Houston's Restaurant

Went to dinner with Ernie and mom at Houston's tonight. It's a beautiful restaurant with absolutely fantastic food and service. It was weird/gross to see mom hold hands with, kiss on the cheek, and make googley eyes at Ernie (things I never saw her do with my dad -well, I saw her hold hands with my dad once, in Maine). And Ernie calls her "mom" sometimes, which is so weird to hear. My own dad rarely called her mom, almost always referred to her as "Jane." And my mom has at least 9 dresses hanging in his closet that he bought for her. After dinner tonight, we went back to Ernie's house (we had driven over to Ernie's and then he took us in his car to Houston's) and mom gave me the keys to her car to drive Mary and myself home. Ernie will drop her off later tonight.

(-_-) ...annoyed, slightly disturbed face

Old Pics

So mom and dad have pretty much switched roles. Mom is off doing her own thing, canceling on Mary and me, forgetting that it is my birthday, going off before we wake up (8am) to Ernie's and then coming home for an hour and going off to a party again with Ernie. It's ridiculous. Mom and I were supposed to go shopping at 1 today when she got home from lunch with Ernie, but she called around 12:45 to say she would be staying at Ernie's until 3pm and would it be alright if we shopped at 3:30pm. Ugh. And she keeps leaving work early because she has parties to go to with Ernie or because Ernie has asked her out to dinner, making her boss annoyed. Leaving early counts as calling in sick with her work. Today she was first in line to be called off, so she called in and asked them to call her off because she didn't want to work. It seems like she is being incredibly irresponsible and will lose her job. She talks about jobs like she can just go and get one at a moment's notice, but she can't! The economy isn't like that and even nurses are out of luck right now.

My dad had Mary and me over for my birthday dinner last night. He made chicken Caesar salad and even bought an icecream cake for me. It was really sweet of him. Dad and I are going to go to a cycling class at the gym together tomorrow night.

Anywho, here are some old pics Mary found while looking for something to put in a picture collage for Dad's Christmas present:

Types of Love

What makes one happier, the poorer/average man with whom you fight all the time but are deeply and passionately in love with, or the successful/well-off man who you love and get along with but do not have a steamy passion for?
Which marriage will last longer? Which will be more satisfying?

It's a classic question, from Casablanca to The Notebook.

Perfect Wedding

Rehearsal Dinner: Buffet at mom's house, dress up the patio/pool.
Wedding Ceremony: Knowles Chapel
Reception: Casa Feliz or Farmer's Market.
Catering: Panera (buffet), orArthur's
Time: Brunch or 3pm.
Wedding Night: Disney hotel, really nice suite.

Rehearsal Dinner: Winter Park Farmer's Market
Wedding Ceremony: Knowles Chapel
Reception: Orlando Museum of Art (with Museum access for guests)
Catering: Arthurs for reception, but something more casual and fun for rehearsal

Rehearsal Dinner: Bella Notte
Wedding Ceremony: Gazebo at Talon Winery
Reception: Barn at Talon Winery
Catering: not sure (winery's own?)

Rehearsal Dinner: Same place mom and dad had theirs on Park Ave (the secret garden area)
Wedding ceremony: Somewhere on the lake around Rollins
Reception: Tables set up all around the Rollins pool
Lights: lots of lanterns, white Christmas lights around fence of pool and in trees
Food: sit down dinner (maybe dessert buffet or gelato or bar)
On raised area of deck: wedding party, dance floor, band
Time: dusk


Evening Garden Patio Wedding:
Ceremony: Leu Gardens Lake front
Reception: Garden with a large patio area or garden cottage (idea gardens, home demonstration area)
Time: Just before dusk, so that it is light when guests arrive to reception, but the reception will end after sunset under the stars
Music: Jazz band (with vocals?)
Dance area is a must
Food: Hors d' Oeuvres; open bar set up somewhere in the garden; gelato stand (kind of like the open bar, but serving REAL gelato) (think MUSE in Lake Mary)
Lighting: Lanterns with candles set up around the garden pathways, white Christmas lights might want to be used too
Atmosphere: relaxed, milling about, light dancing, and good foods, cocktail-ish
Length: fairly short, an hour or maybe two to keep boredom away
Seating: lots of benches and chairs around, tables in garden demonstration room (all 3 french doors open to outside

If possible and/or near a lake, fireworks after dark =)

Ceremony site idea: Park Avenue, Winter Park rose garden. The archway on New England.
Put a white sheet up behind the archway to block the view of Tuni's side wall
Short ceremony, standing guests
Reception at the Farmer's Market

Rehearsal: "Back yard BBQ" feel, maybe at a park/lake OR at the o-town art museum

Ceremony: Knowles Chapel, of course

Reception: The upstairs cafeteria/grille at Rollins (lots of ceiling/wall drapery and lighting) or the pool at Rollins or that art building' patio

