The Beauty and the Mess

Since fashiony posts seem to be the order of the day: I've spent a chunk of my afternoon reading the archives of You Look Fab. It's a blog by a down-to-earth woman who works in the fashion industry. Alissa recommended it and I definitely agree. I especially like her term "pretty pear" for pear-shaped body types. Yay for positive reinforcement. :)

I don't understand how most people can afford to stay fashionable. The whole system seems to be designed for the rich.

I realized at lunchtime that my entire outfit came from New York & Company. That's happening more and more frequently. :)

Unrelated, but I've been pondering it for a while: I'm bummed that our society is too PC to use the term "Mrs." anymore. After almost two years of marriage I'm still Ms. at work, on all my mail, and for any other official stuff. I only get Mrs. in church correspondence. Weird.

Happy birthday Vicky! :)

I really like my outfit today. I'm wearing a skirt that I thought I could only wear with a white shirt, but this morning I discovered that one of my favorite striped shirts has a stripe that matches the skirt exactly. They're both from the Gap, so it doesn't seem like coincidence. As an added bonus, my toenail polish is exactly the same color as one of the other stripes. For me, this is almost as exciting as it gets. :)

That's all.

Our premarital counseling went well last night. We went over aspects of the ceremony and a few items from the surveys we filled out. We're going to have two more meetings before the wedding, and the next one will be about finances. Robert asked us to have a realistic budget ready for discussion. This is a good idea and shouldn't be too hard, since we have the Crown Financial Study workbook from our Sunday school class. Anyway, Robert is very encouraging and excited about the wedding, so we both felt really good when we left. When we got home, there was a stack of CDs by the door...Kathy had dropped off our wedding slideshow. Her mom does these Powerpoint DVD slide shows with photos, music and special effects. I was really impressed with the result. It even had a menu! :) So now I have it for the shower on Saturday.

Yeah, I don't think I've mentioned here that my traditional bridal shower is on Saturday. We scheduled it during Debra's fall break so she wouldn't be too overwhelmed. It'll be fun! I'm excited. I keep thinking it's tomorrow, though, because it sort of feels like Friday. (I'll never get my days of the week straight.) Unfortunately, I realized a little while ago that I have nothing to wear to my own bridal shower. Clothes frustrate me sometimes. Like today, I'm wearing an outfit that looked cute in my head, but in reality it's ill-fitting, itchy, and too hot (what happened to our nice fall temperatures?). I want to look like the girl from the Old Navy office commercial. You know, the one with the blazer, lacy tank top, and pants from this page. So cute.

My sister, who has joined the journal world on Xanga (it's more popular at her school than LJ), has asked me to make an announcement here. :) She just got accepted to go on a two-week mission trip to the Ukraine next year. As a fundraiser they're selling candles, and she gets half of the profits. I told her I'd spread the word among my LJ friends who like candles. Go say hello and get info if you're so inclined. :)

Time to get some actual office work done.

Guess what? I don't know what happened (though Helen probably had a lot to do with it! :)), but LJ is working again at work! :D Apparently the issue was with the filter my work uses, and was not a decision on the part of my company. So I'm back. Yay! Sorry for being so sad and goodbye-forever yesterday. It doesn't take much to set me off these days.

I'm reading Pretense by Lori Wick, and it seems like the longest book in the entire world. I like it, but it's one of those full chronicles of a family in which many years pass. Do those seem cheesy to anyone else? Janette Oke is one author who's really bad about that. "Winter passed, and summer came, and then they could scarcely believe that it was winter again." That is how life goes, but didn't anything happen in all that time? :P I'm also reading The Picture of Dorian Gray online, mostly because my pastor made a reference to it on Sunday. It's creepy and kind of annoying, but I'm sticking with it. Lord Henry reminds me overwhelmingly of Draco in the Draco Trilogy fanfic. I think maybe two of you will know what I'm talking about, but I had to share.

On my lunch hour I searched the mall for cheap summery clothes to wear on our honeymoon. None of the sale stuff caught my eye, though the new fall full-price stuff certainly did. I-N-C needs to stop making such cute clothes. It's like torture. I will never be rich enough to afford even one complete outfit of theirs. I still sometimes think about the $50 shirts I passed up last winter. Anyway, it was a lot of walking and I'm tired now. Naptime, anyone?

I am the proud owner of a new purse! While at Target I went to check on the Statue of Liberty purse I've been looking at for a while. It was at final markdown- $4.25. :) It's one of those Life magazine screened purses, kind of like this, only with a black-and-white photo of Lady Liberty on it. Exciting! This has been the week of good deals.

