It's Been One Week Since You Looked at Me

Or at least since the Doctor last looked at me. Last night I couldn't sleep til 4am. My belly hurt but I'd tried Aleve for the first time since the surgery (I mentioned that Tylenol does nothing and I was trying to not take my big pain pills since it's been a week) and I was committed to it for the next 12 hours. This morning I woke up at 8:30 -- far too early for a 4am bedtime. My belly still hurt but I had an hour left of the Aleve. . . . I helped my boy do some dishes and tried going back to bed at 9:30 at which point I could take more painkillers but whatever had pulled out of place during the night (there was a coughing incident) had switched back after the dishes but now I couldn't sleep.

Um, yeah, that entire paragraph was boring. That's sort of how my life has been lately. Strangely, it's occupied me a lot even though I can see it's not fascinating to the outside world. . . .

Last night, in my bout of insomnia, I contacted four places about a rehearsal dinner (or lunch, cause my boy and I are starting to worry about money -- perhaps we should have worried about that before we bought a 2010 Honda CRV). I only have price quotes back from one place and the cost is twice as much as our wedding catering, so we'll see how this all pans out. Here are the places I contacted last night, in no particular order:

Ristorante Fiore

The Elephant Walk

UpStairs on the Square

Maggianos

Finally, the North End branch of The Daily Catch is one of our favorite restaurants. We've heard that there's some difference between the various branches, but the Harborwalk does do functions and they're kind enough to post their pricing on their website, which makes me love them. Problem is, our two favorite dishes are seafood (good since it's a seafood restaurant) but we'd like a meat option for those in our party that won't eat fish, and if you upgrade to the three entree option it costs an extra $24, maybe we could work some compromise out though so let's tentatively put them on the list too.

So maybe the kettubah signing location will work itself out. I'll keep you posted.

Galling

On FRIENDS, there's an episode where Chandler has his "nubbin" removed and it appears to remove his funny as well. I've commented before on how my blog is not as funny or interesting as it was originally, but today it's worse than ever. I have tried to write a whole blog post on the fact that I've been MIA for the last week due to a saga culminating in the removal of my gallbladder. I swear there are some puns and some jokes in there somewhere but I can't come up with them. I wish it was because the drugs were so good, but they're not. They didn't give me many and the only supplemental pain med I can take is Tylenol. I believe Tylenol is Latin for PLACEBO THAT DOES NOTHING.

While I am really grateful that the surgery went well, I am sad because this was the weekend we'd set aside as our weekend to clean, plus we're missing a friend's choir concert and our pastor's last Sunday. He's preaching on Philippians 1-4 today a different sermon for each service, we were going to make a day of it going to each one. The silver lining was going to be listening to it live streaming, but this message greeted us this morning was: ATTENTION LIVE STREAMING Is UNAVAILABLE TODAY Due to a Lack of Internet Connectivity in the Meetinghouse.

Best laid plans and all that. . .

Ketubah

See and you all thought being engaged might mean I blogged more! At least I haven't lost my personality completely now that I am an engaged woman. I am blogging about wedding stuff again though (so maybe I am becoming a little obsessed -- becoming, ha, who are we kidding?).

When we first started wedding planning (and by that I mean week two when I had come up with two plans, our break up plan and our getting married plan), my boy and I decided we'd like to have a formal rehearsal dinner with all of our out of town guests, our family and a few very close friends who live in Boston. We had known all along we'd like a casual wedding where we could invite everyone we know and love, but we also wanted something a little more formal, for those closest to us.

I had heard about Quaker weddings from a friend of a friend and I thought they were a lovely idea. In the Quaker wedding ceremony there is no pastor leading the service, it's an unprogrammed service where the friends surround the couple and as the Spirit leads they say blessings, prayers and bible verses. I thought it sounded absolutely lovely. A perfect way to start a marriage. Also, my boy is from the Quaker state, so I felt like it was a little nod to his roots (even if his family isn't Quaker and they're from Amish country --they're not Amish either). It also reminded me of what the ketubah signing has evolved into for a lot of Jewish weddings; an opportunity to gather together with a small number of close friends and family in an intimate moment prior to the whirlwind of the ceremony.

It turns out that Quakers also have a wedding contract that they have signed by all those present and which they hang in the center of their home just like Jewish families have for generations as well. My boy and I want a ketubah (I'm calling it that even if it's more similar to a Quaker marriage certificate for us because we're Christians). Well really I want a ketubah and my boy is very supportive of all things honoring my Jewish (on the wrong side) ancestry. I think that may stem from his love of Challah, noodle kugel, and latkes, but you know what? I think that that would just make my people even more happy. My people are all about the food ya know.

We want a ketubah hanging in our home to show the world the commitment we've made. We want it to remind us (when we're less than thrilled with each other) about that commitment. We want the ketubah, hanging with all its signatures, to remember all those people who were there with us when we made that commitment and who also committed to support us.

