Profile

resqgeek: (Default)
ResQgeek

May 2024

S M T W T F S
   1234
567891011
1213141516 1718
19202122232425
262728293031 

Custom Text

Most Popular Tags

Still home. Reasonably healthy, at least, though not entirely over whatever is messing with my stomach and equilibrium. I only have one or two doses of antibiotics left; hopefully that's what's making my guts unhappy.

The show went well! The audience wasn't quite as large as I'd've liked but it wasn't an empty house by any means. It was an all-day affair: we picked up Sophia at 10am, the show was at 2pm, and we got home from the afterglow a little after 7pm. It was probably the most difficult show we've ever done, what with all the snippets we had to learn. The holiday show will be a piece of cake. Jason and I were laughing about it on the way home: "Well, we got out of our comfort zone for this show, now it's time to get right back in!"

More kitty drama! Zenith somehow managed to get the basement door open one night (likely with Tango's help) and quite the kerfuffle ensued. Fur everywhere! Saturday, when Jason and I went downstairs to shower, we found Tango lying on the bathmat, which was unusual in itself. Jason picked him up and Tango screamed and dripped a bunch of nasty down Jason's shirt. He had some kind of abscess just above his tail that had burst. We got him into a carrier and while Jason showered, I called the vet. It was 3:15pm and the vet told us that while they could triage him, they couldn't treat him because they closed at 5pm. Seriously? Almost two hours and you can't even do anything? They gave me the number of an urgent care in Leesburg but no one picked up when I called, so we went back to Pender. They shaved around the area and gave us antibiotics and pain meds, but since it was an open wound, no stitches. Which is fine - the stitches they did last time around fell out really quickly anyway.

Luckily, he's in very good spirits and has been relatively cooperative for the meds. So far he's only managed to pull off the cone of shame once - last night - and while it was clear he'd given himself a good bath, the wound didn't look inflamed. What bothers me is how large the gash is. The assumption is that Zenith took a serious bite, which then got infected.

I finally got all but one of the wedding thank you notes in the mail yesterday. That one left is going to New Zealand and I was told I couldn't send anything smaller than the customs form would fit on, so I have to find a larger envelope to put it in. Silly, but whatcha gonna do? It feels good to no longer have that hanging over my head. I'd hoped to spend my forced vacation more productively, but my body has had other plans. I'm glad I had the foresight this morning to set a second alarm when I felt myself starting to fall asleep on the couch; I woke up only about 15 minutes before the cleaners arrived, giving me not much time to move tidy up some stuff and sequester Titan and myself on the bridge behind a baby gate. Titan would very much like to go meet the cleaners, get in their way, and sneak down to the basement to eat Tango's food. (And his poop.) (Dogs are gross.)

All right, the cleaners are finished, so I shall let loose the hound and maybe see about scrounging up some vittles for myself. Or maybe go play some more WoW. I've been pretty good about being largely productive during the work/school day but it's not easy when what I really want is another nap. Ah well. The only thing I need to do before folks get home is prepare the potatoes (Jason's making mashed from scratch, so I'm helping by washing and slicing). That won't take a ton of time, so I'll do that after lunch. Back to questing!

Wedding, Part 2: The Fun Bits

Oct. 8th, 2025 11:16 am
melydia: (fancy)
[personal profile] melydia
I considered writing only about the Big Day but so much other fun stuff happened (and I've been so bad about in updating) that I figure I might as well dump it all into one big post.

Jason's Bachelor Party

Shortly after Jason proposed, Eick told me that he didn't care if Clinton was best man, but he was calling dibs on the bachelor party. And he sure did deliver. Jason was even starting to stress a little bit because he had no idea what to expect. First off, while Jason knew that I was aware of what was being planned, he didn't know I was actually going to be part of it. Eick had asked everyone to come in costume (with no more specifics - he was actually looking forward to a mishmash of genres, which he got) and I thought maybe I could wear my old renaissance faire garb, but I needed an excuse to pull it out of storage to try it on.

