The License Office & 'dem Teenagers

I finally got my Tennessee driver's license today. I waited forever for it. When I got up to the photo counter the guy looked at my name and then asked me if I was "meek and mild" .. umm.. no comment? I just laughed, heh.

Sitting in that room with mainly teenagers was interesting though - all chattering up on their cell phones with the "no cell phones" sign in plain view. Mm, mm. I almost leaned over and told the girl next to me that the sign says no cell phones.. but then I didn't feel like getting into it. She had bright blue toenails anyway.. and I realized the sign was there after I'd called Jon about what county Ooltewah was, ha. Woops.

The teens that bug me the MOST are the baggy ones who look a bit unfortunate, but only because they choose to look this way, God knows why. They have this tone in their voice like they're too lazy to open their mouth and pronounce words correctly. What celebrity do they get this from? I. mean. really. I'm going to teach my kids to be more aware of what they do and why they do it. Seems that if the slightest degree of THINKING were involved.. well. It's not my place to judge those duded-up folks.

There were also some folks in there with younger kids, and I like to watch how parents interact with their kids. There's this mode of parental sameness I keep seeing. It's a little thing but I just notice it. For example this 8 year old appeared to be doing some dance or practicing a move she learned in ballet class, and her mom tugged on her arm like this isn't the place to be doing a little dance. Why not? I know there are things that should be enforced upon kids, like how to act in public and such, but doing a little dance doesn't seem to be infringing on anything that would drastically or negatively alter her life.

Anyway I look at these things and think about how I would parent my kid(s). I've been thinking more about it lately since apparently the next step after marriage is kids, ha (but not for a while! mind you)... the noisy 2-year old that lives above us isn't exactly encouraging at the moment heh. She jumps on the floor and sounds like a bunch of bowling balls dropping from the ceiling. No kidding. I wouldn't be surprised if I see her stumpy pudgy foot break through the ceiling one day.

The Wedding

This is one of my favorite photos from Nathan's photography. We are still waiting on the professional ones. They will probably be up on the wed site later for you to view, and for you to let us know which you'd like to order for prints.

There was so much going on after the wedding that I didn't get a chance to write about it, but of course I'm going to do that now. It's something I know I will never forget, but it's nice to have some of it in writing.

I can't really remember feeling too different when I woke up the morning of May 16, 2009. Every day for the past 2 years or so has been a day of being completely in love with Jonathan :) I was only a little nervous about details coming together, but mostly I was anxious to see his face at the end of the aisle.

Once I got there (the aisle) I realized how hard it was to contain my emotions! ha. I felt like my face was shaking trying to keep from distorting my smile. I was so touched by the processional piece Jon wrote as well. He's so talented! It all worked together so perfectly and sounded amazing. It made me cry.

I was worried that once we got to the vows and such that standing there staring at each other for so long would make me laugh, (because it would in any non-wedding situation) but instead I just smiled really big.

I really enjoyed the details we added in to our ceremony to make it more special. Sharing communion with guests meant a lot to us and I really enjoyed seeing everyone as they came up.. and the little red step stool part to reach for the kiss was awesome and unforgettable.

The afternoon was lovely, meandering around the bluff for photos between light rain showers. Lucky for us to have the rain, it produced a beautiful and full rainbow over Chattanooga as we stood in the foreground of the bluff. I can't wait to see the photo.

I do wish that more guests hadn't decided to leave before the end of the reception to see our exciting planned exit. We ended up cutting the reception a bit short (and foregoing garter and bouquet toss) so we could exit before we lost more folks... but those who were there got to see our last dance, Earth Angel, which lead into the Back To The Future theme, and then a Delorean rolled up, oh yeah! So awesome! The driver had Power Of Love playing inside as we crammed into the front seat, ha.

We had so much fun! And the honeymoon was in Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg where we rode chair lifts up the Smokies when it was freezing, raced each other on go karts, visited a bunch of crazy museums, and relaxed with each other for a much needed break together.

