Woo, I don’t have to work today! Spa and nails, yah for pampering! Don’t have much time to write, need to pick up my Grandma Betty, and head over to the spa in about a half an hour.


Yesterday was really special! … We also had lunch with Grandma Betty, Grandpa Bill, and Cher(Carlo’s mom) and My parents. We had a good time, and the food at Rex’s is always wonderful. Had a seafood salad sandwich on a croissant, and the most delightful Reese’s cheesecake.


Then, Carlo and I picked up our rings, and the ‘cuda. And after about an hour or so, went to talk to the photographer. The, the whole crew, (Grandma, Grandpa, and Mom and Dad) went to Porta Bella’s. We had excellent Italian food, wonderful sourdough, and garlic bread. The most awesome white wine sangria I have ever had(which Carlo, Dad and I shared), and oh so yummy sun dried tomato ravioli. 3 generations, married on the same day.

EEEeee only a few days left till the wedding! Married! And I’ll be a different person. Well, I’ll have a different last name anyway, still the same person. But the same person with a mysterious and beautiful last name! Heh.



Wow, a good deal happened this weekend. Friday afternoon I ate lunch with Frank at his apartment. We played some vintage 8 tracks, and talked about his move to Vegas to work at the same place Dan is. He tried to push some Vinyl Museum rejects on me, and I don’t even have a record player anymore. Of course, I had to take that Starfleet technical manual off his hands, because even though he’s attempting to shed his geekiness by ridding himself of geek paraphernalia, I am heartily embracing my own. After all, I was busy embracing my geekiness when I met Carlo.


Carlo and I took some time out to go down to state street on Friday night. We searched around for some pretty fountains to put under our cake, but found none that appealed to us. Then we headed down to Doty’s Dumpling Dowry, which according to this list has the third best burgers in the world. It’s not just the awesome burgers that keep us coming back to Doty’s, or even their equally awesome teriyaki chicken sandwiches. It’s the place where we met first, face to face. I was 15, and had practiced parallel parking all around the capitol, with my Mom. She finally dropped me off at Doty’s, where I went in and attempted to find people from Starfleet Command BBS, who were meeting there. Of course, I hadn’t told anyone that I was going for sure. I spent at least 20 min, wandering around the narrow restaurant(feels more like a pub really), asking people if they knew me. It has a lofted area in the back, I remember venturing up there and gazing around, but not recognizing anyone. There was no reason I should, I had never seen any of these people before, and only had a vague description of Talon(Carlo). I even thought perhaps I would give my online name (Irissia)to the cooks, they yell out your name when the food is ready for you to pick up. So I stood, back down in front of the big menu sign, first time I’d ever been in a place like this by myself. The door behind me opened, and a very handsome, dark haired man walked in wearing a green shirt, and a black vest. I actually called out Talon as he walked past me, he seemed to pause, gave me a big grin, and past me by on his way to the lofted area in the back. I felt at a loss, how was I going to find the people I was supposed to meet? I’d already been there for about 20 min, asking complete strangers if they knew me. Several hopeless minutes later, the dark haired man returned, and asked me if I were Iris, I was so relieved to see him, I gave him a hug right there. Then he led me upstairs to meet the rest of the gang. Of course, they turned out to be the people upstairs that I didn’t recognize at all before. (I hear they had a picnic once, and someone brought a stand up Spock, that might have been easier for me to find)
I spent the rest of the night being pretty shy, and flirting with Talon as much as I knew how, stealing his milk, eating his fries. Later on, the whole group moved downstairs to the booth by the front window, and I marveled at how not like Ben Sisko, the man with that handle was. My mom came to pick me up in what seemed far too soon. She got to meet Carlo that day too, the same day I did. That night seems so long ago now.


