It's De-lovely

Everyone keeps asking about the honeymoon. I get that we were gone for two weeks and they may actually be interested in how the trip was but I feel that people are asking so that they can tell me what they did while I was gone. And then they're disappointed when I don't ask them how their... normal routine was. Selfish bastards.

Another thing people keep asking is what kind of food we ate. Someone actually asked me if we sampled the local cuisine. ... We went to Wales. It's in the United Kingdom, where they pretty much eat what we eat, with a bit more focus on prawn, leeks, and curry. They actually have prawn cocktail flavored crisps. And their food is labeled differently. Which is something I keep wanting to talk about with people but they never let me get there. So...

Things that are similar but with different names (I'm sure there's a word for this.):

• M&M's - they call them Smarties. They don't seem to have our version of Smarties.
• Lays Potato Chips - Walkers Potato Crisps. And the colors of the bags are different too! The salt and vinegar bag is green. I almost didn't buy them at first glance because I thought they were sour cream and onion. That flavor doesn't seem to exist, instead it's 'aged cheddar and onion.' That's the closest you'll get.
• Milky Way candy bar - it's a Three Musketeers bar. They're Milky Way is called a Mars Bar, which we have here but it's not the same thing.
• T. K. Maxx - T. J. Maxx. That's self-explanatory.

I'm sure there were a few other things too but I can't think of them. I took pictures of the most random shit, so I'm sure there are pictures of the alternate named things. We also found out that peanut butter isn't really popular over there. We stayed in Cowbridge and occasionally ventured into Cardiff, and we couldn't find a single store selling peanut butter. When we went to England, the friends we stayed with claimed to have bought some recently but I wasn't shown a jar so I don't believe it.

The cottage we stayed in was what one would call 'charming.' (It really was too.) It's a converted 17th century stable, aptly named The Old Stables. There were skylights in every room but the master bedroom, there was even one in the shower. Not in the bathroom, but the shower itself. It wasn't very big but I would say it was slightly larger than cozy. Were two people to live together in it for an extended period I don't think they would kill each other. (That's a new measurement of space. Feel free to use it.) One floor, wood floors in the living room and bedrooms (of which there were two) and the original stone slabs in the kitchen and bathroom. We even had a tiny washer in the kitchen. And the kitchen was better stocked than ours, utensil and flatware wise. There were four cutting boards. Who is cutting that much stuff and doesn't have the time to rinse the board off?
Oh, unfortunately I'm mildly allergic to the pillows and comforters we had. I thought they were just generic feather-stuffed, turns out they were legit goose-down. Also turns out I'm legit allergic to that shit. I didn't realize that though until we got back and I had good lighting in the bathroom to see my freaked out face. My sinuses were all wacky, I thought, from the weather and whatnot, so when I would wake up with watery eyes or a scratchy throat I just chalked it up to sinus stuff. But no, I was slowly suffocating every night. I know this not because I went to a doctor when I came home but because I saw the strange red spots around my eyes and jumped to a conclusion, which I'm okay with.
My eyes aren't swollen anymore and the red spots are going away so I'm sure there's no reason to see a medical professional.

We ate at a McDonald's (I know, how exotic) and Jeremy ordered nuggets and asked for honey but they misheard him and gave him curry. They frickin' love curry over there. Everyone thinks they love their fish 'n chips, and they do, but they are also crazy for Indian food. We talked about trying it and I was all for it but Jeremy's not very adventurous when it comes to food so we never did. He says it's because he wasn't blown away by the curry sauce at McDonald's, which is like saying you don't want to try steak because you didn't care for the burgers. The point being that McDonald's is not the standard for you to make good eating decisions by. Maybe we would've loved Indian food. Now we'll never know. (Cause I don't know where there's an Indian restaurant around here.)

We saw a bunch of castles, some of them in ruins but still preserved enough that you can walk around in them without fear of slipping and dying. One of them we actually walked to from our cottage. Not that it was just down the street but it was close enough, and we walked like crazy over there. We surmised that we walked more in the two weeks we were there than in two months here. Even when we went into Cardiff, we parked in a garage and spent the day in town. It's so hard to find parking, or just to maneuver a car there in general, it's easier just to either park in a garage, or take public transport. We did the first because we rented a car, but if we had known before what we know now we would just rely on buses and taxis. It didn't help that Jeremy was the only one who could drive (it would've been super expensive to add me because I'm just a young 'in.) so we had to rent a standard sized car, which doesn't seem that bad but when you put it in the perspective that the majority of roads are designed for Mini Coopers or similar we had a huge car. And I don't think the people of Wales were very pleased with our large, clearly American car taking up their road. But I wasn't very pleased with their super tiny roads and super aggressive driving habits.