I love hearing Jon call me his wife. I'm still not used to calling him my husband, but I love that he is. Being married is wonderful! I'd recommend it to anyone :)

Marriage Is Wonderful...

but the grown-up stuff is making me rip my hair out!!

I'm not sure where to start... So we're driving to our honeymoon, and not 40 minutes into the drive a piece of tire flies up and busts a hole right into my bumper. The honeymoon was wonderful by the way.. but after that week, the hair-ripping continues:

First of all, most days at work are pretty full and busy with no breaks and kind of stressful to begin with. In the evenings we've been working and tiring ourselves out pretty hard tackling the piles of stuff at our apartment (because I don't really want to keep living out of a suitcase). Then there's that car wreck I need to take to the shop sometime soon.

Earlier this week I had all the insurance stuff I had to take care of but can't do payroll changes until I change my name (which when I went to the courthouse today found that I can't do without a TN license, so do I get a TN license with Correnti on it so I can take that to get my name changed so I can go back to get Meek on it??!) Anyway I did the insurance stuff, to be reminded how incredibly expensive! it is to add a spouse for medical (like almost $500/month more just to add 1 healthy person!!), so I kept my policy just for me, put us both on dental & vision and I tried to look up some providers for Jon to get his own medical coverage, and I had to put my phone # in to get quotes and now I get like 5 spam calls a day about health insurance!

I was at the courthouse again today with the name change stuff learning I had to get my license first, and go to the social security place first. I'd already been to court this week for my previous accident I had a month ago.

I am about to lift Hamilton County Courthouse and throw it out the window!! I wish people would tell me what exactly I need in order to accomplish things and in what order I need to accomplish them so I don't have to keep going back and forth 10 times over and over. I've never done this before, it'd be nice if people told me the right things to do when I ask them. When I did the tag and title stuff I got at least 3 different lists of required items needed for doing things. Ridiculous!!

When do the fun newlywed days start? Or have those already gone by...Do we only get a week?

Anyway, sorry - you were probably expecting a puppies-and-bunnies-frolicking-with-my-new-husband-in-euphoria type of entry following our wonderful marriage. But all this stuff happened and the best way for me to feel better about it is to write about it and see the words in front of me that make me angry. It helped.

I'll write about better days later.

Thank you Jonathan for making tasty dinners 2 nights in a row and for being your wonderful self who helps to keep me calm and sane during the cruddies :)

There's A Snail On My Window.

It must have washed up in the rain and got scared to go anywhere else. That's probably how snails get very far anyway. I used to have a golden snail. It wasn't really gold, but more yellow-shelled, and it's breed or whatever was something with "gold" and "Incan" in it. I mainly bought it (for like $3) just because I liked the name.

It died.
I kept the shell.

This one on my window has a translucent shell, which is kind of gross. It's like having your squishy body covered by a clear body-shaped fingernail.. and THAT sounds like sci fi!

the end.

My Friends:

I am bummed that the majority of my really close friends aren't able to make it to our wedding. These are people I'd become really close to, shared hilarious memories with and who've seen me grow through many stages of my life (if only during a short 4 years in college or so), and I really wish it were possible to share this next momentous stage of my life with them. I keep thinking of them and seeing their faces and wondering when the next time I'll see them would ever be, since my previous hope would have been to see them at the wedding. The celebration would seem a hair incomplete without them!

I knew this would be a problem the moment we decided to have the wedding in Chattanooga. But, I decided that it was very important to me to have it here because I wanted to welcome my friends and family into the environment in which my new life will be happening, and to meet all the amazing people I know here who will be such a big part of my life now. I thought the idea of them making a special travel for it would be fun, and maybe something they could also get a mini vacation out of. I still feel this way and I'm happy with our location choice, with the exception of missing those great friends I will not see.

Some people I've talked to tell me, "Oh, you won't even notice that I wasn't there"... um yes I will. Not sure what kind of other brides they're accustomed to, ha.. but I actually care very much about my guests. And you know what.. even though I've spent probably over $2,000 on things for this wedding so far, I would consider donating some funding just to have these people there, who have the schedule to be able to do so at least.

Take that into account, you people whom I may miss for too long!