Day 15: A Fanfic

Well, I'm sorry to disappoint everyone today, but I'm not going to really be able to post on this one. I don't read fanfic. I don't have one that I read. I don't have an author that I follow.

So....


Here's a picture of a cute cat!!

Day 14: A Nonfiction Book

I'm a fan of Chuck Klosterman. He's a fantastic writer and I'm pretty sure I own every single one of his books. This is a history of heavy metal music, with a particular emphasis on the glam metal that flourished during Klosterman's formative years in the mid-to-late 1980s, through its demise in the early 1990s, and potential rebirth in the late 1990s.

I went tailgating!!

This weekend was Thanksgiving. It is also when Austin and I make our trip up to Arkansas to see all of our friends. I don't know why we usually only go once a year to see everyone, but we always go up for Thanksgiving. And Austin never has let me meet many of his friends... It was mostly just my friends... I was begining to wonder if he actually had friends...

So, this time when we went up, Austin informed me that I would be going to be meeting a lot of his Hendrix friends and we would be tailgating. Now, for those of you that know me, you understand why I was a bit wary of tailgating. For those of you that don't, I'll explain. I hate football. I'm a vegetarian. I also don't drink beer. So going to sit in a field with a bunch of people I don't know and combining these three things didn't really sound like the recipe to a good time to me.

But I was wrong. That's right, I'll admit it. I was wrong. It is actually a lot of fun.

And how many other times do you get the excuse to start drinking at nine in the morning??

I also did find out that Austin did have friends in college! Who knew?? I did get to meet the guy that is going to be Austin's Best Man and his second groomsman. And a ton of other people that are going to be coming to the wedding. And people that had a lot of very amusing stories about Austin in college.

This is Andrew, Austin's Best Man

Ashley, Andrew's brother, with Andrew. I really liked Ashley, he kept telling me how pretty I am. Always a good thing.

Austin's second groomsman, Josh.

The three Hendrix boys... They're going to be trouble...

And now it makes sense why they're friends...

See! I actually was there!

And the band. Because that's the real reason people go to the games.

Save the Dates!

Well, even with all of the chaos that has been the past two weeks, Austin and I have been able to gather up most of the addresses for our guest list and get out about 95% of our Save the Dates. We've now been able to send out about 175 of our 200 Save the Dates.

Now, sending out all of these Save the Dates got me thinking, we were planning on having around 125 guests at the wedding. Somehow our list has gone up to a little over 200. Yes, you read that right. It has almost doubled. Some of this is due to the fact that neither Austin or I expected his parents to want to invite so many people to this event, and some of this is due to the fact that we didn't realize how many of our friends wanted to come and be a part of things. Luckily for us, space isn't an issue with our venue.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we'll be able to get all of our Save the Dates out by the end of the week (yes, I do know that this is Thanksgiving). Here's hoping!!

Day 13: A Fictional Book

I know everyone is expecting me to write about Harry Potter for this one, but I'm going to go a bit older. I'm going with Lord of The Rings.

Yep, Lord of the Rings.

I don't know of anyone out there that doesn't love this classic series. And since I just received my set of the 4-Disk set of all three movies, I decided to go ahead and reread them all. I must say, they are just as wonderful as when I read them for the first time when I was 6. These books are timeless (as I think the Harry Potter series will turn out to be).

Deathly Hallows: Part I (Also, Day 12: Whatever Tickles Your Fancy)

So, I know its been a couple days since I posted, but I wanted to post a quick snippet about "Deathly Hallows". I tried to wait to write a post because I didn't want to give too much away, and I'm going to try not to give anything away here, but I can't promise anything. And to anyone that might complain about spoilers, the books have been finished for several years. There are no spoilers anymore.

Anyways.... The movie starts out with a very ominous feeling and you can just feel the pain and loneliness that all of the characters are feeling. As things start to build, and the action builds very quickly, you get pulled into the story. I was a bit disappointed with the way Mad-Eye's death was handled, but I liked the improvements on Hedwig's. I'm a sucker for the twins, so I must say the Phelps brothers did a fantastic job and brought a bit of humour into the movie that would have left it otherwise quite depressing (which I could have lived with). The wedding was not a big part of the movie, but I'm glad it was included. They didn't have Harry in disguise, but I don't think it detracted from the scene at all. When the wedding received the notice of the Minister of Magic's death, things went crazy.Just as they should have.

