five for friday, part three

i'm currently in the bay area visiting my totally awesome sister-in-law, attending a wedding with karl, and enjoying a much needed break from work and home life. in honor of that, i'm five for friday-ing my trip (in two sections, only, this time).

five things i love about attending other people's weddings are:
1. free booze
2. dressing up (see navy)
3. food
4. seeing the creativity put into the decorations
5. letting the hosts stress while you enjoy the above

five things i love about san francisco are:
1. a good number of my friends live there
2. the weather is nice (relatively)
3. it's walkable (and/or public transitable)
4. restaurants!
5. bars!

"i wanna sink to the bottom with you"

cullen and sarah, friends of mine and friends of kelly, made national news today with their somewhat unusual proposal. they're both good people and i wish them the best. congratulations!

to see the short news clip, click here.

it's been a month

a month worth of weeks have gone by, huh? wow. i should say: i feel lost recounting it all on the blog (partly because it feels too obligatory). and instead of this being a diary-of-sorts, i think in the future i’ll use this as a repository for stuff i want to remember and share. but in this case, i do want to share...

times been good lately.

one weekend last month, karl and i flew to san diego to be in claudia’s wedding (photo a: i helped her make that veil and she designed her own dress, which was really hip). the couple channeled their inner goth-chic when putting the event together, which meant that karl and i, groomsman and bridesmaid, wore black and blood red for the event. karl jokingly said it was like being in a fall out boy video. after the wedding, we hung out with kelly and enjoyed a new bar in town (now my favorite SD bar), hamilton’s.

the following week (which included halloween), karl’s sister, inga, came out to stay with us for about a week, which was like-the-best-week-evah. i love having visitors from home and showing them fayetteville and i do believe she and i get along really well. who knew i’d marry into a family with such a likeable sister-in-law? she was here for halloween and because we had a party/band’s show to go to, we dressed up as a barely recognizable three’s company (photo b: and yeah, that’s not a wig, that’s my hair, big-style). the band, the darksuits, was a ton of fun and the night filled itself with goofy dancing (thanks karl) and getting our ukrainian friend who dressed up as an amish dude to pose with two random, “sexy” costumed ladies. the rest of inga’s stay included a lot of fun hikes/walks and eating out (not that kind, you perv).

weekend featured in photo c is from karl’s flickr series, which was taken at the tulsa, ok zoo. we randomly decided to drive out there to see the zoo and have indian food. zoo highlights include the world’s largest freshwater fish, nonchalant chimp sex, super cute meerkats, and a photo-op diss from a llama. the indian food was also a treat, aside from the small piece of sharp metal (?) found in karl’s dish. small, dangerously sharp object in food is a small problem, right? erm.

and finally, last weekend i went on a trip with a couple of my lady friends, ali and ki, to OK city to see modest mouse. it was a great show (especially because we managed to get floor tickets) and man man, who opened the show, also managed to steal it, in my opinion. karl’s sister introduced me to man man last year and i kind of forgot about them until seeing them live this last weekend. imagine a catchy, rockin’ band full of dudes that resemble animal from the muppets and think about how fun it would be to see that in person.

so, yeah, that’s what i’ve been up to.

old, married woman

dear web journal,
it’s been a ridiculously long time since i’ve updated. i figured i’d wait until i got all of the photos from the wedding, before i did. but i didn’t realize the professional ones would take so long.

anyway, most people who frequent these blog parts were in attendance of the wedding, so i won’t (and don’t care to) write a novel about the events around it. i’ll say though that it was a wonderful day full of family, friends, near-perfect weather, unexpected tears, both sincere and forced smiles, lots of photographs, gallons of booze, cupcakes, and trees!

and the honeymoon was a life-highlighting, life-infested experience. st. lucia’s rainforest is gorgeous and it was such a treat seeing geckos in our rooms and exotic birds ever-present. but i don’t know what it is about mosquitoes. as if spraying myself down with heavy, anti-pest chemicals was a challenge to them, those stripped jacket beasts feasted upon me. they do the same here in arkansas, too, but the caribbean varieties are like phoenixes in comparison. and they don’t leave simple sting marks; they leave parasite hickies. karl came away mostly unscathed. even still, i thought the trip was truly amazing.

and speaking of trips, i am going on my first solo trip back to california this week. i’ll be back tuesday to put off updating again.

gettin' hitched

dear web journal,

see you in a couple of weeks.

guano is the new black

dear web journal,

the stress, at least to the degree it was, seems to have lifted. plans have been ironed out and i will visit my friend, who recently lost his mother, in july for some much needed face-to-face quality time. there’s no resolution to the work scandal, but i will say my attitude towards the person in question has changed since i’ve learned more details. i hate being played the fool, but ultimately, i suppose i would rather that than to start out not trusting someone. and there are no changes on the grandparent-wedding issue. but i haven’t written or communicated anything to them either. i will; i just want to make sure i do it with the best frame of mind.

in other (more uplifting) news, an old college friend of mine recently swept jeopardy! with four wins in a row. and wedding plans seem to be coming together and i have reached my minimum weight goal. i’d like to see that go a bit further, however.

whenever i get in better spirits, i get excited about making plans/goals for myself. as a credible threat to commit myself to these, i’m going to document three here:

-wear more color: i know this sounds like a goofy goal, but i wear entirely too much black. it’s less because i am trying to channel my inner tormented teen goth and more because i thought it could go with everything. before i knew it, black was everything in my closet. with karl’s complaints, i finally realized that i too am tired of how drab it looks. so, brown is working its way into my wardrobe and other earthy colors are on the way.

