This is Real

So…. I’m getting married. This is an actual thing, you guys. I’m planning a wedding, a real one, with real flowers, and cake and my grandmothers wedding dress hanging on the wall. This is an actual thing that is actually happening. And suddenly, finally, six months in, it’s finally starting to sink in; I’m marrying the man of my dreams.

I know what you’re thinking. “Farkas you’ve been engaged for like six months now, we’ve known since August you were getting married, what’s the big deal?”

Well I’ll tell you what the big deal is. I’ve sent out most of my save-the-dates. My brides maids have started ordering dresses. My soon-to-be sister-in-law just got her converse for the wedding. Yes, we’re wearing converse and it’s going to be awesome! My favorite director and good friend is making me a reception dress for which I have the pattern and we’re going to get fabric for over spring break. We have a venue that’s going to let us bring in mead for a traditional Irish toast. I have ushers and readers and we’re starting premarital counselling sometime this month. I ordered the book for it and everything. We met with the lady who is going to bake our cake and I will someday, hopefully soon, manage a meeting with my florist, provided we find a time that actually works out as planned (sorry about that Julie).

But on top of all that, the thing that has really actually made this whole thing feel real, is the registry. That’s right, I actually have one of those now. Sure we sort of started one when school first started. We looked at some stuff online and even picked some things we wanted. But it wasn’t real, then. I have to be able to see things a lot of times before I can decided what I want. I like having my options spread out around me so I can look and feel and touch and trying to shop online for things I couldn’t feel was super stressing me out. So we waited and waited and waited for a time when we had enough time to go up to the mall and actually look at stuff. I will admit, I also kind of wanted to go to the store so I could use the fun little scanny gun you see in the movies when people are doing registry stuff.

We didn’t get to use the fun little scanny gun. BUT we did get to use a neat iphone. It took us a while to actually get it to work, but that’s what we get for not remembering our password. 😛 Okay, that’s what I get for deviating from the original password. Anyway, once we actually got signed into the registry and started on our registry scanning adventure things went quite a bit smoother. c: We scanned towels and pillows and all the kitchen things and it was a jolly good time. We didn’t manage to get to our second store, but we did make a lot of progress in the two or so hours we spent wandering the upper floor of JCPenny. It was a good time.

It’s really strange how suddenly it’s all starting to come together. For months after we got engaged it was like nothing had really changed. Sure there was some super stress over finding the venue and we did go and look at the church where we’ll be getting married and they approved our application to use the space and that was all well and good and exciting, but then I went back to school and planning took a back seat while I army crawled through all the ridiculous writing assignments with the play on my back. Even over winter break when I got a few weddingy things done, ordering save-the-dates and escort card ideas and what not, it was still less real than it is now. We just picked a whole bunch of stuff to fill our apartment. People have postcards with our faces on them hanging on their walls so they don’t forget that our wedding is July 12th. If this were an episode of Pokemon Ash would have his hat on backwards. We’re getting married in five months. There’s nothing for it now except to wait for the “OH CRAP” panic mode to set in.

 

So This is Fall Break

So this is what fall break is supposed to be like. This going home for the weekend and coming back to campus as late as humanly possibly. Interesting. This isn’t the first year that I’ve left campus for fall break, it’s just the first one I’ve gone home for. And, of course, there were plenty of adventures to be had.

I stayed on campus for Friday night because I worked Saturday morning. Thus my roommate and I had a pizza date in the apartment which was quite lovely. You’d think it would be a pretty easy date, right? Just order pizza, run down to the video store, grab a movie and the pizza and run back. Well, all seemed to go smoothly until we went to put the movie in. Instead of Despicable Me we had somehow managed to bring home Double Double Toil and Trouble: a Marie-Kate and Ashley movie. Yeah, we did not watch that movie. We managed to find Despicable Me on like, though so the date was saved! And we went to bed at 10 which is unheard of for me but not entirely unpleasant.

I’m a masochist. You should know this by now. I didn’t have to get up early that Saturday morning, but I did. Why? To help out with theater work of course. We went out to find branches for our graveyard set at 9 in the morning, which meant I had to be up around 8 to get ready. Not so bad after having gone to bed two hours earlier than strictly necessary. Still, I could have gotten so much done. Anyway, we were successful in finding many useful branches and getting them back to the theater relatively unharmed. I even got to get a shower between then and work, though packing didn’t happen and neither did the hair curling I had intended to do for my bridal appointment.

Work was uneventful as most Saturday shifts are during breaks. My mother picked my up from work and we grabbed my stuff from the apartment. Naturally, we couldn’t leave on time. Not anyone’s fault, mind you, it’s just the way we work. So late leaving, late picking my sister up and then rushing to get gas made up about 20 minutes late for the appointment, plus they had me drive. I have the worst track record driving in Robinson in the history of bad track records. It’s not safe to put me behind the wheel in that place and yet they did it, twice. Luckily I had my trusty Courtney there to direct me. The one who really knew where she was going. 😛

BUT we made it, with minimal wanderings and the appointment progressed with me being shoved in some very uncomfortable corset-type undergarments and a slip that was probably too small and then the dresses were pulled. They really don’t do all lace too much at David’s. I only tried one on and it was a bit over the top. Really over the top, actually, with like five layers to it. It was a very pretty dress, though and it showed off my collar-bones really well, but I couldn’t lift my arms with the off the shoulder straps and it was rubbing on my under arm to the point of painful red marks. A gorgeous gown, but not for me, I think. I haven’t told you about Bronwyn yet, and I can’t say too much about her as my fiance reads these blogs frequently and naturally he can’t know about her. I will say that she is perfect in every way and that I feel truly myself in her. She’s light and lace and has every aspect that I wanted out of a dress. She is the dream.