Once the trio is on the run and they begin their search for Horcruxes, the movie starts to get slow. When Ron leaves, that's when things get to be a bit too slow (even for me). I understand that that part of the book is a bit slow, but I feel like there should have been more action. There were several scenes they could have added, but they didn't. And that's okay. It happens. When Harry and Hermione head to Godric's Hollow, things pick up again. The scene with Bathilda Bagshot... Creepy. As the story progresses, from here, its all uphill. Things are action packed. And emotional. And absolutely fantastic. When they're at Malfoy Manor, I got chills. And teared up during the torture scene. And the final scenes of the movie, I cried. Like a little kid.

Austin, who has never read any of the books (I know, I'm trying to get him to), loved the movie. There were a few things in the movie that he didn't quite catch the significance of, like the two way mirror and Dobby's death, but he still thought it was a very well done movie and kept up a decent pace. He's been a fan of the movies since Prisoner of Azkaban, so he wasn't too upset about us going to the midnight premiere. He wasn't too happy that he had to work the next day, but even he said it was worth being exhausted.

All in all, I think this was the best movie adaptation so far. And it is just that, an adaptation. Some people complain that the movies don't stick to the movies exactly, but I think that's okay. I think it is fine to change small things, leave certain things out, add something if you think it adds to it (just not to the extent that they did when they butchered Half Blood Prince). I'm now trying to patiently wait for Part II

Deathly Hallows Part I is Tonight!

Austin and I are going to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I tonight at midnight! I am very excited to finally see it tonight!! I've been trying to be patient and not get too excited, but come on! Its Harry freakin' Potter! How could I not be excited?!

We're planning on getting semi-dressed up for the midnight showing and we're really looking forward to it tonight. Well, Austin is looking forward to it, just not nearly as much as me... I think he might only be going because I really, really want to. I'll be sure to post pictures of us there, and dressed up, and a review of the movie. I've heard from a couple people that were able to see it early that it is very well done, but be prepared to cry... So I might bring some tissues just in case...

Day 11: A Photo of You Taken Recently

The most recent pictures that I've had taken of me are our engagement pictures, so I'm going to share another engagement picture with you all!

Day 10: A Photo of You Taken Over Ten Years Ago

So, I've done a little looking around, and I don't have any pictures of me from over ten years ago. Since my parents kicked me out and want no part of my life now, I don't have any pictures from me growing up. Its sad, but what can a person do? Its life. So, I've looked through everything I have, and I've decided to post the oldest picture I have of myself.

 

This is from my freshman year of high school, with my best friend Joshy. Its nothing too exciting, but its the oldest one I could find. If I do find something in the next couple of days, I'll be sure to upload it and edit this post.

Day 9: A Photo You Took

Being the fact that its mid-November and its finally starting to feel like fall here in Dallas, I figured I would use this picture. I took it several years ago and I still love it. The colors are all so vibrant and warm, it just looks like fall should look. And since Dallas doesn't really get much of the pretty fall colors, I really miss it. All of the trees here just kinda go from green to brown and then fall off the trees. Not nearly as nice as the couple weeks that most places get with the wonderful reds, oranges, and yellows during for fall.

Our Save the Dates are in!!

I know they're not that fancy, but I love them! After we had our engagemnt pictures taken, Austin and I decided that we loved the pictures and wanted to show them to everyone, so we ordered these Save the Dates:

 

Austin and I are working on gathering the last of the addresses for our guest list and hope to be sneding them all out by the end of the week!

Day 8: A Photo that Makes you Angry or Sad

Don't Ask, Don't Tell. How could someone ever support this? Just because someone is gay does not mean they should not be able to serve their country. Anything along the same lines where the religious right wants to make a homosexual a second class citizen is just wrong. When I hear about it, it makes me mad. When I see the religious right trying to take over the country and force their beliefs on the rest of the country, it makes me mad. And when they tear down an entire community because of the fact that they love the wrong person, that makes me sick.

Day 7: A Photo that Makes you Happy

Today is a photo that makes me happy. And since Austin and I recently had our engagement pictures taken, I want to use one that makes me smile every time I see it. 

I love this picture that Amber took. We had been taking pictures at the Dallas Arboretum for a couple hours already and we were getting pretty comfortable with each other and having a photographer taking pictures of us. So when we were getting ready to have this picture taken:

 

Austin started to fool around and since neither of us knew exactly how we were suppsoed to pose, this is what we came out with the first shot: 

 

I love it. Aren't we just adorable?? 

