Officially Mrs. Emily Korhonen!

andrew went to the social security office this morning while i was at work and changed my name legally to Emily Welch Korhonen. i was so excited when i heard it that i almost didn't mind it being korhonen! to celebrate, we went out to eat dinner at shiki sushi in durham. they've opened the other half of the restaurant, and it's much bigger with faster service now, but i'd recommend getting a booth seat because those chairs are HARD!

on an unrelated note, i'll be working at the vet friday and saturday of this week, and i've been thinking about it a lot. i was incredibly excited until i went to visit on halloween night and the vibe was less than great. i have been dreading it since then, and i think because of that i had this thought this morning on the way to work. i was remembering one of the most traumatic experiences i had. [warning: this is a pretty graphic story] there was a golden who came in that i helped take x-rays on even though it wasn't my client. we had to be careful because she was having trouble breathing. after x-raying her chests, the films showed her entire thorax was riddled with tumors. she turned white just by taking the films, and we took her back to the room for dr. gordon to tell the owners the bad news. her prognosis was beyond poor. for some reason i will not understand, this man chose to take her home, think on it and bring her back a few days (even though there was nothing we could really do). he brought her back and against every doctor recommendation, chose to "begin chemo". he left the office, but didn't get 10 mins down the road before he called and was rushing back because the dog collapsed in the car. julie was worried she wouldn't be able to pick up the dog (since it was about an 85-95lb golden, so i ran out there. i grabbed her all by myself, and ran her into the exam room. i could feel blood running down my arms and legs, and i could hear the fluid from her head splashing onto the floor. i laid her down, but she was beyond help. she had bled out and died in the back of the suv. the man came in, crying that he thought she was gone, and she was. he went to get his wife to let her say goodbye, and i picked her up and laid her on the table. she was HEAVY now that my adrenaline was gone. we took our peroxide and cleaned her off as best we could so the wife could say goodbye in a peaceful way. i cried over her as i was cleaning her face. her big brown eyes looked into mine, and i felt like it was lillie lying there. it was one of the saddest moments i've felt. so... that's what was running through my head on the way to work.

tonight though, on the way to shiki sushi, we stopped in to the oberlin office to make sure i was in the computer system, and everyone was so nice and happy to see me, i couldn't help but feel that i really am called to continue to have this job as a part of my life. i'm actually excited to be working this weekend instead of dreading it like i was just 12 hours ago.

sorry that was such a manic-depressive post! but at least it started and ended well! and there's only one more day of school this week!

THERE ARE PICTURES!!!

there are pictures in posts all the way back to oct.7th, so scroll down and take a peek, cause posts are way better with pics :-P

another of the fun pic from the wedding...
caught in the act!

wedding pictures!

it has taken me hours, but i have uploaded every single picture to my flickr account. there are over 1,000 pics, but it's really just ~500 with black and white doubles of each print. i wouldn't look at every single one, as it might make you go a little crazy, but definitely click here if you want to browse them!

one example of a really fun one:

wedding pics

if you're interested in seeing some wedding pics from my mom's camera, complete with tags and captions, go here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2100288&l=93afd&id=29704504
-em

Weddings, Honeymoons, and Married Life!

ok, i was hoping to make this short, but i believe it might be another mega-post... i promise to stop these! when you're gone for over a week though, i guess it makes sense to have a lengthier post.

the wedding, from the guests' perspective, went off without a hitch - which is awesome. i had a great wedding party that really made everything much more enjoyable than if i'd had to do it all alone (which i did for much of the planning stages). melissa put together practically all the programs, and she and jessi kept me sane before the rehearsal, kim took care of all the wedding-day details (which was such a weight off my shoulders!), and donna ran sound for the ceremony. my gratitude is infinite, and i'm sure thank-you cards can't even begin to express that.