It’s kinda sad though, the state is forcing Doty’s to shut down, so they can build an art’s district. Or something. It’s like they are stealing an emotional touchpoint away. It was very nice though, for he and I to revisit the place we met in real life, a week before our wedding, felt like a full circle. And wow, did we gorge ourselves, cheeseburgers, fries, onion rings, and we shared a yummy shake! Plus we wer all cutesy, which we’re not usually to horrible with, but, well, place we met, wedding a week away, we felt we were entitled a bit.


After that we wandered down to Williamson street, to Jolly Bob’s Jerk Joint, to find Frank again, and his going away party. We’ll he wasn’t there, apparently the party had moved down to the classic Sonic hangout, the Crystal Bar. It was only about a block away from Bob’s. Got to chat with Frank some more, and saw more ex-sofo people than you can shake a stick at. Played Mars Attack Pinball with Adam, I love that Bally game, the little green Martians move around sometimes, and there’s even a little space ship to attack. I had such a great time. I’m really gonna miss Frank, but I plan on visiting him and Dan in Vegas sometime soon.

Saturday, Mom and I finished the rest of the candy favors for the wedding(yah!), and then Carlo and I went over to his dad’s for dinner. We ate with Talia and Danny( Victor’s girlfriend and her child), and David (Carlo’s cousin) and of course Victor. We tried several times to convince him that yes, he should be at the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner on Friday night. Who knows if we got through. After dinner we got to hear him sing, he’s got a wonderful voice. It’s so hard to be angry at him when he sings. We also tried to convince him to sing just Spanish songs, and to try to show up at the rehearsal so we can figure out his sound system stuff. (at this point Talia turned around to him, and gave him the look) It was a pleasant time, and David was funny, harassing his uncle in Spanish. I kinda feel left out though, I only understand about one word out of 6 when they all speak Spanish. Talia is a professional translator. I should get some tapes…


After that, even though it was about 9:30, Carlo and I drove to my old high school, to catch the tail end of my 5 year reunion. I was surprised so many people showed up, and we got to chat a bit, and take an extended tour of the new additions at the school. It’s gotten so huge!


Whew, what a weekend, Sunday Carlo and his buds went out to Apocalypse Paintball for his bachelors party. I got out of the house from 3-10, hung out at Heidi’s and wrote even more thank you cards for my bridal shower gifts. I’m trying to get those done and sent out before the wedding, if that’s possible. Then Wendy and Drew brought us all dinner, and the Shaft DVD. And Wendy took the wings home, to sew them together, yah! Pretty good night, though a bit annoying I couldn’t be home to do laundry.


Eee!!! Wedding!!!

The wedding is just over a week away. It’s really easy to get caught up in the details, and the stress. Not to mention the super big project I’ve been working on for a couple weeks was due today, and we had to take a field trip to apply for a marriage license.



Things are coming together, I’m trying not to fall apart. It’s a good thing I’m engaged to the only man on earth who can calm me down. Last night I was freaking about several things, and he sat down and listened to all the things I had to say and pulled our vows out of the pile of paperwork and told me firmly, that they were the most important part of this whole thing, our vows to each other. I love him so much. I’m so glad we’re taking this step together, for ever and ever…



It’s been a stressful week though, his Dad is not coming to the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner, for who knows what reason. He’s given us several different excuses, from a ‘client in Chicago’, to a ‘family emergency’ . The check for the flowers didn’t get to Milwaukee from here in time, so we had to have my mom wire the flower lady the money, and Heidi might have strep.



Still, we’ve all accomplished a good deal, the centerpieces are all done, and Mom picked them up today. They look really great. The programs and place cards(for family and head table) are incredibly cute and beautiful. We have purchased a large amount of tulle. My dress is beautiful, as is my veil, the changes minimal, due to all the weight I’ve lost. The favors are half done, the invitations are beautiful, and many many of our friends will be able to come. (so far about 180 rsvp’d). The wings are going to be cut out tonight, and look like they will shape up beautifully (I actually had anxiety dreams about not getting them done). Just a few details left, and we’ll be able to sit back and enjoy things.



Carlo and I look wistfully at this all being over. Though, as I pointed out, once we get into the weekend part of it all, we’ll just be able to enjoy ourselves, and our family and friends. It’s going to be a grand time indeed.



