So what exactly is the purpose of wedding registries? I have realized over the past few weeks that there is really not much point to registries in general. Even the people at JCPenny’s agreed… They said people come in, take one look at what you register for and then say, well, I don’t like that, so I’m not going to get it.

So we’ve been opening gifts for a while now (still keep trickling in), and I think we have gotten a grand total of about 10 things from all our registries, and that includes the three wooden spoons I registered for (thank you, Big Mike). Now, don’t get me wrong, none of you who read this bought of gifts that were pointless… for example, one of you got us a afghan that is just great, and Deedee appreciates it very much, and so do I, since it allows me to turn the A/C down to something reasonable (read: freezing). One of you bought us a super-spiffy turntable edition of the game we registered for. No problems there, upgrades are welcome. One of you bought doritos, which, while not on the registry (almost were), is a great example of a well thought out gift.

But what’s with the compote? A lady from my mom’s work bought us a lead crystal compote. It took me forever just to figure out what the thing was, and I still haven’t figured out what it does. The best we’ve come up with is that it holds banana pudding. After three days of looking, we finally found out where it came from, and we traded it in for a towel. Yes, one towel. It wasn’t a very expensive compote. Btw, thank you to those of you who bought towels. They are also a good example of a useful gift that we happened to need since mine disappeared.

Do you know that we registered for about 40 DVDs? I say we because it wasn’t just my idea, nor were they all for me. Deedee and I split the DVDs. It’s funny, though, because we didn’t actually get any DVDs out of all the ones we registered for. That’s ok, though… we probably would have had to take them back to buy towels.

Taking stuff back. Now there’s a fun adventure everyone should go on. By the time it was all said and done, we had over $400 in gift cards. Some of that came directly as gift cards, but a fair amount came from returning stuff. Of course, you have to make at least two trips to every store — one to find out where things came from, and one to actually take it back. I should also add, for fairness, that we did take some stuff back just to be picky. For example, we had so many red towels, that we took some back and traded them in for green towels. That’s actually one thing we did try to do… We tried to buy stuff that resembled what the original gift was for. Like taking back one set of duplicate oven pans and buying some slightly different pans.

I feel like if I continue telling you about all the stuff we took back, you’re going to start worrying, “did they take back my stuff? didn’t they like it?” etc, etc, etc. Well, let me reiterate, I can’t think of anyone reading this that any of this applies to. That’s why I’m writing about it.

And if you didn’t buy us anything… well… there’s still time. just kidding! We are so broke that if any of you decide to get married in the next 12 months, our gift to you will be showing up… maybe. If gas prices get much higher, you may not get that.

On that note, I have to say a huge thank you to everyone who showed up, including those of you who will never read this. We both had fears of an empty church, and let me just say that it was anything but empty. If anything, it was a little crowded, which was great. That was a great gift, actually. I wanted to stay there and just talk with all the people who showed up, some of which I hadn’t seen or really talked to in years. I thank you very much. Unfortunately– No… Fortunately, Deedee and I had other things to attend to after the reception. And in the immortal words of Forrest Gump, “That’s all I got to say about that.”

This entry is getting a bit long, but I still haven’t told you anything about the honeymoon. Ok, ok… I’ll try to make it short, though.

It was great. The End.

We went to New Orleans for four days, and that was pretty fun. At some GREAT hamburgers at “Port of Call.” Took a lot of good pictures, which we hope to post online sometime or another. Then, we took a cruise to Cozumel, Mexico. I have to say that at first I was a little hesitant about the idea of a cruise. I wasn’t quite sure it would really suit me. I was afraid being trapped on a boat in the middle of the sea for a couple of days wouldn’t really be that fun. Allow me to say that I was wrong, and my mom is awesome for giving us a cruise for our wedding. It would double the length of this entry to tell you all the things there were to do on the ship. The comedian nearly killed me, and so did all the food. Non-stop food. 24/7. Five course meals, as well as free room service. 24/7. You can order a brownie at midnight, or a ham sammich at 4am. You can even leave little notes on your door of what you want at what time, and they will come by at that time and drop it off. Lots of food. The food wasn’t the best part, though… it was just a big part. The best part, for us, was the shore excursions. (I know I’m repeating myself, but…) Let me just say:

Scuba diving is awesome!!!

Yes, Deedee and I went scuba diving. and snorkeling, but let me just say that snorkeling doesn’t hold a candle to scuba diving. Snorkeling was a group of 75 people from the back of a boat, and we ran into another group at least as big. Scuba diving was 6 people, and that was too big, so they split us into two groups. Snorkeling was from the surface, and everything is about 30 feet below you. Scuba diving was 30 feet down and everything is right in front of you. We also have pictures of this that we hope to put online soon.

Anyway, we’re back from Mexico now. Next time we go, we’re going to take preorders for alcohol. because it’s cheap. Like, 3 Liters of Crown Royal for $40, cheap. 1L of Kaluah for $10, cheap.