the night before the wedding was a bit stressful with the rehearsal running a little longer than i'd intended, and though i planned to sort of be "in charge" of it, the pastor ran the show, so i wasn't completely clear on some of the things i'd hoped to rehearse. also, there were a few things we'd changed in the actual ceremony wording that the pastor didn't seem to get the memo on (well he sort of passive-agressively ignored the memo), so i was a little worried about things going as we'd hoped. leaving later than planned, the rehearsal dinner location stressed me out by calling like 5 times and trying to pull some more crap, but after i got upset and called andrew slightly distraught, he called them back and took care of things. by the time we arrived, everything went great, and people are still raving about how much they liked the dinner, atmosphere, and whole idea of tapas dining for a rehearsal dinner. i was really pleased.

as most people do, i had trouble sleeping the night before the wedding. i stayed up late finishing the last ring bearer pillow and doing my own nails (french manicure style). i went to bed hoping they wouldn't get all crapped up while i slept. sleeping did not immediately follow though, as i started freaking out about money and ended up having to get up and call the automated bank system to calm my nerves. in the end, we came out in the red for sure, but everyone (including my family and andrew) seems to think it was worth it. i agree, but it's hard to be completely without a savings when you've had one as long as you can remember.

the morning of the wedding was pretty disastrous, to be honest. we woke up and headed to breakfast, where i could hardly eat, then my mom and i tried to take care of the billing at chetola, but the NEW wedding coordinator (who took over a few weeks before the wedding and made me nervous the whole time) was nowhere to be found, which stressed me out. i was informed by the front desk that "she has a wedding today, so she's busy with that" at which point it was all i could do to jump and scream IT'S MY WEDDING YOU MORON - FIND HER!!! but apparently i was a very calm bride, and most people didn't even realize until i told them that it was my wedding day. on the way back up to the condo, i stopped into the reception tent, and when i got back to my mom's car, i completely lost it. all the things we'd gone over so carefully with the NEW coordinator were completely messed up. tables were where they weren't supposed to be, many little details we'd gone over were completely forgotten, and there were large black and red "no smoking" signs posted on each side on the inside of the tent. i couldn't believe it, and i really felt like all the work i'd done, and all the money i'd paid, was just going to be wasted on some botched-up event. after bawling in my mother's car, she promised to take care of everything, and we proceeded to the hair appointment. later, i realized that jennifer, the OLD coordinator, somehow took over the event. she was the one there who reset things before we got back, she was the one cutting the cake, and she was the one who ultimately took care of the billing. i don't know what happened to the other girl, and jennifer did look slightly annoyed at times, but i was fine with it because at least she was competent, which is more than i can say for the new girl.

when i got to the hair appointment, my mom had been running late, so the guy doing my hair ran late. he didn't seem to have any recollection of how i wanted my hair (even after we showed him the pictures), and he did it differently than before. it turned out ok, but it was less secure than it had been, and i was constantly worried about it falling out. it wasn't exactly how i think i always envisioned my hair looking, but the feedback was unanimously positive. feeling late, frustrated, and rushed, we stopped in to pick up my dress, where donna (my savior from "did someone say party?") decided she would deliver and tie me into the dress. we rushed over to the church, and i felt discombobulated while i did my own make-up, waited on the dress, realized the straps were too long, realized my undergarment hosiery was too big (and had to go commando), and tried not to cry. my bouquet was about a third of the size i thought it would be, but luckily while i did my make-up, the florist added more calla lilies to the bouquet, and it looked better by the time we were ready for it. i got my make-up done, got my jewelry on, and took pictures with the photographer while donna simultaneously sewed me into the dress. talk about above and beyond the call of duty, and last-minute adjustments!
aside from almost missing our entrance (no one was really there to tell us girls when to go in) and the photographer trying to take one last picture (that sent the groomsmen up the stairs to grab us and me running down them as the flash went off), from there on out, it was good. the wedding went well, with the only hilarity being the loss of one ring bearer, andrew and my exclamation of "rings!" in a mocking fashion (one of the parts we tried, without success, to omit from the ceremony wording), and kaitlynn hitting her head from doing summersaults during the wedding. it went pretty well. pictures were HOT, but fast enough, and the reception went extremely well. people were happily chatting, eating, and drinking when we made our grand entrance. i loved seeing my family and friends enjoying themselves and having such a great time smiling and dancing. i was finally able to let loose and enjoy the day, and i'm grateful for it and all the people who took the time to share it with us.