Last night I exercised and went to bed at a reasonable hour. Success! I feel much more rested than usual.

Did you know that Auntie Anne of pretzel fame is a Christian? Cool. Oh man...I really want one of those pretzels.

I really have nothing else to say. I'm boring and fluffy today.

I finished Shopaholic Ties the Knot last night. It was good. Now I'm starting Joseph: A Man of Integrity and Forgiveness, which is part of Charles Swindoll's series of Bible biographies. I've read Esther and really enjoyed it, so I was glad to see some others at my church's library. I'm trying to get back into theology-type books. Six months without a standing Bible study (other than church) is making me feel very mushy-brained. The good news is, my church is about to start a Sunday night RUF-for-adults type thing that will run for the summer, and a Thursday night college/career Bible study. I'm really looking forward to it. But I feel ashamed that my Christian edge gets dull when I'm not in a study all the time. :P

At lunch I went to the mall to get a new skirt for Emily's bridal shower. I got one because it was very nice (A. Byer) and on sale, but it's not exactly what I wanted for the shower- the colors are more fallish than springish. I'll be glad I have it in a few months, though. I wanted one of those full, brightly-patterned skirts, but I wasn't sure if they looked dumb on me. Maybe I can just make one. The colors and patterns all look like they could have come from my mom's early-90's fabric bag. I'm also thinking of making some sleep shorts, because it's too hot for pajama pants and I only have one decent pair of pajama shorts. I looked at some at Old Navy, but they were practically obscene. Better to make them myself. How hard could that be? (I just noticed this whole paragraph sounds like Becky Bloomwood. Good thing I'm done with those books!)

Okay, now I have a meeting. Sorry for the boring rambling.

Hello. I'm hungry. Debra and I are going to Quizno's for lunch today! I haven't been in a few weeks and am very excited.

Book of the Week: I just finished Flabbergasted by Ray Blackston. It's Christian fiction, but not like any Christian novel I've ever read. I came across it at the library while looking for What a Girl Wants by Kristin Billerbeck (which they still don't have) and thought "Hmm, this looks interesting." It's fun and real, yet very intelligent. I recommend it to all of you, especially Danielle. According to his website, there are two sequels coming! Woo hoo. (Does anyone know where I can find a background like the one on his website? It's cool.)

That RUF CD I burned has hardly left my CD player this week. It's easier to focus on God when you're listening to hymns a lot, and the lyrics are so meaningful and well-written. Plus, there are such happy memories attached to most of the songs. I read a quote once that said something about how the people you sing with are your true friends. Well, I botched it up, but you get the idea.

I missed Clay on AI last night, but I called anulyra on my way home from band practice, and she gave me the play-by-play. The voting results were totally shocking. I won't say more, because then I'd have to use a cut and I'm tired of doing that for two sentences. Anyway, it was great to talk to Jen. I should call her more often. :)

Today I'm wearing lavender pants. I feel so daring. Now that my summer clothes are out, I intended to make this No Black Week at work in rebellion of corporate American fashion. But I just remembered that I wore a black skirt on Tuesday. Fie on me!

Oh, and yesterday marked eight months for me and Evan. :) I'm planning a really special date for us next month. Not a monthiversary thing, just a general thing. I'll tell once I have finalized it.

Happy Arbor Day! Don't forget to celebrate trees today. My office is giving away blue spruce seedlings in a tube. I took one, even though I don't have anywhere to plant it. I wish I had a yard! Someone suggested I plant it in a big pot, so I might try that. It can live on the front porch for a while. All the more reason to visit Garden Ridge tomorrow. :) The forecast for tomorrow looks bad, so I've decided not to go to the Fest. If the rain clears up around Switchfoot's showtime, I might go downtown and stand on the bluff above the park- I'm told you can hear just as well from there.

So those Gap tank top commercials are intriguing. I'm glad to see that they're advocating better coverage, but wouldn't two or three layers of tank tops get kind of hot? Thus defeating the purpose of a tank top? Oh well...I'm still sorely tempted to buy some. I like the colors.

Friends last night....waaaah! Did anyone else feel bummed all night after seeing it? The finale will be two hours! They need that time to wrap things up, but wow. That's like a movie! I'm sure I'll be crying the whole time, even though I keep telling myself it's just a TV show. I feel pathetic.