Cue Sophia sneakery! The Wednesday before the party, she came over so we could go out to dinner (which we did), pick up some party supplies at Costco (which we didn't mention to Jason), and then came back to my place for Sophia to try on my garb so she'd have something to wear to faire a month later. This last bit was part of the ruse so I had an excuse to get the garb out, but as it happened, it doesn't fit me anymore but it does fit Sophia so I gave it to her after all. (She gleefully wore it to faire and looked great.)

The day of the party, Robbie was a little late picking up Jason for breakfast, so I had to scramble to get dressed and down to the venue (Eick had rented out a big room at a local community center). We have a lot of cosplay stuff at our house so I ended up wearing the shift from my garb, a random brown Jedi-esque robe, and a plush replica of the ram's horn hat worn by Tim the Enchanter in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

The party was a live-action D&D session with Jason as the hero (Jason the Dong Slayer, a barbarian), his bride and groomsmen as the adventuring party (I was a druid healer, Clinton was some kind of mage, and Robbie was a vampire bard who played an Otomatone), and a bunch of friends played assorted foes. We had so much fun, rolling huge foam dice and melodramatically acting out the combat. Afterwards, the groomsmen took Jason out to dinner at Texas de Brazil and games at Dave & Buster's, while I went home and collapsed. :)

My Bachelorette Party

The day before the Big Day, Sophia drove Rebecca and me to Sixty Vines, a lovely wine bar in Reston, where I had a scrumptious lunch with Sophia, Rebecca, Ixy, Six, Kate, Beth, Martie, and Lori - and of course everyone got along famously, despite many of then having never met before.

I took this opportunity to give my bridesmaids their gifts: charm bracelets I'd made while visiting Rebecca. I made one for each bridesmaid, plus one for myself and one for Jason. The charms included antique keys (because Jason and I both love them), dice (for all the boardgames and RPGs we play), birthstone charms shaped like cat heads (thank goodness everybody was born in a different month!), one of the same iridescent beads that made up the necklace I wore, luck symbols (because Jason loves luck symbols and also we're just crazy lucky), and dinosaurs (because dinosaurs). As I told them, I'd love them to wear them at the wedding, but otherwise they're just meant as keepsakes.

The bracelets were beautiful but turned out to be rather impractical, as they kept catching on everything. I ended up taking mine off shortly after the ceremony because it had attached itself to my dress just below my left breast. So tacky!

After we said our goodbyes at Sixty Vines, Sophia drove Rebecca and me to the airport to pick up Mom. A quick stop by my house to say hello, then Sophia continued her role as Uber driver and drove Mom and me to chorus! It was unfortunately not at our normal place (and we didn't have risers), but we still had a great time.

Preparations

Jason and I took the entire week of the wedding off of work, which was definitely The Right Thing To Do. Our wedding colors were blue and gray (our respective favorite colors) so when we got pedicures the weekend prior, he got gray and I got blue. I also got a manicure - a sparkly dark blue appropriately named Electric Slide.

We had always planned on having Lego flowers for the centerpieces but had not given a lot of thought to vases, figuring we couldn't really decide that until we knew how many tables we would have and thus how many vases. Coincidentally, Sophia joined Beth and Jeanine in cleaning out the chorus storage unit (the ceiling had fallen in, apparently?!) and discovered a box of vases that were perfect for our needs. Jason had to do a big of Lego maneuvering in order to secure the flowers in the vases, since they were quite top-heavy, then we grabbed a bunch of assorted bricks from our stash to fill the vases the rest of the way. They looked lovely!

Another Lego-related preparation was sorting Jason's minifig collection. He bought several display cases to hang on the wall, which we filled shockingly fast (he loves minifigs, what can I say?), but the process also helped him identify duplicates or older/crappier versions or other minifigs that could be dismantled for the parts bins. From those bins we separated out heads, torsos, legs, hair, and hats. Each wedding guest received a base plate with their name on it and were encouraged to create their own minifig from our parts for our guestbook (another, smaller display case). This may have been the best part of the wedding for a lot of our guests - even the venue staff had fun playing with Lego!