after some fun mid-reception couples shots and the end of the dance-party portion of the reception, we had our last dance (and andrew did quite well on the dancing front, i might add), and the party ended. we went up to our room and enjoyed the flower petals on the bed, changed clothes, and then went out for a late-night stroll around chetola. we walked back to the now broken-down tent and had a last dance together on the vacant dance floor. it was quite magical. after going back to the room and enjoying the jacuzzi tub and getting the crud out of my hair, we watched some law and order (seriously, how us is that?) and went to bed. our married life began!

the next day we had breakfast with friends, got the tuxes taken care of, set off on our honeymoon (with a pit-stop at our house to clean the car and re-pack the car), and in a few hours we were at the inn at the biltmore in asheville. andrew surprised me with tuxedo strawberries and champagne in the room, and we had a fantastic view! we were waited on hand and foot, got massages, toured the house, ate like kings, drank a plethora of wine, and in a few days our stay was up. andrew had gotten a cold, and it was yucky and rainy, so rather than camping, we spent two nights in a fancy-pants bed and breakfast called 1900 inn on montford in the montford historic district of asheville.
the two person jacuzzi tub, fantastic shower (complete with steam room!), and complete privacy was exactly what we wanted. by the end of our stay though, we were done with asheville (we actually found it pretty boring), and we missed the dogs. we headed back to boone on friday instead of monday, picked the dogs up, and headed to the triangle to spend labor day with our families. the dogs, being fed inordinate amounts of food at the boarding facility, were on a strict diet and exercise regimine, but are beginning to get back to normal size, and though we never got to camp or climb (things i am seriously dying to do now), our honeymoon was exactly what we wanted it to be. relaxing, fun, restful, together-time.

oh yeah! and on sunday night, we (andrew) dyed my hair!!! ya know, something new and different :-P
before:

after:

back in the real world, we went to work today. it was hard to get back in the groove. my job has completely reorganized (and since it's a small company, they can just up and do that), and more and more andrew and i feel like we're just biding our time until we can move somewhere with more feasible, better jobs. we're trying to make as many strides towards that as possible, but we're learning the art of patience. after work, we were going to go climb, but we were in desperate need of groceries, and by the time shopping was done, both of us were into cooking and eating rather than climbing. man, have i done a lot of eating recently! i made salmon marinated in white-wine, red pepper, and onion, as well as some porcini mushroom risotto (which was mediocre to be generous), and asparagus, baby-bellas, and onions in olive oil, salt and pepper. we ate it with the pinot grigio from the biltmore (they don't do reds well, but whites they aren't bad at). overall, it was a passable dinner. i hoped for better, but andrew seemed to enjoy it. we popped in some (also mediocre) chocolate chip muffins for dessert, and i promptly fell asleep on the futon. i guess i was wiped out! but seriously, who wouldn't be after all that.

i definitely feel blessed to have had such a great wedding/reception/honeymoon, friends and family, and i am beyond blessed to have married such a wonderful man. perfect man for me.

highlight reel

well it's been a LONG time since i've blogged, but you'll have to cut me some slack as we're winding down the last few days before the wedding, and it's been quite the whirlwind experience. though i believe (and andrew supports) that i've been a very low-key, low-stress, low-maintenance kind of girl who's getting married and planning the wedding herself, i definitely found my breaking point this last week with all the things that inevitably go wrong in the last few days before a big event. but there have been some awesome times too, that i don't want to forget, so i'll try to go back as far as the last post and give the highlights from the past week!

wednesday night
we went to our zuzda's meeting, where the guy tried to tell us we were not going to do a tapas-style dinner, but that he was just going to prepare something... we said no. he said yes. we said no. we won. modified menu, but got it changed. also, we tried to find the rioja wine we had last time and found out that we'd accidentally been served the $56/bottle wine rather than the $24/bottle that we'd ordered. fun that we got to taste the good wine, sad that we can't afford to have it at the rehearsal dinner now that it's extremely pricey! we came home, i tried to be cheerful though i was upset that page cancelled on the harp-playing for us, but was happy when my brother agreed to play the piano at the last minute.