Back to the castles though, these things are just... wherever. It's like instead of clearing space they just build around existing objects, which would certainly explain the roads. Cardiff Castle is literally right in the middle of downtown Cardiff. We were walking on a street and on one side is a grocery store, a Burger King (do not eat at the Burger King near Morgan Arcade. It's filthy and the meat tastes weird.) and then all of a sudden a castle. Well, a castle wall. Jeremy asked if it was a castle and I was like, ' Jeremy I'm sure there isn't a castle just in the middle of town.'
Turns out there is. It's on Castle Street, or Avenue, whichever it's still a castle just hanging out downtown. And nobody really seemed to notice it. It was a little disheartening. I mean, I know these people live there and they see it everyday, but still the way they just walked on by like it wasn't an important construct or relevant to their present state of life was a little bit like a slap in the face. I saw these things and I wanted to tell people about them but everyone who wasn't clearly a tourist with a camera and a European man bag (we saw quite a few of those) had this attitude that made me feel like I was inferior to them for finding something incredible.
Pompous Welsh. Your land was founded on coal, you're not better than me!

That's all I've got for now, but obviously a bunch of other stuff happened. I knew I should've kept writing while we were away. I kept a paper journal, why didn't I just keep a digital one?

I Wrote You a New Post, Ash

Apparently my place of employment changed their hours. Our regional manager stopped by and saw three customers waiting for the store to open and decided that that was as good a reason as any to open the store an hour early from now on. And I guess not one day since have we had a customer come in before ten. I found that amusing. Until I realized that it means my hours are going to get cut unless they push back the shipment time to 4 am, which means I'll be getting up at 3 am and at that point I may as well just get an overmight job somewhere. Wonder if Walmart's hiring.

In other news, I started a new story but then I stopped it cause I sidetracked catching up on Pretty Little Liars. (I can feel you judging me, Ashley. And I've accepted it.)

Oh, and I went to Wales. For my honeymoon. Cause I got married.

No big deal.

Leaving on a jet plane...

Typing as we drive to New York to fly to London to drive to Wales. Well, dad's driving and we're hanging out all cramped and whatnot in the backseat. I'm both super excited and super nervous. I've never been out of the continent before, and I've only flown twice in my life; and the one time it was a helicopter and I was a tiny tiny child. I'm not nervous about flying, just nervous about being in two different airports and having no idea where I'm going. I hate not knowing exactly what I'm doing or where I'm going. We both got international permits so Jeremy doesn't have to drive the whole time but it costs extra to add me as a driver so we were thinkinh of just not. Don't tell the British transit authority that.

Alright I'm leaving it at that for now. We got a new camera so we'll take lots of photos and if I'm feeling interested I might keep updates and post some pictures. Or I might not and just enjoy my honeymoon. (Wedding post will go up though, it's necessary.)

I'm Drinking Peppermint Iced Tea

(That has nothing to do with this post, it's just delightful tea and homemade. By me. In my home.)

So it's been getting closer and closer to the wedding and I'm going to be honest: when I asked Jeremy yesterday morning if we were getting married in a little over two weeks and he said yes, I swore. Which was not the reaction he anticipated but as a planner (ie, a person who plans) this realization sneaked up on me, and it was not the reaction I would've expected from myself either.

The trouble, I think, with a small wedding is that because there is so little to prepare for that you think you have all this time and you really don't. There are no invites for the ceremony itself because it's a handful of people and I'm wasting a stamp on them (I said it). The reception invites don't go out out until the 11th (a Monday) because they say when we were married and I don't want them going out early and confusing people. However, I still haven't finished the invites (although the one's I have finished look lovely and I'm quite proud of them).

My dress isn't finished yet either. This is very irritating to me. (More irritating because I'm going to have to hear from my brother how he told me I shouldn't have had my aunt make the dress, and I'm going to punch him in the face when he says it. Be forewarned Scooter.) Over a year ago she offered to make the dress for me, I didn't ask her. Between my mom and her they decided it would be really nice and inexpensive for her to make my dress and I agreed, cause I figured she would have a year to work on it and it wouldn't be a problem and I could set it aside happily waiting for the day when I could wear it. And then until March, nothing happened. And then until last month, even after we had the material and everything, she still hadn't taken measurements. (To be fair, I did want to lose some weight but I was pretty close to my goal back in May and she hadn't made any progress.)

