Thinking about: all of the things that need doing before the wedding. The amount of work to do both at home for the wedding/honeymoon and at work is mind numbing. Sometimes, when it all gets too much, I just have to sit with my head in my hands and stop. My parents used to say to me “how do you eat an elephant?” the answer “One bite at a time”. While I know this logic works sometimes it can be hard to not chew on that elephant and think Ï will never finish eating all this before it goes off”. A lot of people (including Richard who has been unbelievable) have been so helpful to us in getting us organised and I am so grateful to them. To be completely honest with you though I wouldn’t have it any other way and I would genuinely regret it later in life if I hadn’t been a driving force in pulling the day together, it will be a proper celebration of us because we did it. I would never give that up.
Motivation: that at the end of all of this work I will be Mrs Alys Holz! It is really important to remember that, because it is the MOST IMPORTANT THING! Everything else that seems so important right now really isn’t, what matters is that by the end of August we will be married.
Watching:it tends to be in the background but we are still working our way through House MD (8 seasons takes a long time to get through). There are also new episodes of Once Upon a Time, Big Bang Theory, Colbert Report, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and Conan for our viewing pleasure. Not really focusing on any one thing at the moment but and I look forward to a marathon of something once the wedding is over and we get our weekends back.
Obsessing over: the little details for the wedding. We’ve done all the big things so now everything is about the little details. With two months to go now is the time to order any supplies we need online and to start making the rest of them ourselves. I am so glad that we have a venue with a planner and decided to invest in a decorator. Not only does it mean that we have professionals looking after us but it also means at the end we aren’t going to have a room full of wax lanterns.
A good cause: I adore our Rorschach, he really is our first child, and I cannot imagine ever hurting him. I know though that he is lucky. Not every animal is treated with love the way he is. There are a few charities out there working hard to protect animals but I personally support the RSPCA. I am attracted to the fact that they run both on the ground, practicial programmes to care for and protect animals. As well as the national campaigns around public and government awareness of animal cruelty and protection. I am not a vegetarian though I do believe in trying, where I can, to buy from suppliers who care about animals too. The RSPCA’s Shop Humane campaign around humane foods is a great one, find out more on their website.
Praying for: good weather for the wedding. It doesn’t have to be dry as our venue is indoors (but not) and I think rain in wedding photos can look good. But I really don’t want to walk along George St in my dress with the risk of it getting wet. I am already having to line up my entire family to carry my dress so it doesn’t touch the ground – it cannot be dirty before I even arrive – adding rain to the mix just makes me nervous. So here is to a gorgeous day with plenty of sunshine and that lovely nearly spring weather you so often get at the end of August.
Wishing: scientists had figured out how to clone people, I could really use 3 of me rught now. They need to be clones of me rather than assistants for the simple fact that I don’t have time to supervise more people, I just need bodies to get the work done. At least if they were all me I would know that they would think/react/purchase the same way as I would. As long as there was a clear plan of who was looking after what for work/wedding/honeymoon/life we would get it done and be a great team.
Listening to/Reading: Enders Game by Orson Scott Card but as an audio book. The book itself is fantastic. I barely believe that it was originally written in the 80s, it really could be set now the story is so relevant to now. Audio books are something to get used to, and I am still working on it.
This weekend we are in Melbourne for Oz Comic Con! I am really excited about the adventure. I’ve never been to something like this and for us its a test to see if we invest in the trip to San Diego for Comic Con International one year.
Here is what I am most looking forward to:
Did you know there were women in the comic book industry? Not just any comic books but someone who has drawn Wonder Woman (my favourite for obvious reasons)
Sticking with comics THE GUY who co-created classic characters like Spider-Man, The Avengers, and the Hulk
Of The Hunger Games fan Primrose Everdeen (can you believe she was born in 2000, that is ridiculous)
Did you watch Firefly? We did so a bit excited to hopefully see Dr Simon Tam
Known for getting his shirt off, Ronon Dex/Khal Drogo is bound to be a popular choice (though I wouldn’t blame him if he kept his shirt on this weekend)
I am probably most looking forward to dinner with Sir Patrick. Please, please, please don’t let me say something silly. I can feel a “make it so” coming on
All images are from the OzComicCon website. I think you can still get tickets if you wanted to come too.
I tweeted last night about deciding whether to dress up for OzComicCon this weekend. In the end I decided not to* but I thought this a timely reminder to be careful what you cosplay.
*If you were at all interested I decided not to dress up for a couple of reasons:
Melbourne in winter is cold … and unless I was to go as Princess Leia on Hoth I would probably freeze
Sci-fi women are either scary tough … or slutty, and again its too cold for that.
All that walking around the Melbourne Convention Exhibition Centre requires comfort, which a lot of the costumes aren’t … which surprises me given all the running
I have never finished a game before. I actually feel a bit lost. We were so excited when it came out and had a great time playing. Richard tells me what I am feeling is normal, that gamers feel this whenever they finish a game but its so strange to me.