thursday
after work, i investigated several boarding locations for the dogs. one sounded really good, large runs, outdoor play area, etc... but i showed up and it was a scary guy's backyard operation where the "grassy area for playing" was a gravel walkway in between the two rows of kennels. so i vetoed that one and proceeded to the snobby vet's office. they had pretty small runs, esp for two big dogs to share, but a nice large play-area and an extremely nice kennel manager guy (not sure if he is actually the manager, but he works there a lot). we decided this would work for the weekend, and we'd re-evaluate about the honeymoon week when we got back. they ended up doing a good job, but were booked for our honeymoon week, so we have scheduled the dogs for boarding at the place andrew investigated, which despite the concrete-slab turn out area, seems very nice and has good reviews. we didn't meet with anyone wedding-wise, but the kennel hunting was enough for the nigh. we had dinner at pepper's, which was good, and then we came home to relax. andrew watched tv, and i worked on our wedding program in illustrator. it's pretty straightforward, nothing fancy, but i like it.

friday
last day of work for two weeks! boy, could i ever not concentrate! i kept trying to work but kept zoning out. but i got paid for the week, and that is good. i had gotten up very early to take the dogs into the vet for boarding, got to work early, went home for lunch (since i left it in the commotion of the two-dog wrangling at 7am), and rushed home from work to leave nice and early. i wanted to get going so we could go to the 7:30 football game at my highschool. i packed up and skipped the shower i should have taken in anticipation of andrew's arrival. however, he worked later than expected, and by the time he got home it wasn't worth rushing. we took our time and got into durham around 10:30. we had originally planned to meet up with marc and lora, but by the time we got in town, it was late, we were tired and hungry, and they were tired too... so we just decided to go to pf chang's for a really late dinner. it was good food and EXCELLENT cheesecake. my new favorite! it is fresh and creamy and comes with a lot of nice fruit and raspberry drizzle on the plate. definitely the highlight of the night. we went back to my parents' place and tucked in.

saturday
was filled with errand running (none of which got done!) in the morning, then lunch with arun, mark doliner, my brother, melissa, rachel, mike, mackenzie, and tommy at the village draft house. this was the beginning of andrew's "bachelor party" but it was the co-ed part. interesting, i know. then andrew, matthew, arun, and mark went bowling while melissa and i went shopping again! yay for shopping... kind of. it was still a rather fruitless trip, as i was trying to get andrew a wedding-day present, and the thing i found in the store in crabtree was messed up, so i had to go get it from southpoint, and we were trying to find me a rehearsal dinner dress, and still have yet to do that! but we did find a cute shirt, control-top "hosery" for the wedding day, and a new bra (cause, who doesn't love a new bra?). then we rushed back to melissa's, where i had quite the hair-emergency, and we were the last ones to arrive to my bachelorette party (sorry guys!).

the bachelorette party! (yeah, it gets its own sub-category)
melissa and i arrived to the melting pot to meet up with jessi, kim, lora, cindi, christin, sarah, carrie, and eventually lindsay. christin just made a fleeting appearance and had to go back to roanoke rapids, but it was good to see her briefly. we sat down at a rather strange, partially divided table that made it difficult to talk much to cindi, sarah, or carrie, but other than that, it was ok. i opened presents, which ranged from a sexy neglige to some raunchy penis paraphernalia, and we all laughed a lot. we had a multi-course fondue, complete with bread and cheese with apples, salads, assorted meats (including steak and lobster!), veggis, and a dark-chocolate raspberry fondue. it was a lot of fun, even though the waiter was pretty lame. the bills were pretty high though, and i remember why i don't go to the melting pot all that much.

