Doooon't stop, beeeelievin'....

I assure you, blog, I have not been ignoring you. I have been simply uninspired.

So far I have managed to surpass my two-minute-in-a-half-hour-session walking/jogging time to five minutes and 40 seconds. Not all at once (mrr), but still any improvement right now is encouraging and I'm very grateful for it.

The Top Ten of the Rar. Keep Moving. Playlist:
1) Only the Young (Journey)
2) I've Just Seen a Face (Across the Universe)
3) You Already Know (Train)
4) The Devil is Bad (W's)
5) Any Way You Want It (Journey)
6) It Won't Be Long (Across the Universe)
7) Ma Ya Hi (American Remix) (O-ZONE)
8) Seperate Ways (Worlds Apart) (Journey)
9) The Sound (Switchfoot)
10) Lights (Journey)

There's more on there, but it's being switched around and whittled down.

In other news, VBS is coming up in about three weeks and it's (truthfully) probably the first time I've looked quite this forward to it. We're cutting it down to two hours instead of three for one thing which I love. Take into account we start at 6:00 PM. Little kids at 9:00 at night? They no longer care. They just want to go to bed. I can't say I blame them after 3 hours every night. So to make up for the time cut we're smashing together crafts and missions (my class) which I think will work fine. Most of the classes, except maybe bible study, don't use the full 30 minutes anyway.

Admittedly a lot of my old underlying frustration with VBS came from feeling it was too "churchy." Make sense? It's been around forever. I wasn't sure it was even accomplishing anything anymore. And I don't remember being too fond of it as a kid. So with all these thoughts in mind, my view of VBS was tainted and with each passing year I had more and more trouble volunteering.
That is, until last year, where my view was altered entirely.

Ah! That sounds like a blog post. Inspiration! You'll have to wait.

Mmm....I'm trying to be good and healthy but all I can dream of is chocolate chip cookie bars.

Curious Links:
Taxi Driver Relies on Yap-Nav (Dun dun dun...The Return of Ananova)

Infinity Pool on the 55th-Story of Hotel (Now World's Most Expensive Hotel)

Happy Weeding

This actually happened over a week ago now, but between the paranoia that she would call me angry or in tears and the excitement over Tate it was shoved to the side.

I have officially completed my first wedding! Well, 'first' as in, the 'first' I've taken from the very first phone call, completed the consultations, did the follow ups, worked with my boss on checking pricing and finished the bouquets.

Not to say I did it by myself, however. If it weren't for my boss and coworkers I would have been incredibly lost. Pricing a wedding? Discovering how to get the best bang for their buck for their budget? Making sure you understand the bride's vision so you can carry it into their bouquets and make wise spur-of-the-moment-when-needed decisions? Having someone to bounce ideas off of?

My bride (my bride) wanted all hydrangeas. Hydrangeas can be scary. They're very finicky. If they're not happy they can quickly turn brown and die. Which happened, actually. We had tinted her toss bouquet with some whitewash to fade out the blue and it lasted until she got her hair done. I actually wasn't at work that day, but a coworker called me later saying she had had to replace the bouquet and run it out to the chapel. She double-checked the rest & confirmed they were fine. So while we've successfully painted hydrangeas in the past this particular type of paint was just too strong. Noted.

Enough. I'm forcing pictures on you.
Her colors were tiffany blue, light blue & white.)

The Bridal Bouquet:


Please note how thick the handle is at the back of the picture. Ten hydrangeas. This thing was like a club. I could've taken someone out with it.

The Mother's Bouquet:


My bride opted out of corsages for the mothers and went with handheld bouquets of a single hydrangea cupped with babies breath instead. I wish I had a closeup of all her ribbons. She personally brought them in and I loved the white ribbon with circles all throughout it. Elegant and yet fun. Perfect.

The Reception Centerpieces:


Seriously, I know it looks like those things just dropped in there, but that's far from the truth. The hydrangeas were so large they toppled over. Bubbles, wirework and lots of manipulating of leaves later, Imy & I finally worked out a system and the others went (mostly) smoothly.