To be fair most of what I play are MMO’s. Every time I start to catch up to a game an expansion pack is released and I’m 30 levels behind again. I cannot deny I am a fairly competitive person and the idea of “winning” a game is very important. It can be very demoralising to realise that the only people winning this have a lot of time to dedicate to the game (a luxury I do not have).
Did anyone else hear that? The parents group crying that I said having time to play a game is luxury? For me though it is. Every day I go to work and make grown up decisions that have real world impact. Being able to take out the frustrations I feel with unrealistic customers on a hoard of rampaging zombies/Diablo himself is my own form of therapy. Seriously, the alternatives are either a) bottle it up and give myself a stress heart attack of b) take it out on the customer and loose my job. Zombie hoard killing it is.
I am some really pretty coasters on my desk a work that my former assistants/current friends gave me. It is so lovely to have something pretty on your desk.
In exactly 2 months at this exact time I will be walking down the aisle to marry the man of my dreams. Before we take the next big step in our relationship I wanted to take a moment to reflect on one of the most incredible nights of my life so far. Our engagement night!
It all happened on the night of Friday 2 December 2011 in our home. We did our usual make pizzas, browse the internet and watch TV combo, all in all a pretty standard night.
Then Richard put on an episode of Supernatural. He usually asks me what a I would like to watch but that was cool, I like Supernatural. Well the silly thing wasn’t playing sound. Luckily Richard persisted and eventually got it working though by the time he did I was at the point of being happy to skip to the next episode. Little did I know why he was so determined.
We were watching along merrily when, after a giant explosion, the show went all scratchy (kind of like the camera had been knocked over). I was about to turn around to ask Richard what the deal was when he popped up on screen to interrupt my scheduled programming (video Richard’s words). Video Richard started talking about living a life of surprise and sent real Richard off to get a bottle of champagne* from his bag. I think by this point I had figured out what was about to happen, but I was in such shock I could do nothing but stare dumbly at the screen.
Video Richard asked me to come closer to the screen which I did, but clumsy me banged into my desk, sending the computers rocking and so missed the next few lovely things he said. I managed to regain my focus by the end when real Richard was back with the drinks. I turned around, and with shaking hands Richard got down on his knee and asked me to be his wife. At the moment when the question had been answered and I got to kiss him we were serenaded by The Beatles Here Comes the Sun.
The tears, laughter, kisses, squeels of glee, constantly saying yes (apparently I said yes 9 times just in case I had forgotten) and smiling til my face hurt are some of the best memories of my life. The ring was a bit tight sadly but nevertheless it was special to have the ring at all.
When eventually I calmed down Richard suggested I call my parents. He had spoken to my Dad on Thursday to ask for his blessing and knew they would be awake. In a sweet aside Richard, knowing how often I speak to my mum, asked Dad to keep it a secret. So when I rang home I had the privilege of telling my Mum, who promptly burst into tears. We then called Richards parents and messaged our siblings. I had a bit of technical trouble when Ellen and Beau tried to call at the same time! I did get to speak to them both as well as Katherine and my niece Charlotte (who really should have been in bed but the woohoo she gave me was worth Ellen and Katherine getting limited sleep). Astrid, my future sister in law, made us laugh out loud with her shock and delight at our news.
It became a weekend of celebration when we told friends over dinner on Saturday night. My very dear friend Espen was home from Norway (opps, I guess it’s really the other way around since he is Norweigan) and we were celebrating him. It was pretty perfect timing to have him here. Our other great friends Casey and Portia were there too so it became a proper celebration. I recommend telling friends at a restaurant, we got a free sweet wine to congratulate us which was pretty cool. After dinner we headed for drinks and the joy continued as we caught up with people I haven’t seen since uni (where we met). We also told work friends, grandparents, close family and eventually the world via Facebook.
I was very upset Saturday when on arrival at the jewelers to get my ring re-sized that I wouldn’t get it back until Tuesday. I guess I’ve gotten spoiled and expected it could have been done same day but I really had hoped that I would be able to sit and wait for it.
The celebrations continued with Sunday lunch with my almost mother in law and at work on Monday. It was lovely to get flowers and presents from colleagues and my parents oh and there was cake.
Sorry everyone, that got really wordy! I felt as I was writing that this post was sort of like a photo. Often unless there is a photo of something it fades in our memory so I wanted to get it all down now so I would never forget the little silly details. If you got this far thank you for reading.
*for the history books we drank a bottle of Lanson Champagne Black Label Brut. A good drop, then you should trust the seal from Queen Elizbaeth (I know I do)
For ages now we’ve been going out for Saturday brunch. I love the habit we’ve gotten into of heading out to eat and just talk. Will be a treasured memory for me of planning our wedding. I always have eggs and am actually really fussy. I have been known to veto a place as they make bad eggs.
Not sure what to cook for Saturday breakfast, let this inspire you.
This would look cool on a teen boys wall. No reason why it would have to be child’s wall. I think I have mentioned before that I would love a wall of frames so this in a nice black frame could look pretty cool.