then the group broke off, and the core of the party headed to the longbranch for some dancing, karaoke singing, bull-riding fun! the remainders were kim, jessi, lora, melissa, and me. the karaoke part had been redone, so it was a new and different experience, and the whole place was really empty for a saturday night, but we always enjoy the bull-riding. the machine operator threw jessi off, which was pretty funny since she almost never falls (but she was riding in a skirt, so i'm sure that didn't help), and kim rode excellently for a second time, i had a fun ride, and we got lora to try it out! though hesitant, she had a good time (minus chafing - don't ride bull in short-shorts!), and melissa was the diligent photographer. we also went to the booty-shakin' side for some bachelorette dares (none of which were completed due to lame guys), complete with pole dancing. three cosmos, four shots, and a busted toe-nail later, we closed down the bar just in time to witness the obligatory parking lot brawl before the group broke off again. jess and lora headed home, while kim, meliss, and i went to kim's for the night. i enjoyed jeremy's california king size bed all to myself, and though i did not get sick that night, had quite the headache in the morning. that's ok though, it was definitely worth it.

andrew's bachelor party took him from bowling to dinner at the rockford, followed by drinks at the flying saucer. i hear he did not quite handle his alcohol, as he paid a visit to the porcelain gods at byron's house that night. hehehe, i can drink my man under the table :-P probably mostly due to the fact that i eat about triple the amount of food he does!

sunday
sunday melissa dropped me and my armfuls of bags off at caribou where andrew met and picked me up. we went back to my parents' house for a little, and then i took the car to carrie's bridal shower while andrew hung out with my family. i definitely kicked butt at the clothes-pin game at the shower, but had to leave early to get to my aunt and uncle's house in north raleigh for dinner. i met up with andrew, my mom, and my brother there and we hung out for a little. it was ok but the food was mediocre and we didn't get to see some of the people i was really hoping to get to spend time with. andrew and i ducked out early and met up with jessi and norman over in hillsboro. we hung out and chatted and enjoyed jessi's homemade strawberry short cake (delish) before tucking in for the night.

monday
in the morning, norman had headed off to his first day of classes, so jess, andrew, and i headed to durham, had coffee and breuggers, and went to the paper shop jessi told me about in search for the perfect program paper. unfortunately, they are closed on mondays, so we had to delay the search yet again. andrew and i headed to the mall for more shopping (had to get presents for the parents - andrew made the comment "aren't people supposed to be buying us presents??" i thought it was pretty funny). mark doliner met up with us for a little, and then we headed out to raleigh to meet lynn for dinner/re-doing andrew's haircut. the haircut was approved with two thumbs up from me, and then we had a wonderfully fresh tuna-steak dinner complete with fresh fruit, veggis, and some really good 9-grain bread. we discussed the many different numbers of grain and the sadness of not being able to find good fresh food in boone. then we left, later than intended and met up with lora, marc, emily, mark, and gabe for climbing at the vertical edge. i still prefer real rock to the gym climbing, and tend to get frustrated when routes are just an inch or so too tall for me to be able to reach, since on real rock there are many more options than just what some guy lays out. but i am definitely much stronger with my upper body than i used to be and once i warmed up, was able to do much better than i have before. i never give myself enough time to warm up, and then i get mad when i can't do something i did last time, forgetting that i was actually warm by the time i attempted stuff. but i learned how to use an intermediate hold to get up to something i otherwise couldn't reach or jump to, and i did a route andrew was befuddled on how to navigate, (which he later made look easy) so it was good. we left a lot later than everyone else, since we arrived late and wanted to take full advantage of our money's worth, and headed to marc and lora's to change. unfortunately, i got a ticket for "not stopping at a stopsign" THAT I STOPPED AT and waited for someone to turn in front of me before going!... but apparently in wake county that doesn't matter... so we were really late but marc was kind enough to wait for us. then we got to the blue martini, but by the time we got there, byron and jackie were ready to go, and the waitress was so bad we didn't actually get any drinks. i tried to be cheery, but i was pretty upset. i cried most of the way home, and my eyes were almost swollen shut when we woke up tuesday morning.

tuesday
we left bright and early for my dress appt in boone at 11. but at about 9:30 got a call from donna (the seamstress) asking to postpone it until the afternoon. we took advantage of this time to stop by 3 more paper stores, none of which had what we wanted, and shopped at hanes mall for yet a few more family presents. we hit the road and got back right in time for the appointment. while i was being fitted (again), andrew picked up the dogs from the boarding facility. apparently lillie ate a squeeky toy; however, i did not bring her a squeeky toy, so i'm wondering how she got it. they also threw out our bones, which really ticked me off, but what can you do. then we met with the photographer, dropped our stuff off at home, had dinner at black cat, and came back and crashed. i fell asleep at like 9 and could NOT get up for the life of me.