When we started thinking about a getting a ketubah, we thought back on something we'd seen in one of the art galleries in Rockport, MA. It was microcaligraphy done by Leon Azoulay, he creates art illustrating parts of the Torah or important Jewish prayers/blessings and underlying it all in tiny Hebrew lettering is the entire book of the Torah, prayer or blessing. The problem was, that as amazing as they all were we weren't sure that any that were meaningful for a wedding/marriage were something we'd want to hang in our house for the rest of our lives. . . .

When we were in the same gallery we were struck by an artist, Charles Fazzino, who did amazing 3-d work. It's pop art and it was a lot of fun. Also, it turns out, though he's not Jewish, his love of Jewish related things came through food too (so how could we not love him?):

"My Jewish art collection actually started with my discovery of Kosher food,"
remembers Fazzino. "I went to the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan and I was
always discovering new restaurants, but as a struggling artist, I couldn't
afford the finer ones. That didn't matter anymore once I discovered the delis on
the Lower East Side. I LOVED them! I was soon exhibiting in the Village art
shows and thought the Jewish delis would be an appealing subject, and they were.
I began incorporating entire streets in order to capture the unique culture of
the area. Eating the food and painting the street scenes led to more research on
my part into the people who made this wonderful food. That, in turn, led to my
growing knowledge and appreciation of Judaism. I didn't just wake up one day and
decide to paint the Star of David. I have spent years researching and
appreciating the Jewish faith, and my Jewish collectors seem to appreciate my
view of their religion through a gentile's eyes."

Unfortunately, though he does do ketubah's and he has a lot of fun art work, we're not alone in being charmed by his work. A ketubah he created was apparently featured on platinum weddings. We are not in the platinum wedding league. . . Even the non-commissioned items seem above our, very limited, price range, so while we might be tempted to get one of his works because we think we could live with it for the rest of our lives, we can't really afford the price. So we're still sort of stuck on the Ketubah front.

We're also stuck on the Quaker marriage/rehearsal dinner front. I was really excited when I found out about Elephant Walk having a "benefit restaurant." We're having a circus theme for our wedding so Elephant Walk sounds like it fits in and we love benefiting something in the process of doing something we'd already do. It's sad that we've worked really hard so that our guests can get everywhere via public transportation and the benefit restaurant is out of town, but we could probably figure something out. What made me even more sad though, was when I realized that we couldn't do a benefit dinner. I mean it's perfect pricing and half of the cost goes to a charity of your choice!!!! Unfortunately, it's only good on Mondays and as much as I'd like to finagle something with our wedding, the only Monday we have to work with when everyone will be here, would be the Monday after our wedding and then it's not really a rehearsal dinner anymore, more like a redundant dinner. . . .

We keep putting off worrying about these two fairly important facets of our wedding celebration figuring it will work itself out. I do have a nagging voice telling me that we don't have that long to plan. Decisions need to be made. Commitments formalized. You think I'm speaking figuratively; I'm not. While she hasn't said these exact phrases, especially about the two topics I've mentioned, my sister has actually been the one to make me the most anxious about the impending deadline of our wedding! So if you have rehearsal dinner ideas of kettubah's you think we could live a lifetime with, let me know. . .

Ring Shots

As always, a lot has happened since my last post. Rain last week caused flooding at work and more leaking at home (you guys are so lucky I waited till this week to post, cause seriously as horrible as it was, I found omfg omfg omfg becoming a mantra interrupted in brief intervals by, God forgive me, but omfg, omfg, wait, please forgive me!). Rain this week did not prove to cause any problems at either place.

We had a tough time getting a pastor to agree to marry us (and I don't even think that it's cause they knew my new mantra or cause my boy and I appear to live in sin -- I told someone that we really live like roommates and he said mhmm, my wife and I do too), seriously, we went through about four pastors before we found one that took pity on us, but now we're all set on that front.

I am currently in panic mode about where all of our out of town guests will stay! The perfect B&B I found already has two rooms booked and they're down to like six rooms or so. . . Hotels here cost a FORTUNE!

Anyway, all that to say, I totally owe you guys a lot more information, but until then, I'll leave you with these ring shots my friend took.

The More Things Change. . .

I am not a good photographer, but I thought that a pictorial study might be better than the thousand four letter words I have to say about the subject.

Let's just say, my bed is covered in a tarp at this point and for the second time in two weeks I am sleeping on that uncomfortable bed in the living room (and yes, we have a worlds more comfortable futon in the office, but I am too lazy to move stuff around so I can pull it out). Word on the street is a new contractor is being called tomorrow.

Engaging Information For Once

I have at least two, if not three half finished posts that I never managed to get put up. They discuss things like the ceiling falling in again after it was plastered; how uncomfortable our pull out couch is and a woman on etsy who went postal (sorry dad) when I gave her two postive ratings and one neutral (apparently I should have just eaten her baby, it couldn't have been worse than the devastation left in the wake of a neutral comment).