Ok… I really should stop writing. I’ll have to tell you later about things like, the six pieces of furniture I have bought and put together in the past week… or the new linux box we have, or our internet, or the painting, or the fire in the microwave that no one told me about, or Shanghai.

ok… later!

Still no time.  Internet coming.  Meanwhile, here’s the:

Quote of the Day:

“I mean, sure, they put “congratulations” on the bottom of the check, but they probably put “water bill” at the bottom of the next one.”

Conversation of the Week: (I overheard this from the clerk at the electric company while waiting for her to get off the phone so that I could pay my bill)

“I can’t believe they have me working here by myself in the middle of the day when it’s all busy [there was no one else there].  I mean, first, one girl called in sick, and another girl decided to take a vacation.  And the last guy, well he just up and got brain cancer.” 

up and got brain cancer… how dare he…  he should have known better than to leave her to work by herself where the only line was me and it was only because she wouldn’t get off the stupid phone and take my money.  I had to leave quickly.

speaking of leaving quickly…  must go… benedryl is starting to work.

back from Mexico and New Orleans. More on that later… this is just a test post, afterall.

p.s. Scuba diving is awesome.

Bachelor party was tonight. It actually went ok. Started kinda rough when only three people (including me) showed up. In the end, I got to hang out with the people who are the most important — my brother, my best men, my closest friends. With the exception of deedee not being there, I’d say it went pretty well. It involved pool and pool. That’s to say we shot pool for three hours, then went to my cousin’s and went swimming and grilled some burgers. Then played some good, ol’ fashioned Shanghai. They even let me win.

Now I just have to get to business getting ready to get married. I came to the realization that I will leave this house on thursday and will never return to it single again. It’s more significant than it sounds, really. For over 25 years of my life, my home has been with my family. It has been in this house for 14 years. When I leave here on thursday, I will never return home. Not here, at least. I’ll have a new home, in a shabby little two bedroom apartment (that’s slightly burned currently) in Po’Dunk. It’s a big thing to deal with, even if you have known it was coming and accept it completely.

I was gonna write up some stuff about how this seems like a logical time in one’s life to contemplate all the wildly different (and slightly different) directions your life could have taken… I think I’m just too tired to write that up, though.

Plus, I am greatly annoyed with myself. Here it is, six days til my wedding, and I keep getting distracted with this stupid opportunity that has presented itself. It’s so distracting that I’ve already wasted three days on it in the past week, and Deedee and her family are going to waste a day on it, too. It’s semi-exciting, because I like the idea, and I can swing it, financially speaking; however, there are some substantial obstacles to overcome, and even then, it may end up not being worth it. Even so, it’s so tempting that I have told everyone I have talked to about its possibilities, and have gotten other people involved in my what-if-ing, as well. Everyone has some piece of advice to offer about it, and even the people who normally are the most negative about ideas like this have had at least something positive to say to go along with their warnings and cautions. This is something that needs to have about two weeks worth of research put into it, but something that I really should not worry about until at least after the honeymoon. It’s difficult to put off something that gets even the mother of the bride excited and distracted from the wedding. I guess that’s exactly why it should wait, eh?

yes, I’m still blogging. No, you can’t see it; my blog is still down.

I’m getting married in 9 days. How about that? Things are coming together… and they should be considering the time left. Found some reallllly good deals on some last minute things (like a cake), and deedee’s parents had a bit of a windfall, which helps a lot with the $$. Getting married is not cheap. Even cheap weddings are expensive.

and stressful.

Add to that the fact that Nathan, the guy who is apartment-sitting for me, set my apartment on fire yesterday. 911, fire department, and the whole nine yards. Now, the front part of the apartment has to be repainted. Wonderful. $$$.

Never start a conversation with, “well, I just got off the phone with the fire department, and… ”

In good news, I now have renter’s insurance. Something about almost having your apartment burn down makes little things like that seem a little more important.

I’m also teaching my brother how to drive. Someone needs to, and mom and dad are too busy. Shame I don’t have more time around here before I go back to starkville.

Gotta run… btw, I still love Final Fantasy II/IV. The playstation updated version is worth playing. Turns out there were two versions, and the original US release was the easy one. The new PS version is the hard version. I have to say it is a bit harder. More items and special abilities…

There have been lots of good quotes lately… I just wish I could remember them all…

Quotes of the Week.

“Oooo, pretty! It’s all sunlight and crap!” —

“Your child’s hair color is gorgeous.” “Thanks, he picked it out himself.” –

“She wouldn’t know the definition of ‘clean’ if Merriam-Webster tatooed it on her a**!” —

I saw Sooj yesterday. She’s actually very very good. I highly recommend going and seeing her if you get the chance. Anyone with her voice should be making a couple of million a year singing. Check out her website, if you’re interested.