The day of the ceremony started somewhat early - we met up with Eick, Robbie, and Sophia at the venue in the morning but managed to get everything set up in short order. This included putting together the table toppers (that is, assembling the sign holders and inserting the sheets), which I opted for instead of programs, since it meant printing a couple dozen copies instead of 80. The sheet included the order of ceremonies, cast of characters (which my mom especially appreciated, since it listed all the assorted parental figures and how they were related to us - a complicated list in Jason's case), and things to do. My brother Jason gave me a little grief about the extensive to-do list for the guests but I think most folks enjoyed it. After all, it was just making minifigs, taking photos, using the photobooth, writing in the scrapbook in the foyer, helping themselves to the brick flowers on their tables, and (please!) not stealing the vases. I mean, we didn't want folks to be bored!

We had a little time to kill before lunch and the venue gave us free use of some golf carts, so we tooled around in those for a bit. The cart Elliott and I got apparently had more pickup than the others, and he had an absolute ball zooming up and down the paths. Then we joined Mom and Rebecca at Cheesecake Factory for what was supposed to be a reasonably quick lunch, but the service was so slow we ended up having to rush home to shower and head back.

Beth did my hair and makeup and made me look just radiant. My bridesmaids were all in attendance as well, keeping me company and just generally having fun. Jen - one of my oldest friends - also drove out from Illinois just for my wedding, which meant a whole lot to me. And of course she got along great with everybody, because I have all the very best people as friends. ❤

The Ceremony

The wedding party walked in to an instrumental version of "In Your Eyes" by Peter Gabriel (or possibly just the intro on loop, because I swear more happens in that song than I heard). I walked down the aisle to "Head Over Heels" by Tears for Fears. This was Jason's pick; he says it was playing over the speakers at Target when he saw me and first realized he was in love with me. (Have I mentioned lately that I have the cutest husband? Because I have the cutest husband.)

The recessional song was "Oh Yeah" by Yello, followed by a record scratch and then "Get Ready For This" by 2 Unlimited. The first song was supposed to continue until the entire wedding party had gotten to the lobby (since the ceremony and reception were all in the same room), but the DJ jumped the gun and switched the music right as Jason and I got to the end of the hall. The rest of the wedding party had barely started moving! So we just ran back into the hall, high fives and hugs all around. Then I pulled over a chair for Jason to sit, called the rest of my quartet up, and sang "Head Over Feet" by Alanis Morrisette to him. I'd gotten it arranged just for my quartet as a surprise for Jason.

On the schedule, this period was labeled "speeches." No one except Sophia had said they were planning to say anything - all three groomsmen, when asked, replied in the same way: "No but I will if you want me to" - but I needed something in the program to cover the surprise quartet performance. Sophia jokingly groused about having to follow the song, so Jason made a quick speech to thank everyone for coming, then opened up the floor. No matter what she claims, Sophia gave a very sweet toast. Then, unexpectedly, all three groomsmen got up and spoke, one at a time. And Six, who had specifically said she did not want to give a speech, said a few words. Even Elliott and Clinton's daughter Mara Faye got up to speak! Jason and I both got a little choked up by all the sweetness.

The Reception

Dinner was a buffet that was generally enjoyed by all. Jason and I even got a few bites at our table, which was weirdly way off away from everybody else. At one point [brother] Jason and Kris picked up their plates and chairs and sat at our table with us. It was great.

After dinner we took a bunch of pictures, then it was time to cut the cake! Amphora did a great job with our cake, which was shaped like a stack of books with special meaning to us: Dungeon Crawler Carl, Cold Sassy Tree, and The Princess Bride. And it was delicious. While the cake was whisked away to the back to be plated, Jason and I had our first dance: "I Don't Know What We're Talking About" by NSP. We sang along and acted out the story of a man panicking on a first date that's going well until he realizes he's completely spaced out and lost track of the conversation. We even had props to go along with some of the lyrics - Clinton held up a penguin in a costume; pterodactyls on the table toppers to represent Lamar; assorted vampire stickers on the tables and a life-size cardboard standup of Matt Berry as Laszlo for "how many Draculas are hiding in this room;" even some minor choreography for "I'd make an awesome cop if I could stop committing crimes" and my early exit from the room so Jason could lip-synch the last lines alone: "Anyway, why don't you and I go back to my place and, uh, I see you left at some point."