...
so yesterday was the day of running around crazy. we went to panera for breakfast and coffee, then to wal-mart, then to blowing rock, then to precision printing, then to did someone say party?, then to the church, then to the bank, then to two art stores across town from eachother, then to a framing store, then back to wal-mart, then to blowing rock again, then to lowes, then to wendy's for lunch, then back home. we got everything we could but the wedding favors still won't print in the printer correctly, we still have to pick up the programs (and put them together), we need to go back to blowing rock after two today for the flower girl basket, and we have to meet with the seamstress again to make sure that andrew's tux fits, melissa's dress fits, and my bustle is right.

stuff that's still not completed:
guard for parking lot
someone to run sound board for wedding - edit: donna just volunteered to do this - yay!
transportation of stuff from place to place
finish flower girl basket and ring bearer pillow
packing for wedding hotel
packing for honeymoon
pay people!

whoo. that's a lot of stuff. and i totally should have been working instead of blogging, but i needed a break!
until later...
peace out!

probably signing off for the last time as Emily Erin Welch... sad.

numb

so i feel bad for those "bridezillas" on that show on tv now. not that i excuse their behavior by any means because many of them are total crack heads. but i definitely feel the combination of frustration, stress, nerves about to jump out of your skin, mixed with the "i don't give a fuck anymore" attitude... all heaped on top of a hefty pricetag. it's made me numb. i feel hollow now. like i'm just tired of fighting with people - because though i haven't spoken a mean word to any vendor, that is what i feel this has become. down to stupid things like the number of buffet tables.

i have no words.

i know that at the end of the day, andrew and i will be married and that's all that matters, but it's hard to think of that when you want to be sure everyone has a good time, and your money is well-spent.

on top of everything i feel like i'm fighting off some sort of illness. it would be lame to be sick during my own wedding.

i want to write something good, but i'm just down in the dumps today. maybe something happier will come later today.


alright, i have now set up payment for the church, gotten what i wanted from the lady at chetola, had a tasty lean cuisine panini for lunch, taken out lightbulbs and turned on the lights at work in hopes of alleviating the headaches i keep getting from working in the dark, talked to my mommy on the phone, and gotten a vanilla latte (no foam). the day is looking better. now i just have 2.75 hrs of work, and then i get to see my hunny and go to zuzda's to discuss the rehearsal dinner. i am happy once again. glad all it takes is a coffee and an andrew :)

new eyebrows and wedding snafus

it's been a few days since i've posted, mainly because every time i want to write, i don't have a computer nearby or i'm working and shouldn't be slacking off. but andrew's out playing fetch with the dogs, and i've got a few minutes to sit down in the quiet. it's nice to be up in the mountains in times like this when it's excruciatingly hot everywhere else in the state. we found that out this weekend when we went on a little excursion, but we'll get to that point later.

so since i last wrote, andrew and i have been talking and thinking about mainly two things: the wedding, and where we want to live after the wedding. not really light topics to say the least. now that the wedding is only 3 weeks away, i'm starting to feel the crunch. i keep realizing more things i need to do, and thinking about how much they cost, and i'm starting to get overwhemed! now is the time i'd like us to have stuck to our original plan, which was for andrew to work and for me to take off the time before the wedding as a nice little vacation - and start working after the 25th... however, it seems we have shifted, and i'm working while andrew searches for employment before our wedding. i'm much happier now though than i was when i was sitting around all day lonely and he was gone for weeks at a time, so i'm glad for his resignation.