So I'm both annoyed and eagerly waiting for my stupid dress to be finished. Back to the planner thing though, I have a back-up dress. On the (hopefully) slim chance that my dress isn't done, I've acquired a cheap thrift store dress (shut up Ashley) that is surprisingly lovely and it's even white. Although that doesn't really make a difference. When I bought it, about two years ago, I didn't realize that the jackass who owned it prior apparently couldn't think of a sensible way to get out of it and so they cut the neckline. (It's a halter, you can see how this is a problem.) I saw it, it looked cute, and I bought it without trying it on. Then I got home and saw the clever hidden safety pins holding the stupid thing together and never got around to fixing it. So yesterday I took it to an alterations place where they informed me there were two options of fixing it:

1. we charge a chump-change amount and it looks like crap, or worse, something you could've done yourself
2. we charge a reasonable amount, that is still much more than you paid for it originally, and it looks like we actually tried to be professional and not snotty about it

I went with option 2.

I'm also struggling to find gifts for people. Etiquette tells me that I should give a gift to my officiate, my photographer, my maid of honor, and my dress maker. Well personal etiquette at least, they're not charging me anything and it's an important day for me and that they've cleared their schedule for that means a lot to me. They're also friends of mine and I should give them something for their help. My maid of honor is taken care of, and I'm pretty sure I have a respectable gift for my aunt, but I have no idea what to get the other two. I thought about a uniform gift for everyone but then it seemed impersonal. So I thought about individual gifts for each but then that seemed to exhibit favoritism. So I settled on a small individual gift as well as a small uniform gift. Except my maid of honor is my brother (yes, back to him which Becca agrees is the kinder and more suitable choice. plus she'll still be there cause I decided I don't care who wants to bitch about non-family being there. it's my wedding.) so if I go with something uniform it has to be unisex in some way. And then I feel bad for not getting anyone else a gift, like his parents, my parents, or his friend who is our back-up photographer, and especially my brother and his wife. Of all the people I want to be saying thank you to they definitely come near the top. AND, the backyard is going to look like a redneck's haven. Yay.

Work Rant Part... large number

I'm annoyed that my stupid supervisors have waited this long to give me more hours. They ask me to stay later and joke that they're doing it so I can have money for the honeymoon. Or they'll ask me to pick up a shift, or two, or three and smile knowingly like we're in on something together: 'These three hours you just agreed to will most assuredly pay for fine dining and souvenirs. You're welcome.'
If these hours are available a month before I'm leaving the country, why were they not available two months before? Or three? Or ever? You hapless retards.

In other news, we're buying cheap-ish announcements but I'm making the invites. There aren't a lot of people coming (fingers crossed, not that I don't want people to celebrate but I'm not a big-party person) so it's not a time consuming thing. I wanted to make them originally but then we ended up with a crazy guest list and I was all, fuck that. And then we cut the list in 3/4 and now I get to make them again. My brother off-handedly suggested that they should be on this stationary that I have but the colours don't match so I'm getting some pretty stamps and some ink, and I'm reception invitation-ing up this place! ... whatever that means.

also, i'm getting married in 32 days and i'm almost at my goal weight and so is jeremy. we still have to buy luggage. other than that, we're pretty much ready to do this.

This one goes out to the ladies

i'm posting this from my phone so punctuation just went out the window. this keypad looks a lot bigger than i remember it being. the buttons are like the size of my pinky nail, which isn't really that big but it's still quite large.

anyway, things that i've been up to:

had measurements taken for my dress

went on a mini family vacation (mini because it was both a weekend trip and half the family wasn't able to go)

saw my cousin get high, offer it to everyone (it was totally adorable), get the giggles in like a minute, then pass out like it was her job not even thirty minutes later

remembered why i love my brothers wife (i don't call her sister-in-law because i don't ever want people to think i mean jeremy's sister)

writing a cult classic about a girl who hears voices in the water and connects to her long dead family through them with the help of her cousin... that one's probably not going to happen. it sounds stupid. but i have been fairly diligently writing.

oh, i also had someone show interest in a coffee cup i designed on etsy and that seemed promising except thwy live in europe. and it would cost a crap ton to ship it there. i would lose money and i'm not ready to lose money when i haven't even made money yet.