So maybe I went in not exactly expecting to find a dress, but there was a dress there I wanted to try. I mean I’d been staring at it for months before going to Mary’s so I figured I should probably give it a shot at least. I did and it was nothing special. While that part of the shopping was kind of a flop, we did pick the dresses for my girls to wear. I may have picked it long before they tried it on, but seeing as everyone agreed that it was the best dress it has been made official. However, since we went so late and went until the store closed we didn’t have time for the girls to get measured. So they’ll have to go back I guess. Which is okay, they have time. David’s is pretty quick with their dress orders. Anyway, we went out to eat afterward, again involving small adventures due to my inability to drive and managed to make it home safely! Mission accomplished! Now I get to go back and try on Bronwyn. c:

Sunday I played video games: it was awesome.

Monday I had a date! I’ve missed dates. The funny thing about being engaged is you don’t have so much time for that anymore. I mean I’m also a senior in college and that doesn’t help, but mostly when my fiance and I get together it’s for wedding planning and a quick dinner probably. Good, but not as good as a plain old fashioned date. So we took the whole day. He picked me up at 10 and we hung around with my sister’s cat for a while before heading down to see the giant duck in Pittsburgh. We wandered around debating food for a while before we actually went down to see it. It is a glorious duck indeed and there are real ducks too, which are always exciting. And I got to see the fountain which was fun. I’ve never been down there before. I think it’s funny how touristy I am despite having lived in the area my entire life. It’s okay, though, my fiance thinks I’m cute. We finally got some food then went back to the apartment to watch superhero cartoons and eat pizza. It was a really lovely evening.

And  now I’m going back. In two hours I’ll be all packed and off to run some errands before heading back to school with my mother’s bike. I’ll have to work and then probably do some homework, but in all likelihood I’ll probably play more portal. Because science. Then it will be back to school and practice and work and so on until Thanksgiving, which will be another adventure all of its own.

 

Physical Memories

I don’t know that I have any friends who enjoy getting their pictures taken. Most of them hate it, or think they look dumb in pictures or something ridiculous like that. All of my friends are beautiful, they just don’t seem to know it. And then there’s me. Me and my sister, actually. We are obnoxious camera people. The kind of people who “cheese” whenever a camera is pointed at us instinctively. For some reason we really enjoy having our pictures taken and, to quote Dan Williams, I have a theory about that.

I like physical memories. That’s really what pictures are, isn’t it? They’re memories in physical form; a visual reminder of exactly what that moment in time looked like in that place with those people. It is a perfect portrait of an instant in life and I love having the ability to go back and remember exactly what that moment looked like. I like looking at myself as a twelve-year-old and seeing how ridiculous I flipping through my pictures from high school to remember how funky my friends were. I like having that lasting reminder of days long past, and apparently lots of other people do too.

We seem to have become this culture of must have pictures. I’m thinking about this a lot as I plan my wedding. Engagement pictures are this huge thing now. My parents have one set, I think taken in some studio of just them posing together. I have pictures on train tracks, a tire swing, the porch of Fern Cliffe, behind the library, and we’re planning on taking more once the leaves change colors. My fiance is wonderfully patient with me. Engagement pictures are huge. Wedding pictures too are huge. I understand, of course, you want to remember this day as much as possible, but they’re such a production nowadays. Used to be you took pictures with the family, the bride and groom and the wedding party and you moved on. Now you have to get all the fun crazy unique pictures with the party and of the bride getting ready and the dress and the shoes and the groom getting ready and all the guys and the child attendants and the family and the venue and the entrance and the first look and then all the crazy fun unique pictures with the bride and groom together and it’s such a pain. But you know what? I’m going to do it. I’m going to put myself and my friends through all that because I want the physical memories. I want to look at them and think “What a fun crazy unique day that was.” and smile at my friends and how much fun we’re having even though I was probably in reality stressed up to my eyeballs. I may just be insane, mind you, but again, I like having my picture taken and that is a day that I have a legitimate excuse to get it done.

I blame technology. Not that I’m complaining, mind you, just saying, when every family owns a camera that doesn’t require developing film every few weeks taking pictures becomes a lot more common. Then again, I was taking cray random pictures even when I did have to spend money on film. Well, my dad did, anyway. I’m pretty sure they regretted getting me my own camera. My sister is the one with the talent, after all. My pictures are just kinda quirky memories. Erin’s are actually art. I’m okay with this, she can take all the pretty pictures she wants and I will enjoy them and then go and take my pictures where I’m making some ridiculous face and the background makes it look as though something is growing from my head, because those are the best pictures. I’m going to be one of those parents that takes all the pictures of their children and then puts them on the internet for the world to enjoy and probably judge. Ah well.

So yeah, that’s how I feel. I like pictures. I enjoy creeping through my friend’s photos to see what they did and how they looked before I knew them. I enjoy digging through boxes of photos to see all the awkward faces I made and things I did as a child. I’m kind of vain that way. It’s not entirely my fault, though. I’ve been told that I photograph well and one can’t help but take that to heart after a while. I’ve come to accept it, though. It used to be that I was felt awkward about actually wanting my picture taken when everyone else was trying to dodge the camera, but now I have embraced my oddity and really, why not go all out? Someone’s got to do it, might as well be me.