I was going to stay up late on Saturday and write a post for you, then I was going to write one on Sunday. . . . You see where this is going right? It's Wednesday and I am just now getting something out for you. My boy and I got engaged this weekend. Probably you've already heard the story, but if not, here it is below (including my encouragement to all of you non-homeowners to get a house NOW!!!!!!!!):

We were trying to save enough money to get a house under contract by the end of April (you know for the 8,000 incentive -- which if you can do would be brilliant you have to be under contract by the end of April, but you can close in June giving you two more months to save and then if you can get an fha loan you only have to give 3.5% down which for a lot of houses is the same as the tax incentive -- fha lets you use the incentive as a down payment as well -- see we did our research) anyway, we decided to focus on a wedding first and set aside the house plan.
When we had this discussion my boy said, I was going to ask you if you wanted to get married on President's day weekend but YOU wanted to look at a house (it was noon on the third day of the weekend, he was still in his pjs that day and the house was a half mile walk away, it's not like it was in PA). Then he said he was also planning on proposing on our church retreat, but I didn't go (I'm not sorry btw). I am unclear why he didn't just ask when he was giving me a list of all the times he would have asked but I messed it up, but whatever, the plan was set I was no longer focusing on the houses I was pining for. . .

This past Saturday, we went up to Halibut Point so he could take photos and then finally at the last spot just sat down next to me and said, "will you marry me" and shoved a ring box at me. So yeah, not a big story really and I am unclear still, on why an hour walk in our neighborhood ruined a plan like that, but you know, whatever.

We went to our friend's father's house that evening for a dinner party with my boy's small group and they were far more excited and sweet than I was (I think this may actually be true always, I don't think that Saturday was special).

When we arrived at the house, I stayed in the car talking to my mom while my boy went in ahead of me. About 10 min later I came in and was surprised that our friend didn't say congrats or ask to see the ring (oh, right, for those of you interested, it's an emerald cut solitaire with knife edge band). So I said "did you tell her?" and he said, "no, I thought you might want to." So basically my boy had been in the house with our friend 10 min and didn't mention the engagement once. He just cryptically said "she's talking to her mom." That's my boy. When the rest of his small group got there and found out, one of the women said, "That's so great! We've been praying for this!" I kind of think that is hysterical. The women in his small group meet separately and I assume that's where they've been praying about it, but I like to imagine them praying about it in their normal small group meetings right there in front of my boy. "Dear Lord, please, please let them get engaged!!"

My boy, unbeknownst to me, solicited addresses from a number of people earlier this week. One of those people was the pastor that leads our Thursday night group. The pastor's response to the email was: "About dang time!" Sort of the southern equivalent of my boy's mother's response of "well, it's about time."

I have a friend who was a weddingbee (remember a long time ago I mentioned reading it all the time cause I get so bored?). Another friend asked if I thought I would become a weddingbee now. The idea of weddingbee is that women blog the details of their wedding planning etc. If you've noticed, I am a terrible blogger. I think the world of wedding bloggers can breathe a sight of relief that I will not be joining their ranks. Perhaps I'll write a post or two about wedding planning, but more likely than not, I'll just add to the number of half finished posts.

Monthly Update

For all of you eagerly awaiting an update on the ceiling situation, the landlord has put on two coatings of plaster and will, hopefully, finish the last one this week. So that's exciting. I'm hoping it doesn't all come crashing back down in the next rainstorm.

Saturday was my boy's and my 4 year anniversary. We celebrated by cooking at the grand opening of the soup kitchen where we volunteer. We were told the turn out for breakfast was huge but apparently everyone filled up before lunch cause there wasn't much of a crowd when we made it downstairs.

I have also fallen in love with another house (well I was sort of in love with a summer home up in NH with three acres of land, but realized that we couldn't afford it and it got no tax incentive, so that dream is on hold for awhile -- though not completely forgotten, if we rented it out I am convinced we could break even on it, but whatever). The last time I was in love with a house I kept it a secret and would only show it to those of you who privately messaged me, and, you know, those of you I send every link to every house to. This time, I am fairly convinced the house will sell out from under us, so even though I am pretty set on wanting it, and excited about the size of the yard and the driveway that looks large enough to someday build a garage, not to mention the two block walk to one of our favorite restaurants, I am also willing to share it with all of you, my loyal readers. Here she is in all her glory.

We're signed up for a first time home buyers class and, as of today, we're in big time saver mode. If you wanna pray that we get it, we'd (okay really mostly me, my boy is on board, but not nearly as excited as I am) really appreciate it.

Okay, I realize this isn't the greatest post, but I have a terrible headache and it's hard to get back on the writing regularly schedule. . .