recently andrew's gotten some leads on employment BACK in the triangle area, so it seems, at the moment that we may be looking to move back there come the new year. i feel like i've just been bouncing around between boone, raleigh, durham, and chapel hill for almost 7 years now -- and i have! as i said, we've been discussing the working and living plans ad nauseum as of late, and i think we are in agreement that we don't plan to stay in the boone area long-term, and one of the best ideas seems to be moving back to the triangle. the problem we run into in searching for somewhere else to live is that our occupational restraints and our situational desires are constantly conflicting. we want to live in a place that is much more rural than urban, but andrew's job almost requires living in a big city, while my job (or the idea of a future as a teacher anyway) requires we remain in north carolina for at least 3 more teaching years to avoid having to pay back the teaching fellows. thus, our dilemma. but again, i digress, this was intended to be a post chronicling our weekend! back to friday...

friday we had a wonderful afternoon together enjoying sales and tax-free-ness. we actually went shopping for the first time since we moved up here, and we were able to find gifts for our wedding parties - that was excellent. after that, we found ourselves coming upon the chetola resort (our reception location), and decided to have dinner at the manor house restaurant. andrew had a salmon/pasta dish, i had a wahoo steak special, and we shared some calamari. each of us had a nice glass of wine (mine was a pinot noir, while andrew had a chianti) - it was all great. we were seated speedily at a nice table outside in view of the spunky swan, the off-roading, golf-cart-driving security guard, and many a rich family on vacation. not only did the dining manager comp our wine, but we thoroughly enjoyed the night and shared quite a few laughs.

the spunky swan pictured above (taken from the chetola website, not one of our own) is really a funny story, so you'll have to ask me about it if you're interested!

saturday, melissa came up and we planned to do more wedding stuff. i went to have my practice hair done for the wedding, and i have to say... it was bad. i am quite discouraged with the salons up here, and i fear i'm going to have nasty hair for the wedding and end up crying for the wrong reasons. andrew assures me we'll find someone to do it right, but after this experience, i'm a tad on the freaking out side. after that, we had melissa try on her maid of honor dress, and with one slight alteration, it fit very well and looked great! i'm a lucky girl to have such beautiful attendants who were so easy to shop for! then we went to melanie's, a largely organic, vegitarian-based restaurant on king st. it was really good food, and there was something for everyone. melissa had whole wheat belgium waffles with fruit and a yogurt and honey glaze, andrew had a turkey/walnut/brie panini with a really good aoli and a salad, and i had the quiche of the day with fruit and tomato slices. scrumptious. then we went shopping at artwalk, meandered down to footsloggers, and found our way to haircut 101, where i decided to have an on-the-spot eyebrow wax. bear in mind, i do not usually have things dyed, styled, or waxed, so this was a little stressful for me, but i decided i'd like to have pretty eyes for the wedding, and my eyebrows do tend to be on the bushy side. a nice girl charged me $12 to rip the skin and hair off my delicate eye-area, and i have to say that the outcome was pretty good. i like my new eyebrows, and i think andrew and melissa both did too. after that, we went out to eat at canyons and came back for andrew's two-step lesson from melissa, which we shall not discuss due to a few minor catastrophes... needless to say, with the hair and the not so much two-stepping, i went to bed somewhat stressed about the wedding.

today, we woke up early (though we were still leaving a half-hour late) with plans of going to donny's church down in davie county and then climbing at pilot mountain. i drove like a bat out of hell and went WAY too fast on some very curvy roads to get us there before 10am - BUT WE MADE IT! church was nice, and i got to see some friends i haven't seen in a really really long time (like double-digit years). it was quite enjoyable. we also got to meet a guy who helps run the climbing wall in the asu student rec center, so we're definitely going to take advantage of that and go climb even when it rains now! we did, however, decide to veto the climbing part of our day today due to the fact that when we got in the car after lunch, our thermostat read 100 degrees, and we are no longer heat people. we decided to come back up to boone and just be lazy for the rest of the evening.

all of this weekend and even the preceeding week, i've been quite nostalgic, and i will definitely explain it sometime soon, but for now i think i should start dinner going; plus this is a really long post already - sorry! until then, i'll just leave you in suspense. :-P

-em