Major Things I Learned:
1) Honesty is priceless. I know this, but it was just reaffirmed. Just because I thought the leaves coming up through the flowers looked cool, it doesn't mean it did. And now that I go back and look at the pictures, and what my bride wanted, it would've been a huge mistake. I'm very pleased with how it turned out and the leaves would've destroyed the look she was going for. Much appreciation to Pam & Imy.

2) You could ask a thousand pertinent questions and still get down to the day of the wedding and realize you really needed to ask about fifteen more. This is where wise-choices-for-spur-of-the-moment questions come in. It will always happen. Just accept it.

3) I have so much to learn.

Honestly, I got really lucky. My bride was awesome-- very fun and very sweet-- and I work with people who are also awesome (and patient). And although it did cause a lot of stress & fear of what will she think and what will go wrong I really did enjoy the whole process.

Still, though, I agree with my boss. I would rather design a casket spray.

Like Grandmother, Like Granddaughter

Snapshots in time from Calamity Ranch 3 (which sounds like a video game title.)

Last night Grandma was talking to my aunt on the phone and assured her she had been taking "brain food." When my aunt asked what it was, Grandma suddenly realized she couldn't remember.

Today I learned that if do not focus on walking while on the treadmill, if I let my mind wander to almost anything else I will nearly fall off the side of it. And since apparently I don't learn from my mistakes this will nearly happen three times. I'm hoping that whenever I finally do get thrown off backwards and land on the floor that I don't crash into anyone.

This evening Grandma & I were leaving a restaurant when I absentmindedly started walking to the passenger side of the car, despite the fact that I had drove, and just about the time I realized my mistake Grandma nearly strangled herself by running into a taunt wire from a telephone pole.

Grace 1 and Grace 3 in action. Seriously, should we even be allowed in the same house? :)

More on Tate / Playlist Assistance

So since I found out I can give his soon-to-be-legal American name (but just not the currently-legal African one) I can assure you baby Tate is incredibly cute. He's 5 1/2 months old. I already have pictures to show off, so be sure to ask if you see me (again, can't post anything online yet). Even if you don't ask I'm sure you'll see them anyway and possibly numerous times since I keep forgetting who already has.

I could use some help. I'm working on a playlist for walking/jogging music and would really love some ideas. I tend to struggle with treadmills because 1) they cause major mental boredom and 2) they cause major mental boredom. I'm walking. W-a-l-k-i-n-g. They have tv's and I have mp3's so you wouldn't think it would matter but it does. So I have to keep myself moving, not bored and have major motivation. So far I've been listening to all Journey because they're pretty much spot-on what I'm looking for. They're strong driving beats with that great 80's dramatic flair. It opens with a great warm up in "Only the Young" and ends with "Lights." The current favorite of the bunch, however, is "Seperate Ways (Worlds Apart)". It feels epic. Boss battle epic. I could take this treadmill down (not really please!). It's also great to envision how you would rock out to it. But I'm needing some variety. And googling "exercise music lists" just isn't working. (They keep suggesting Fergie & Jay-Z. No.)

I'm vaguely considering the idea of joining Komen's Race for the Cure 3-mile run in October. Currently I can't run (um, jog) more than two minutes in any half hour session, so any time I mentally commit my body shivers in fear. Yikes. But I do love that Komen has a Sleep In For the Cure. That rocks. :)

Blog Feature: Why I Read the Blogs I Read

I've considered this for awhile, but today seems the perfect time to try it. I'm so excited I'm a bit scatterbrained, so this post may weave around a bit.

Why do I read A Plumb Crazy Life? For starters, they're my cousins, (and they're awesome) but let's look at the backstory for their blog.

My cousin Brian & his wife Shannon, are in the process of adopting a baby boy from Ethiopia and the simple version is that this is their story of that process. But I have learned more about international adoption and adoption in general through their blogs and through ones that they read themselves. I have learned more about the good, the bad and the ugly of the whole process than I thought I would have ever be interested in. And I love it.

Today's the perfect day to bring this up because today they RECEIVED THEIR REFERRAL. Yes, that has to be in all caps. The referral (as I've learned through their's and others attached) is when you receive for the first time information on your soon-to-be child. They requested a boy, they requested a baby, but that's all they knew. The referral is when you first receive a name, an age, a history, pictures, video, everything. It's incredibly important and emotional. This is your child. And then the hard part follows: now you have to wait until you pass through court to actually receive him. Ah! Here's your child- in a few months, whenever the court decides, then you'll get to finally hold him. o_O

I can't help but add my response to this because it caught me so off-guard. Let's face it - there's pieces of my heart that never really engage. Don't misinterpret that- it's not that I don't care or I don't love someone or I wouldn't fight to defend or protect them. But there's just pieces that never respond despite that. But this afternoon I got a sneak peek at a picture and I was shocked to feel myself leap with joy all over the place inside. He's so cute. I mean, all smiles. Curly, curly hair.

And while I've read over and over that adoption has to be selfish in a way, the parent has to want the child, etc. It can't just be "oh, I'm helping a kid out" because there's often struggles with bonding in cases like that, but I think I can't help but respond to they're helping an orphan. This kid will have a whole new life. He'll have a whole family.

Yes, there will be struggles. I have no doubt there'll be painful situations later. But for now, for now, joy, rapture, glee... He'll be their baby! He'll be one of my kids.

And now for those that pray, the request: a court date before the rainy season. During the rainy season, court completely shuts down for a month or more, and they may have to wait until October or November if that happens. O_O So...court date, court date, court date!

Tomorrow I get to see pictures! Sadly, we can't share online (I don't think) until he's officially theirs. But I get to see them! Bwahahaha!

Tony's Recap: Nothing for it but a ragtime tune...

I'm sure you've all been waiting with bated breath.

Despite not being that excited about the Tony's, I still found myself running home from church to hurry, mow the lawn and leap onto the couch moments before it started. So it's still tucked down in there even with all the disappointment of the season. But I digress.

(my personal opinions only, as always)

Overall, I really felt this year's season - at least the musicals - were very mediocre, and that was heavily reflected throughout the Tony's. I felt like the actual awards show itself went smoothly enough, or at least as it ever does, but that there just wasn't anything to be excited about there. I did love the opening bit with host Sean Hayes who played the piano and mixed in classical music with Broadway showtunes. That was really cool. And the rest of the opening was fine, ending with quite the Green Day number that was too long. But there was no crossing fingers, there was no pulling for an underdog, there was nothing. And after watching the performances, I don't feel ashamed about that because this season just looked very...blah. Blah is a solid word for this.

Now for any interested, here's the breakdown:
The Design Awards Conundrum
I'm still ashamed they did away with handing the design awards out during the actual telecast (opting to do them online instead beforehand). Say what you will about making the Tony's mainstream - the Tonys will never be mainstream (at least not for long) and as a theatre lover I feel the designers who are so much a part of the work just get completely jipped. 5 second sound bites. That's all you get folks for winning a Tony award after all those hours and hours of designing a show. Nonetheless, the show still barely clocked in at exactly three hours and the Tony's don't get the pleasure of going over, so they had to cut something. Still, it's a shame.

The Plays:

Unusual for me, after listening to the plot descriptions of the plays (who also don't get enough airtime), I was more interested in them than the musicals. Sadly, Red will not be extending past it's allotted summer run, despite winning the big prize, several design awards and supporting actor. Another one that caught my ear was Next Fall.

The Highlight
We get it, we get it, Matthew Morrison and Lea Michelle from Glee are going to perform. We get it. Please. Not every commericial break.
Nonetheless, this was actually the highlight of the show for me. Wow! I mean, I prefer the traditional version of "All I Need is the Girl" but I was so happy to see one of my favorite showtunes pulled out that it didn't matter. It was still handled with excellence. And Lea did well with the very difficult "Don't Rain on My Parade." Very, very nice guys.

Distracting Random Question:
Is Daniel Radcliffe really that short? Or is Katie Holmes really that tall?