We are. You know we are.

Day 6: Whatever Tickles Your Fancy

Since today I'm supposed to write about whatever tickles my fancy, I figured I would use this as a great time to catch up on everything that has been happening lately.

Well, work has been absolutely crazy lately. Since the year is starting to come to a close, everyone in the office has been trying to work on budgets and calendars and holiday parties and all of that fun end of the year work. I've also come to the realization that I have quite a lot of vacation time left and not much time to take it, so I've been trying to figure out a time when I will actually be able to use my vacation days without completely inconveniencing everyone else. And having to deal with too much make up work. I hate taking a couple days of and then having a mountain of work once I get back...Anyways... Work has been pretty crazy lately.

And then there's all of the wedding stuff...

I've been able to finally pay off our photographer in full, which means I have one less bill to worry about! All $2500 has been completely paid off, with help to Austin's dad. We've got our florist paid in full, my dress is done, 2/3 of my bridesmaids and most of the caterer. I've been pretty stressed out about all of the wedding madness that I thought had to be done and we had to pay for, but I've come to realize that most of what we can do right now is already done.

I've also ordered and received all of our Save the Dates in. We had our engagement pictures taken a little over a month ago and we loved the way all of our pictures turned out. After showing them off to our family and friends, we realized that we wanted to do Save the Dates just for the fact that we could show off all of our pictures. After all, we had all of these great pictures, why not use them for something? So, we looked around on Vistaprint and found a great deal on Save the Date postcards . We were able to get 200 for about $50. Since that was such a fantastic deal, we decided to go ahead and order them and get them sent out by Thanksgiving. (And yes, the "we" I"m referring to here is more "me". Austin really didn't care too much as long as it didn't cost too much.)

I've been working on getting all of our addresses put together so I can make labels for all of our Save the Dates. Then I have to get stamps, which shouldn't be too much for postcards. Another great thing about getting our Save the Dates out is that we will have all of our addresses put together so that will be one less thing for us to worry about before we send out our actual invitations. So consider that two checks, one for our save the dates and one for having all of our addresses together!

On top of the wedding and work, I've also been trying to get things ready for Austin and I to go see Deathly Hallows Part I. Being the wonderful fiance that he is, Austin has agreed to actually get into it and dress up. If we weren't going to the midnight premiere I wouldn't have begged him to dress up, but we are. And he is. So in what little free time I have I've been trying to make a Gryffindor scarf for him to wear. I've also been looking around for a sweater that would pass as being a Hogwarts school uniform. And I finally found something! With less than two weeks to go, I found us sweaters! Now all that's left is for me to find a cute pleated, gray skirt....

Day 5: Your Favorite Quote

I apologize for the delay in posting, this week has been an absolute cluster-fuck. More on everything happening in my oh-so-exciting life in a post later, but for now I"ll continue with this 30 Day Challenge.

I don't really know if I have a number one favorite quote. There are a lot of quotes that I've accumulated over the years that mean a lot to me and have helped me throughout life. There is one that I found quite some time ago and it has really helped me throughout my life and point me in the right direction. I never found out who said it or wrote it, but I love it.

"Life is a blank piece of canvas, one... chance at a beautiful piece of art, one chance to create that perfect picture for everyone to look upon, to see and remember forevermore, to ponder upon, to express upon, to look at and see their own potential, to build upon, to hang upon a blank wall after you're gone, to be exposed, to show the world, that there is more than just a picture, already created, never again to be created in the same form, and there it will hang, on that blank and bare wall, never to be removed. Nobody will ever see the burdens and troubles the artist went through to make it. For it is finished"

Day 4: Your Favorite Book

Continuing with the 30 Day Challenge, today is my favorite book. Who would have thought something that seems to easy would actually be a pretty challenging question?

I'm an avid reader. I love to read fiction, nonfiction, philosophy, religious texts (yes, an atheist that actually enjoys reading religious texts, crazy I know), historical books, science, journals, you name it... I like to read about music, art, people, times, places... I could go on. So picking just one book out of this huge list is a pretty difficult thing to do. So I've decided to list my top five books.

1. Perks of Being a Wallflower - Stephen Chbosky

2. The Harry Potter series - JK Rowling (I know its a bit of a cheat, since it is seven books)

 

3. The Republic - Plato

4. Invisible Monsters - Chuck Palahniuk

5. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte