but totally appreciate) the amount of support and good wishes for our wedding. Here are me and Artgirl, my maid of honor (and as of this afternoon, a new homeowner!) looking confused. A common look for both of us.

Like my corsage? My mom made me wear it. She was even kind enough to take me shopping for clothes so I didn't look nearly as dirty as I do on a usual day to day basis. I even got my hair cut for the second time in 18 months! It was really great to see everyone, but I feel like I only got to talk to anyone for about 45 seconds each. It was difficult to try to split my short amount of time because I haven't seen any of my own friends in 4 months, let alone my extended family, V's family and my mom's friends.

Returning to the desert and my lonely trailer has left me in a funk. I am not feeling well either which really doesn't help. My animals got messed up while I was gone so I am just now starting trials again. Also, been forcing myself to finish writing a little grant proposal due in a week. The big time grant proposal I submitted in January is supposed to be announced this week and I have all but figured out I didn't get it and wasn't even close. On the application, it said advisors would be contacted for references if the proposal was shortlisted. I asked mine if he was contacted but he had no clue what I was talking about. Darn. I thought that one was really good too.

Oh- I did a lot of knitting during my travels too, but haven't uploaded pictures yet so check back for those updates later!

Whoopsadaisie!

I am getting married May 26th in Northern Illinois. Outdoors. In a wooded conservation area. With a backyard reception. This is the map of the 2007 group of 17-year cicadas.

V is actually really excited by this. As long as one doesn't fall on me during the ceremony and I can avoid stepping on them (which is probably impossible), I will be fine too. You'd think biologists would have thought to look into this!

According to James Schuster, U of I Extension horticulture educator, Brood XIII "has a reputation for the largest emergence of cicadas known anywhere," said Schuster. "During the 1956 emergence, they counted an average of 311 nymphal emergence holes per square yard of ground in a forested floodplain near Chicago. This translates to one and a half million cicadas per acre. In upland sites, they recorded 27 emergence holes per square yard, translating to about 133,000 per acre. This number is more typical of emergence numbers but is still a tremendous number of insects."

I don't think I'll have enough favors for all these uninvited guests...

The Dress Looks Nice on You

I was previously engaged and in the excitement of wedding planning I found THE DRESS. I looked at thousands of dress and this was the only one that was everything I had ever wanted. It turns out that it was discontinued so I needed a sample in my size and color (white makes me look like death apparently). There was one 20 minutes from my house and I loved it. Bought it that day (for 40% off) and it sat in my moms' house since then.

When V and I got engaged, I figured I'd wear that dress. It was MY wedding dress, not my wedding dress for THAT wedding to THAT person. When I tried it on in May, the dress didn't seem to fit quite right but I figured a little toning up and alterations would take care of it. Last week I tried it on again and it was the same. The waist was 2 inches too high and REALLY uncomfortable for me. I just kept trying to pull the thing down.
So we went to the tailor to make sure I wasn't getting hysterical about nothing. She was no help and sort of a bitch. "Why did you buy a dress that doesn't fit you?" Ummmm, thanks? Why would you say that to a girl wearing a wedding dress and trying not to cry? There was nothing she could do about the ill fitting-ness or even the too-big top part which we just assumed would be fine. Tulle and beads make dress alterations impossible, I guess.
We spent the rest of the day looking for and finding me a new wedding dress. One bridal salon let us do everything- look through dresses, put on dresses, rip dresses (just kidding- I think). Another was stuck up and too expensive so didn't have ANYTHING for me to try on. The third was great. The second dress I tried on there was the new one, I didn't want to take it off! It is strapless, slim A-line with a lace overlay. It is champagne with ivory/silver/rum lace and looks really vintage-y. The dress looks great and I really, really like it. I might not even need alterations. From impossible alterations to none in 9 hours! It is not the dress I thought I would be wearing, but it is a great dress and most importantly, I feel great in it. I can't wait to wear it and can already see myself dancing with V in it.

We also have flowers, a caterer, a tent, a bridesmaid dress, and three registries. DJ and Officiant are still in the works but are underway. 8 days of stress but we have a wedding planned and I even got to sleep in this morning!