The Musicals (Now with video! Oo!):

I have to admit, I no longer feel bad that I chose not to keep up with this past season because I no longer feel there was a reason I should've. The four in contention were Million Dollar Quartet, Memphis, American Idiot and Fela!.

I was super excited to see what Fela! would bring to the table and quite frankly was left very confused by the end result. I mean, it's a cool concept, based off a true story of a man named Fela in Nigeria that used his music for civil rights but... is there actually a storyline in the show? Is it just his music? Is it his music at all? I have no idea what's going on! Though I'm glad it won for choreography, because that was some seriously awesome work.

Million Dollar Quartet (inspired by the one-time recording of Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley & Carl Perkins) also left me sadly cold. Again...cool idea and wowIhadnoideathateverevenhappened, but it basically appeared to be another jukebox musical. Except for the opening song bit of "Down by the Riverside," I was bored.

Memphis which actually ran away with the Best Musical prize hopefully merely picked a terrible song for the telecast because the lyrics were pretty awful.
Case in point:
"And if you listen to the beat and hear what's in your soul, you'll never let anyone steal your rock and roll, nananana, nananananana, nananana...."

American Idiot actually was the only one I had any vague interest after watching all four but that's possibly because there was entirely too much going on and my tv was incredibly pixelated during the entire performance because of all of their flashing lights.

The Revivals:
Um...Catherine Zeta Jones? I have no words for her head-jerking, confusing performance. I'm so lost. If that's her typical performance...how did she win exactly?
Christiane Noll put everyone else to shame. Actually the two-minute piece she performed for Ragtime put just about everyone to shame but I'm slightly biased (it's my favorite).
Sadly, there was no Finian's Rainbow and Promises, Promises performed a strictly choreography-only piece that was cute but completely misused Sean Hayes.

I was wondering if my having a lack of love these past few years simply had to do with not having one to root for. And I'm sure that's partially it. But there's usually at least one big contender, and I just felt like this year just kind of scraped by. I know, I know, it was "the biggest year for profits in Broadway history" but that doesn't mean it was good.

So I was wondering if it was just me. But I loved all the songs that were well-written ("Back to Before," "All I Need...", "Don't Rain..."). In fact, those songs shined ten times brighter because of what I felt they were held in comparison to.

Any thoughts? Am I stuck on standards or are these really that ill-written? I feel like Fela! just may not be served well in a three-minute format, but maybe I'm wrong. I would love to discuss with someone (here or otherwise).

Won't you save me, San Francisco?

Truthfully, I have nothing to blog about tonight. Let's see what happens.

One of the computers went down again at work today. I thought my poor boss was going to explode. It's the motherboard again-- we apparently fell into the "two-week window" where Dell switched to a different type of motherboard for Teleflora products and something...went wrong with them. I don't remember now. Quality wasn't as high, something was off, blah blah blah, sensitive network card. We've been told so many things now that it just all runs together. So while three computers received new motherboards last week, we still have two with old ones (my boss tried to assure the representative they might as well go ahead and order two instead of one). If you've been following this whole ordeal, you know by now it's starting to sound like a joke. I keep wanting for some sort of punchline, a 'ba-dum ching!' in the background and flashing cameras to come out.
I know I should consider it a lesson in patience, but I am beyond upset with Teleflora for this insanity. While it was seemingly Dell's fault for the motherboard issue, we've been having a whole host of other problems with the software before this. Rar. This is ridiculous. Since February. Since February this saga has been unfolding. Since February I've been on the phone certainly weekly, and at times daily, with a technical rep to solve something. Where are the clowns, people? Send in the clowns.

(I know, I know. Sometimes I can't help myself. One of these days I'm going to try to write a post and see just how many theatre references I can make and how many you guys can guess.)

Speaking of, Catherine Zeta-Jones will be performing "Send in the Clowns" for the Tony Awards this Sunday at 7:00. And besides that and seeing what Fela! can bring, that's all I'm sort of curious/excited about in advance. Give me something exciting Broadway. Bring me back.