Who would have thought logging onto a pre-internet BBS would result in this much commotion?



Love to you all,

Stacie

I should have stayed home today too, as I did yesterday. My head hurts so much it’s hard to focus, my eyes hurt to look at things, and I feel like it’s hard to keep balance.

Though, I had to see how my new office space was, I’ve been moved in with the design kids. They’re a lot livelier than the cube-ville I was in. Though I miss my walls. The ones I had. And the quiet. There is a printer behind me, thus a legitimate reason for people to be constantly behind me. Ah well. It’s not really different than 80 percent of most people who work in offices. And, well, perhaps I’ll finally get to know some more people here at work.



My bridal shower last weekend was a huge success. We had about 40 people there, all told, and the night before Sarah and Brian (from the SCA) helped Becky and my Mom to fix up the basement so it looked awesome. We put plastic tablecloths up on the walls, masking the yellow insulation, and put up some curtains, and set up tables and decorations and it was just lovely. Saturday morning, I got up and went over a bit early to help the setting up and then greeted the deluge of people. We played a couple games, and then opened the gifts people had brought to me. I got so many lovely things, among them, a toaster oven, a crock pot, and a George Foreman grill. My mom got me tons of candles from Kohl’s (a labor of love, because it’s so hard to differentiate, and seasonal too). Can you believe that Becky found a way to put a picture of Carlo and I on the cake? Wow! It was such a great time, made me feel very special. I feel so proud, I’ve already sent out 8 thank-you cards!



And then Becky and Mom and I went shopping till 7, looking for glass bowls for the center pieces and for something for me to wear that night, at my bachelorette party. We also found pretty lavender shoes for the bridesmaids at Rogan’s shoes. Becky found me this awesome red tank top, and it was only 13 bucks, woo! Around 9 the girls (Becky, Nancy, Heidi, Wendy, Angie, and Sarah-came later I think) met at Wendy’s where Becky and Nancy gave me naughty fun gifts(*giggle*), Becky also gave me some really nice Avon hand lotion kit. I put on a bit of the sparkly powder for clubbing, and then we were off. (‘I smell like honey’)



Then we all piled into someone’s car , and headed down to the Karaoke Kid, where we sang Ricki Martin’s Livin’ la Vida Loca, and No Doubt’s Just a girl. Lemme tell you, 6-7 girls in various states of alcohol consumption are always a hit at the ‘Kid’. We rocked so hard, everyone was dancing, and while I can’t really vouch for the quality of my voice, the sounds coming out of the speakers seemed to be following standard conventions for the song. I felt so cute in my new shirt. I grabbed some popcorn among the drinks at the Kid. Then we hit the Amazon for dancing! There was also the infamous bag of challenges set up by my girls for me to complete. Among them, getting a guys phone number, getting a guy to sing to me (he actually rapped to me at the Amazon, and then hung out with us all night as our boy-toy), and a lot of drink challenges, like a slippery nipple, and whatever the one you have to do with no hands is, and a body shot I think. Another challenge was something like a corny pickup line, and I lose track. I finished them all, and there were some substitutions, ie, I had to do a banana split shot, and that was just plain nasty. I also had a bonus challenge at the ‘Kid’, some girl paid me 5 bucks to pinch a guy, named Adam, or Matt or something, and tell him he was so sexy. Hah. We had such an awesome time, the girls bought everything for me, and it was a kick. Heidi wore a pair of those cool Josie cat ears I’ve been lusting over. Kinda wish I would have had something to wear signifying that I was a bride to be, we saw a few at the Amazon, wearing cute little veils.



All in all, an extremely fun weekend, better than I’ve had in a long time, and much more fun than my 21st birthday. Can’t wait to see some of the pictures!


Just a few weeks left until the wedding, things are picking up, most things are planned, and now we just have to pay for things. Last night I helped Mom make some candy favors for the reception. It’s going to be a great time.