-go spelunking: and i don’t mean wandering down a paved path looking at sharp stalactites. i mean crawling through bat poo, dodging cave spiders. i mean this. i hope to battle any creepy-crawly, roof-caving-in fears and squeeze my butt through these beautiful, earth cracks. arkansas has too many of these for me to miss out on while i’m here. i just need a partner in grime. any takers?

-save up for my next international vacation: we’re doing st. lucia for the honeymoon and i’m already anxious about the next stamp in my passport. i’m also interested in honing my poor spanish skills too, so i found this organization that combines travel, experience, volunteerism, and language immersion. and the best part about it is i can schedule as much or as little time as i need for it. i’m leaning towards guatemala, but we’ll see if karl is interested in joining me and if he has another choice. it’s probably important to see if your husband is interested in joining you on your vacation, right? one month away until matrimonial bliss!

artwork featured: manatee cove, by souther salazar

shortest entry ever

dear web journal,

i finally finshed our charity based wedding website. i'm not so keen on the web design, but for what it is, i don't care. anyway, please take a look:

http://www.idofoundation.org/melissandkarl

an outdoor event

dear web journal,

i warned yesterday that i would write about the wedding and here i go (it’s a long one). as my favorite part, i should begin with the dress. i purchased the ivory emily silk chiffon gown from jcrew on sale a month or so ago, which is featured below. i had previously purchased an ivory vera wang gown online for a total steal, but found it unflattering on me. so, i am due to resell that soon. i honestly never saw myself being the kind of bride that has more than one dress (or being that picky), but i guess i am subject to that sort of thing.



the outdoor wedding will take place in the cuyamaca mountains in the quaint town of julian (just outside of san diego) at angel’s landing and resort. karl and i spend a good amount of time hiking and on one particular hike through william heise county park we decided before any kind of proposal that we’d someday return to this area to be married. and it’s proven to be a lovely place for an afternoon ceremony and reception. our theme colors are brown and green, keeping with the surroundings.



the lovely insurgentmuse has designed and printed the stationary (and i couldn’t be more pleased).

i am all about keeping costs low (and having tons of fun) by keeping the event DIY. the site itself, the food, and cake are the only things i didn't budget closely, because i felt those were the most important parts. i found green glass mosaic vases at the dollar store, which will hold white carnations. to complement the carnations, i will make tissue paper pom-poms (along with purchased paper lanterns) to hang in the trees above the reception area. i came up with the idea of using brown tulle as inexpensive table runners to add color to our no-cost white table linens.



my ladies will wear brown cocktail length dresses of their own choice. i found a picture of someone else’s wedding with brown mismatched bridesmaid dresses that i thought was very flattering.


(sorry i forgot who this belongs to)

karl and his guys will wear khaki pants, brown corduroy sports coats, and green ties. i very much like the idea of keeping an outdoor wedding as casual as possible and i think they’ll all look really nice (and be comfortable too).

i’m making my own jewelry for the day and recently picked up some green turquoise to put together a necklace and earrings. i purchased my ivory birdcage veil, which is gorgeous from georgie peach at a remarkable price.



a good friend of mine, kelly, is going to laptop DJ the event. his taste in music is perfect and i think this will be the most fun part of the day. i would love suggestions for good songs to play during the wedding. i also found a wedding photographer that’s just starting out and looking to create a portfolio. he’s doing my wedding pro bono. and another locally famous art photographer friend of mine, geoffry uhl, will also supplement the wedding photo documentation with some less cheesy, candid shots.

ok, that’s what i’ve got planned for now. i’m always open for suggestions.

tazón de fuente estupendo

dear web journal,

today is super bowl sunday, which marks the joyous occasion in which i may prepare atomic buffalo turds and eat them on the couch as my boyfriend, karl, explains the american football point system to me for the millionth time (and only because it is the millionth time i've asked).

we're tired because we spent the weekend painting the adjoining duplex apartment for our landlady, who kindly promised to pay us by cutting the price of our rent next month. this helps because we're also planning a wedding during may of this year and we've found the event can be a real money pit. despite how expensive the event is, i've found a new hobby in searching for great deals on wedding dresses, invitations, decorations, catering, and gifts. of which, i'll probably boringly and painstakingly detail here. i think karl is beginning to worry (and yet, also rejoice) that i'll suffer a post-matrimonial depression when my favorite activity becomes obsolete. i'll be ok. i'll get back to doing a little more reading, studying again for the LSAT, and returning to crafts and mail art as a hobby.