In happier news, I've about decided my birthday present to me may be buying tickets to see Train at Riverwind this year! (The fact that Nancy's Cupcakes are also in Norman just sweetens the deal.)

"Take me to my city by the bay..."

Sweet dreams, everyone.

Awesome Links

Too cool not to share before tomorrow (because I'll lose them.)

"Ninjas Rescue Student from Muggers" - Speaks for itself.

"The IBM Muppet Show" - Original Videos of the Muppets before they were the Muppets.


Enjoy!

Twitter Topics: Not Specific Enough

So earlier as I was reading twitter, someone there exclaimed they were sad to see the worldwide trending topics of the day. "Is this what people are really talking about?" they asked. So out of curiosity I clicked over to look.

The List (at the time of 6:04):
IPhone4
Little Liars
Strasburg
Oil Spill
MTV Movie Awards
Cerati
Namorados

And I immediately thought "Is that really that bad or unexpected? I mean, wow, even Strasberg!"

...

Then my brain played catch up. So I clicked on Strasberg out of suspicion that it was not what I was anticipating.
Apparently there is a sports figure named Stephen Strasburg. Apparently something big happened today in the world of sports involving him. I have no idea. I looked no further. I did not care.

I would have been really impressed though if people were tweeting about Lee Strasberg. They totally should have been.

Headdesk, June, headdesk.

June, June, June...let's talk.

I'm sensing a little animosity, June. Or, maybe, it's simply an overflow from May. Yeees, that's it. This is overflow. And now that it's all out of our system, you're going to be a little sunnier, a little happier, a little tamer. Surely. Right?

I mean, maybe there was a misunderstanding. Maybe when I said "play nice" I can assure you, sweet June, that I did not mean any of this. This is not good for my health.

Let me recap, June. Just to lay my end on the table.

Good morning June! Lalala! Lovely day at...hey? What's this note? Our computers aren't cooperating? Hm. Must've been a power surge. I'll just reboot. Lalala.

Hm. They're still not working. Bizarre. I guess I'll call tech support. Again. Oh well. Lalala.

Wait...why is the main computer is completely down? This means all the computers are down, y'know. Sigh.

You're not sure what's wrong? This is bad. And you think the router was fried. Okay.

And it wasn't hooked up properly by The Company in the first place? Great.

It's still not working, The Company. Why is it not working? Not the router.

Not the router. This is bad.

Not the router.

Sure, I'll hold. I've only been on hold, on the phone or waiting for you to return my call for six to seven hours now. Sure.

Wait...what do you mean it's the motherboard?

Sure, you can send a tech out tomorrow. Sure we can wait to input all these tickets. From all these funerals. Sure.

...what do you MEAN you installed the wrong motherboard? That there are three different types and that they didn't know this one was for a flower shop? Even though a floral representative was on the line with us and the tech and I had an entire conversation about how our shop was a hilarious name for a florist?
...
Sure, I'll hold. Sure.

YOU USED THE WRONG ADDRESS?! WHAT DO YOU MEAN "SOMEHOW STOP THE UPS TRUCK?!"
Oh. You didn't use the wrong address. You just thought you did. Ha.
WHAT DO YOU MEAN "I ONLY HAVE TWO TICKETS?" YOU SHOULD HAVE THREE. THREE COMPUTERS.
Oh. You actually have all three. Now you see it. The service tags are one digit apart. Hilarious.

No real instructions with the new credit card terminal? Awesome.

AAAAAH! WHAT DO YOU MEAN THEY NEVER INSTALLED THE WRONG MOTHERBOARD IN THE FIRST PLACE AND THEY LIED TO US?! AHHH! AHHH! AHHH! THAT THEY NEVER KNEW WHAT WAS GOING ON THE WHOLE TIME?! AHHH! AHHH! AHHH!


Ahem. I digress. June, I mean, we are only three days in. And, cautiously, it looks as if the computers are fixed now. Tenatively. Hopefully. Crossing fingersy.

So I'm still leaving the coffee, tea and brownies on the table for now. But I'm warning you, no cheap tricks. (okay, really, I'll cave, just don't hurt me.)