As you can plainly see, my website is down right now. So why am I blogging, you ask? Simple… I’ve already lost 3 or 4 posts because I didn’t feel like writing posts that no one could see, and if I keep up that attitude, I’ll lose another month worth of stuff that could go on my website when it comes back up. I was recently reminded of how much this website serves to chronical my life to a certain extent. My sister found this site a while back and went back and read the entire thing. All 2 3/4 years of it.

One of the things that I hate most about being me is my bad memory. Let me be more specific, my bad memory for people, places, and events of the past. My past. I apparently have some really great stories in my past, and when people who were there tell the stories, it’s like hearing stories about other people, and I occasionally feel bad that I can’t remember them. It’s sad that my memories have to be told in the third person.

And it’s not just things from high school, either. I sometimes can’t remember things or people from just a little while ago. For example, I spent an entire semester marching and talking with mellophone player that I would have considered a friend at the time, but I ran into her at the beginning of the spring, and I couldn’t remember who she was. I had to ask Deedee how I knew her, and Deedee explained to me who she was and how I knew her and her name. That’s just sad. It did signify one thing, though… When I become director of NASA, I am going to pay Deedee to come to every social function with me and whisper in my ear who people are and why they’re important and how I know them. Proof that behind every great man, there’s a woman with an excellent memory (isn’t that how that goes?).

I also have a bad habit of checking the mail more than once a day. This is probably the biggest cause of concern to me, because everytime Deedee points out to me that I’ve already checked the mail today, I am reminded of Celine’s neighbor who had alzheimer’s and checked her mail 11 or 12 times a day. Well, if I’m already up to 2 or 3, I’m not in good shape, am I? Can’t be good to have early signs of alzheimer’s when I’m only 25, can it?

I guess I’m not to horribly concerned because there are things I remember. Pointless things, like telephone numbers from 1989 and others I’ve only called once, social security numbers for people I met 7 years ago, 7! (5040), Pi to 8 digits, and the number of licks it takes to get to the tootsie roll center of a tootsie pop (thank you, Brian). I also remember scientific crap, like the mass of the sun in grams, the glide slope of a 767-200, and the significance of 1.21 GWatts. I can also recite the Prologue to the Canteburry Tales in perfect middle english. (I imagine that will come in handy one day, like I’ll be walking through the mall and someone will yell out, “I’ll give a million dollars to the first person to correctly recite the prologue to the cantebury tales in middle english.” … yeah)

Somehow remembering little factoids doesn’t make up for lost memories, though. Given the choice, I think I’d rather remember my own life than the highlights of someone else’s.

Until the time that I check my mail a dozen times a day, I’ll keep writing, and hopefully I’ll remember everything a little better. If not, it’ll make for some good stories for the old and senile me.

I’ve heard someone say “you learn something new everyday” about 12 times today… So I thought I’d share with you my “something new” of the day. Someone finally explained to me what the whole “once removed” thing is all about when it comes to family. “first cousin, once removed”… I get it now… Where as most family names refer to how far apart you are horizontally along your family tree, removed refers to vertical separation. For example, my mom’s first cousin would be my first cousin, once removed. Likewise, my cousin’s daughter is also my first cousin, once removed.

Anyway… other than that, same ol’ same ol’ here… I started playing texas hold ‘em on yahoo games. I’ve played for about an hour over the past few days, and I’m up $400. Not bad considering they start you out with $1000, and the max raise is $2.

In other news… wait… I don’t really have any other news. other than I’m leaning back in the same chair that I yelled at my sister for leaning back in earlier. sorry, sis.. I see what you mean. this chair is just very lean-back-able.

They are here, and I want one.

Well, it’s about midnight, and I should be asleep… but for some reason, I’m typing. I feel like there’s something I should be doing right now, but it’s midnight, and I’m quite sure I didn’t have anything scheduled for now. I think it has something to do with the fact that I’m getting married in a month. less than a month. We’ve got a lot accomplished in the last few days, but we still have some important things left on the to-do list.

We sent out most of the invitations a few days ago. It was a whole lot of letters to dump in the post office at one time. We have gotten most everyone, but there’s still a few of you that I can’t get in contact with. If you didn’t get one, and you want one, please email me your address. I’ve been running into people randomly for the past couple of days and stopping them and making them write down their address. Ran into Jeremy at a wedding yesterday, and that was good, because I didn’t even know how to get in touch with him. So if you haven’t sent me your address, you should go ahead and do it, so I don’t have to hunt you down at the grocery store or the gas station. makes things much easier…

We decided on music for the wedding, and I think I’m gonna offer some sort of door prize to whomever can correctly guess the theme of the music. Also, if you are a professional baker who wishes to donate a cake out of the goodness of your heart (or at least for under $1000), please let me know. I cannot justify spending that much money on something edible.

Well… I guess I’m gonna go stare at the wall for a while… Someone should call me… I obviously can’t call you… you’re asleep.

Learned an important lesson tonight. When fighting three opponents, two of which you are blindly fighting behind you, one must still be aware of where one’s hands are.

Quote of the Day:

Deedee: You’re laughing at me.

Me: No I’m not… I just have something funny in my eye.