I simply adore that Jason is just as much of a ham as I am.

From then on, it was a free-for-all in terms of activities. The photobooth was a hit, as were Princess Donut and Mongo. (They were on our invitation; of course they were going to be at the wedding!) There was a decent amount of dancing, particularly by BookCrossers. Eick and Jason did an amazing job dancing to "Tunak Tunak Tun". Jen got some funny footage of Jason and I dancing to "You Spin Me Right Round" and doing the stupid finger-shake move from the music video.

At the end of the night, lots of folks helped clean up and load cars, so we made short work of everything despite the happy couple being utterly exhausted. Jason went inside to make one final pass while Jen, Sophia, and I chatted in the parking lot. Jen asked if we got his attention by meowing, which is pretty accurate, since "Rau" sounds a whole lot like what a cat says. He took a lot longer than we expected, but it turned out he took the time to shake every single venue worker's hand to thank them personally. Which is just quintessentially Jason.

All in all, a perfect day.

Everything but the Wedding

Oct. 7th, 2025 11:16 am
melydia: (fear the blue toy)
[personal profile] melydia
The last weekend of September, I started feeling intermittently dizzy, which I attributed to quitting my antidepressants, since vertigo is a known withdrawal effect (and when I have accidentally gone off cold turkey in the past, it was Not Fun). This was with my psychiatrist's approval, obviously, but I seem to be doing okay (emotionally). However, I think the dizziness was only partly due to the meds, because I have been just miserably sick for the last six days or so. Pick a cold or flu symptom, and chances are I've been having it. It's not covid, and while yesterday I seemed to be finally starting to approach "the mend," I'm not quite on it yet. Seeing the doctor today.

Otherwise, my life is mostly work, singing, family, and home life so I'm just gonna save time and break up this post by those categories.

Work

Work has been super demoralizing lately. This was the case even before the government shutdown, which yes, has affected me. My company says they can pay me through the 15th, but I will be on leave without pay if it keeps going beyond then. Jason and I are already trying to be extra thrifty, just in case. Some of my coworkers think it'll last until the election. I would really prefer it didn't. Unlike federal employees, I won't get backpay.

One tiny bit of good news: just before the shutdown, we finally got an email with some vague information about the upcoming reorg, and though there are no real specifics it looks like my group should still exist on the other side. I did notice a couple of existing functions that didn't appear to fit anywhere in the new structure. I mentioned this to Jason and he said, "We're giving that to the new K.A.T.E. program. It's just a contractor...named Kate. Acronym stands for Kate Always Takes-care-of Everything."

I relayed this to my study lead. She said it sounded accurate. lol

Singing

Since I last posted, the quartet and chorus have each sung at one honor flight and one farmer's market. This week the chorus has another farmer's market and two honor flights, plus the quartet has an honor flight, but I will most likely bow out of the chorus gigs in the interest of health (mine and other people's). The quartet isn't singing until Saturday, by which point I had freaking better be healthy, because the show is Sunday!

A little stressed about the show but I think it'll go fine. I just haven't ever felt quite this unprepared for a chorus performance before. Some quick catching up: Claire's contract is fine; the chorus hadn't read it when it was sent out two weeks prior, and so were wondering why it was only for 10 months instead of 12 (because we want to get her contract on the same schedule as the chorus fiscal year), and there were other questions that for whatever reason nobody thought to ask before the vote. So that all got sorted.

The quartet farmer's market gig was good. We had great weather and an appreciative audience. One person even came up in tears after hearing the second verse of This is My Country ("land of my choice"), which changed a lot of the meaning of the song (in a good way). I love that we can bring joy to people like that. It's why we do this.

Family

Elliott took his computer up to his bedroom so now we have two gremlins who only show themselves when they're hungry. It was kind of nice having all four of us in the same room, but it's really nice not having to listen to all the yelling at top volume. Don't get me wrong - they're still yelling, and I can still hear them from a floor away, but at least the basement is now blessedly quiet.