If entire wedding at old family house (ceremony and reception):
Use the Evening Garden Patio idea (gelato, open bar, jazz band, Hors d' Oeuvres)
Ceremony: back side of the big wrap around porch
Music: jazz band as music
Reception: Open up down stairs of house for guests and allow milling about in garden
Food: hors d' oeuvres on a buffet in the house, perhaps the open bar and gelato in the garden or inside (depending on how distracting they would be from the ceremony)
Length: only 2 hours or so, since the band will be playing almost constantly and ppl get bored
Idea: does the house have a piano?
Seating: perhaps no tables at all, just sitting areas, benches
Time: dusk-ish would be a great time.
Rehearsal dinner: maybe rehearsal the morning of (breakfast rehearsal "dinner"), in order to only disrupt current residences' lives for only one complete day instead of two. Get panera to cater the breakfast and eat it at the house, if allowed.

No bridesmaids, just my sister as the maid of honor.
60-75 people. Maybe a DJ. Obviously, a photographer is needed.
Godiva chocolates as favors. Not sure about colors.
Chocolate cake, white icing. Flowers (pink, orange, red peonies or tulips; a few calla lilies) as centerpieces in big vases. White table cloths.
Flowers on every aisle in chapel or on each aisle seat, if money.
DJ for music at reception.
Hire a violinist or pianist for wedding ceremony.
If up-do for hair, a big white camelia in hair
If hair is down, perhaps lots of tiny white rose-like flowers (or something that looks like a mini camelia) tucked in
I like the colors bright pink, orange, and yellow and how they pop
I like the idea of putting 3 big flowers in a simple old canning jar of water
Flowers I like: Calla Lilies, Peonies, Gardenias, Ranunculus, Chrysanthemums
Fun: dance instructors for entertainment and to teach guests, since there will be a band

Rehearsal: Fun backyard BBQ
Wedding: 10:30am at Knowles Chapel (20 minute ceremony) or down by the lake at Leu Gardens
Reception: 11am brunch at Leu Gardens in the Camelia Room overlooking the lake
While pictures are being taken on Park Ave, guests are entertained with simple dance lessons. Jazz-ish band with bass, sax, singer, etc.
11:40am bride and groom arrive, meal served.
12pm toasts, first dance, guests can dance.
12:40 guests can leave, dance or wander around gardens as they wish.
1:30pm start clean up.
Colors: Navy blue (dresses) and pink (flowers).
Maid of Honor: sister. Bridesmaids, if any: Lauren, Lydia. Optional: Sarah, Bekah, Katie.

How about the Global Gallery of Stirling Sotheby's on top of the Plaza Building for a reception?
http://www.globalgalleryusa.com/page-world-marketing-center-|-events-13.html

If the reception is at Leu, I want ceiling drapery with either crystals or white Christmas lights (depending on time of day). I also might want one wall covered in sheer fabric (rippled so that it looks like a cloud).

I also want chair covers with a color ribbon tied in the back.

The whole thing, from start of ceremony to me and him leaving the reception, should take no longer than 3 hours at most. 20-30 for ceremony, 30 for pictures, 45 for introductions and toasts and first dances, 30 for dancing and general milling about, 15 for garter/bouquet, 15 for getting ready to leave and leaving. That would be 2 hours and 45 minutes. Yay.

A lace dress and a whole 1940's noir aura about the bride (make up, hair, accessories) would be cool.

Walking out of the ceremony or of the reception to What a Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong would be nice.

I think I would be mortified, but also love it, if my husband yelled, "We're gonna have sex!" as we leave the reception.

Morning Wedding:

5:00am- wake up, go for a 5:15am run with soon-to-be hubby

6:00am- shower

6:30am-meet for breakfast with bridal party people

7am-hair dresser and make up and get dressed and ready! Pray!

8:15am- pictures with respective bridal parties

9am- coffee and one-bite donuts available for guests as they come into the ceremony area

9:30am- ceremony (15-20 minutes)

10am- guests go directly to reception (that is on the same site as wedding) and begin to eat brunch, wedding party takes pictures for 30 minutes or so, guests can also dance if they would like, have dance instructors on the floor as entertainment?

10:40am- bridal party walks in, speeches begin, eat if they want

11am- 1st dance, officially open up floor to guests

11:30am- garter, bouquet, more dancing

12pm- begin clean up

If the ceremony is outdoors and during the sunrise, I like the idea of angling the guests' seats in a V, with the center being the bridge and groom, as to not put anyone having to look directly in the sun. Also, putting Ray Ban wayfarers (probably knock offs, for economy's sake) on everyone's seats b/c of the sun would just be cute!

And, if the reception is outside near a lake, I could tell everyone to bring a swimsuit for an after-party at noon or something. Or, rip of my wedding dress, have a swimsuit underneath, and run/jump into the water with my hubby as a signal to the guests, "go home! I want to be alone!"

Inked

I made an appointment to get a tattoo. It will say, in Hebrew, "Yahweh's Beloved." Well, when translated literally, it will be Beloved of Yahweh, but still. I got it checked out/corrected with a Hebrew professor at school so I know that it is correct. Shelly and I have been talking about getting tattoos together for sometime now (two years?); she is flying up to Lexington next week and is gonna drive back to Florida with me for Christmas break, so we are gonna get them the night she flies in.

Drinking.

Somehow the topic of drinking came up tonight during dinner in the cafeteria and I made the comment to Alex, "but you won't be doing that, you won't be getting drunk ever." Well, his reply surprised me. I thought we agreed that drunkenness was not acceptable -I was wrong. He said that he would not be getting drunk to the point of vomiting or not remembering anything, but that he would still drink with a select group of people to the point of drunkenness on rare/certain occasions.

Ummmm, NO.

Random Love Songs

The Way You Look Tonight
When I Fall In Love
I Can’t Help Falling In Love With You
Have I Told You Lately?
When a Man Loves a Woman
Everything I Do (I Do It For You)
I Just Called to Say I Love You
Nothing Compares 2 U
Unforgettable
Iris
More Than a Feeling
You Are So Beautiful
Some Enchanted Evening
Someone to Watch Over Me
Do You Believe in Magic
Ain’t No Mountain High Enough
Crazy Little Thing Called Love
Wonderful Tonight
Hanging By A Moment
You and Me
Truly, Madly, Deeply
I Knew I Loved You Before I Met You
Come Away With Me
I Wish You Love (Nat King Cole)

Country Love Songs

So I was looking up playlists of country love songs and was pretty dissapointed to find that not one of the 10+ at which I looked included my favorite, Good Morning Beautiful by Tim McGraw.

So, here is my own list:

Good Morning Beautiful, Tim McGraw
It's Your Love, Faith Hill and Tim McGraw
We Danced, Brad Paisley
When You Say Nothing At All, Keith Whitley
You Had Me From Hello, Kenny Chesney
You Won't Ever Be Lonely, Andy Griggs
Remember When, Alan Jackson
Amazed, Lonestar
Breathe, Faith Hill
How Do I Live, Trisha Yearwood
How Forever Feels, Kenny Chesney
I Do (Cherish You), Mark Wills
I'd Love To Lay You Down, Conway Twitty
If Tomorrow Never Comes, Garth Brooks
Love, Me, Collin Raye
Must Be Doin' Something' Right, Billy Currington
This Kiss, Faith Hill
Two Sparrows in a Hurricane, Tanya Tucker
Unanswered Prayers, Garth Brooks
The World, Brad Paisley
Somebody Like You, Keith Urban
When I Said I Do, Clint Black
No One Else On Earth, Wynonna Ryder
Come a Little Closer, Dierks Bentley
I Melt, Rascal Flatts
Your Everything, Keith Urban
Just to Hear You Say That You Love Me, Faith Hill
You Save Me, Kenny Chesney
Carrying Your Love WIth Me, George Strait
Raining On Sunday, Keith Urban
I Don't Want To Miss A Thing, Lonestar
Ain't Nothing 'Bout You, Brooks & Dunn
She's My King of Rain, Tim McGraw
Just to See You Smile, Tim McGraw
I Lost It, Kenney Chesney

Lots of Stuff in a Small Time

No more Study of History class, yay! I just printed out the edited, proofread, completed final edition of my 25 page term paper on the history of women's role and status in the Middle East from year 600 to present. I will turn it in tomorrow or later tonight.

Over the break, I finished my Sex-Education videos that I am planning on using during my group presentation on the validity of teaching sex-education in public schools. The first video is just clips of people around campus explaining their opinion on sex-education in schools and whether they were taught by their parents, in school, or neither. The second video is of my group's skit depicting three comical ways that sex-education should not be taught. I signed up for youtube today and put both of them on the website. I will also try to upload my interviews with three women with eating disorders later tonight.

Thanksgiving break was not as bad as it could have been. Alex and I hung out, ate pizza, and watched a movie Tuesday night. He was really sweet and volunteered to go out in the freezing cold at night to fetch my toiletries bag -which I had forgotten- from the car. Wednesday I flew into Orlando and went shopping for a swimsuit with Mom and Mary.

After I found a swimsuit (a green, speedo one peice), mom took me to meet her boyfriend, Ernie. Mary half-jokingly calls Ernie "mom's sugar daddy" -even to my mom's face. He is a retired dentist about my paternal grandpa's age; he was dad's dentist from the time dad was a boy... weird. Mom has always talked about Ernie, brought him pie when he was her dentist, and laughed at the e-mails he would send her. Ernie's wife died in June, mom got divorced in October; none of these things were sudden though -mom emotionally divorced dad years ago and Ernie's wife was sick for four years.

He is nice, but it's really hard for Mary; mom spends a lot of time going to dinner with Ernie and not getting home until 9pm or a little later. Mom talks to Ernie on the phone every night, from what I can tell and what Mary says. Dad is also taking it hard (it's weird to have your ex-wife date your dentist who is your dad's age), but is in private counseling and going to a divorce-care group at Northland. He insists he will find another woman and marry again, eventually; he has said that since the beginning of this ordeal. Mom had always said she planned on not dating, on focusing on me and Mary, on making her own life; it is weird that she has gotten so blinded by Ernie so quickly.

Mary says she doesn't mind Ernie as a person, it's just him as mom's boyfriend that she doesn't like. He always gives her (or anyone else) food whenever she comes over and even takes her out for food when he [occasionally] picks her up from school. Mom asked me over break if she thought it was ok for her and Ernie to go away for a few days together -I obviously, without needing to think about, said no. It is not acceptable for her to go away, over night, with Ernie to another state, even if it is at one of his friend's houses. No, the fact that he is unable to get an erection does not make it alright.

The next day, I brought up that going away together will send a bad message to Mary and she replied that she is going to go and have fun. She completely brushed aside everything I said. All I can hope is that she and Ernie are not together long enough to make the trip. It doesn't matter much though, Mary knows mom wants to go on the trip with him -mom even invited Mary and I to fly up and meet her in Maine for a week after her week up in Maine with Ernie. It sends such a bad message to Mary, to me, to Dad -it looks horrible on her part. She is 55, dating a man who is exactly 20 years her senior; she just got divorced and is dating a man whose wife just died. She even complained that Ernie didn't like her going out to eat with Jack (another old rich man...he paid for her half of my tuition this year). Gah.


Oh, back to Thanksgiving break... Grandma and Dad came over for Thanksgiving lunch at Mom's house. Grandma's nurse came too, since she was on private-care for Grandma that day anyway. I'm pretty sure the nurse would not have come if she knew she was eating at the same table as a divorced c0uple. People get really weirded out when they find out my parents still talk and go to events together (thanksgiving meal, Mary's recital, to visit me at school).

I spent Thursday night at Dad's townhouse and watched Ace of Cakes on Food Network while drinking hot chocolate and occasionally talking about Dad's family/personal history and discussing mom's behavior and how it affects me, Mary, and him. We went out to lunch the next day at TooJay's and from there I went to meet mom to look at bikes. I want a bicycle to start training for a triathalon and maybe take a few biking trips across the state. I got my size (17") and he recommended a Trek 7.2 or 7.3 FX womens, but it came with a $480 price tag. I got online and found on craigslist a 17.5" Trek 7.1 FX mens with a $300 price tag in lexington and am going to look at/buy it Wednesday. The price for the bike on the Trek website is $599.

I don't know if we will find Alex a bike -they are just so expensive and he doesn't have the money and probably not the time to ride either. I was hoping we could take a bike trip from South Florida to St. Augustine sometime though, it would be so sweet. On Saturday night, Alex and I and his mom went to the Southgate House in Cinci to see his uncle's band play. It was a pretty sweet venue and I would like to go again -maybe when I'm 21 so that I don't have to pay the extra money for not being able to drink. Saturday afternoon, before Southgate, Alex and I put up the Christmas tree together and then took a 2 hour nap together on the sofa -it was one of the nicest days I've had this entire semester.

Did I tell you that I got a membership to L.A. Fitness for when I am down in Florida? Yup, I can now swim, run, bike, lift weights, or even go to a pilates class or a cycling class all in Florida without having to sneak into the Baldwin Park facility anymore. Wednesday night, when I thought I might not get to work out, I kinda began to cry, punch things, and scream and was pretty much willing to pay any cost in order to work out. I called mom and she called dad, who promptly met me and his gym to get me a temporary membership that would last through the Thanksgiving holiday (I joined at the end of the holiday so that I could work out over winter break). I got to swim everyday I was in Florida, which means I only missed one day of working out -that was still hard, but I did manage.

I am sick, I know. I tried to get help this summer for my obsession with working out, but I don't know if I want to get help. I like working out, it is a stress reliever. I can deal, if I really have to, with not exercising... I lasted 2 days in a row over Fall break and I did one day over Thanksgiving break. I even went a week in Europe over spring break last year (though I didn't eat much and was walking everywhere). When I had to stop exercising this summer because I hurt my knee, I started restricting my calories to 1,000 a day and skipping meals (it was easy to do, working 12 hours a day myself, my sister gone at camp, my dad living on his own, and my mom working 12 hour days too).