Oh, and another thing about trees: wouldn't it be so romantic to plant a tree with your significant other? Especially to commemorate something, like planting a tree together on the day he proposes. Then that can be "your tree" and you can visit it when you're old and remember the romance of your youth. I just thought of that. :)

In a few minutes I have to go to the eye doctor again. Apparently you can't just pick up your contacts anymore. You have to have an appointment to pick up your contacts, ensuring maximum waste of your time. What is the world coming to? I'll be back later, hopefully with something less worthless to say.

This post consists of the following: Mushiness. Weather. Materialism.

My weekend. I basically sat around Friday night. On Saturday morning I bought my bridesmaid dress for Kathy's wedding. We all looked great in the dresses. I tried on a banana-yellow one because that's my best clothing color, and it looked so nice that I pleaded with Kathy to change her mind about periwinkle. She wouldn't budge. :) After our jaunt at David's I went to White Barn Candle Co. (I had a coupon) and bought a rather insane amount of candles. There were so many unadvertised sales that my head was spinning. Candles = happy. On my way home, I stopped at the library, where Luke and his accounting fraternity were doing people's taxes for free. I'm getting a decent amount back. Yay! When I was done it was only noon and I felt very accomplished.

Evan came over in the afternoon with a rose in a pretty vase. I was happy. :) We watched The Wedding Singer with Kathy and then set off for an early dinner at Spaghetti Factory. I had chicken Marsala! After dinner we walked around Peabody Place and Evan played some games at Jillian's. Then we went to Blockbuster and found that anything we remotely wanted to see was checked out. Finally we settled on Total Recall, because nothing says romance like amnesiac Arnold trying to avoid a horrible death in the Martian atmosphere. At the end of the movie, we were traumatized and thought maybe it hadn't been the best choice, but at least it made for a good, funny memory. And it was a very happy Valentine's. :)

It was supposed to snow that night, so when the ground was bare on Sunday morning, I was disappointed. I turned on the TV and saw a Wal-Mart parking lot covered in snow- in Southaven, twenty minutes away. Huh? On the way to church, I saw snow on the ground less than a mile from my apartment. At the church, there was an inch or so. Bizarre. Living in Midtown: more culture, more crime, less snow.

Anyway, yesterday was a great day. I recently acquired a generous Goldsmith's gift card, so after church and lunch we went to spend some of it. I got some bedsheets, a cute pair of Steve Madden sandals on clearance, and...The Pants. Yes, the dark brown corduroy bootcut pants I have been craving. There was one pair left. Ralph Lauren. My size. Thirteen dollars. I was beside myself with joy. There was another fashion victory: Evan wore a sweater yesterday! And wow. I thought about taking a picture for you guys, but didn't think you could handle the hotness. :D Of course our friend Chris told him it was gay-looking. What is the deal with that? Any male who doesn't look like a slob is inherently gay? I wanted to hit him.

Evan is obsessed with this new 80's throwback band, The Darkness. I finally heard their song this weekend. I like it. More than that, I like him trying to sing along.

Okay, that's enough. Sorry this wasn't a very "enriching" post.

If your life is lacking in humor, get a cat. Last night I washed my bedsheets. As I was putting the fitted one back on, Gandalf leapt onto the bed and started trotting around. This is weird behavior for him when it's not sleep time, so I just picked him up and set him back on the floor. As I spread out the flat sheet, he jumped up again. Finally the bed was made and I turned down a corner so it would be ready for me later. After a few minutes he curled up in the small corner where the sheet was exposed and put his head on the pillow. He looked like he owned the bed. It was hilarious. I asked Kathy about it and apparently he does this to her all the time. He has a thing for sheets. What a weirdo. :) Also, he's developed a large meowing vocabulary. I can usually tell by his meow what he wants. There's one that I think has to mean "good morning" in cat, because he only does it in the morning when I first turn the light on. It's very different from his other sounds. Yeah, you think I'm crazy, but I've read that some cats have more than 100 different meows. Muy interesante.

My new Old Navy pinstripe pants are sooo comfortable. I feel like I'm wearing pajama pants to work.

Evan and I had lunch at McAlister's. I couldn't wait until tonight to see him. :) After work today I start tutoring Yolanda again- hopefully we can get back on track fairly quickly.

As proof of my hypocrisy, after my concerned posts about how superficiality and materialism are bad, I thought of a random fashion poll this morning. I guess most of it is for girls, but guys, feel free to answer when applicable. Feel free, also, to comment with further explanation. :) These are all things I am genuinely curious about. ( I better go buy a Vogue. )