Last weekend we hosted Jo and Hanette's wedding in our living room. It was lovely, though those silly ladies simply could not wait to be told you may kiss the bride. The whole local clan showed up: me and Jason, Wyatt and Elliott, ex-wife Sarah and stepdad Chris, stepsiblings Theo and Aaliyah, and stepdad Chris's mom Lily and stepdad Harvey. (Jo has a son who lives in Texas who couldn't make it, and of course Hanette's kids will attend their second wedding Down Under.) There was potential for drama - Sarah and Jo seem to be in a perpetual feud over something or other and there was reportedly a chance that Sarah would refuse to even allow Wyatt and Elliott attend their grandmother's wedding. And they were evidently also refusing to speak to Chris's parents for something that happened at least a year ago - but everyone showed up and acted like adults. Elliott played best man and handed over the rings at the proper time.

We went to Cheesecake Factory afterwards, where unfortunately we had to sit at two separate tables. Jason commented that he wasn't sure where to sit, and I said we should just be polite and let everyone go before us. As it happened, Sarah and Chris decided to sit with the kids, so we got to sit with Jo, Hanette, Lily, and Harvey.

We got the better deal, IMHO. Lily and Harvey are just a delight. There was so much laughter ringing out from our table. I had a great time. Jason particularly enjoyed the fact that despite all the drama, we weren't even tangentially involved. Our job was just to be welcoming and supportive, which is our favorite way to be anyway.

Speaking of family, the day after our wedding we drove down with Mom and Rebecca to Rob and Teresa's new house in Fredericksburg, where we met up with Bethany and Wren. Since he'd busted his arm recently, Rob needed help moving some stuff. Jason, Wyatt, Elliott, Bethany (who is evidently a total beefcake now), and I manhandled a washer, a dryer, and the heaviest table saw known to mankind from the garage to the basement via the backyard. Later, the boys also helped Rob move a grand piano around so he could put padding under the rug. At the end of the evening we all went out for ice cream. A good day all around.

Home Life

A recent morning scene at my house:

Me: Let's get up.
Jason: Let's not.
Umbra: I'm on it, Dad! [flops on my face and starts purring]
Me: Oh no! [snore]

The cats are still on rotation: Zenith and Umbra are let out at night, and Tango and Cash are let out during the day. We don't like it, but we don't know what else we can do. The times aren't super rigid, especially on the weekends, but most weekday mornings we come out of the bedroom upstairs and head to the basement to take a shower. Zenith usually follows us to the main floor. The other day, Tango zipped out of the basement door as soon as we opened it. Zenith immediately bit him right on the butt. When we got back to the bedroom after our shower, the autofeeders were going off so they were eating. Jason remarked, "Zenith, I'm surprised you're still hungry after that big bite of cake you had!"

Sophia once commented that once I moved in with Jason, she heard me laugh more times before 7am than I used to all day. I think she may be right about that.

We continue to host various flavors of D&D at our house, and one night the four of us played a boardgame called Really Loud Librarians, which was fun but might be better with a different crowd. It's a game where you have to just shout out everything that comes to mind, and the boys completely froze, meaning it was more or less Jason and me playing against each other. That's all right. One of these days we'll host a game night.

Speaking of games, I've been playing a lot of World of Warcraft lately. It's fun. I especially like playing by myself. Sure, it's fun plowing through dungeons and delves with our various friends - Eick, Robbie, Zach, Sophia, Michelle, and her husband Joel all play regularly - but my introvert batteries are not restored when playing with other people, even when they're only voices in my headphones. But I love making my way through assorted quests alone or with just Jason (who has a special mount that my character can ride, so he acts as my Uber driver a lot of the time). And since it's been around and expanding for over twenty years now, the WoW map is absolutely enormous. I haven't even begun exploring.

All right, I need to head to the doctor shortly, so I'll post about the wedding later. Hopefully today. My energy doesn't last very long, which is part of why I haven't posted before now, despite having been home for almost a week. For example, yesterday morning I took a shower and switched over laundry, and that left me completely exhausted for hours. Here's hoping the doctor can give me something to kick this out of my system.

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags

Style Credit